Hold Steady

I didn’t get it at first. I had heard a lot about this band The Hold Steady. All the usual places were telling me I should really like them: John Richards of KEXP, Pitchfork, Popmatters, Rolling Stone. I downloaded the newish CD, Separation Sunday, and listened to a few tracks. Here’s where I should mention that I’m simple. I like big, easy choruses. I like AC/DC, the Clash. I even like Rancid, just because they sound like a Clash chorus cover band. Shit, I have some Alarm songs rattling around my mp3 player right now.

So the Hold Steady didn’t do it for me. The band rocked. Even I could tell that. And the lead singer’s voice was an interesting mix of Joe Strummer and a homeless guy yelling at people at the entrance to the metro. Everything sounded a little off kilter, like maybe they were a little buzzed and a little pissed off. But no choruses to speak of, nothing for my simple brain to latch onto, and so I kind of forgot about the Hold Steady.

But then, and this pains me to admit it, I heard a thing on NPR. I should note that I know NPR is really not the place to hear about happening new bands, and here I'm thinking about the rave review I once heard of The Streets, which can aptly be called “Rap for people who listen to NPR” (as opposed to Dizzee Rascal, who is the glorious mess of an English rapper they really wanted The Streets to be). But I digress. They raved about the literate rockers and the charismatic frontman and what sounded like a smart bar band, maybe a little drunk, ranting short stories in packed, sweaty clubs. Now that sounded interesting.

I listened to it again. A bunch of times. I’m still pretty much listening.

The band’s own website describes them as “a spectacular mess of sprawling guitar, ferocious vocals, and well-channeled, raucous irritation,” and that’s a pretty good description. I might say “The Clash playing Bruce Springsteen songs while a sober Shane MacGowen shouts passages from Denis Johnson short stories.”

And they really do sound like short stories. Here’s a piece of Cattle and the Creeping Things (note: formatting isn't mine -- this is how they list the lyrics on the band's site, and they're about the only band I can think of for which this is appropriate):

they got to the part with the cattle and the creeping things. they said i'm pretty sure we've heard this one before. don't it all end up in some revelation? with 4 guys on horses, and violent red visions famine and death and pestilence and war. i'm pretty sure i heard this one before. you in the corner with a good looking drifter. two cups of coffee and ten packs of sugar. i heard gideon saw you in denver. he said you're contagious. silly rabbit. tripping is for teenagers. murder is for murderers. and hard drugs are for bartenders. i think i might have mentioned that before.

he's got the pages in his pockets that he ripped out of the bible from his bedstand in the motel. he likes the part where the traders get chased out from the temple. i guess i heard about original sin. i heard the dude blamed the chick. i heard the chick blamed the snake. i heard they were naked when they got busted. i heard things ain't been the same since. you on the streets with a tendency to preach to the choir. wired for sound and down with whatever. i heard gideon did you in denver.

Or this piece of A Multitude of Casualties:

it's a funny bit of chemistry. how a cool car makes a guy seem that much cooler. it's worth noting throughout history. kids come around corners to a multitude of casualties. we spent a few hours circling the city. like a hawk out on the highways. we were looking around for something that just died. we heard the deacon's hopeful eulogy. at least in dying you don't have to deal with new wave for a second time.

after your party we got off the grid. we just couldn't get with all those clever kids. now we forage on the frontage roads. we drive at nites i guess it just feels somewhat safer. we scrounge around for sustinence. we mostly eat it in the back half of the theaters. we spent a few years nodding off in matinees. high as hell and shivering and smashed. we were hoping for an action adventure. something loud that we could feel thru all the feminax. and after the movie we got off the ground. got in yr car and crawled around in lowertown.

Now imagine Shane MacGowan shouting that shit over a really tight bar band that’s playing something that sounds like a pissed off, sped up Darkness on the Edge of Town.

I never know how to end these things, so I’ll just say you should check it out for yourself. Here’s where you can grab an mp3 of Your Little Hoodrat Friend, which is my favorite song on the album and the one that’s rattling around in my head right now.