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Just bought my ticket to see The Hold Steady with the Constantines on November 21st. Could not pass this up. Any other MOGers going?
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The Hold Steady
Separation Sunday
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AMG Review of Separation Sunday
Tim Sendra
All Music GuideThe Hold Steady's Almost Killed Me is their hands-down masterpiece. A swirling maelstrom of intense, hilarious, and breathtaking ock & roll, it should have been the album that knocked everything else into a cocked hat in 2004. Of course, it was mostly ignored outside the homes of a handful of indie snobs and adventurous punks, but it's there, it's amazing, and most likely the band will never be able to top it. Separation Sunday comes pretty damn close, though. It is a much darker record, revolving around drug casualties, broken lives, a hoodrat fixation, spiritual and physical dissipation, and general despair, and there aren't as many easy laughs this time out -- but instead the listener gets lots of head-shaking wonderment at Craig Finn's genius lyrics and voice. His gruff, in-your-ear vocals negotiate the twisting torrent of words like a world-class skater kid. He is insanely literate and insanely insistent: he's like the guy who calls at 2:30 a.m. in a frenzy to holler about his latest disaster of the heart, the bar-stool poet with a religious obsession, or the guy who corners you at a party and just won't shut up about how Boston are the missing link between the Beatles and Derrick May -- only you don't mind because he is strangely brilliant. He is also just about the best ock & roll frontman since Bob Pollard. In fact, the group sounds a bit like Guided By Voices at times, only a Guided By Voices that want to kick your sorry can up and down the length of the bar. Or maybe a GBV that worship Springsteen instead of the Who. Whipping up a classic ock-inspired frenzy of monitor-straddling guitar riffs, dual harmony leads, E Street piano flourishes, and galloping horns, the band behind Finn sounds like nothing less than Jim Steinman's dream group. You could talk about great individual songs (the epic "How a Resurrection Really Feels," the piledriving album opener "Hornets! Hornets!," the weird and almost funky "Charlemagne in Sweatpants"), but the strength of the album is in the flow from song to song and the way the intensity level (which starts off at a near fever pitch) elevates until your head is just about ready to burst from the thrill of it all. Call it a quaint idea in 2005, but Separation Sunday is truly an album, one that sounds almost perfect when played from beginning to end in the proper running order. Block out about 42 minutes sometime, hold steady, and get ready for indie rock -- no, ock & roll -- at its sweatiest, most intense, and most impressive. Long live the album; long live the Hold Steady.
The Hold Steady at the North Star Bar In November
Hold Steady on Lost
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just rewatched the fourth episode of season 2 of lost. Hurley asks a hottie at the record store (yeah, I'm old school - I still call them records) if she wants to go to a Hold Steady show. Hurley looks like more like a metalhead to me, but who knows - maybe even fictional characters like all kinds of music, like I do
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Craig Finn of The Hold Steady is cool.
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That's it. He is cool, if you didn't know this already, which I did. See "what he did this summer":http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38423/Guest_List_Guest_List_The_Hold_Steady.
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The Hold Steady - How a Resurrection Really Feels
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Here's wishing a happy Sunday April 12 to all.
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Shorthand
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hold steady at mezzanine was cool last night (they need to play a saturday night fillmore show)mmj needs to announce their nye plans (anyone have the scoop?)spoon coming back to sf (start lining up now)iron and wine new album rocks my worldlate on the wagon, but band of horses are rad (seeing them next month)phil and trey 10/20/07 second set is KILLLERwilco on austin city limits=the yum yumit l...
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Hold Steady on Lost
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just rewatched the fourth episode of season 2 of lost. Hurley asks a hottie at the record store (yeah, I'm old school - I still call them records) if she wants to go to a Hold Steady show. Hurley looks like more like a metalhead to me, but who knows - maybe even fictional characters like all kinds of music, like I do
More >
The future is a little troubling
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Yesterday I took the day off work to wait for a delivery of my new phone and to record some music with a friend of mine and to do some gardening and embroidery and go to karaoke and watch movies. It was meant to be a relaxing mental health day, but it was far from it.i am so excited about my new phone but can I get the fucken thing to work with my computer! ? Hell no! I had this probelm the las...
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The Hold Steady at the North Star Bar In November
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Just bought my ticket to see The Hold Steady with the Constantines on November 21st. Could not pass this up. Any other MOGers going?
More >
Craig Finn of The Hold Steady is cool.
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That's it. He is cool, if you didn't know this already, which I did. See "what he did this summer":http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38423/Guest_List_Guest_List_The_Hold_Steady.
More >
Where are The Hold Steady today?
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Track:Cattle & The Creeping Things
Craig Finn is apparently guest speaking at Boston College on September 25th for an American Studies class. He'll be discussing his life, music, and lyrics in an informal conversation with Professor Carlo Rotella.https://events.bc.edu/cgi-bin/publish/webevent.cgi?cmd=showevent&ncmd=listday&cal=cal18,cal8,cal2&id=56526&ncals=&de=1&tf=0&sib=1&sb=0&sa=0&ws=0&stz=Default&sort=e,m,t&swe=1&cf=list&set...
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 "Separation Sunday")
