Lord, I'm Discouraged: The Hold Steady Skip Nashville, Again
As I was getting ready to walk out of the office last Friday, a small manila envelope came across my desk. My heart fluttered, my palms got sweaty—could it be? It was! The new Hold Steady album Stay Positive was finally in my greedy little hands. The sad thing about my level of excitement was that I already had the album in digital form, having forked over $10 on iTunes for the digital advance before my Fourth of July trip back east. But that just felt like a tease: Headphones are no place for full-fledged Hold Steady immersion. Finally, I got to slide the disc into my car stereo, put down the windows and turn up the volume.
The album is excellent—bombastic and dense and crammed with tiny shoutouts to the faithful. (I've compared listening to this band to watching Arrested Development—for every "Her?" there's a "positive jam.") From perverse tales of townie parties gone wrong to the ironic title entreaty to "Stay Positive," the album covers all the band's strengths. And as if Craig Finn & Co. needed to do anything else to make my knees go weak, they went ahead and brought in Patterson Hood and Ben Nichols to sing back up.
That said, I hate this band. Why oh why won't they play Nashville? A whole year of touring behind Boys and Girls in America brought them no closer than Manchester, and recently released tour dates also avoid Music City. Did something terrible happen to them here? Did Bruton buy them one too many shots? Were they the ones who killed Janet March? Did they play to a half-filled venue?
Seeing the band in a club has become my white whale—a family emergency forced me to miss a show in Birmingham (with The Thermals!) and the band played my hometown of Philly a couple days after I left town. It looks like this summer will yet again leave me unsatisfied. I guess I just gotta stay positive.
Comments
Rumor is Drive By Truckers/Hold Steady/Bobby Bare Jr. at Ryman on Halloween.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 12:30:45 PMWelcome to my world Lee.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 01:05:10 PMAthens - 40 Watt - August. That's what like a 6 hour drive? I'm seriously considering.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 01:14:39 PMYou can't be totally shocked by this.We all know why bands pass Nashville up on their tours.Nashville is a laughing stock because of the bands from here that were picked up by labels and tour more extensively.There is some very good music here but the rest of the country sees bands like the Pink Spiders,De Novo Dahl,and BYOP and thinks that the music scene in Nashville is garbage because thats the best we can produce.Nobody seems to want to say that but you know it is true.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 02:58:04 PMjust put on the mountain goats and the shit hits the fans and it'll be the same thing as being there
Posted 07/17/2008 at 03:25:30 PMUh, De Novo Dahl are not garbage. What shitty band are you in?
Posted 07/17/2008 at 03:41:46 PM"Uh, De Novo Dahl are not garbage.What shitty band are you in?"
Posted 07/17/2008 at 04:14:12 PMMy band is called the BPcreamers.Your right BP,they aren't garbage if your five years old and watch "Blues Clues".Are you really delusional enough to believe that people in other cities think that shit is cool?
they were cool when they played "Jeffery" - still one of my all time favorites. now it is just blah
Posted 07/17/2008 at 04:32:30 PMLittle Birdy: Don't play with a young girl's heart!
I actually saw DBT on Halloween in NYC about 5 years ago. Mike Cooley wore a dress, and pulled a Britney. Good times.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 04:41:55 PMI don't really give a fuck what "people in other cities" think is "cool". The very fact that you think music should aspire to be "cool" instead of "good" tells me a lot about you. I ceased caring whether what I like was "cool" in about 9th grade.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 05:10:02 PMWhy can't we all just like the same things?
Posted 07/17/2008 at 05:28:36 PMi stopped thinking you were cool way before that.
the problem is the gimmick.
2 of the three bands named are gimmick bands.
there is no arguing that. sometimes it goes for the long haul, but many times it cannot and will not.
I am not going to harp on any person's musical taste, I just mean to say that many people look at these kinds of bands as sour patch kids.
first sour. then a little sweet. and then they dissolve in to last nights beer belly. and finally, out the squirrel eye.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 06:01:14 PMBP are they not trying to be "cool" by overpowering their own music with a cartoon image.The music even seems to have become cartoony itself.Do you think the band is about the music or the image?I didn't say that music should aspire to be"cool"at all,but if you think this band is about making "good" music and not creating some sort of "cool" image then I think your way off.The problem is that the image is not even "cool".
Posted 07/17/2008 at 06:45:50 PMthis tour business is old news... and it has nothing to do with whether bands that break out of nashville are "cool" or "uncool". it has to do with money and schedules. on a more on- topic note, i've seen holdsteady a couple times (club shows) and find them much better live (even though i couldn't understand the words) than recorded.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 09:10:32 PMI don't know how you could not like De Novo Dahl. They're just so much fun. Maybe if you're one of those Roadrunner Records fans who's pissed that their label is moving away from metal, I guess.
I hope that rumor about Hold Steady playing the Ryman is true. Although I'd rather see them at a regular club. Rock shows always strike me as awkward at the Ryman because of the pews and all the people who sit listening politely, it was especially noticeable at the Smashing Pumpkins show.
Posted 07/17/2008 at 10:17:05 PMEh. You can focus on the gimicky aspects of what they do if you want to, but behind the cartoons and Nudie suits is a catalog of really great songs.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 01:26:13 AMBP,am I assure you I'm not focusing on the "gimicky aspects" as much as they do,give me a break guy?And who cares what kind of label they are on anyway,the fact that you guys think the new stuff is a "good" catalog of music says it all,ha ha ha!!!
Posted 07/18/2008 at 07:52:01 AMWOW! Nice zinger, Rob!
Time to get that space bar fixed!
Posted 07/18/2008 at 09:27:02 AMHey Mailina this is blog,get a freakin life?Why don't you get back to your job grading the grammar section on the GED test.YOur wasting your talent on this "blog".I know you think it's a college thesis but it isn't.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 09:45:05 AMI don't know how you could not like De Novo Dahl. They're just so much fun.
'Fun' is a subjective term.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 09:59:06 AMyou couldn't pay me to go to a Hold Steady show.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 11:22:56 AMYeah,thats the silliest statement I've ever heard. How could you not like them because they are fun?
Posted 07/18/2008 at 11:26:12 AMOh right I'm sorry, music is serious business and not ever for simple enjoyment.
My bad.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 12:28:32 PMHa ha, don't get upset, your getting too serious on us. I'm certain everyone is happy that you enjoy that music so much.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 02:11:52 PMthis is one band i just don't get the hype with... ugly dude, band sounds like a crappy e-street band, their cover of "can you please crawl out your window" on the "i'm not there" soundtrack makes me want to fucking puke... if they do play that show on halloween, then there are 3 bands playing it that i care nothing about seeing.
Posted 07/18/2008 at 05:25:51 PM