The Hold Steady

There are music nerds out there who will be offended by my lack of general knowledge about The Hold Steady - a band I first heard in Chicago the same day I first heard Andrew Bird perform. It was a festival of some kind notable for not sucking. Most festivals do suck. They are feats of endurance, long waits between acts in summer heat with a bottle of water $5 and an hour in line away. This festival was small-ish. It had two stages so no waiting, and the line-up included not only Andrew Bird and The Hold Steady but Dungen (a nutty Scandinavian mix of metal and hippy sentiments all sung in a language I don't understand). Dungen's guitarist flipped out and smashed his amp because the special connectors intended to allow American electricity to work in Norwegian amplifiers weren't working. Then The Hold Steady played and I remember being only moderately impressed. Bands that have a keyboard player shouldn't try to rock out - the guy with the electric piano always looks like an ass. Then Bird played and I lost my mind. Watching and listening to Andrew Bird live is one of life's greatest joys. I include watching because at that time he was solo and recorded all his loops during the performance, playing guitar, violin, xylophone, and whistling along. I'd never seen anything like it so it was a couple weeks before I got around to buying The Hold Steady's Separation Sunday (the album they were touring then).

The Hold Steady, and particularly Separation Sunday, require serious listener involvement. It isn't a concept album as such but all the songs revolve around a cast of characters who reappear throughout the album. I was thinking of writing an essay trying to demonstrate there are only three characters in Separation Sunday and the narration is not from the POV of the singer but from each of the characters in turn. Holly (or Halleluiah) the Hood Rat, Charlemagne, an unnamed female, and the unnamed protagonist one can assume is based on lead singer Craig Finn. Other names get dropped but those are the main three. Why would you do such a thing? one might reasonably ask. It would be a difficult document to publish anywhere except The Hold Steady Wiki - and that would be asking for a never ending series of flame wars. So I held off. But while I was composing this theory I listened to Separation Sunday about a dozen times. Most albums that reward continued listening do so because of richness and texture of the sound. I'm currently listening to the soundtrack to The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Aside from being addictive it is surprisingly subtle. Those two can really write hooks and they aren't afraid to understate them. I never thought I would accuse Trent Reznor of understatement but there it is. The Hold Steady, on the other hand, reward listening because of the lyrics. Some people might think it silly (or adolescent) to "read" an album like a novel. In almost every case I agree. This is an exception.

The Hold Steady have 5 studio albums but, for me, only Separation Sunday and Boys and Girls in America are worth serious attention. Sunday  is more thoroughly developed but I can't help but love an album that starts with the lines, "There are nights I think Sal Paradise was right - boys and girls in America have such a sad time together. Sucking off each other at the demonstrations. Making sure their make-up's straight."

There is a deep religiosity to some of THS's lyrical content. Finn seems genuinely concerned with the possibility of salvation for people who live on the fringe. At the same time he maintains a distance from his own position - making wise cracks about recovery programs, community outreach, baptism (through nitrous and the Mississippi River), etc. This isn't the back handedness of someone afraid of accidentally revealing too much of themselves or the self-imposed irony of a lyricist concerned about committing a cardinal sin against "cool" - being earnest. Finn knows his position and the wise cracks and odd characters are embellishments of and elaborations on his argument.

There are dozens of lines I could pull from SS to demonstrate Finn's wit, perceptiveness, and sense of the uncanny. What I can't do is fix his singing voice. I've spent so much time listening to it that I'm not bothered anymore. Besides, my disposition being what it is, I could listen to a far worse voice for less rewarding lyrics. If you've never listened to THS, try to concentrate on the lines and not the fact the singer is tone deaf and has a three note range. I can't promise you will find it rewarding but Finn is, to me, one of the best writers in America. Not just song writers, any kind. If you imagine Orwell's essays sung by Yoko Ono you will have an extreme version of The Hold Steady's biggest asset and failing.