Yes, I'm starting a new thread for it instead of just adding to the old HS thread. Yes, it's a little early. But according to Craig Finn, they've started recording and these guys usually work pretty fast. During the Stay Positive tour, they played some new songs: "Gideon's Conversion", "Sharp Cross" and "(Ballad of the) Midnight Hauler". These may have just been leftovers from the SP sessions. Recently, the band debuted three more new songs at a show: "Separate Vacations", "Our Whole Lives" and "Going On a Hike". They're typical Hold Steady musically and the lyrics reference "killer parties", "Hostile, Mass", "Stuck Between Stations" etc. They don't quite sound fully formed yet. The one song that I do really like of the new trio is "Separate Vacations"; mostly because it's a little Lifter Puller-ish.




Grab the 3 new songs here: http://holdsteady.blogspot.com/2009/08/930...st-29-2009.html

farken YEEEEEEEEEEEES.

psyched for this.

love this band.

I wish he'd take it a little easy on the in-song references this time.

i love, love, LOVE that he does that.

i want more gideon goddamnit.

Oh, I love when he sings about Holly and Gideon and Charlemagne. I meant taking lines from old songs and sticking them in new ones. On the song "Stay Positive" the "There's gonna come a time when she's gonna have to go with whoever's gonna get her the highest" part in particular is kind of lame for me.

Also, please no more back-up vocals.

Love this band.

I saw them play a few of the new songs this weekend in Ithaca. Sounded great. And I was particularly excited to hear Finn reference a Pavement song in one lyric. Something about a girl listening to Heaven Is A Truck. The new songs do seem heavy on the self-references for better or worse.

aww, i totally dug on that, especially so as there was no direction gideon / holly / charlemagne directly mentioned in the lyrics throughout the album (save for "ask her for some adderall").

so given how quickly they seem to be able to turn things around, new album in march?

No way dude, I say next summer.

I'd also rather them continue to further the Holly/Gideon/Charlemagne characters or create a related set of new characters than just reference old lyrics. Stay Positive treaded too much water for me to consider it a great album. Still enjoyable, but not on the same level as the previous two.

ha, that's funny - my favourite album of theirs (and, indeed, last year).

i thought the songs were magnificent.

I can get on board with this. Didn't even realize this was on the horizon. Good news for sure.

Yeah. Huge Hold Steady fan, seen 'em several times, but this whole "Hold Steady Universe" thing is starting to get a little gimmicky.

Seems pretty soon after Stay Positive, but wth, this band rules. I'm excited. Boys and Girls in America is definitely in my top 10 records of the decade.

I'm finally seeing them in two weeks.

holly/gideon/charlemagne

New song #4?



This is the song wiggum referenced that they debuted in Ithaca. This song continues Finn's tradition of talking about music he loved growing up, rock history, etc. It's like a love song and a love song to rock'n'roll love songs. Aside from "Heaven is a Truck" and Husker Du among others, he references Utopia (!) and gets all C86 with a Heavenly reference.

"She said "Heaven is whenever we can get together, sit down on your floor and listen to your records""

that sounds freaking sweet.

in fact, i'd go so far as to say that guitar solo is the second best in their catalogue. he doesn't get enough props for his chops.

They debuted another new song in Vancouver, apparently. It's kinda cool that they're doing Alaska and a proper Canadian tour. You rarely hear of bands doing a date in Saskatoon.

Another interesting bit of something: LFTR PLLR's website says "anthology and book coming 2009".

I spoke to Barone, late last year, and he told me that everything was set to be released in mid-2009. They were apparently just waiting on finalizing the photography layouts and figuring out what live bonuses to include. That announcement on the website has been up since around January, so I'm not really holding my breath, anymore.

Also, here is an interview with Herr Kubler:

http://obviatemedia.net/

Also, the new song in the video is being called "Heaven is Whenever," at the moment.

Really excited for this.

5 or so years ago, I thought these guys and Art Brut were the same band. So, I didn't really pay attention to them until Stay Positive last year. Glad I finally gave them a chance.

Thanks for the interview and info. Kind of a letdown on the LP thing. I hadn't checked that site in forever and I figured that was more concrete than Finn's vague "I want to put out a box set of all the LFTR PLLR stuff sometime" talk here and there.

They're playing another new song called "Slight Discomfort". So if you're keeping score, the new songs are:

"Heaven Is Whenever"
"Slight Discomfort"
"Hurricane J"
"Separate Vacations"
"Goin' On a Hike"
"Our Whole Lives"

What an awesome show tonight.

Yeah Sapphire
Constructive Summer
Hot Soft Light
Separate Vacations
Sequestered In Memphis
Navy Sheets
Banging Camp
Girls Like Status
The Swish
Heaven Is Whenever
Knuckles
Magazines
Our Whole Lives
Hoodrat
Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
Hurricane J
Southtown Girls
Stay Positive
Adderall
Slapped Actress

ENCORE:

Stations
Chips Ahoy
Resurrection

"Hurricane J" is really good, and "Heaven is Whenever" sounds great live.

Fuck yes. You can make a pretty solid argument for any of their records as being their best.

Though I'd really, really love for Craig Finn to expand his lyrical themes a bit. I love just about everything they've done to this point, but their catalog's getting a bit crowded for any more songs about Gideon and Charlemagne.

I'll still contend that Stay Positive was their Darkness On The Edge of Town. Here's hoping they'll eventually make a Nebraska.

They seem to really be mixing it up with the setlists: throwing b-sides in there, doing the new songs, changing the order around, not doing the same songs as openers/closers etc. Glad you enjoyed it, Sask. I can't wait to hear "Hurricane J". So far, "Heaven is Whenever" is the new one that seems most likely to become a vintage Hold Steady song.

Craig Finn apparently co-writing the film adaptation of Fargo Rock City.

http://pitchfork.com/news/36882-the-hold-s...ck-cityi-movie/

Remember digging the book. Interested to see how it pans out as a film.

Haven't read that book, but liked Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. Just put DRC on my library queue.

Don't have the new album, but going to see them tonight at the Croc in Seattle, part of Southern Comfort's Undercover series of free shows, they're supposedly playing a setlist of covers. Nice way to break my Hold Steady concert cherry.

that song in the first post... dueling keyboard and guitar solos... fantastic.

The news that a Chuck Klosterman book is getting a film adaptation is more surprising than the news that Craig Finn is writing it. Hopefully, this doesn't set the next Hold Steady album back any.

erm, i hope this appears somewhere online in reasonable quality.

*hint*

If only I had the hardware to record... I'll see if I can get any decent video with my digital camera.

Expect at least one Zeppelin song.

It'll be interesting to see the setlist for this.

Whew! What a show. Not a covers show as the Southern Comfort promotion suggested, but a great show. They did some covers, Steve Earle's "I Ain't Ever Satisfied", Zeppelin's "Your Time Is Gonna Come" among them.



The venue holds 560 and was packed to the gills. Once inside, each person got 2 SoCo free drink tickets (used 'em), a pair of SoCo sunglasses (left 'em), a concert ticket-looking piece with instructions to text for a chance to win a guitar (winner announced before the Hold Steady show, didn't win), and on the way out we got a poster for the whole SoCo undercover series which is printed on quality heavy stock but the graphic design is weakly comprised of ten-dollar stock art.

DJ Lord from Atlanta opened. He was fun, playing pop music ranging from Naughty By Nature and Michael Jackson to Blur and (much to his disappointment in the lack of crowd reaction) Nirvana.

The Hold Steady rocked every step of the way. Here's my low-grade, back of the room footage:

Looks like you can download some songs from the Seattle show here:
http://www.eventographystudios.com/clients.../widget_wa.html

that's rad. i'm not nuts about the new croc, but for whatever reason it seems like a great place to see THS.

The old Croc had character, even and especially in its flaws - that big pole in front of the stage, the way the way the room was cut up, all the wear and tear. The new one, first time I went there I just thought it was too shiny and bland. But once the show started, I instantly appreciated the production values of an awesome sound and lighting system, a bathroom they keep clean, and better bar service. I think the new owners do a great job. However, I REALLY miss the brunch at the old Croc, and I Heart Rummage is not the same at Chop Suey.

old croc is much better than the new croc indeed. but i agree, i totally see how a band like THS would thrive in the new croc space.

Glad you enjoyed it, Eric. This review of the show says that they were doing Bon Jovi's "Living In Sin" during soundcheck.

Gideon used to work on the docks

Also, this was their last night of touring. Let the next-record-making begin.

Update/details/release date on the Lifter Puller re-issues/book, finally:

'Said I just need a little diet cola or maybe just a little Lifter Puller'

Consider me ecstatic:

http://www.franznicolay.com/

http://pitchfork.com/news/37645-franz-nico...he-hold-steady/

Yeah, I like Franz and all (he looks like a happy Gallagher) but he was my least favorite element of the band.

I don't know how much this will affect the next record, but I'm fine with this. I like the epic E Street-ish Hold Steady stuff and Franz is an incredibly nice dude, but after the last record I definitely feel like it's time for a change (or at least a return to Lifter Puller/Almost Killed Me-type stuff). I'd be really disappointed if they felt like they needed some guy on keyboards to fill out the sound and just got some other guy to help them make a record similar to SP/B&GIA.

Other than Finn's lyrics, the keys player was the best part of the band and obviously a notch above the others in instrument skill. This is a crushing blow.

I liked his contributions a lot, the bridge in "Stuck Between Stations" especially.

yeah, totally bummed about this - he'd become increasingly key to the band. can't imagine what they'll sound like without his contribution of sound, especially given how dominant the keys (and guitars) were on stay positive.

i saw them 3 or 4x before he joined and they still slayed live....

he was fun to watch, but i can't say i ever liked his backing vocals (his solo album is terrible). part of me hopes that rather than try and replace Franz, that they just continue as a 4-piece like before. i did find that sometimes Franz tried to steal the spotlight from Craig a bit TOO much tho... great guy tho.

but regarding Stay Positive... which is easily my least favorite THS record, as long as the new album sounds way different than that record, i'm fine with it (the new songs i heard last fall were all killer).

but as far as Franz being vastly more talented than anyone else in the band... idk about that, Tad is a lot more talented than just his guitar skills, for one he was the bassist (and a damn good one) in Lifter Puller.

I liked some of his contributions a lot, but I think the change could do them good.

Also, I just remembered when Brent D (or maybe it was someone else on the board) said he disliked the later HS stuff because "I don't like that vaudeville keyboard man Fancy McMoustache or whatever his name is" and laughed audibly.

yeah... it was Brent

i know a LOT of local THS/LP fans who lost a ton of interest in seeing them live when Franz joined, so i think plenty of people will like the move, just as there will be plenty who are saddened by it.

i'm fairly indifferent towards it myself.