The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn is releasing his first solo album on January 24. Pre-order here. Click here to hear another song from the album.
Tour dates after the jump. Continue reading
The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn is releasing his first solo album on January 24. Pre-order here. Click here to hear another song from the album.
Tour dates after the jump. Continue reading
Comments Off on Stream: Craig Finn “New Friend Jesus”
Tagged Craig Finn, the Hold Steady
Columbus boys Two Cow Garage just added some dates playing the support slot for The Hold Steady. Hopefully it’ll bring ’em some much-deserved exposure. Info below. …This should also make for some interesting posts in that Two Cow Tour Journal we’ve been (intermittently) bringing you.
10/17 – St. Olaf College – Northfield, MN
10/18 Fargo Theater – Fargo, ND
10/19 The Railyard Ale House – Billings, MT
10/20 The Filling Station – Bozeman, MT
10/21 The Big Dipper – Spokane, WA
And before all that happens, you can catch Two Cow Garage at the Rumba Cafe this Thursday with the Cinema and Crudely Fashioned.
Started the day off at the Pitchfork party. Caught Girls (ok), and then it was onto Little Boots. Her set had a lot of energy, was a ton of fun, and if my schedule permits I’d even try to see her again today. Think Annie meets Lykke Li.
It was then onto The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. This was their 7th show in 3 days during SXSW, but they played it as if they were fresh as daisies. Believe the hype on them.
After that it was off to the music blogger hosted event, Hot Freaks. Caught some of Port O’Brien and The Thermals until it was time for the epic set by The Hold Steady, the band in which I stole a lyric from to name this year’s donewaiting.com SXSW coverage.
Okay, now the thing I’ve noticed at previous Hold Steady shows is there’s usually 20 fans that are a little more excited than the rest of the crowd. Granted, everyone in the crowd is excited, but these are super fans. So when you’re at SXSW, a festival that is drawing people from all over the world, when you see The Hold Steady you have a crowd made up of those 20 fans from everywhere. The energy was amazing. There was so much joy in that tent while the band played (close to 20 songs), it gave me chills.
The Hold Steady photo stolen from chromewaves
I went back to the Central Presbyterian Church in the evening and caught Fanfarlo. The band didn’t catch my interest in the beginning of their set, but by the end I was warming up to them. I saw them sell a ton of CDs after their set, so they’re definitely doing something right.
Now it’s time to talk about The Low Anthem. One of the greatest things about SXSW is seeing a band you know nothing about and falling in love with them. This year, The Low Anthem is that band for me. The band is made up of three people who were all amazing multi-instrumentalists, switching instruments constantly during their set. And man can they sing too. A lot of their songs have a noir-y fold sound to them, but there was at least 2 songs where they busted out some real soulful music, too. Check out their website to stream some of their music to hear what I’m talking about. As soon as I get home I’m ordering all their stuff.
MP3: Charlie Darwin by The Low Anthem
Closed down the evening watching the Eugene Mirman and John Wesley Harding Cabinet of Wonders show. This event featured Eugene and John performing with special guests in between. Alina Simone, Todd Barry and Sally Crewe were a few of them that played early on the set. At that point of the evening the music from the venues surrounding them sort of bled into what they were doing so it was a little difficult to follow, but if the tour comes through your area I would definitely check it out.
NOTES
– Yes, Metallica played. Chip Midnight was there and he took some video.
– Reuters ran an article about the blogger panel I was on.
Posted in SXSW Blog
Tagged Eugene Mirman, Fanfarlo, Little Boots, the Hold Steady, The Low Anthem, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Over on her official website, the full line-up has been revealed:
The Hold Steady
New York Dolls
The Airborne Toxic Event
Ra Ra Riot
Bob Schneider
The Cringe
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Semi Precious Weapons
The Thermals
John Pringle
It’s Saturday @ Maggie Mae’s. Her website also lists the food Rachael will be preparing.
UPDATE: Entrance is based on a first come, first serve basis. Once the venue reaches capacity, management will institute a “one out, one in” admission process.
A little birdie told me that the Filter Day Parties will be announced this week.
This time next month you’ll still be hungover.
Posted in SXSW Blog
Tagged Chairlift, Psychedelic Horseshit, the Hold Steady, Vivian Girls
Last year we were shocked that Rachael Ray was doing a show at SXSW. Then we were more shocked when we saw it was a solid line-up that featured The Raveonettes, among other bands.
Well, word has come out that Rachael is coming back to SXSW in 2009. According to MTV.com, The Hold Steady are going to be playing it, which is the first time we’ve seen the band attached to the festival this year.
Other SXSW items posted to SCHED.ORG:
“This is kind of like home. We are in the same league. I am just from a different baseball team.”
Craig Finn compared Minneapolis to Columbus during the middle of the Hold Steady’s St. Patrick’s Day Show. I was drinking one of those big ass six dollar Clear Channel beers, and looking at the Hold Steady front man like he was someone I grew up with.
I think everyone in the room felt that way.
The crowd was hella responsive and energetic. Clapping along, dancing, and just partying in general.
I had seen TV on the Radio, Wolf Mother and the Clipse the previous couple of weeks, and had developed an idea that its impossible have fun at shows that aren’t either in black nightclubs, like the Jim Jones show at Club Obvious, or aren’t involving your friends, such as Times New Viking’s Paisley Reich Fest at Cafe Bourbon Street.
Envelope claims it’s just that white people don’t know how to respond to music.
Maybe, just like seeing Dipset in a club, or TNV at Bourbon Street, The Hold Steady’s natural environment is a mid-west venue full of people that have fairly similar experiences as the band.
It was like the band was built for St. Patrick’s Day in Columbus, Ohio.
Drunk, and literate.
Whatever the case, the Hold Steady was able to put all the energy into the Newport, which bands like the Fray prolly suck out.
When dood says he is gonna walk around and drink.
You know damn well what its like to walk around and drink.
Dood is Tupac really.
The band cranked out the “Chip’s Ahoy” and “You Can Make Him like You” which delve on pretty universal experiences of relationships. But I there is an underlying attention to detail that you can’t front on.
When the band performed “Massive Nights”, lyrics like these:
we had some massive highs.
we had some crushing lows.
we had some lusty little crushes
we had those all ages hardcore matinee shows
He adds the little extra seasoning that let you know exactly what his cultural pedigree is.
This familiarity echoed in my head, when they did “Hood Rat Friend” from Separation Sunday. Where Finn talks about some girl everyone in the scene has fucked around with, but he swears up and down that he doesn’t want shit to do with her.
The band churned out its Bruce Springsteen meets Social Distortion sound to keep it even for those who didn’t go to hardcore shows, and know girls that provided oral sex for everyone you skated with.
The Hold Steady, shamelessly brought out accordions, played power chords and had guitar solos. Finn flailed his arms and commanded the stage.
At one point the guitarist was standing on top of the Newport’s 2 story speakers, while Finn held the crowd’s attention on the other end. Just by smiling and mouthing god knows what.
Crowd response was so good that the Hold Steady did two sets of encores. I am glad they did “Positive Jam” off of the first album “Almost Killed Me”. The very end of the night had the Thermals jamming with the Hold Steady.
I am 100 percent anti-jamming.
But to fully reach everyman status bar band status shamelessly wanking on one’s guitar is a must.
Score one for being a real dood, applying that to a literary concept and executing it perfectly.
Bukowski meets Patrick Swayze’s backing band in Roadhouse.(minus the blind guy).