They can make you like them.

I've rarely felt as ambivalent about a band as I do about The Hold Steady. On one hand, their verbose yet repetitive lyrics, barked out by Bob-Mould-with-a-head-cold and backed by a crackerjack out-of-work Meat Loaf tribute band, can be alternately uplifting, grating, and embarrasing. I mean, "Those were massive nights / When every song was right"? There's a very Bryan Adams strain of hesher nostalgia underlying the junkie poetry, and I don't quite trust it.

On the other hand, they fucking rock ass, so shut up.

Anyhow, this will all be moot when they break big on rock radio, which inevitability is a mere 14 months away, by my reckoning.



In the meantime, get some (authorized) rare goods while they're still an underground sensation. If you're all very kind to me, I may post the NPR show as MP3 files someday. (And probably get my ass sued off by whatever mammoth label they'll be recording for at the time.)

•Stuck Between Stations (live on The Current) (MP3)
•Cattle and the Creeping Things (live on The Current)(MP3)
•Killer Parties (remix) (MP3)

•Listen to the gently fabulous NPR broadcast

The Hold Steady home myspace

Get 25 free MP3s and buy The Hold Steady (including exclusive tracks and an otherwise unavailable killer live album) at eMusic.com