Senses Fail at PopMatters

JS-NYC emo legions:

You may be pleased to peruse my take on the lads from The Garden State's new best of comp over at PopMatters. Or perhaps not.

Here's a link.

R

Live: Craig Finn and Some Guns @ Mercury Lounge 2.29.12

Craig Finn, Mercury Lounge and an 8:30 start time are a perfect storm of awesome for this old timer. The improbable addition of Shia Labouf and rain complicated things somewhat, but I still managed to post up stage left with Eric right before things got underway. I'm not all that crazy about Clear Heart, Full Eyes, but continue to relish any chance I get to see shows at Mercury Lounge, so cash was ponied up. From the initial Apollo Bay, it was pretty obvious that I could check my ambivalence at the door and the songs were going to translate better live. The backing band for the tour, dubbed Some Guns, featured four Austin heavyweights (including Alex from Grand Champeen) and kicked serious behind for the duration. Finn is engaging as hell and his stage presence and banter really help things, as did the month of shows they had played previous to this double set of shows, no doubt.

Most of Clear Heart, Full Eyes was addressed in the hour plus we were afforded, as were four pretty damn aces tracks not on the record. I rollled in cranky and pleased things were wrapping up early and left wishing I had bought tickets for the late show. Nyctaper has this very set available for your downloading pleasure, so know that it comes highly recommended and download it yourself here.

R

Craig Finn - Clear Heart, Full Eyes

Word came down the pike last Summer that Craig was in Austin recording a solo record and a subsequent Tumblr documenting the process confirmed the same. I'm mildly surprised that it came out on Vagrant, but that notwithstanding, said solo record has dropped and its called Clear Heart, Full Eyes. Finn has never made his faith a secret and it's definitely ramped up a notch here. See: tracks like New Friend Jesus and Western Pier. The music is rooted more in American Music Club Americana than THS records, with a Telecaster and a volume pedal rather than a Les Paul and a wah kind of mood. Lyrics are cut from the same cloth as Finn fare previously, with arguably more Sunday morning rather than Saturday night content. After a month or so with the record, I'd say Clear Heart, Full Eyes sounds exactly like what you'd expect a Craig Finn solo record to sound like. It certainly will not win anyone over who isn't a fan previously, but should be well received by the average Hold Steady fan. A solo tour rolls through town in the next couple weeks. Buy Clear Heart, Full Eyes and keep track of all things solo and Craig Finn here.

R

Live: The Hold Steady @ Beacon Theatre 10.7.10

This show was a weird proposition all-around. First and foremost, I ended up buying this ticket (through the good graces of AMEX holder and all-around great guy Dave Johnson) back in April. I think it marks the first time in the seeming eternity I've spent on this earth that I've bought a ticket that far in advance. I will say straight off that seeing The Hold Steady in a sit-down environment is not the first arena I would choose, unless it was some sort of acoustic or special situation. The Hold Steady are one of the few bands that I still want to see from as close as possible with one too many beers in me and the $37.50 ticket price and the Beacon did not bode well for that. Either way, I pulled the trigger and went despite the lack of the usual crowd attending.

I rolled up to the Beacon, locked up and headed in to find that there were tickets still available. Interesting. There had been little fanfare amongst the Unified Scene set about this show, and most of the front-end scuttlebutt had been about the odd choice of venue, high ticket price and lack of other shows in town behind Heaven Is Whenever. Call it lifestyle-related paranoia, but there is something going on with The Hold Steady. When you play two guerilla shows in town on the same day to push your new record, I can see the marketing draw, but when your only other announced hometown show in a venue like the Beacon, it makes me think that there is some image (or crowd) spin-doctoring going on. I have to think The Hold Steady are at the end of their Vagrant contract and dollars to donuts they will be moving on, I wonder if this is an attempt to ingratiate themselves to an older crowd that still buys cds. THS are shrewd business people, and lets not misinterpret this as JS-NYC saying THS are Kiss or anything, but there has to be a way to keep the lights on and not short their long-time local fanbase. The fact that the show wasn't sold out (the first time I've been aware in many NY shows) may speak to the fact that Franz moving on and odd show moves may be working against our heroes.

So I got to my seat to find that it was literally the last seat in the last row of the orchestra. It ended up being great sightline-wise, and the wall behind the seat meant there wasn't going to be any issue with my standing during the set. The gents were on by a little after ten, as I recall and played a great set, but I won't say it wasn't weird not being able to be up front packed in. Craig implored the crowd to ignore the seats, but security felt otherwise and it was an oddly restrained affair. Here's the set list:

1. Constructive Summer
2. Massive Nights
3. Hurricane J
4. Sequestered in Memphis
5. The Swish
6. Rock Problems
7. You Can Make Him Like You
8. The Sweet Part of the City
9. Magazines
10. Stevie Nix
11. Multitude of Casualties
12. You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came To The Dance With)
13. Chips Ahoy!
14. Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
15. We Can Get Together
16. The Weekenders
17. Southtown Girls
18. Your Little Hoodrat Friend
19. Stay Positive
20. Slapped Actress
21. Encore:
21. Hornets! Hornets!
22. Stuck Between Stations
23. Killer Parties

All in all, this was a pretty good set, but this was the first Hold Steady show in the many shows I've seen them play where I left before it was over. Not that THS were bad, far from it, but the distance was a real issue and the stage is really empty with Franz not taking up stage right. Selvidge is a decent guitarist, but it is very obvious that in the Heaven Is Whenever era, he and keyboardist Dan Neustadt are definitely sidemen. The fact that the keys are now as far in the background as possible stage-wise (and in the new material) is very telling. Selvidge and Tad do a couple of harmonized solos that are ok, but nothing to write home about and do little to fill that big empty space on the right. After an hour I was checking Springsteen's Twitter on the phone and texting master of the odds Eric for the over/under on an unannounced arrival from The Boss legitimizing the choice of venue and my staying out late on a school night. Nothing seemed promising in that regard, and as such I bailed before the encore sated. Heaven Is Whenever is a solid record and The Hold Steady are definitely in the top tier of America's rock bands, but as 2010 draws to a close, I'm interested to see when the next show in-town is and even more intrigued to find how quickly I'm going to move to get tickets.

R

The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever

It's an interesting time to be a fan of The Hold Steady. Heaven Is Whenever is the first in some time not to feature the keyboard stylings of Mr. Franz Nicolay and was rumored to be a simpler, more guitar-driven affair. In the days before the record came out, I had more than a couple interactions with the HS massive where the general consensus was that our heroes had jumped the shark. I felt kinda the same way after hearing the first singles off the record, but still bought tickets for both of their home town shows last month and had a ball.

Heaven Is Whenever leaked soon after, and I wasn't really into it all. It was kind of a bummer, frankly, but after a week of bike rides, the songs started hooking me in. The bridge of Hurricane J was the first thing that grabbed me, followed soon after by the icy riff that drives The Weekenders. After a couple weeks, I'm pleased to say that I'm now pretty into Heaven Is Whenever. The boys have been making the late night rounds, switching up the song each time, and all of them seem to translate pretty well. The new guys seem pretty decent, but seem to be chosen for their lack of overall personality to the point of being extraneous.

The core four are in fine form here. Tad definitely seems poised to take the Rick Nielsen torch, both in rock riffage and sheer volume (literally and figuratively) of Gibsons owned. Craig still brings much to the table lyrically. That's a pretty big understatement, but rather than dance too much about architecture, know that Husker Du are referenced, as are Heavenly and the sheer pleasure of staying indoors with significant others and listening to records. These are truisms that warrant your embracing their philosophy and buying Heaven Is Whenever. I can state whole-heartedly that I miss song-driven makeout sessions. Know that JS-NYC will go the distance to bring this back as courtship material. Do your part and buy Heaven Is Whenever here from you friends at Vagrant.

R

Live: The Hold Steady at Music Hall Of Williamsburg 6.10 &11.9

Alright kids:

Even I can't spout about the awesomeness of THS for four days straight. Ask me and I'll probably talk your ear off, but suffice too say that the set lists below will eliminate any ambiguity as/re: the awesomeness therein(at). Plus, kids pitting to Springsteen is a little odd. Thursday night also featured my enjoying the mighty aldenbarton beforehand. The gents do so bring it. Might I point out that if you were not there, you missed out in a pronounced fashion.


6/10 SET LIST:

First Night
Stations
Massive Nights
Party Pit
Sequestered
Cutters
Cheyenne (dedicated to Hannah and Ros, because "when British people use American accents they sound like cowboys, and this is a cowboy song")
Chips Ahoy!
Same Kooks
Knuckles
Status
You Can Make Him
Discouraged
Constructive
Hot Soft
Stay Positive
Slapped Actress
Resurrection

Encore:
Citrus
Arms and Hearts
Chillout Tent
Southtown

6/11 Set List

Set List:
Stay Positive
You Gotta Dance
Navy Sheets
Chips Ahoy!
Sequestered
Cheyenne
Yeah Sapphire
Stevie Nix
Multitude
Magazines
Hostile Mass (!!!)
Sweet Payne
Massive Nights
Party Pit
Jamaica
Discouraged
Constructive
Hoodrat
Stations

Encore:
Certain Songs
Southtown
DJs
Slapped Actress

Live: The Hold Steady at Bowery Ballroom 6.9.9

Night Two:

Save for the appearance of 212-MARGARITA, I'd say the boys played it a little safe for their first show back. Props are due for mixing up the set list, but it certainly bode well for a real barnburner this night. Met up with Dru aldenbarton and Eric Johnson for some pre-emptive beverages and sallied forth in high sprits.

Real estate was established, more beers were acquired and Eric was lost shortly afterward.
The gents did not disappoint, playing Seperation Sunday in it's entirety, albeit not in order. Set list is below. Check these apples:

Crucifixion
Resurrection
Constructive
Chips Ahoy
Sequestered
Cattle
The Cutters
Charlemagne
Banging Camp
Explode
Stevie Nix
Multitude
Chicago
Discouraged
Slapped Actress
Hoodrat
Stay Positive
Hornets

ENCORE:

Citrus
Station
Southtown
Killer Parties

Live: The Hold Steady at Bowery Ballroom 6.8.9

Ok kids:

Sorry for the delay, but Daddy's been out purging demons for the last week or so. Here's what my OCD has been up to:

Personally, if you're going to go through some fucking drama, I'd have some Hold Steady shows to offset such ridiculousness. The universe doth provide, and four Hold Steady (plus two Lucero and an aldenbarton) shows were on the docket. Night one was decent, maybe 6.5 on a ten scale. Lots of great songs, maybe not in the best order, but beers were had and my inner 'that guy' was gotten in touch with. Set list is below: peep the Killer Parties as an opener and the rare live appearance of 212-MARGARITA

Killer Parties
Constructive
You Gotta Dance
You Can Make
Sequestered
Barfruit
Sketchy Metal
Chips Ahoy
The Swish
Magazines
First Night
Multitude
Yeah Sapphire
Southtown
Discouraged
Stay Positive
Slapped Actress
Resurrection

ENCORE

212- MARGARITA
Adderall
Stations
DJ's

Amplified

Has it really come to this? Are there actually people with good musical taste at ABC? Must have been the same guy who hired Jimmy Kimmel, but someone over there is letting anchor Dan Harris do a weekly music blog called Amplified where he does short interview segments with his favorite bands. Shockingly, Harris has got some taste and knows what he's talking about. I'm as flabbergasted as you are, but tuned in for the Mac Macaughan spot and stayed for The Hold Steady, but tuned out once Dan Deacon rolled in. You'd probably do well to check it out. Here's a link. Apologies in advance for the shitty commercials.

R

The Hold Steady - A Positive Rage, Part Two: The DVD

I've always been pretty ambivalent about The Hold Steady and their video presence. The video for Chips Ahoy seemed a remarkably bad treatment for a band that was just starting to come on people's radar. With all respect to Moh Azima, who is a nice guy and who tenured briefly in my old band Musclecar, it seemed just a little too flippant for a song that good. I much preferred his videos for The Swish and Stuck Between Stations. I'm not sure who did the video for Stay Positive, but that one is absolutely terrible. I smell Vagrant saddling them with a director. Those things summarily shat upon, I approached the idea of tour documentary with a bit of trepidation, but having met the guys and their crew, it would be hard to avoid capturing the magic that these guys have.

I'm pleased to report that A Positive Rage the documentary is pretty great. It's got the real feeling that Superchunk's Quest For Sleep tour doc has, without the post 9/11 dread. Finn often talks about the level of joy that the band maintains, to the point of it getting a little bit rote, but even after hearing it so many times, watching them live it's hard to refute that statement. Of course, The Hold Steady would have to be a sadsack band of Radiohead proportions to not be pretty happy. The doc captures the tour behind Boys And Girls In America where The Hold Steady really started to get a lot of press and play bigger and bigger rooms. European and US tours are both captured, both showing the band equally exhausted and exhilarated, missing home but realizing that they had a very special band on their hands. There are no full-songs, much less a full live set, but that's what the cd is for, besides there are other live Hold Steady DVDs to occupy you. With A Positive Rage, it's nice to have them both in a single package for a reasonable price. I wouldn't say that this would be my first Hold Steady purchase and if you're a fan you already have this, but for the average person A Positive Rage is better for your shut-in friends or parent you're trying to expose to The Hold Steady.

R

The Hold Steady - A Positive Rage, Part One: The CD

For the uninitiated, or those that don't like The Hold Steady (at JS-NYC HQ, we call those people deaf), A Positive Rage is the new live CD slash DVD tour documentary from the boys from Brooklyn. In the interest of yammering on about The Hold Steady as much as possible, I'm going to separate the two discs into two reviews. Let's make love to our ears first, shall we?

This recording comes from a single show taped on Halloween Night in 2007 at The Metro, in lovely Chicago, IL. It's a great room, and by the sounds of things, it was a pretty good show. It's mixed by John Agnello, but I assume that it's pretty much warts and all. Not that this is The Shit Hits The Fans. The boys are often tight as fuck and one of Craig's favorite records is Liveage, a record that I'm pretty sure adhered to that aesthetic. Granted it was probably shallow SST pockets that facilitated the former, but The Hold Steady are every bit as tight as Hermosa Beach's finest, making A Positive Rage an economical choice for all parties involved. Truth be told, many of the first copies were defective, including mine. It was a minor inconvenience, save for our inability to garner the unreleased tracks that were theoretically encoded therein. I'll keep you posted on the replacement process, though I'm pretty salty about not being able to hear them.

That duly bitched about, here's the tracklisting for A Positive Rage:

1. Intro
   
2. Stuck Between Stations
   
3. The Swish
   
4. Chips Ahoy!
   
5. Massive Nights
   
6. Ask Her For Adderall
   
7. Barfruit Blues
   
8. Same Kooks
   
9. You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With)
   
10. Lord, I’m Discouraged
    
11. You Can Make Him Like You
    
12. Your Little Hoodrat Friend
    
13. Southtown Girls
    
14. Citrus
    
15. First Night
    
16. Girls Like Status
    
17. Killer Parties

So, it's a pretty good set. A Positive Rage has got most of the best parts of the Vagrant era, with a dip into some of their tastier b-sides to keep things interesting. In that vein, props are due for putting You Gotta Dance in the set. Personally, I would have lost Citrus for Modesto, but that's just me and I don't recall their asking my opinion, as shocking as that might seem. All in all, I'd give the show a seven on a ten scale. I'm sure it would score higher if I had been there and getting my 'that guy' on, but that's my call and I'm sticking to it. For the newcomers, I'll point again that a Hold Steady seven is about a fifteen for the average band. Almost twenty Hold Steady shows in the last couple years has shown me that the bar has been raised considerably for rock shows in this millenium. There is a short list of bands around today that can hold their own against them and that number grows smaller with every release.

If you had the choice between spending your hard-earned dollar on seeing The Hold Steady live or buying A Positive Rage, I'd say see the guys live. After that, you'll probably end up buying this anyway. Here's a link, if you're feeling pre-emptive and all. 

R

The Hold Steady: A Positive Rage - Out Today!

You read it right. 

Pick it up here.

R

Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha review up at The Tripwire

Hey Kids:

Review of the new Appleseed Cast record Sagarmatha is up at The Tripwire.

Here's a link.


Thanks to Derek Evers at The Tripwire

R

Rocket From The Crypt review up at The Tripwire

Hey Boys and Grrls:

New review of Rocket From The Crypt - All Systems Go: Volume 3 is up now at The Tripwire. Thanks to Derek Evers and Vagrant Records!

R

Live: Hold Steady with The Pretenders @ Sonar, Baltimore 9.19.08

On the heels of the two-pronged rock assault I had undertaken the night before, I was looking forward to a nice tight Hold Steady opening slot and a quiet evening with the sister and brother-in-law. A couple hours before I headed out of town, I learned that the order had been switched and The Pretenders were now going before out heroes The Hold Steady. There are worse eventualities, plus I had a couple days to recover, so soon after touching down in Baltimore, barside we reported.

Sonar isn't so bad of a space, kind of reminiscent of the old Tramps without the ill-placed poles. It was packed cheek to jowl with Baltimore's largest and they were drinking. It was decidedly older crowd, by and large, but I myopically atrributed it to The Hold Steady and their devoted professional audience. I've never met more drunken corporate lawyers at rock shows than at Hold Steady shows. We missed the All MIght Senators, the long-standing Baltimore Fishbone-y funk rockers who are a mainstay of Baltimore opening slots and posted up to see The Pretenders. Chrissie has a new band behind her with Jim Keltner on drums. They rock pretty hard and Ms. Hynde is one sexy fifty-something. I guess it may be on account of the new band, but there were only five songs that I really recognized. I'm not terribly familiar with late-period Pretenders, but I gather that most of the set was from their new Break Up The Concrete record. It sounded like decent enough rock music and the new handsome guitar guy has got chops, but I was there for the hits as much as anyone else was. We got Brass In The Pocket and Back In The Chain Gang as well as a romp through Kid on the encore, but I would have liked to have heard a little bit more of the hits. Chrissie is not known for giving too much of a shit about what other people think about her music and the fact that they are on an indie pretty much asserts the fact that our Ms. Hynde will not be losing any sleep over this asshole's opinion.

We were taking bets on how much of the crowd would be bailing after The Pretenders set. I was figuring maybe 25/30%, but didn't much care. One more beer and it was time to stake out some real estate. After the previous night's acoustical nightmare, I was hoping that we'd be back to full speed and the gents did not disappoint. The set featured most of Stay Positive but one of the great things about The Hold Steady is the fact that they have b-sides that are just as decent as their a-sides and the have no problems with playing them. Cheyenne Sunrise from the new record was the b-side du jour, as has been the norm of late. Judging by the response, Vagrant is going to ship a lot more of the limited digi-pak version. Nothing gold can stay, and so a drunken stage invasion from a Fell's Point Irregular derailed things a bit toward the end of the set, getting our boy Dusty roughed up a bit in the doing. While that was placted, I turned around and was shocked to find that a solid 80% of the crowd had left. Granted, it was after 1am, but I would have thought we would have more die-hards. Oh, well. It was still a great show and Dusty (HS super-roadie) was of the opinion that it was one of the best HS shows ever. Either way, it bodes well for the co-headlining tour with the Drive By Truckers next month. My head hurts already.