A post where we talk about music but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it...

Regis: Each new Hold Steady album is kinda like A Prairie Home Companion and Craig Finn is the post-punk Garrison Keillor I am just going to say right now that Craig Finn is probably on par with John Darnielle in terms of ability to create believable vivid characters and situations in song. I've never been in a destructive marriage in Tallahassee but because of that album I kinda think I know exactly what it feels like because of Darnielle. And I've never been a confused scene girl who ends up doing too many drugs and trying to find some semblance of belief or solace in her Catholicism but I kinda feel like I know what that feels like now too. The fact that The Hold Steady cross-reference situations and even lyrics from other albums will never stop impressing me. Finn sings the line "there's gonna come a time/when she's gonna have to go/with whoever gets her the highest" on three out of four of their albums and the amazing thing is that it works. That's part of the reason they're like prairie home companion: each record is like visiting the same town. Except in keillor's case he's describing an idyllic Midwestern town while The Hold Steady are describing the archetypical directionless teen scene where everyone has these really intense but totally vague and unfocused desires.

Chloe: There's something about his voice I find un-placeable but oddly familiar. I want to say Bruce Springsteen but I know that's wrong. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by The Hold Steady because it seems like their songs are so jam-packed with stories and characters that I can't listen to it all and sort of tune out. I like how the Mountain Goats uses the same lines in songs across albums too. That always impresses me and you feel like you're in on a secret as the listener. Even though everyone else who pays attention and listens regularly is in on the same secret- you feel a connection to the band that wasn't there before. I appreciate the thought. I always thought Garrison Keillor was describing my family growing up when he said that all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average. And I felt like maybe I really was a Midwest girl even though I only lived in Minneapolis for a year as an infant.

Regis: I don't think the Bruce Springsteen comparison is wrong. The overall rhythm of Hold Steady songs - the way they build to a crescendo - is very Springsteenian. And Finn references Springsteen lyrics and situations a lot.

Springsteen: tramps like us...baby we were born to run.
The Hold Steady: tramps like us...and we like tramps.

Their songs are definitely NOT background music. It's music to pay attention to.

Chloe: Oh good, glad I wasn't off about The Boss comparison. I think both of them seem very Americana to me in the non-Wilco sense. Like blue-collar or common experiences for certain segments of society.

Regis: Springsteen is a huge fan of The Hold Steady. They have played together. Your description is on-lock. "Non-Wilco blue collar" is a very good description because Wilco (and most alt-country groups) affect this "real blue collar" stance which actually doesn't reflect the actual working class: it just conforms this bourgeois ideal of working class virtue: a Springsteen ideal without grit or bad food or chewing tobacco or shitty apartments. The Hold Steady have this sloppy ugly sprawling picture of genuine American life that encompasses a lot more than that "ideal". Springsteen describes the common experience of being working class using the specific experience of being out of work and working class in post-Vietnam war New Jersey. The Hold Steady describe the common experience of being directionless and young and full of intense desires and hedonism and curiosity and a need for meaning using the specific experience of being townies and music fans and middle-class methheads and skaterats and heshers in suburban America.