Latest Release
- 12 APR 2024
- 2 Songs
- The Death Of The Punchline / Radar & Leda - Single · 2023
- The Death Of The Punchline / Radar & Leda - Single · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
- The Price of Progress · 2023
Essential Albums
- The Hold Steady’s third studio effort, 2006’s Boys and Girls in America, builds upon the stories lead singer Craig Finn had begun telling on albums like Separation Sunday and Almost Killed Me. These were vivid, interconnected narratives that, by the time Boys and Girls in America arrived, were together forming something akin to a cinematic universe. Yet, for all of Finn’s lyrical smarts, the songs on Boys and Girls in America were also pure, simple and beautiful—and a ton of fun. The entire record almost feels like a driven, powerful live show, one where you barely stop dancing. And while it’s easy to make comparisons between The Hold Steady and the Boss, Boys and Girls in America features a large, arena-ready rock sound best described as Springsteen-esque—full of detailed stories about everything from mystic racetrack gamblers to aging scenesters. It’s a coming-of-age album from a band whose members were growing more comfortable with their own musical maturity. Boys and Girls in America marked a moment of pure evolution for The Hold Steady—one in which the group went from playing songs about a scene, to becoming a scene. The album played a crucial role in elevating the band’s profile, earning universal critical acclaim, along with a larger and ever-growing fan base, and eventually leading The Hold Steady to be named Blender magazine’s 2006 Band of the Year.
- After The Hold Steady’s energising 2004 debut—the short-story-collection-as-rock-record Almost Killed Me—the group returned in 2005 with Separation Sunday, an album that plays as a cohesive, somewhat experimental novel. Propelled by a borderline biblical narrative, Separation Sunday dives deep into the lives of lead singer Craig Finn’s recurring characters—including Holly (short for Hallelujah), Charlemagne and Gideon—as they get into adventures (and trouble) in places like Denver, Chicago, the Twin Cities and Ybor City. Filled with ripping rock ’n’ roll alongside Catholic imagery, resurrections and an oftentimes drug-fueled scene, Separation Sunday is an original, artful record. Finn’s lyrics combine intensely specific references—he sings about actual streets, neighbourhoods and bands—with completely unreliable narration. He was telling an ongoing fictional story that felt very much encapsulated within reality, building a years-long lore that Hold Steady fans would still be debating and discussing years later. And on Separation Sunday, the band is doing some boundary-bending work of its own, pulling together punk rock, classic rock, bar rock and mid-2000s indie rock to create a dynamic sound, with keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Franz Nicolay joining in as a full-time member. The result is a raw, energetic collection of modern-day hymns, one that found The Hold Steady finding critical acclaim—and landing the group on the cover of The Village Voice, the first rock act to do so in 15 years.
Albums
- 2014
Music Videos
Artist Playlists
- Indie rock that keeps things positive.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
More To Hear
- Mark talks with Craig and Tad of The Hold Steady.
About The Hold Steady
Emerging from the dust of frontman and songwriter Craig Finn’s former band, Lifter Puller, in Minneapolis in 2003, The Hold Steady became celebrated for their hard-hitting yet densely narrative rock songs by the mid-2000s. Following an early move to Brooklyn, the band helped define the borough’s vibrant indie scene alongside peers like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on The Radio. While those acts were purveyors of dissonant post-punk, however, The Hold Steady were colloquially celebrated as “America’s best bar band”. There’s an intimacy to their work that earned them this nickname, as early albums like 2005’s Separation Sunday and 2006’s Boys and Girls in America found the band telling stories of teenage love and life on the margins. Open Door Policy (2021) updated these themes for middle age, as Craig Finn and company explored dreams deferred and the growing realisation that life isn’t ever what one imagines it will be.
- ORIGIN
- Brooklyn, New York, NY, United States
- FORMED
- 2003
- GENRE
- Alternative