Under the influence
The fact that the cover of The Hold Steady’s debut album Almost Killed Me (Frenchkiss) looks like someone threw up on the cover of Exile on Main Street says a lot about the Brooklyn-based band’s take on rock history. They ate up all the rock they were fed as kids and when they spit it out it is familiar but way more grotesque. Where the Honky Tonk Woman blew Mick’s mind and then his nose, the Hold Steady “blew red, white and blue right into a tissue.”
Almost Killed Me is full of raunchy twin guitars, alliterative lyrics with a sanguine street sensibility somewhere between Lou Reed and Eazy E, and charismatic characters similar to the ones on Springsteen’s first few albums, but on much harder drugs.
Introducing...Charlemagne
“Those albums are among my favorites,” admits singer and guitarist Craig Finn of the Springsteen influence. “He always seemed to have this cast of characters that I always wanted to know more about. Y’know, whatever happened to the Magic Rat from Jungleland?”
We hear about a character named Charlemagne a few times on their debut. In one song he’s “bleeding from the holes in his story” and in another he is “another lover lost to the restaurant raids.”
Finn says we can expect to hear even more from this character in the band’s upcoming release Separation Sunday, which is scheduled for release from Fenchkiss in May.
Making the year-end lists
The Hold Steady rose from the ashes of Minneapolis art-punk band Lifter Puller, when Finn and former bandmate Tad Kubler packed up and headed East in 2000. They soon picked up Galen Polivka (bass) and more recently Bobby Drake (drums) and Franz Nicolav (keys) to fill out the lineup.
Almost Killed Me made it onto year-end lists of favorites in Rolling Stone, Spin and Magnet magazines. Finn, who is 33, says he is happy about the critical acclaim, and hopes the new album will only give the Hold Steady more recognition.
“At my age I’m not going to spend all this time rehearsing if it’s going to be just playing a few songs in front of a few friends,” he says. “I don’t think it’s worth spending time on anything that you don’t want to be appreciated on somewhat of a national level.” Rock n' roll. Vomitting. What's not to love?
Pat Healy
The Hold Steady play tomorrow night (Feb. 19) with The Beatings and Bon Savants at the Plan at Great Scott (122 Commonwealth Ave., Allston) MBTA: Green Line to Harvard Ave. For info call (617) 566-9014.
Back |  THE HOLD STEADY create characters, ala Springsteen, including Charlemagne, a bloody mess | 