Jeff Penalty fronted the reformed Dead Kennedys for a bit and all he got was this eponymous tune by Hold Steady keyboardist and World/Inferno Friendship Society accordionist Franz Nicolay. Just kidding, he also got to play a ton of shows with his childhood heroes. “Jeff Penalty” comes from Nicolay’s solo album Major General. As far as I know, Penalty’s a documentarian and a drummer and not an Abstract Expressionist painter, but that’s the ostensible theme of this accompanying video (directed by Thomas Bayne of Adult Swim’s Venture Bros) until you get to the surprise ending. So stick around to see Mr. Penalty. The track was inspired by a World/Inferno and a Jello-free/Jeff-led Dead Kennedys show at Irving Plaza, which Nicolay has termed “a true-life tale of punk-rock redemption, a triumph of joy over ideology, when a thousand cynics learned to stop worrying and love the songs.” In that spirit, we also have an MP3 of Nicolay’s “World/Inferno Vs. the End of the Evening,” because it’s nice getting as self-referential as possible (note Franz multiples in the above thumbnail). Speaking of references, after listening to “Jeff Penalty” you’ll get a sense of how much Nicolay influences Hold Steady or vice versa.
Speaking of the Hold Steady: Nicolay appearing briefly on the painting is very reminiscent of this. Franz in a somber mode:
Major General is out via Fistolo. Nicolay is out and about and recently stopped by Daytrotter. Soon he’ll be stopping elsewhere. All dates are with Moneybrother.
04/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
04/22 – Redding, CA @ Redding Downtown Eatery
04/23 – Salem, OR @ Ike Box
04/24 – Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern (late show)
04/25 – Portland, OR @ East End
04/27 – Sacramento, CA @ The Press Club
04/28 – Visalia, CA @ The Cellar Door
04/29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
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I fee like slashing my wrists after listening to this.
Go ahead. You can do it! I believe in you.
As for the song, really does sounds like post-Separation Sunday Hold Steady. Chicken-egg scenario.
God, this song is wretched. If anyone else did this they would be laughed off the _____, it’s such a sub-sub-par Hold Steady ripoff. Very odd. Chicken/ egg? Uh, no – just the really weird situation of poorly and blatantly ripping off the style made famous by two people more talented than you, who happen to, oh, be the songwriters in your infinitely better dayjob band.
As someone who’s listened to the entire album and seen one of Franz’s solo I’d like to point out a few things. First, Jeff Penalty is the closest anything on Major General comes to sounding like THS. This kind of makes sense when you consider that it’s a song specifically about punk-rock, and that Franz is in fact a member of The Hold Steady. In my experience, good bands have people in them who are all on the same musical vibe, there’s at least less clashing of creative control (case in point would be the similarity between Death Cab’s albums and Chris Walla’s solo work).Second, Franz’s live shows are excellent, it’s just him, his banjo, his accordion, his guitar, and a bottle of wine. This is what really comes through the album as a whole. Lastly, Franz is a good songwriter. Sure, he’s not as good as Craig Finn, but neither are a whole lot of people who are praised by the readers of this blog. Major General is a decent album and Franz is supporting it with some fantastic live shows.
I like “Jeff Penalty” quite a bit. I don’t love it, but it manages to have a catchiness (if that’s a word; my spell check doesn’t think so) that falls somewhere between THS and W/IFS. To be fair, I’ve seen Franz live four times between those two bands, so I’m clearly predisposed to his music, but I had somehow missed all of his solo work. Obviously, I’m now going to check it out.
For all of us that are truly lovers of all that is The Hold Steady. Franz is fantastic, the song is fantastic, and the video is funny as hell. I feel Franz is completely separate from THS as a solo artist. His songs are ballads that ring true to the romantic side of me in comparison to the drunk rock and roller that resonates with The Hold Steady. I connect completely to these songs and am floored by his talent. I feel like Franz appeals to a more grown up sensibility and I can understand why some kids just don’t get it. Jeff Penalty is a great song, really catchy and fun but I think his more melodic and lovely ballads show a level of exposure that is brave and beautiful. Chicks love it!
PS Hank Von Helvete said it best “I hate the kids”
This steaming pile really comes this close to parody. The guy owes the fact that anyone pays the least attention to anything he does to his main band, then completely and terribly rips off the two (infinitely better) songwriters responsible for him being able to release this crap to begin with? Amazing. Completely separate? Haha. Yeah.