New Hold Steady Video - "Chips Ahoy"
Check out the first video from the most polarizing new indie rock album on the blogosphere. Hold Steady's silly costumes and ironic '70s aesthetic won't go far convincing the doubters Boys And Girls is a work to be taken seriously (which it is), but as you fine Stereogum readers have noted, at this point you "get it" or you don't. Plus, we were gonna go as Zorro for Halloween, and now we can be Franz Nicolay as Zorro.
Fingers crossed "Party Pit" will be the next single.
Posted at 3:17 PM
Tags: The Hold Steady
Crappy, crappy video. But great song.
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man that band is old.
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I love, love, love the Hold Steady. I get it. And yes, they are old. But honestly, isn't that part of the charm?
cheers, baby
http://www.musichawk.com
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The Hold Steady is my new favorite band. Who fucking cares how old they are? Their new CD has been playing non-stop ever since I got it. Definitely a top album of the year. And this video's great.
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"Galen plays a pool cleaner and Bobby plays a pizza boy, and i think cinematic history tells us that those are the two most getting laid professions ever" You may say they're old, but they out partied this 26 year old in LA. I've got a rematch comin up in Boston.
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"get it"? there's nothing there to get. lame band. lame sound.
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let's hope massive nights or chillout tent be the next single!
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Wow, yeah- people consider that music? It sounds like the drawl of some pretentious indie record store clerk.
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"Pretentious" isn't the word I'd use for a band that gleefully and admittedly rips off Thin Lizzy.
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Still doesn't convince me, but with the video the song sounds better somehow to me.
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i get it, there's no doubt about that. the problem isn't that they're old, it is that they are adolescent. the "on the road" lifestyle and drugs/booze induced helplessness of the tortured artist that has to burn, burn, burn into the night is so fucking played out. and the dude is not john berryman. everything, from the recreational/medical drugs to the words-can't-save us is so goddamn familiar and the sound adds nothing. nothing. i get it, and it sucks.
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great band, great song, fantastic album, shitty video.
I didn't finish watching it for fear it would make me enjoy the song less.
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"everything, from the recreational/medical drugs to the words-can't-save us is so goddamn familiar and the sound adds nothing. nothing. i get it, and it sucks."
Everything about your critique is so goddamn familiar. Why are you wasting your time writing fucking editorials about a band you hate so much? We get it, you think you have an interesting point of view so you threw together some long sentences that sounded good together. Go ride your fixed-gear, toolbox.
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Zoro organ solo! I GET IT!
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all of a sudden, i want to be a pool boy for halloween
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i gotta disagree. i'm not hear many specifics about why the hold steady suck. in fact, i'm not hearing much from people who think they suck. i'm not wasting my time. i'm writing for the same reason anyone writes, to convince people of my point of view. listen to that first song...it initially sounds cool (esp. from me since I'm minneapolis and get all the references), but think about it, craig finn is the indie scott stapp and his tortured christ is john berryman. but "boys and girls in america" is not "dreamsongs" and if he's taking his advice from sal paradise he needs to understand that kerouac, despite the myth surrounding him, was a pathetic character who died alone with mother. we've all bought in to this open-road, free-wheeling, hard-partying myth, but that shit is empty and available to people privileged enough to induce their own pain. you want pain, listen to elvis perkins album "ash wednesday." someone who's gone through some rough shit and translated it into art, rather than spending one too many nights drinking two-for-ones at liquor lyles and feeling sorry about himself in the morning.
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This argument is freaking absurd. I don't know a thing about this band other than the fact they recorded song linked above. And I like this song. Everything else is bullshit.
"think about it, craig finn is the indie scott stapp and his tortured christ is john berryman"
OK... I've thought about it, and I still have no idea what you're talking about.
"we've all bought in to this open-road, free-wheeling, hard-partying myth, but that shit is empty and available to people privileged enough to induce their own pain. you want pain, listen to elvis perkins album "ash wednesday.""
I've bought into no such myth, nor have I requested pain. However, if I do want pain, I'll be sure to check out this Elvis Perkins album that I've never heard of. I'm sure one listen will prove definitively that The Hold Steady is a terrible, terrible band -- no matter how much I may enjoy their music.
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They sound like a generic bar band with a guy snarling lame observations over the music.
I really don't understand why people seem to like it so much. Its seems pretty boring and unoriginal to me.
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"I really don't understand why people seem to like it so much. Its seems pretty boring an unoriginal to me."
This song is. But this is one of the worst songs on the album, don't let this one make up your mind. Listen to "Massive Nights" and "First Night" and "Party Pit" and "Stuck Between Stations" and "Chillout Tent." They might change your mind. Give them a couple listens.
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Dude's a prig, but don't hate on the fixed gear, Dave.
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In response to what you had to say Josh, Craig Finn is not singing about his own pain, he's singing about the pain of boys and girls in America, hence the name of the album. He's storytelling here, Finn himself is like an Irish catholic and is not nor has ever been a big druggy or alcoholic. In fact, its kind of refreshing to hear someone not singing about themselves and how sad they are.
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I can't tell anyone what to think about the Hold Steady, and I'm not going to try to. All I can say is that seeing them live was a definitive point in my life- they restored my belief that rock and roll is something that I am right to care about and to love.
The video is fluff, but fun. I'm hoping for "You Can Make Him Like You" or "Stuck Between Stations" as the next single, although I do desperately love "Chillout Tent"...
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I never got the "bar band" thing. What bar are you guys going to? I really would like to go to this bar.
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"I can't tell anyone what to think about the Hold Steady, and I'm not going to try to. All I can say is that seeing them live was a definitive point in my life- they restored my belief that rock and roll is something that I am right to care about and to love."
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA
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Crappy, crappy song. But great video.
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Silly but awesome video. Seeing the Hold Steady live blew my mind. Tad Kubler jumping on amp might not be the most rock and roll thing ever, but it made my week.
I like the John Berryman-tortured Christ line, though.
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I still prefer sep sunday.
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I thought dave was being hard on john with the (tho hilarious) fixed-gear comment, but then I read his next post.
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chillout tent is actually the second worst song of all time. 'runaway train' is number one worst song ever. coincidentally, both have dave from soul asylum singing a bad song. even more odd is that i actually like soul asylum and love the hold steady.
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I guess I don't "get it." They're not bad, but I wouldn't write home about them. Maybe they're better live, but people seem to love the album on its own merits anyway.
Cool vid, though. Kinda hard to tell where the irony ends and the sincerity begins?
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hey now! i'm 28 years old!
love,
franz/ths
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Um, is it just me or does this band sound like every other average group on every CMJ comp in the mid-90's? You name your failed alternative band, I name your shitty Hold Steady song.
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