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November 25, 2008

New Hold Steady Video - "Stay Positive"

thumbnail icon: New Hold Steady Video - "Stay Positive"

With the reemergence of Blake Schwarzenbach I was hoping the Hold Steady's nostalgic Stay Positive title track would offer some hardcore cameos. No dice. Instead, the Jake Davis video treatment, clearly shot in NYC, finds the band members rocking out on wheat-paste, plywood, bricks, and concrete. It goes well with the song's sloganeering, especially when resident mustache wearer and World/Inferno Friendship Society member Franz Nicolay offers us a dozen salty salutes.

Stay Positive is out via Vagrant/Rough Trade.

Posted at 4:13 PM by brandon in
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11 Comments

Look_On

Crackin' tune.

Posted by: Look_On profile link at 11/25/08 4:24 PM | Reply
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Crackin' tune, dull video.

Posted by: Alejandro at 11/25/08 6:01 PM | Reply
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Definitely not the best video, but the clip for "Chips Ahoy!" was also straight-up awful... though this one is actually worse. At least the screenshot provided with the article is spectacular- how I love Franz, even though he wasn't at Hallowmas this year.

Posted by: kicking222 profile link at 11/25/08 6:18 PM | Reply
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nadsat

epic

Posted by: nadsat profile link at 11/25/08 9:32 PM | Reply
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World/Inferno Friendship Society >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The Hold Steady

Posted by: franc at 11/26/08 11:46 AM | Reply
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TalbainJ

This track is excellent, but the HS don't really lend themselves well to a regular music video... they kinda don't fit the role of a real rock band, which makes them a bit more awesome.

Posted by: TalbainJ profile link at 11/26/08 4:33 PM | Reply
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I swear I get chills whenever the whoa-oh-oh-ohs kick in. This song deserves a better video, but I get the feeling that the Hold Steady don't really care that much about videos.

Posted by: Mark at 11/26/08 4:55 PM | Reply
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Will someone please explain why this band is so adored and labeled as "the hardest working band in America" or something? If they were working so hard, wouldn't they come up with something more creative than this song. I could not care less about the video.

But the song sounds like a later catalog Offspring song, with a chorus taken from Sesame street and verse taken from a collection of high school poetry. In other words, pretty stinky. Ok, I am being a little harsh. It has a cool rock beat, but so do plenty of other songs. Plus the "whoa-oh-ohs" are incredibly trite and I have no idea how they gave Mark(^) chills. I feel those same vocals have been recorded and put into about 500 songs. But I guess the Hold Steady thought sampling that was a great plan... So lazy and uninspired!

But really, why do people dig them so much, out of curiosity?

Posted by: hunter w. profile link at 11/26/08 6:27 PM | Reply
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Listen to their third studio album, "Boys and Girls in America." If you don't like it, listen to it again. Listen to it 10 times in its entirety, and I can almost assure you that you'll realize how amazing this group really is.

See them live while you're at it, and listen to the album once more, too.

Posted by: Johnny in reply to hunter w.'s comment at 11/27/08 11:38 PM | Reply
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Garito793

clips of the Hold Steady live > Hold Steady music videos
groovy tune though

Posted by: Garito793 profile link at 11/29/08 2:00 PM | Reply
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not the best video

Posted by: TotalValetTeam at 11/30/08 5:02 AM | Reply
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