Post by muzzleofbees on Aug 2, 2014 16:24:55 GMT -5
Have any of you guys read A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan? It should fit a Hold Steady fan like a glove. Intertwining narratives, lots of stuff about music and a pretty melancholic take on both youth, aging and relationships, all presented in character portraits and short stories who shed light on each other.
One of the chapters is (sort of) about an autistic boy who is obsessed about pauses in music. He doesn't really care about the music itself, he's only interested in the pauses within a song. It didn't occur to me while I read the book, but on a plane back from Copenhagen yesterday, and while listening to Teeth Dreams, I realised Hold Steady has quite a few (and often pretty effective!) pauses in their songs. And then I remembered the book.
From the top of my head, this is my top three Hold Steady pauses. I might have forgotten some obvious ones, as it's a bit harder to remember pauses than to remember the presence of music, so feel free to fill in.
03. KNUCKLES
Obviously the pause before Craig scream "Cause the last guy didn't really die...". and the band joins in again. The seconds preceeding it has been quiet and mellow, but you can sense some sort of explosion coming up. And the short pause before the amazingly good closing parts of the song builds momentum for what's about to come.
02. SPINNERS
The pause before the solo. I don't think the aforementioned autistic kid would have let this one pass, because some distorted guitar is heard deep in the mix, but it still feels very much like a pause. And it makes the shredding solo so much more powerful.
01. BANGING CAMP
The definitive Hold Steady pause. The bridge (or what you'd like to call it) of the song has just built itself up from mellow to meaty to full-on rocking, with horns, guitars and an increasingly frantic Craig Finn. He closes it off with "...high as hell and born again", and then the band shuts down. Not for half a second, not for a full second, but for seconds. First time you hear the song, you assume it's over. But it's not. The killer riff comes back, and this time it feels even bigger and stronger than before the middle part of the song. And the pause makes the last 30-something seconds feel like pure magic.
One of the chapters is (sort of) about an autistic boy who is obsessed about pauses in music. He doesn't really care about the music itself, he's only interested in the pauses within a song. It didn't occur to me while I read the book, but on a plane back from Copenhagen yesterday, and while listening to Teeth Dreams, I realised Hold Steady has quite a few (and often pretty effective!) pauses in their songs. And then I remembered the book.
From the top of my head, this is my top three Hold Steady pauses. I might have forgotten some obvious ones, as it's a bit harder to remember pauses than to remember the presence of music, so feel free to fill in.
03. KNUCKLES
Obviously the pause before Craig scream "Cause the last guy didn't really die...". and the band joins in again. The seconds preceeding it has been quiet and mellow, but you can sense some sort of explosion coming up. And the short pause before the amazingly good closing parts of the song builds momentum for what's about to come.
02. SPINNERS
The pause before the solo. I don't think the aforementioned autistic kid would have let this one pass, because some distorted guitar is heard deep in the mix, but it still feels very much like a pause. And it makes the shredding solo so much more powerful.
01. BANGING CAMP
The definitive Hold Steady pause. The bridge (or what you'd like to call it) of the song has just built itself up from mellow to meaty to full-on rocking, with horns, guitars and an increasingly frantic Craig Finn. He closes it off with "...high as hell and born again", and then the band shuts down. Not for half a second, not for a full second, but for seconds. First time you hear the song, you assume it's over. But it's not. The killer riff comes back, and this time it feels even bigger and stronger than before the middle part of the song. And the pause makes the last 30-something seconds feel like pure magic.
