Another 2 new songs!!!

[bigontheinside]

Confusion in the Marketplace b​/​w T​-​Shirt Tux
holdsteady.bandcamp.com/

[tbob]

Just found out! Quick post on here then over to Bandcamp. I do love these little surprises. In a way it’s more exciting than the slow build up to a proper album release, especially these days when in all likelihood you’ve heard half the album before it’s released on some random Monday anyway.

[muzzleofbees]

Man! Keep these little gifts coming! Feels like christmas spread out all over the year. Confusion seems sweet. Tux seems like the weirdest of the whole bunch. Looking forward to get the kids to bed so I can dive into them both.

[robs]

As an asthmatic prone to chest infections, loving the first line referencing prednisone!!

Loving these releases.

[stonemason]

I can't wait till I get outta class, Imma hit these songs hard in about 15 mins. #christmasallyearlong

[bigontheinside]

Sept 5, 2018 9:53:47 GMT -5 robs said:

As an asthmatic prone to chest infections, loving the first line referencing prednisone!!

Loving these releases.

Also appreciated this! Had to take some after a crazy eczema flair up last year.

I really like both of these, although there's a couple of odd moments in both - the quiet bit about a third of the way through on Marketplace and the abrupt acoustic guitar on Tux - that'll take a bit of getting used to, but they're both very interesting songs that I'm looking forward to familiarising myself with both.

The start of t-shirt tux made me laugh out loud, and it sounds like there's some relation to Curves & Nerves with the references to "Princess on the payphone".

[delboydrums]

Two decent enough tracks.

Love the riffs in Marketplace - a little Clash-like in places?
I agree that the quiet bid is a little odd, not bad though. Love the horns (keys?) and BVs towards the end.

Tux has a nice rock n roll feel. Loved 'Pontius Pilate played to the crowd'.

[maaskesr]

Love them and really happy! That's 8 songs now! 2 more and they could call it an album (though I've of course continued to compile and listen to them like that already).

[gunnerbill]

"Puffy from the Prednisone" I have been there...they made me take medicine...

[gunnerbill]

I would call this album, "Thanks for Listening, Thanks for Understanding"

[tbob]

T-Shirt Tux is definitely my favourite which is becoming a slight trend for me because Esther and Star 18 were my last 2.
There’s something joyous about that spiky riff and the horns. I love horns so I’m slightly biased.
It’s so exciting that they’re releasing new music, and I think many of us were dubious they would post the Teeth Dreams tour, and that it still sounds this vital.
I remember Craig saying one night in London (not sure which) that this was the best ever THS line-up and I’m inclined to agree. It’s so cool that they’ve continued that by writing and recording great new songs and releasing them in an exciting, if unconventional, way.
I’m off to listen to them again and maybe compile an 8 track album from the songs so far. I’ve thought about this and I’m thinking of titling it (in a nod to Lifter Puller vs. The End of the Evening) The Hold Steady vs. The Entitlement Crew.
I have far too much time on my hands!

[gunnerbill]

that  title is good because I think these songs sound a lot like Lifter Puller

[muzzleofbees]

Sept 5, 2018 12:37:05 GMT -5 delboydrums said:

Two decent enough tracks.
Love the riffs in Marketplace - a little Clash-like in places?

That was my first though as well. Clash vs Rescue Blues from the last Craig solo record.

[muzzleofbees]

A couple of listens in I really like Confusion In The Marketplace. Not a huge song by any means, but a nice midtempo jam with some sweet guitar work in the details. T-Shirt Tux is still a bitt weird to me, but I love the ending. It sounds like a deliberate Separation Sunday throwback. Those duelling guitars modelled from the intro to Banging Camp, and the genereal soft and piano heavy feeling who so many of those songs have in their latter parts.

And while the first pair of songs gave the impression that Hold Steady still had to separate gears (the poppy Entitlement and the gritty and rocking Snake In The Shower), it seems pretty clear by now that they are evolving into a more mellow and poppy band. And they sound pretty damn good while doing it, allthough I prefer Star 18 and Eureka over these new ones.

If we were to assume that this leads to a full album of, say, 10 songs, we seem to lack a big ballad and a weighty closer. I'm not so sure this will turn into a conventional album, but if it were, and if those "missing pieces" arrive before Brooklyn Bowl this fall, this is the tracklist I would like to see:

01. Entitlement Crew
02. Stove & The Toaster
03. Esther
04. T-Shirt Tux
05. BALLAD
06. Eureka
07. Star 18
08. Confusion In The Marketplace
09. Snake In The Shower
10. CLOSER

[charlie]

I dig these two. Too early to rank them, but I'm always just giddy to get the emails. 

I think we're missing a slow jam and a straight up ripper like Constructive or Adderall (and maybe the big weighty closer if the band is thinking of it that way). Maybe they're just writing what comes out without trying to sequence a record, and in that case, this has been pretty cool so far. 

[tbob]

Sept 5, 2018 15:58:39 GMT -5 charlie said:

I dig these two. Too early to rank them, but I'm always just giddy to get the emails. 

I think we're missing a slow jam and a straight up ripper like Constructive or Adderall (and maybe the big weighty closer if the band is thinking of it that way). Maybe they're just writing what comes out without trying to sequence a record, and in that case, this has been pretty cool so far. 

I agree on so many of these points. I believe there isn’t a track lasting 5 minutes yet. As for closers, ballads etc. I’m really not bothered. This is THS 2018 and I’m glad that whatever I’m sent is reliably stellar.
I had a heavy night yesterday and, as you said, I got a bit giddy. It picked me up and sent me on my way.

[muzzleofbees]

Sept 5, 2018 16:16:50 GMT -5 tbob said:

Sept 5, 2018 15:58:39 GMT -5 charlie said:

I dig these two. Too early to rank them, but I'm always just giddy to get the emails. 

I think we're missing a slow jam and a straight up ripper like Constructive or Adderall (and maybe the big weighty closer if the band is thinking of it that way). Maybe they're just writing what comes out without trying to sequence a record, and in that case, this has been pretty cool so far. 

I agree on so many of these points. I believe there isn’t a track lasting 5 minutes yet. As for closers, ballads etc. I’m really not bothered. This is THS 2018 and I’m glad that whatever I’m sent is reliably stellar.
I had a heavy night yesterday and, as you said, I got a bit giddy. It picked me up and sent me on my way.

Me neither, really. I think it's unfair to read these songs in an conventional album context. It was more of a thought experiment. If there's more songs to come, my guess is that they (like the others) will sound like separate songs, rather than as made to fit into what an actual Hold Steady album would sound like in ways of sequencing and song types.

That's another reason these songs seems to be more in the spirit of the last to Craig solo albums. They both sound more like a great collection of songs, obviously sequenced in a certain way, but with less emphasis on the trademarks of a classic rock album.

[stonemason]

Something about rock and roll guitars alongside killer piano riffs joined by horns and an xylophone

[nosferatu]

Sept 6, 2018 2:17:55 GMT -5 muzzleofbees said:

I think it's unfair to read these songs in an conventional album context. It was more of a thought experiment. If there's more songs to come, my guess is that they (like the others) will sound like separate songs, rather than as made to fit into what an actual Hold Steady album would sound like in ways of sequencing and song types.

That's another reason these songs seems to be more in the spirit of the last to Craig solo albums. They both sound more like a great collection of songs, obviously sequenced in a certain way, but with less emphasis on the trademarks of a classic rock album.

I somewhat agree - I would add that Almost Killed Me is probably more like this in the sense it’s a collection of songs they’d written by the time they recorded it rather than a cohesive piece of thematic consistency... that said, the production values and especially the predilection for horns on the 2017-18 releases provide an album-esque consistent aural perspective which makes me wonder whether there isn’t a plan to be able to compile them at some point in the future if the band so desired.

I also wonder whether there is a big cache of riffs and material separately composed during the off season between writing for Teeth Dreams (which must have taken place some 5 years ago) and now and whether there has been a conscious decision to pursue material in a certain way or not, or whether this is a “best of” of everyone’s material?

[muzzleofbees]

Sept 6, 2018 11:37:51 GMT -5 nosferatu said:

I somewhat agree - I would add that Almost Killed Me is probably more like this in the sense it’s a collection of songs they’d written by the time they recorded it rather than a cohesive piece of thematic consistency... that said, the production values and especially the predilection for horns on the 2017-18 releases provide an album-esque consistent aural perspective which makes me wonder whether there isn’t a plan to be able to compile them at some point in the future if the band so desired.

I also wonder whether there is a big cache of riffs and material separately composed during the off season between writing for Teeth Dreams (which must have taken place some 5 years ago) and now and whether there has been a conscious decision to pursue material in a certain way or not, or whether this is a “best of” of everyone’s material?

Yeah, I agree - these songs are definitely stylistcally connected, and with a very similar sound. They all sound amazing, soundwise. They breathe in a way Hold Steady songs seldom have done. and of course the strings and all that too. And I think it's this, more than the songs themselves, that make them feel "poppier" or more mellow.

My guess would be that this is a natural progression, and not very deliberate. That this was how they've been writing while being sort of away from each other for a while, and that this was how they were sounding when they got back in a room together again. I also think Kaufman has done his part. It can't be a coincidence that the sonic palette is so similiar to Craig's last two albums (allthough I defienitely hear diferences as well). And I deeply wonder how invovlved Tad has been in the writing this time around. A couple of the songs sound very much like him, but a surprising number of them don't. But again, he could have evolved a lot as a writer of music too. Hard to speculate too much.

I can see that AKM parallel. I always feel a bit dragged down by the fact that english is my second language when I'm posting, but what I meant to say is that I feel these songs could/should be heard withouth thinking of the album as a concept or a standard. To me it's pretty clear that AKM is following a very much classic rock album template. A intro-like opener, a couple of bangers to win the crowd over, the big ballad as the centerpiece, a mixed bag of different styles on the B-side and the massive closer. Positive Jam had to be the opener, it would have sounded out of place as track #7. And Killer Parties had to be the closing number, it wouldn't make sense as track #3. But then again, if these eight songs had been released as a part of a ten- or eleven track album, we might have heard them differently.

Oh well, too many words about not very important stuff. I mostly just enjoy the new tracks, but the urge to discuss everything around this band to death makes me make a lot out of little.

[fowler1969]

The horns and keys on tux are brilliant reminds me of BAGIA
The tracks so far if they end up as an album are wonderful here’s hoping a new album very soon will try and ask Craig tonight if I get chance

[gunnerbill]

the quality of these tracks are amazing...

[muzzleofbees]

A few more thoughts on these songs:

There's some really nice references to the catalogue in the music here. I don't know if it's intentional, but the silent instrumental guitar part of CITM is really similar to parts of Lord I'm Discouraged. And the guitars switching from the left to right channel before the ending of TST reminds me of the duelling guitar intro of Banging Camp. I still hear a lot of Rescure Blues in CITM. And on a more deep-reference way, a lot of TST make me think of Only The Good Die Young, referenced lyrically in both Certain Songs and Both Crosses.

This pair feels like the most b-sidey batch to me. I really like them, but they lack some of the urgency who's so present in at least four or five of the previous ones. T-Shirt Tux is a little bit too circusy to me. But it changes throughout the song. It kind of reminds me that quite a few Hold Steady songs are better from the middle part throughout to the end than the intro suggests. Navy Sheets and One For The Cutters are my prime examples. I tend to judge them on the intro and the first verse, but they turn into different beasts when the songs reach their climax. That's sort of the case for I Hope This..., Joke About Jamaica, The Smidge and quite a few other songs too. When T-Shirt Tux reaches its ending, it's god damn beautiful. I just wish they've pushed that last part on for a couple of minutes, building it up and giving instrumental grandeur to the "let's all try to tell a little truth tonight"-part. It would have suited the song really good.

And on the full eight song deal as a whole: I'm starting to think that Hold Steady in 2017/18 have some similarites to Wilco. Not in a direct musical way, but in how they've progressed, evolved and matured as a band. Like Wilco did on Wilco (The Album), but mostly on The Whole Love, Hold Steady have managed to sound calmer, older and wiser, without losing the core of their musical soul. And like Wilco they seem really confident and at-home in their new style.

[bigontheinside]

Sept 13, 2018 3:19:38 GMT -5 muzzleofbees said:

And on the full eight song deal as a whole: I'm starting to think that Hold Steady in 2017/18 have some similarites to Wilco. Not in a direct musical way, but in how they've progressed, evolved and matured as a band. Like Wilco did on Wilco (The Album), but mostly on The Whole Love, Hold Steady have managed to sound calmer, older and wiser, without losing the core of their musical soul. And like Wilco they seem really confident and at-home in their new style.

Love this comparison! I think it's spot on. I also hope that like Wilco, The Hold Steady continue to keep making music for a very long time

[muzzleofbees]

One more small thing: I didn't quite understand what was going on in the verse about Stalin and Johnny Cash, and on my way to work today I tried to Google what kind of news Johnny Cash recieved when he was in the service. This might be a well known thing for people around here, but it was completely new to me: Johnny Cash was the first american to hear that Stalin was dead. That's what I call useful trivia, haha.

www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/07/johnny-cash-was-the-first-american-to-hear-about-stalins-death/