Post by ontheprincessphone on Nov 24, 2023 14:10:45 GMT -5
Do I know what the T H S in T H S Scaffolding stands for? No. But I know that when I stepped off a train in London yesterday and saw it on the back of the guy who was walking in front of me’s shirt it perfectly described The Hold Steady’s role in my 9 years in America. They were the supporting framework for how I understood the malls, the frontage roads, and parking lots that seemed completely incidental but were obviously crucial to American life. They explained people I met in New York, feelings I had in California and things that had nothing to do with America at all. I’m going to shout out some songs. And then I’ll probably post again and shout out some more.
Stuck Between Stations
“Crushing each other with their colossal expectations”
Well, this predates my move to America and it transcends America. It’s something I’d been guilty of with my best friend and I’m sure I disappointed others who believed my hype too. In any case, I really needed to hear this. Crystal clear.
Magazines
“She mostly trades in adorations, benefits and building dedications”
This is such a perfect New York song. I worked in the gallery business and the person described in this song pretty accurately hit on how so much of New York “industry” operates: On young people trying to figure things out.
Multitude of Casualties
“We couldn’t get with all those clever kids”
This is how I assume every mid-westerner spent their 20-40s. Killing time, having realizations that those around them don’t understand. Going off on tangents. Sometimes finding a way home. Who am I kidding? This is how everyone spent their 20-40s. But hey “mostly in the back half of the theatre” is only ever going to be a mid-western thing for me.
Extra note here that I am convinced that the lyric “kids come around the corner to a multitude of casualties” is a reference to US Olympic diver Bruce Kimball who killed 2 people and injured 4 others while driving drunk in 1988. I learned about this because it’s in the New York State compulsory drivers ed course which I took at age 35 when I finally got my US drivers license.
Yeah Sapphire
“Sacramento, it swung at us first but ended up going down gentle”
It did! We decided to move to Sac during Covid as our 1 bed in SF became unmanageable. Searching for a rental with a 9-month-old in June was rough, we basically had to stay mostly idling in our rental car with the AC pumped. Fortunately we quickly found somewhere to rent and then somewhere to buy and for 2 years we had a kind of American ghost dream where we had the perfect suburban life, but with weird “how do we raise a Covid baby” vibes.
Curves and Nerves
“So many shows where nobody comes out”
This is just the best song of all time and all the lyrics resonate with me for no reason at all. Another poster mentioned the Pavement vibes and I think that’s part of it. The guitar riff and tone just slays me like the best Pavement songs do, so that elevates the lyrics. But if I have to stretch, I’ll say that while unsuccessfully playing gigs in London someone really should have bluntly observed that there are indeed a lot of shows where nobody comes out. We could have saved a lot of time. Oh also we lived for a while in a 1950s apartment block in SF which had a pool and I always imagined a call coming in by the pool (there was no princess phone, sadly).
Well, this has been the Friday cheers. Cheers y’all and hopefully see you at a London show soon.
Stuck Between Stations
“Crushing each other with their colossal expectations”
Well, this predates my move to America and it transcends America. It’s something I’d been guilty of with my best friend and I’m sure I disappointed others who believed my hype too. In any case, I really needed to hear this. Crystal clear.
Magazines
“She mostly trades in adorations, benefits and building dedications”
This is such a perfect New York song. I worked in the gallery business and the person described in this song pretty accurately hit on how so much of New York “industry” operates: On young people trying to figure things out.
Multitude of Casualties
“We couldn’t get with all those clever kids”
This is how I assume every mid-westerner spent their 20-40s. Killing time, having realizations that those around them don’t understand. Going off on tangents. Sometimes finding a way home. Who am I kidding? This is how everyone spent their 20-40s. But hey “mostly in the back half of the theatre” is only ever going to be a mid-western thing for me.
Extra note here that I am convinced that the lyric “kids come around the corner to a multitude of casualties” is a reference to US Olympic diver Bruce Kimball who killed 2 people and injured 4 others while driving drunk in 1988. I learned about this because it’s in the New York State compulsory drivers ed course which I took at age 35 when I finally got my US drivers license.
Yeah Sapphire
“Sacramento, it swung at us first but ended up going down gentle”
It did! We decided to move to Sac during Covid as our 1 bed in SF became unmanageable. Searching for a rental with a 9-month-old in June was rough, we basically had to stay mostly idling in our rental car with the AC pumped. Fortunately we quickly found somewhere to rent and then somewhere to buy and for 2 years we had a kind of American ghost dream where we had the perfect suburban life, but with weird “how do we raise a Covid baby” vibes.
Curves and Nerves
“So many shows where nobody comes out”
This is just the best song of all time and all the lyrics resonate with me for no reason at all. Another poster mentioned the Pavement vibes and I think that’s part of it. The guitar riff and tone just slays me like the best Pavement songs do, so that elevates the lyrics. But if I have to stretch, I’ll say that while unsuccessfully playing gigs in London someone really should have bluntly observed that there are indeed a lot of shows where nobody comes out. We could have saved a lot of time. Oh also we lived for a while in a 1950s apartment block in SF which had a pool and I always imagined a call coming in by the pool (there was no princess phone, sadly).
Well, this has been the Friday cheers. Cheers y’all and hopefully see you at a London show soon.
