Hold Steady

Certain Songs #606: The Hold Steady – “Magazines”

July 29, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stay Positive
Year: 2009

I’ve seen The Hold Steady live five times in the past decade, which doesn’t seem like much, but considering that I don’t get out to see shows that much anymore, it’s a pretty fair amount.

And at least two of them were among the greatest shows I’ll ever see: opening for the Replacements in 2014, and of course, 2008’s rock ‘n’ roll lovefest with the Drive-by Truckers, which I wrote about totally hungover while sitting on the floor of the Virgin terminal at LAX waiting for an early flight to Seattle, where we were going to spend Thanksgiving.

Certain Songs #598: The Hold Steady – “Stuck Between Stations”

July 21, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Boys and Girls in America
Year: 2006

Welcome to my favorite album of this century.

Actually, (and yes, I’m “actually”ing myself), welcome to my favorite album since Nevermind & Achtung Baby!, which makes Boys and Girls in America my favorite album of the past quarter-century.

And if I could somehow prorate the age I was when this album came out against the age I was when I first discovered all of the albums I would otherwise put into my all-time top 20, it would definitely be in the conversation.

Certain Songs #596: The Hold Steady – “Stevie Nix”

July 19, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Separation Sunday
Year: 2005

While The Hold Steady usually get described as being somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and The Replacements, there is a surprising amount of Led Zeppelin in their music.

And while in retrospect, that should be somewhat obvious — the b-side of their first single was a cover of “Hey Hey What Can I Do,” — in 2005, I was totally surprised by the big-ass Zep riff that Tad Kubler unleashed for the epic “Stevie Nix,” which they could have easily titled “In My Time of Living.”

Certain Songs #594: The Hold Steady – “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”

July 17, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Separation Sunday
Year: 2005

So like most people who have a writing bent, I’ve tried my hand at writing fiction.

I’ve written a couple of unpublished short stories, and I started a novel in the early 1990s that had I been able to somehow finish then (ha!) would have been a contemporary novel about being young and if I would be able to finish now (double ha!) would now be a pure nostalgia piece.

Certain Songs #593: The Hold Steady – “Hornets! Hornets!”

July 16, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Separation Sunday
Year: 2005

“She said ‘Always remember never to trust me.'”

“She said that the first night she met me.”

“She said ‘There’s gonna come a time when I’m gonna have to go with whoever’s gonna get me the highest'”

Bob Mould Sees The Light

November 22, 2011 by Jim Connelly

Bob Mould, of course, has had a lifetime pass since the second Sugar album, and to be honest, he’s probably had it since January 1987, when Hüsker Dü released Warehouse: Songs and Stories.

Warehouse was the fifth album they’d released since September 1984, so it was the culmination of 2 1/2 years where they’d gone from being just another name buried in the morass of hardcore bands listed in tattered, second-hand fanzines to being one of my favorite bands in the universe.

That said, in all of the years, I’d only ever seen Bob Mould perform once, at the Warfield in San Francisco on Sugar’s File Under: Easy Listening tour. Unlike R.E.M and The Replacements, the Hüskers never made it Fresno, and there was never quite the right social buzz around them to have the same road trips that spontaneously seem to organize themselves around The Smiths or U2.

Besides, Hüsker Dü was going to last forever. I’d have plenty of time to see them!!

25 Musical Moments To Die For

July 25, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of hooks is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.