The Hold Steady

[DREKTUNES]

How would you describe DBT's music? I'd like to check them out...please recommend which album to try as well.

Thanks!

Rockier end of alt.country. If you're not familiar with that, I guess southern rock with better lyrics is simplest way to put it. LJ? Care to expand/ expound?

As for where to start, of the records I have, I'm partial to Decoration Day or Blessing and a Curse. Lot of people would steer you to Southern Rock Opera. A fine record, but a lot to take all at once. Start small, I say.

Then again, I am a fairly recent convert to the wonders of DBT. Longer tenured fans care to chime in?

[longflyball]

How would you describe DBT's music? I'd like to check them out...please recommend which album to try as well.

Thanks!

I don't own any of their albums, but I've seen them live twice. It's southern rock, for lack of a better label. Loud, two or three guitars going at one time. Most of the songs are image-laden narratives about the southern US. The frontman and lead songwriter I could do without. His voice is whiny and kinda off-key. The other songwriter and vocalist I like a lot better. His voice is deeper and his songs less cheesy. They drink Jack Daniels on stage.

[Scrat1]

How would you describe DBT's music? I'd like to check them out...please recommend which album to try as well.

Dirty South, Decoration Day, or Southern Rock Opera

Some good songs to start with might by "My Sweet Annette" or "Puttin' People on the Moon" if you want something heavier.

As for where to start, of the records I have, I'm partial to Decoration Day or Blessing and a Curse. Lot of people would steer you to Southern Rock Opera. A fine record, but a lot to take all at once. Start small, I say.

Blessing and a Curse is actually my least favorite post-SRO album of theirs. Not that I dislike it, it just doesn't stick together as well as the others in my opinion. I will say, though, that the title track on that album is one of their best all around songs. That outtro is so sick.

I think that's probably good advice regarding Southern Rock Opera. Might want to get started with Dirty South or Decoration Day.

This tour is going to be intense.

[Scrat1]

The frontman and lead songwriter I could do without. His voice is whiny and kinda off-key. The other songwriter and vocalist I like a lot better. His voice is deeper and his songs less cheesy. They drink Jack Daniels on stage.

Patterson Hood is by far my favorite singer of the group. He reminds me of a southern-fried Wayne Coyne. His songs are my favorite too. But to each his own.

This may not mean much to you Marylanders, but the artist who does all their album art, Wes Freed, grew up in the Shenandoah Valley and now lives outside of Richmond.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Just a heads up - The Pretenders and the Hold Steady will be at Sonar on September 19. That should be a pretty good show.

[DREKTUNES]

Just a heads up - The Pretenders and the Hold Steady will be at Sonar on September 19. That should be a pretty good show.

Yeah, I saw that. Shame about who's headlining. Otherwise, I'd go.

Just to be clear - don't like the Pretenders. Find the singer horribly overrated. Just so as we're clear.

[Nigel Tufnel]

I guess a lot of people must feel that way - I was kind of surprised that show would be at a place as small as Sonar. But then sometimes I have a hard time remembering it's not 1988 any more. And watching how the O's have played this past month hasn't helped that any.

[Lucky Jim]

Yeah, I saw that. Shame about who's headlining. Otherwise, I'd go.

Just to be clear - don't like the Pretenders. Find the singer horribly overrated. Just so as we're clear.

You're insane.

On a different note, Okkervil River's new album just came out and Pitchfork reviewed it thusly:

The Stand Ins doesn't quite match the gusto and brainy emotionalism of The Stage Names but it exceeds its bleakness. Pop songs lie, tortured singer-songwriters are wealthy narcissists, groupies have regrets, music scenes wither, nothing changes. Rock promises redemption but delivers only destruction, or at best, cultish relative obscurity. Okkervil River are the anti-Hold Steady. They should tour together...Sheff wants to look beyond common pop song notions to discover something truer and more essential, no matter how disillusioning it may be, which is the central, enthralling contradiction for Okkervil River: Even as they ruthlessly deconstruct pop music, they make great pop music. The darker Sheff gets, the more honest he sounds and the more absorbing the song. By that equation, the stand-out on The Stand Ins is "Pop Lie", an exquisitely bleak dismantling of singer-songwriter pretensions. The pop singer lies in his songs, "and you're lying when you sing along!" (Hey, Hold Steady...) It's not hard to imagine a venue full of excited fans singing along, although it's difficult to determine whether he would view their participation as a bitter irony or a sincerely funny cosmic joke. Or if he would just smile and enjoy the moment, knowing that any listener can take that pop lie and make it true.

Brilliant. Two of my favorite bands. And for exactly these contradictory reasons. I want to believe along with the Hold Steady, but I'm really far more Sheff-like.

I can't wait to download this (even if it got a good-but-not-great 8.0 rating on Pitchfork's review).

[DREKTUNES]

You're insane.

Because I think Hynde isn't especially talented, and most of what made the first two (and only actual) Pretenders records good/ tolerable passed away? Then guilty I stand.

Besides, can't trust former music critic's bands. Or are you a big Gay Dad fan? (Ok, Pet Shop Boys get a pass).

[Lucky Jim]

Because I think Hynde isn't especially talented, and most of what made the first two (and only actual) Pretenders records good/ tolerable passed away? Then guilty I stand.

Besides, can't trust former music critic's bands. Or are you a big Gay Dad fan? (Ok, Pet Shop Boys get a pass).

They're admittedly hit-or-miss. But, with the right song, Hynde's S/M slow-burns were pretty fantastic.

...shot my mouth off and he showed me what that hole was for

My.

[DREKTUNES]

They're admittedly hit-or-miss. But, with the right song, Hynde's S/M slow-burns were pretty fantastic.



My.

Hmmm. No mention either way on Gay Dad. Not a good sign. (Anybody else getting that reference? Besides Sakata, of course.)

And that line sounds like Aerosmith to me. That may or may not be a compliment.

For smouldering sexuality in female singers, Justine from Elastica, please. That first record is just so hot.

[Lucky Jim]

Hmmm. No mention either way on Gay Dad. Not a good sign. (Anybody else getting that reference? Besides Sakata, of course.)

And that line sounds like Aerosmith to me. That may or may not be a compliment.

For smouldering sexuality in female singers, Justine from Elastica, please. That first record is just so hot.

Oh, sure. But who wouldn't imagine that Damon Albarn in drag would be hot?

Frischman is so 90s. For better or worse. Hynde was a different animal altogether.

Besides, hot enough for Ray Davies, hot enough for me.

[DREKTUNES]

Frischman is so 90s. For better or worse. Hynde was a different animal altogether.

But she did it so well.

No need to whine boy
Like a wind up toy you stutter at my feet
And its never the time boy
Youve had too much wine to stumble up my street
Well it isnt a problem
Nothing we cant keep between the sheets
Tell me youre mine love
And I will not wait for other bedtime treats

(chorus)
Is there something you lack
When Im flat on my back
Is there something that I can do for you?
Its always something you ate
Or its something you hate
Tell me is it the way that I touch you?
Have you found a new mate
And is she really great
Is it just that Im much too much for you?

Dont feed me a line boy
I can hear that voice you use upon the phone
And theres no need to be coy
That is something you can do upon your own
Well it isnt a problem
Nothing we cant solve so just relax
Am I on the wrong train love
And will I have to tie you to the tracks

I really want you to
I really want you to

Besides, hot enough for Ray Davies, hot enough for me.

Always smacked of opportunism on her part, to me. Don't get me wrong (heh), I love that Basher recorded her first single. I hadn't even gotten to her attractiveness (though activist vegetarians rankle me, because it makes people think we all go around protesting, so that doesn't help). Hadn't even thought about it. Sexist.

[Lucky Jim]

Hmmm. No mention either way on Gay Dad. Not a good sign. (Anybody else getting that reference? Besides Sakata, of course.)

And that line sounds like Aerosmith to me. That may or may not be a compliment.

For smouldering sexuality in female singers, Justine from Elastica, please. That first record is just so hot.

I know little of Gay Dad. Though I like the Magnetic Fields. So, music journalists can't be all bad, can they?

[DREKTUNES]

I know little of Gay Dad. Though I like the Magnetic Fields. So, music journalists can't be all bad, can they?

Is he, or do you mean the Lemony Snicket guy who sometimes plays with him?

And, again, Pet Shop Boys in the plus column. If you can't appreciate the sad gay Enlgish disco, I don't know what to tell you.