The Hold Steady are releasing a limited-edition 7" for Record Store Day (this Saturday, April 20th!) with two unreleased tracks, The Bear and the Maiden Fair and Criminal Fingers. The Bear and the Maiden Fair was recorded to close out the most recent episode of Game of Thrones. The lyrics were written by George R.R. Martin (see below, courtesy of EW).
Do you know what exalted member of the press got the exclusive scoop on this new Hold Steady stuff? Entertainment Weekly. Anyone else find that a little weird?
The Bear and the Maiden lyrics:
“A bear there was,”
“A bear, A BEAR!
“All black and brown,”
“And covered with hair!
“Oh come they said,”
“Oh come to the fair!”
“The fair? said he,
“But I’m a bear!”
“All black and brown,”
“And covered in hair!”
“And down the road,”
“From here to there,”
“From here!To there!”
“Three boys, a goat,”
“And a dancing bear!”
“They danced and spun,”
“All the way to the fair!”
“Oh! sweet she was,”
“And pure and fair,”
“The maid with honey,”
“In her hair! Her hair,”
“The maid with honey,”
“in her hair!”
The bear smelled the scent,
“On the summer air!”
“The Bear! The Bear!”
“All black and brown,”
“And covered with hair!”
“He smelled the scent,”
“On the summer air,”
“He sniffed and roared,”
“And smelled it there!”
“Honey on the summer air!”
“Oh I’m a maid,”
“And I’m pure and fair,”
“I’ll never dance,”
“With a hairy bear,”
“A bear! A bear!”
“I’ll never dance,”
“With a hairy bear!”
“The bear,the bear!”
“Lifted her high,”
into the air!”
The bear, the bear!”
“I called for a knight!”
“But you’re a bear!”
“A bear! A bear,”
“All black and brown,”
“And cover in hair!”
“She kicked and wailed,”
“The maid so fair,”
“But he licked the honey,”
“From her hair!”
“Her hair! Her hair!”
“He licked the honey,”
“From her hair!”
“Then she sighed and squealed,”
“And kicked the air,”
“She sang: My bear so fair,”
“And off they went,”
“The bear! The bear!”
“And the maiden fair!”
The Hold Steady's Craig Finn recently appeared on the Minnesota Public Radio produced program Wits with Chuck Klosterman. He played a couple of beautiful songs which you can enjoy below - and the sound quality is superb.
You can also check out The Hold Steady's Live Jim Beam Live Music Series Video from the House of Blues in Cleveland. It's pretty fine, too, though a lot noiser than the Finn alone stuff.
I'm not a baseball fan, despite my Dad's fanaticism. I mean, playing it wasn't too bad, but watching it seems like an exercise in waiting for something to happen. And somehow it seems like stats and steroids are too important in the baseball world.
There! I've proclaimed my ignorance of what makes baseball special. The reason I bring up my lack of passion for baseball is to explain my lack of enthusiasm for The Baseball Project. The Baseball Project is a band made up of Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon, all musicians I love, but they create songs about baseball, so I've never paid attention. But I'm not enough of an anti-baseball fan to ignore the group anymore, because they've enlisted The Hold Steady's Craig Finn to write the lyrics and sing on the new song, Don't Call Them Twinkies.
I now have to pay more attention to the Baseball Project, but I'm still not gonna watch baseball. I can always ask my Dad who the names are that get dropped in these songs.
Speaking of The Hold Steady, the band is the latest to get into the Pitchfork POV concert series, which you can check out here. I guess the idea of the viewer changing cameras is fine, but it's not my thing - I think I'd like it to be filmed in an interesting way the first time. Anyway, any excuse to post about The Hold Steady.
Buy The Baseball Project here. Buy The Hold Steady here.
Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 will also be releasing a new disc, Northern Aggression, on Nov. 30th on Yep Roc. I don't think the following track has anything to do with the new album, but it's an interesting cover anyway.
Shout Out Louds continue to send sublime pop from Sweden. The Cure meets Billy Joel maybe? I haven't found a lot to get excited about lately, but I wouldn't mind if this band became as a popular as ABBA.
The Shins would like to give you their cover of Squeeze's Goodbye Girl, and it's good good good. Go here.
The Shins aren't doing much lately, but mainman James Mercer is doing all right with Broken Bells.
The Hold Steady do The Sweet Part of the City, which seems like a southern rock ballad to me...and I like it.
Winnipeg's Scott Hinkson has decided to hand over the digital keys for his entire album The Torrent Sessions, at least for a short period of time. Go here to grab it before it's gone.
Nada Surf, you gotta love 'em, here's their cover of Electrocution followed by the original.
Bill Fox - Electrocution
The original, record label-approved video for Jason & the Scorchers's White Lies is a prime example of why the 80s are called cheesy, go here if you want to see it. This Chinatown-White Lies mash-up is more interesting, but it's really the song I adore. Recently the genius at Music Ruined My Life posted some cool live Scorchers you can grab, and the band's brilliance is lighting up my days once more.
Jason & the Scorchers - White Lies
One of my favourite tunes by Peg City's JP Hoe. Featuring the nimble Rob Pachol (with last post's Telepathic Butterflies and Sanfordand songs, that makes 3 plugs for Satch in a week - does he have to be so ubiquitous? When's the solo record arriving?). Hoe is working on his new album, which I gather will come out with a live album he recently recorded.
I missed the Hank III show the other night, sold out before I snagged a ticket. But I do think he's one of the most intriguing characters out there, pure country one sec, balls-out metal the next, or raging punk. Can anyone else do that? Anyone want to?
I think my next post will be my 100th. Any ideas about how I might commemorate/celebrate/desecrate that Scruffy the Yak birthday? Please leave a comment below.
I found this cool Cinnamon Toast Crunch toy guitar out on the rainy boulevard this morning. I bet a couple of members of The Hold Steady had homemade guitars as toddlers.
The Hold Steady are releasing their new record, Heaven is Whenever, on Tuesday. Who cares? Well, Scruffy does, and so do thousands of music bloggers, record store geeks, and rock critics. At the last Hold Steady show, the academic fellow with me said, "Never seen so many aging hipsters in one place." "What does an aging hipster look like?" "Anyone past their twenties and still wearing Chuck Converse All-stars." Hey, I still like my Chucks, and there were an inordinate amount of ageing hipsters in that crowd, no matter their choice of footwear.
But The Hold Steady doesn't deserve to be pigeon-holed as quick as my scholarly bud can elbow me in the ribs. Here's why HS really matters:
1. HS are a rock band, yet the band has managed to become popular without a closetful of gimmicks. In a world where for some people Nicklecrack, 3 Days Grace, and Theory of a Deadman pass for punch-a-fist-in-the-air rockingest without being metal, room to breathe is tough to find for a rock band that aspires to be a tad more than dumb rock. So we get bands that wear retro suits or duos that only wear red and refuse to pay for a bass player. All right, that kind of dress-up can be fun for artists and fan alike. But only guy in The HS that has worn anything other than walking-around clothes has been Franz Nicolay, the band's keyboard player.
Maybe Nicolay's waxed mustache and 30's gangster attire could in some way be HS's gimmick, but as entertaining as he was, Nicolay was not the frontman or the focus of the band. Maybe that's why he left. At any rate, he is no longer with the band.
Anyhow, The HS play rock music. Not precious, arty puzzles. There's no disco, no big obvious eighties rip-offs, no post-punk math-rock sound-collage damaged electronic meandering. That's darn refreshing. While fair comparisons have been made to older Springsteen, my fellow concert-goer yelled in my ear at the show, "Never knew there was so much Thin Lizzy in 'em!", referring to the nice fat riffing of guitarist Tad Kubler.
2.Singer/songwriter/guitarist/frontman Craig Finn can't sing. I mean, in the dvd that comes with the live album A Positive Rage, he admits it, saying that his vocals are basically his speaking voice amplified. It's really more animated and emotive than that, but Finn never tries to be Robert Plant, Chris Cornell or Steve Perry - hell, he isn't even soaring to Gord Downie levels. On the other hand, he ain't aping Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, or Leonard Cohen, either. Finn's just doing his own thing, and for his lyrics about risky relationships, Minneapolis spots, self-medicating, parties and dances and debauchery, the voice works fine. In fact, I've heard The Hold Steady cover Dylan, Springsteen, and Bryan Adams, and none of them hit the sweet spot like the HS's originals. It's true, he can't sing, but it's like a breath of fresh air to hear a guy use his vocal cords in a somewhat natural way, as opposed to all of those singers out there copying Ian Curtis, Robert Smith, or David Bowie, for example.
3.The band has a sense of humour. If you listen to the lyrics or see The Hold Steady live you can't miss it. These guys aren't trying to act cool, intense, or grim all of the time. Not like it's a comedy act, but there's enough artists out there taking themselves too seriously. Ending a song with a line like "I did a couple favours for these guys that looked like Tuscan raiders" is kinda nonsensical, but it works for me. The words "fun" and "funny" aren't bad words for The Hold Steady - take note, Thom Yorke. You too, Bono. Chris Martin calls his kids funny names, but I don't know if that counts. Hey, Billie Joe Armstrong!
4.Live, it's a Halleluleauh rave-up. It's a joyous experience, with Finn mouthing his own lyrics 2 or three times after he's just sung them, getting the crowd to clap double-time, grinning from ear to ear, without rock star posing; unless you think a balding guy with thick specs flailing his arms around, popping bugged-out eyes and smiling at everyone and everything is a rock star pose. Below is two live versions of the same song, the first has great sound, but in the second one you can hear the crowd singing along, which is something I think happens at a lot of shows. Since Finn doesn't really sing, it's easy to join along - it feels like a big inebriated party, whether it is one or not.
5. The lyrics. Not necessarily poetry, definitely not dumbed down on all counts, the lyrics are those of a guy from who loves music and thinks people of all flavours are interesting. Name-dropping Saint Joe Strummer, poet John Berryman, 7 Seconds, and Husker Du, titling a song Charlemagne in Sweatpants...it's all good. "She said you're pretty good with words, but words won't save you And they didn't, so he died" is a favourite.
A few years back I thought Inward Eye could save rock 'n' roll after seeing them open up for a reformed Urge Overkill. I even wrote a blurb for Chart magazine calling them the band to watch, and the boys signed to J Records in 2005 or 2006 (can't remember exactly, it's been so ... long). And then...nothing. The band did the shake and shimmy with record execs who expected something else than was being recorded, and years went by. The Hold Steady came along and saved rock anyway. And by saving rock I don't mean simply making good guitar/bass/drums-based tunes, those will always exist; I mean a band that makes you want to kiss, kill, drink, scream, start a band, pogo, and do it all over gain. Repeatedly. In a live setting, Inward Eye were explosive, with the guitarist windmilling unabashedly, the singer/bassist aggressive and amused, and the not-so-secret-weapon drummer doing his always-entertaining Keith Moon impression. But it seemed like the album would never arrive.
Now it's here. Actually, it's been available on iTunes for a while, but today the physical artifact entitled Throwing Bricks Instead of Kisses is released.
My first response is that the Winnipeg trio's raucous live presence isn't as easy to feel from the recordings. But that's no different from many other artists. Here's album opener Shame.
Looks like some money is being spent on promoting and marketing Inward Eye from Sham's professional-looking vid. The next videos are performance videos, maybe we can feel a bit more of the live electricity. But Day After Day is a pretty smooth-sounding tune, with silky backing vocals and nice organ fills rounding out the raw noise of a bar show.
You Know I Know captures more of the frenzied desperation we've come to expect from the brothers Erickson. Whiny, breathless vocals, tasty drum fills, some noisy Townsend chords - that's more like the twist on The Who we know and love (of course, the boys probably deliberately ditched some Who influences after they played a bunch of shows with the Moon-less and Entwhistle missing tour).
Anyhow, there's a free 4-song ep waiting for you at the band's website. You can also hear a few older songs such as Carly, Disaster, and I'll Save Myself if you go here and search Inward Eye (and hey, the band description sounds suspiciously like words I wrote about them many years ago). Finally, here's some real live footage including a version of Smokey Robinson's Tears of a Clown that reminds me of The Who covering Summertime Blues or Shakin' All Over.
mp3s will be posted for a limited time and are for promotional purposes only. If you like it, buy the albums, go to the shows, buy the t-shirts - support the artist so they can keep on keepin' on. Artists - if you would like an mp3 or video removed, please contact me directly at chrisyakchart@hotmail.com.
If you've got something Scruffy should hear, same email. Snail mail is cool too.
Scruffy the Yak 34 Allenby Cres Winnipeg Mb R2C 3J4
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