Watch him go!

בקטגוריות: Uncategorized

25 Dec 2005

On the first day of Christmas, my Friends list gave to me,
a bunch of miscellaneous debris

The Hold Steady – Seperation Sunday

Another band I heard of through pelig, always a source of interesting music. “You should try them out”, he said. “They’re fun – with a sort of classic-rock mentality you’ll probably appreciate”. I’m pretty sure I’m misremembering his exact words, but that’s beside the point. The point is that I went and got me their 2005 album, Seperation Sunday. The first thing that hit me was that, indeed, it had a classic 70’s American rock mentality. Raspy singing, straightforward guitars and maybe even something to SAY. Was fun at first, though after a few tracks I began to feel they’re repeating themselves. The singer has a very limited range – he doesn’t sing as much as speak/shout his little narratives which sound suspiciously similar from one song to another, though distorted enough so I can’t catch more than the occasional word here and there – and almost every song features Charlemagne at some point. *blink*.
I gave it a couple of more chances, though, and it really did grow on me. His singing doesn’t get much more interesting, but I did build myself a little mental biography of the band. They’re these 30-somethings, you see. Out on the suburbs. They’ve got good jobs. Lawyers. Up and coming advertising executives. Maybe an accountant. But they’ve still got this rock’n’roll dream, you see, and they’ll play and rehearse and write their little stories and live their American dreams. Yeah. Just like the music they listened to when they were kids – Allman Brothers and Fleetwood Mac and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
I mentioned this to Peli, who naturally told me I was totally wrong and they were these prominent indie-rock figures or something, but I stopped listening quickly. I preferred my own version. Or maybe it was because I was drunk. I forget.
Anyway, the music grows on you, especially a couple of good songs in the middle. Sometimes they sound like Black Francis of “Subbacultcha”, which is always a good thing. I’ll try to see if they have any other albums, once I get this one out of my system.

Recommendations: track 6, “Stevie Nix”, is quite good and a lot of fun. Your Little Hoodrat Friend is also nice.

Summary: If you like straightforward guitar rock, and Springsteen doesn’t give you hives, this might be a fun album.

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themoniker

27 בDecember, 2005 בשעה 23:41

Your Little Hoodrat Friend sounds to me a lot like Lou Reed’s New York album, either “Dirty Blvd” or “Romeo had Juliette”. Maybe both.

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