The Hold Steady Live: Acoustic and at full throttle

WOULD you like to hear the best rock band on the planet playing acoustic for free? Then you are in the right place.
This is another great podcast featuring The Hold Steady, this time from Chicago Public Radio's briliant Sound Opinions programme and what an archive it has. Please look at its offerings here.
The highlights of the show below see lyricist Craig Finn discuss his literary influences, what it's like to sing Rosalita on stage with Springsteen, why Joe Strummer's musical knowledge was encyclopaedic as well as Finn, guitarist Tad Kubler and pianist Franz Nicolay playing two songs acoustic.
I shudder to say this, but: enjoy.

Lyrical Influences

Springsteen, Dylan and Joe Strummer

Magazines & Daddy Issues (acoustic)

One for the Cutters (acoustic)

And go here to see the band playing well tight and loud for Yahoo's The New Now portal.

NO band has captured the imagination of GM in recent years as much as The Hold Steady.
Lead singer Craig Finn is the best lyricist working in rock.
We have already argued that their third record Boys and Girls in America was the long player of 2007 and they could be shaping up to be the band of the decade for us.
They are brilliant because they reflect the joyousness of watching Springsteen and the E Street - they are the sight and sound of a tight, loud guitar/ bass/ piano/ drums band peopled by musicians smiling and obviously loving what they are doing. That is an all too rare an example of the great rock journalism cliché in these days of irony and cleverness, a joyous, easy thing to behold.
Take the shoes off, clear a space around you and pogo like an eejit.
Although this isn't from it, check out the brilliant aol music showcase spinner.com for a fantastic five song live set and interview with Craig and guitarist Tad Kubler and Franz Nicolay.
This is just a great music promo. Hey, enjoy.

My favourite song lyrics: Part 1 (of many)

What are your favourite song lyrics?
This is the opening salvo from me:

The greatest lyric of all time (and utterly postmodern for those interested in such things)
"Tramps like us,
And we like tramps"
Charlemagne in Sweat Pants
The Hold Steady


"They were married in June
She was gone before the leaves were even turning
She said "Well, I knew he was a fool, but I
somehow thought my welfare concerned him"
Unhappy Song
Lloyd Cole

"They smelt of pubs
And Wormwood Scrubs
And too many right-wing meetings"
Down in the Tube Station
The Jam

"A freshly fallen, silent shroud of snow"
I am a Rock
Simon & Garfunkel

"There's a crowd says I'm alright
Say they like my turn of phrase
Take me round to their parties
Like some dressed up monkey in a cage.
And I play my accordion
Oh! but when the wine seeps through the facade
It's nothing but the same old story
Nothing but the same old story"
Nothing but the Same Old Story
Paul Brady


"From the time I could walk he’d take me with him
To a bar called the Green Frog Café
Where old men with beer guts and dominoes
Lied about their lives as they played
I was a kid and they all called me sidekick
Like Desperados waiting for a train"
Desperados Waiting for a Train
Guy Clark

"88 you wait the S-One's will
Put the left in effect and I still will
Rock the hard jams, treat it like a seminar
Teach the bourgeois, and rock the boulevard
Some say I'm negative
But they're not positive
But what I got to give
The media says this
Red black and green
Know what I mean
Yo, don't believe the hype"
Don’t Believe the Hype
Public Enemy

"Everything dies baby, that’s a fact
Maybe everything that dies someday comes back"
Atlantic City
Bruce Springsteen


"We just sit in this hazy bubble with our quarters
Discussing how beautiful Gail Porter is"
The Irony of It All
The Streets