The Hold Steady Premiere First Single From Heaven is Whenever, “Hurricane J”
The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn recently set the record straight in an interview with Entertainment Weekly on those who were concerned that when he said their new album, Heaven is Whenever (due May 4th), would be “less anthemic” than its predecessors, that the band was going in a completely new direction:
There’s a fair amount of songs that didn’t make the record, and that’s always a heartbreaking thing, choosing between your favorite children. But in the end, it is a little different. Franz’s departure is a part of that. It’s also kind of where our heads are at. I said it’s “less anthemic” somewhere, and that was on Pitchfork, and a lot of people were like, “What??!?! It’s less anthemic??!!!?” So I don’t know if I should say that again. But that’s sort of one way of thinking about it. I think it’s a little more mature. More laid back. It might be a little less [he thrashes his fist in the air], you know? Maybe it’s more age-appropriate for a 38 year old.
If the first single, “Hurricane J,” is any indication, then Finn’s latest explanation rings true. It’s a more streamlined, melodic and laid-back version of The Hold Steady, perhaps more so than they’ve ever been. But what remains intact are Tad Kubler’s compelling guitar riffs and Finn’s vivid lyrical work. He’s noticeably better at singing than he’s been at any point in his career, and it can only benefit the band going forward. Perhaps this is the album where the rest of the world learns of this excellent band’s presence in the music world…
Check out the single at Consequence of Sound.
Final Project Proposal: Profile on Blog Hollywood East Connection
For my final extended blog post project, I wish to do a profile piece on HollywoodEastConnection.com, a news, career and entertainment website devoted to delivering the most up-to-date news and career information on the film and television industries in the New England area.
The website has made great strides in the past year and since its inception, and creator Christine Tello-Lorenz manages the website while simultaneously working as a career coach in Boston. The site currently has a staff of four writers and a webmaster, and operates on several social networks including Facebook and Twitter.
I plan to interview each member of the staff and, if possible, pay a visit to the headquarters and get some photos and/or video. I believe the site is one of the leading places to visit for their niche and will only grow in popularity as the film and television industries continue to grow in New England. They make for a great profile.
My Favorite Twitter Feeds, Plus Live-Tweeting the Bruins-Rangers Game
Feel free to follow me on Twitter this afternoon as I live-tweet the Bruins-Rangers game, a contest that is crucial to both teams as the NHL approaches the stretch run of the regular season. Also, check out this list of my favorite Twitter feeds, most of which are related to my beat (which the Bruins game, unfortunately, is not):
- GuardianMusic: The feed for acclaimed British publication The Guardian. They keep me up-to-date on most of the bands I like to follow, as well as provide me with potential new music to get into. I am always looking to consume new music, and The Guardian is one of the first places I go to for that.
- GuitarWorld: The best guitar magazine in the world, in my opinion. They are always up-to-date with equipment news, which I am always interested in, and always highlight the hottest new guitar-driven bands, which I love. Their Q&As are always good reads.
- RollingStone: The most comprehensive music news organization on the planet. They are a legendary magazine and they’ve truly earned it. They always have the best sources on their stories, are often the first to break big news, and always write great reviews. I don’t know what I’d do without Rolling Stone in my life.
- The Onion: They aren’t devoted entirely to music, and by no means are they a serious news organization…But their “A/V Club” is one of the few legitimate areas of coverage for their site, and I always count on them for quality music reviews.
- Metallica.com: I am still a big fan of Metallica, despite them growing into old men. their website is usually good with updates, and I’m always interested to know if they’re working on new material.
- Guitar Center: This is the only legit music store we can find. The little privately-owned shops might be good to look for hidden gems, but if you want real-deal merchandise and any kind of accessory you need, you go here. And they always have great sales, which I frequently take advantage of.
- Total Guitar: The British equivalent of Guitar World, Total Guitar is another strong guitar-driven publication. They tend to give their two cents on news stories in the feed as well, which is usually entertaining to read.
- Digital Music News: Just like I like to keep up-to-date with news of the music itself, I also like to know the latest stories and trends in the realm of digital music. Since the industry is likely headed toward becoming a purely digital medium, I like to stay as far ahead of the curve as I can.
- Pitchfork Media: This is likely one of the most polarizing music news organizations in the World. They deserve credit for having critics that are very well-educated in music and have heard a myriad of different styles from which to draw their opinions. But their reviews border on snobbery, and they tend to favor electro pop and indie rock more than any form of mainstream music, which may leave them appearing biased. But I love reading their reviews for the depth to which their reviewers go in analyzing pieces of work.
- The Huffington Post: Sure, they cover WAY more than just music, but I love their music-related video posts. Always entertaining to read and follow.
The Hold Steady’s “Heaven is Whenever” Cover Art: Simple But Beautiful
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feinsteinbandpics/ / CC BY 2.0
In today’s age of digital downloads and evaporating record sales, everything we know about the album is going by the wayside.
Track order used to be a daunting and precise task, CD booklets offered as much in the way of supplementary entertainment as the band desired to eager fans, and album covers were often the iconic image associated with classic collections of music. Case in point: who can’t think of Dark Side of the Moon without picturing that rainbow-crossed prism with the black background?
While Brooklyn-based rockers The Hold Steady may be known much more for their riff-heavy classic rock stylings and frontman Craig Finn’s massively dense lyrical tales, they know how to convey thoughts about their albums through the covers. Their last release, 2008′s highly acclaimed (they’ve actually been highly acclaimed since their debut) Stay Positive, presented a rough, brown, dirty image of a small, dumpy, and utterly soulless town that Finn sang about on tracks like “Constructive Summer” and “Sequestered in Memphis.”
The cover art for their latest album, Heaven is Whenever (due in stores May 4) is probably the simplest album cover they’ve released to date, and perhaps their most powerful. The titles are in text that is decorated only slightly, giving us a clear indication of who we’re getting into, and reaching for the text is the hand of a young boy or girl.
Lead guitarist Tad Kubler described the music of Heaven is Whenever in a press release announcing the album as “evocative,” adding that “There’s a lot more melody. It’s more sonically diverse and dynamically expansive than any of our previous records.”
Finn described his lyrics as being about “embracing suffering and understanding its place in a joyful life.” He explained the significance of the album’s title as referencing “the way that love can help us rise above our modern struggles.” Man does that guy ever know how to express himself!
With dozens of tour dates already lined up, appearances scheduled at several summer festivals such as Lollapalooza and the Isle of Wight Festival, and an as-of-this-writing opening between May 30 and June 12, I am hoping as a Bonnaroo ticket holder that The Hold Steady will be added to the four-day Manchester, Tenn. festival as a second-tier headliner.
GlobalPost: Quietly Igniting a News Revolution
I took a trip to GlobalPost, an online international news website, this past Wednesday at its headquarters in the North End of Boston. I was extremely impressed with everything I encountered. The website itself is a well-designed, well-presented library of feature stories from all over the world, and each and every story utilizes the benefits of new media in a way that brings the stories to life.
While news giants like the New York Times may have much stronger sources and more experienced journalists, GlobalPost is successful in bringing original content to its site that is relevant to current issues and also surprisingly revealing in its depth.
GlobalPost’s business model is what especially impressed me. The website profits largely from syndication of its content, which has reached places ranging from the New York Daily News to the China Morning Post. The site also makes money from traffic-dependent web advertising. But the prevalence of syndication shows that the website consistently delivers quality journalistic material.
Executive editor Charles Sennott emphasized GlobalPost‘s philosophy on “ground truth-” that is, getting stories directly from their origins, through people entrenched in the location from which they are reporting. It is a “belief that you have to be there,” Sennott said. GlobalPost currently employs around 70 correspondents in about 50 different countries.
Another quality unique to GlobalPost is its emphasis on specific individual skills. Sennott is not a believer in “backpack journalism” or any related idea that entails journalists employing every journalistic skill imaginable in this day and age- writing, photography, video editing, web content production, etc. He believes every journalist should find which aspect they particularly excel at and hone that skill to the point of mastery. Employing journalists of specific skills can often make for a better-produced story, whether it be just writing or be photo or video story, Sennott said.
GlobalPost’s business model could be the way of the future in journalism. Content syndication sounds like a great way for news organizations to make money from the web. I personally believe multi-skilled journalism is possible- I may not be a master at any of them, but I feel I have a good grasp on writing, photography and video, and that I could put together a good story utilizing all three. But to each his own, and Sennott prefers to work with more specifically-skilled journalists. I can’t exactly argue that it hasn’t worked.
MGMT Release “Flash Delirium,” the First Track From New Album, “Congratulations”
Those wondering whether Brooklyn-based pop duo MGMT will follow the success of smash singles like “Kids” and “Time to Pretend” with another album like debut LP Oracular Spectacular- one full of danceable beats, thick bass grooves, and hummable hooks- will be floored when they hear “Flash Delirium,” the first “single” from sophomore album Congratulations to be released to the public through the group’s website.
“Flash Delirium” is far, far away from the pop sensibilities of MGMT’s most popular tracks. It’s a shape-shifting, chorus-less, homage-laden psych-rock odyssey- or should I say “oddity?” The song is a little over four minutes long but features at least seven distinct parts. Don’t bother asking me every single form of music that MGMT is referencing here- Pitchfork Media took care of that for us.
Here’s a video of the entire track, complete with the lyrics, which when described as “cryptic” or “bizarre” would be an understatement.
From the outset, MGMT have made it apparent that they were not interested in presenting Congratulations as a collection of three pop singles surrounded by forgettable filler material. Co-member Ben Goldwasser told New Musical Express last month:
“There definitely isn’t a ‘Time To Pretend’ or a ‘Kids’ on the album. We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”
Instead, Goldwasser and other permanent member Andrew VanWyngarden have crafted an album that they described to NME as “nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence.” It’s clearly an attempt to counteract the current music trend of disregarding albums as complete works and only downloading the tracks one deems worthy of a spot in his or her music library, which I admire.
The cover art for MGMT's "Congratulations."
The very idea of an album as a complete work has pretty much gone by the wayside in today’s world of MP3s and digital downloads. Fans no longer need to go buy the entire album in CD form and hear it from start to finish to determine their favorite tracks. Individual songs can be downloaded and the rest can be ignored entirely.
It used to almost be a science determining the order of songs on an album. When vinyl was still on top, the major concern was which song opened side one and side two, respectively, and the same general structure applied to CDs. The digital age has all but destroyed the concept, but it’s refreshing to see a forward-thinking group like MGMT keeping it alive.
Green Day tried reinforcing the same idea with their latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, but still couldn’t resist releasing standout singles like “21 Guns” and “Know Your Enemy.” MGMT have gone the complete opposite direction, and instead have created a free-form musical journey through American’s psychedelic roots. Congratulations officially hits stores April 13.
Street Musicians: Boston-based Singers, Guitarists and Bucket Drummers (VIDEO)
Boston certainly has no shortage of creative minds. Many of them can be found scattered across the city at street corners, subway stations and other locations to perform music for whoever cares to listen. And plenty of people do listen. I decided to venture around the city looking for such performers, and naturally I had no trouble finding several on a simple ride up and down the MBTA red line.
John Gerard was the first person I found, performing original material at Park St. Station. Gerard has his own website at JohnGerard.com, and plays shows at local bars and clubs in addition to performing his songs for the public. Next was Anthony Mayville, an acoustic guitarist originally from Haiti who performs covers and some original material at various MBTA locations, most often at the always-bustling South Station.
Finally, I met Joshua, a bucket drummer whom I had the pleasure of watching on previous occasions. Joshua feeds off the enthusiasm of crowds that gather around him when he performs, and based on his performance in the video it should come as no surprise that he has little trouble drawing attention. Enjoy the people and music!
Setting up A New Drum Set With My Friend Mike
My friend Mike Levine, who plays drums with me in a band, received his new drum set in the mail last week. I was quick to head over and document the process of him putting the completed set together. I filmed with a camcorder courtesy of Northeastern’s Media Studio, and edited the video in Final Cut Pro.
The Hold Steady Announce New Album, “Heaven is Whenever,” Track Listing
Source: David Shankbone
The Hold Steady remain one of America’s most acclaimed and hard-working rock bands. They have yet to miss with the critics, with their 2008 album, “Stay Positive,” earning a composite score of 85 on Metacritic, constituting “universal acclaim,” and have steadily rose in popularity since their inception due to their dense, arena-ready rock aesthetic and frontman Craig Finn’s complex yet powerfully vivid lyrics. The Brooklyn-based group is now set to release their highly anticipated fifth album, “Heaven is Whenever,” on May 4 from Vagrant Records.
The album will be the band’s first without keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who suddenly left the band in January to get a fresh start and explore other career interests such as vaudeville acting and tap dancing.
Finn and lead guitarist Tad Kubler said in a press release interview that the album will be a departure from their previous two LPs, “Stay Positive” and “Boys and Girls in America.” Kubler described the music as “spacial” and “sonically more diverse” than their previous work, noting shifts and expansions of his guitar style that haven’t been heard before.
Finn said that the stories in his songs- a mandatory topic to cover when discussing a Hold Steady album- will be more about expressing a cohesive overall theme than spinning tales of the characters he’s created, particularly “Gideon,” “Charlemagne” and “Holly,” who have become very familiar to fans. Finn said in the interview of the album’s themes:
“The lyrics speak a lot about struggle and reward. It’s about embracing suffering and understanding its place in a joyful life. I think that some of the characters from old records are there, but I don’t name them by name. I think it continues to examine the highs and lows that we’ve looked at on previous records.”
The elements of the Hold Steady’s work that remain constant throughout their discography are the intense, verbose wordplay of Finn’s lyrics and the consistently exhilarating music accompanying them. From their descriptions, it sounds like fans will get more of the same plus an expansion and maturity of their musical palette. It seems almost impossible for them to disappoint us at this point.
Here is the track listing for “Heaven is Whenever”:
1. The Sweet Part of the City
2. Soft in the Center
3. The Weekenders
4. The Smidge
5. Rock Problems
6. We Can Get Together
7. Hurricane J
8. Barely Breathing
9. Our Whole Lives
10. A Slight Discomfort
Here’s a video from back in September of the band playing an early version of one of the new tracks- called “Heaven is Whenever” here, but likely actually track six, “We Can Get Together.”
Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon Among Biggest Additions to Bonnaroo 2010 Lineup
By 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jay-z was the biggest name announced to headline the 2010 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. this June. The festival added two more super-heavyweights, bringing back Kings of Leon (fresh off winning three Grammy awards) for the third time to the event. Just hours earlier, the long-rumored Dave Matthews band was officially confirmed as a headlining act.
Kings of Leon last performed at Bonnaroo in 2007, before their award-winning hit album Only by the Night. Here is a video of their performance from 2007:
Go to the Bonnaroo Myspace page to see the complete lineup and watch as it updates itself throughout the night.
