https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QHMsP4DkUA&feature=youtu.be
I asked Andersonville Dan to help me review the new album from the Hold Steady, Teeth Dreams. After 10 years, the band is still kicking. Front man Craig Finn still tells dark stories, though not so much about young punks. The first album in four years, Teeth Dreams returns to the hard rock of the band’s earlier releases, including the great Boys and Girls in America. Tad Kubler’s guitars sound bigger than ever.
Punks: Do you think after 10 years Craig Finn has run out of fucked-up kids to write about?
AD: Honestly, it does feel a little bit like that. Some of the characters are aging but luckily it’s still interesting. I hold everything they do to Boys and Girls but I really like this album. It’s not Boys and Girls but it feels closer to it than recent efforts (like 2010’s Heaven Is Whenever). I love listening to it.
Punks: It definitely rocks harder than Heaven. I think the Hold Steady works best when the guitars are loud but you can still clearly hear Finn’s stories. On With the Business is a good example from the new album. Compared with the band’s early days, Finn is more of a singer now, even on slower tracks like The Ambassador. Those first two songs on the new album shoot right out of the gate. I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You and Spinners are really high-energy anthems that work despite the overly polished sound.
AD: What fascinates me is how you have these two monster personalities that you can hear in Finn’s stories and Tad Kubler’s in-your-face guitar. The songs feel isolated but in sync at the same time. The whole band combines to make Finn’s words feel alive. It’s a cool, defining sound that elevates them above some other barroom band. I get such an emotional charge.
Punks: For me, the band’s high-water mark is Separation Sunday, the second album. It’s far less accessible than Boys and Girls or anything that followed. I still love Boys and Girls but the soul and spirit of the band is really captured on that second album.
AD: When you read about how much they drink on stage and how central it was to the music during the days of Separation Sunday and Boys and Girls, that’s kind of frightening (or maybe I’m just getting older with the band). Ten years ago, when I saw them as much as possible, I was right there with them.
Teeth Dreams is out Tuesday (March 25) in the U.S.
All the Young Punks 