Secrets of the City

The Hold Steady is accepting your videos. So far, highlights include shroomin in the skyway, Chuck Olsen kvetching about his aching stomach, and a stellar videographic tour of our fair city.

Onion A/V Club doles out its Year In Music (Loon State Edition). Local editor guy Chris Bahn boldly places The Hold Steady at #2, even though none of the members live here. Other entries include Vicious Vicious, Revolver Modele, Soviettes, Halloween Alaska, Atmosphere, Low, and others.

Moby Dick’s: “It had an awesome sign out front that said ‘a whale of a drink.’ I think the last year it was open [in 1988], like 60 percent of all police calls downtown went there.”

Jay’s Longhorn: “It was the first punk-rock bar in Minneapolis, and the Suicide Commandos were the big band. The guitar player became my guitar teacher when I was in 7th grade; the first lesson, he’s like, ‘Do you smoke cigarettes?’ and I said no. And he was like, ‘ You might want to think about it, ’cause it looks really cool when you’re playing guiter.’”

Pitchfork reports that MSP-shout-out-kings The Hold Steady will be performing an acoustic gig during seventh period at Littleton (Colorado) High School. Apparently a music instructor who heard the band profiled in an All Things Considered review has been using The Hold Steady as a teaching aid. Related events include a contest to design the invitation, a project to create a Hold Steady Advent calendar, and even a Hold Steady look-alike contest. Craig Finn for Halloween, anyone?

Peter’s post about the Hold Steady’s upcoming First Ave. appearance on Oct. 30 got me thinking about Halloween costumes too. Last year, I was a “spam filter” (a can of spam with netting around it — yeah, no one else got it either), and the year before I was the little yellow AOL guy. Keeping with the geek theme, anyone have any good costume ideas?

It’s been a while since a Hold Steady link, so here’s a cool analysis (audio) that was on NPR’s All Things Considered. It includes quotes from CP’s Jessica Hopper and even mentions of KQRS.

Local blogger The Big Ticket points us to an MP3 of a live acoustic version The Hold Steady’s “Modesto is Not That Sweet,” which can also be found in a CD membership pack from The Current. Previously on MNspeak: TC References in the Hold Steady’s New Album.

If you missed the Hold Steady show, you should check out Chuck’s post with video and pics, including Craig’s simply awesome love-fest (video) on the MSP Music Scene. If there are other show links, please put them in the comments.

Track 1: “Hornets Hornets”

“I guess the heavy stuff ain’t quite at its heaviest by the time it gets out to suburban Minneapolis. We were living up at Nicollet and 66th. With three skaters and some hoodrat chick. Drove the wrong way down 169. Almost died up by Edina High.”

Track 3: “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”

“Your little hoodrat friend got me high though. We were 17 and stuck up in Osseo. She said it’s funny even true love gets troubled by Stillwater and washed up in the Mississippi River.”

“She said City Center used to be the center of the scene. Now City Center’s over. No one really goes there. Then we used to drink beneath this railroad bridge. Some nites the bus wouldn’t even stop. There were just way too many kids.”

Track 6: “Stevie Nix”

“And when we hit the Twin Cities, I didn’t know that much about it. I knew Mary Tyler Moore and I knew Profane Existence.”

“She got screwed up by religion. She got screwed by soccer players. She got high for the first time in the camps down by the banks of the Mississippi River.”

Track 7: “Multitude of Casualties”

“While she was at the Citadel, he was getting high as hell. When she came to in the matinee, she was asking round for someplace else to stay. While he was down in Lowertown, she was feeling out the 5:30 folk mass.”

Track 8: “Don’t Let Me Explode”

“He said what about Los Angeles. She said we never really made it that far west. We scored big in Denver, and we thought it might be best to go hang around in the Upper Midwest.”

Track 9: “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night”

“Sweet Saint Paul. That must be the hardest luck saint of them all. We met him in some suburban Saint Paul mall.”

Track 11: “How a Resurrection Really Feels”

“Holly was a hoodrat. Now you finally know that. She’s been disappeared for years. Today she finally came back. She said St. Louis had enslaved me. I guess Santa Ana saved me. St. Peter had me on the queue. The St. Paul Saints they waved me through.”

The Hold Steady are reviewed in the New Yorker and are on the cover of The Village Voice.