The Hold Steady

Juicy J - Irving Plaza - 5/15/13

Better Than: DJ Paul's barbecue sauce (just kidding). These days, it seems that Juicy J's renaissance is having a renaissance. With his group Three 6 Mafia stagnating, the man born Jordan Michael Houston took a single rap line--"You say no to drugs, Juicy J can't"--and turned it into a mantra, a ve ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Rob Sheffield, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

In Defense of fun. and the Sublime Blandness They Do So Well

Hey, man! What are YOU doing Saturday night? Wanna go to Radio City Music Hall with me and watch motherfucking fun.? Wait, where are you going? Dude, why'd you just unfriend me on Facebook? I just tried to email you and it bounced. I thought we were best friends, and now you're acting like you barel ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Rob Harvilla, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Week, 1/28/13

Here are the ten best concerts to check out around the city this week, in no particular order.

Tonight David Byrne and Author Chris Ruen Explain Exactly, Specifically, and Definitively Why Illegally Downloading Music Makes You A Huge Asshole

Tonight, in the main branch of the New York Public Library, the long-running conversation about artist copyright, piracy in the digital age, changing (and disappearing) artist revenue streams, and illegal downloading continues with two people who've added much to that discourse of late: Talking Head ... More >>

Live: Bob Mould Plunges Into His Riff-Heavy Past At Williamsburg Park

Bob Mould Williamsburg Park Friday, September 7 Better than: Having to send a search party for the silver lining. "You've really done a lot with the place," joked guitarist-songwriter Bob Mould to the crowd as he took a well-deserved breather in Williamsburg Park on Friday. He'd commandeered his n ... More >>

How To Enjoy An Outdoor Concert On A Potentially 100-Degree Day Without Dying Of Heatstroke Or Sunburn

Tomorrow is a big day for outdoor live music in New York City! The CBGB Festival is throwing a free show in Times Square with Superchunk, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Hold Steady, and Seattle Weekly columnist Duff McKagan's Loaded; it's also sponsoring the SummerStage show at Central Park with Guid ... More >>

Live: Against Me! Buck The Norms, Duet With Joan Jett At Terminal 5

Against Me! w/The Cult, The Icarus Line Terminal 5 Friday, June 8 Better than: Being stuck in pre-tunnel traffic on a Megabus that was supposed to have left Philly at 3:30? (R.I.P. Chinatown buses.) Sorry, sorry. Better than... um, any other rawk band working right now? The critical indifference ... More >>

Live: Bustle In Your Hedgerow, Craig Finn, Nicole Atkins, And More Pay Tribute To Levon Helm

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down: A Celebration of the Life and Music of Levon Helm. With Marco Benevento, Dave Dreiwitz, Scott Metzger, and Joe Russo (a/k/a Bustle in Your Hedgerow) and many others. Brooklyn Bowl Monday, June 4 Better than: Nothingness. One of my favorite conversations with th ... More >>

Archers Of Loaf, Team Spirit, Doldrums, And Devin Added To 4Knots Music Festival Lineup

The 4Knots Music Festival—taking place on July 14 at the South Street Seaport, and already featuring The Drums, Hospitality, Bleached, Crocodiles, and Nick Waterhouse—has added Team Spirit, Doldrums, and Devin to the bill, as well as the mighty Archers Of Loaf. Check out Dan Weiss's hist ... More >>

Live: My Morning Jacket Build A Better Classic Rock At Madison Square Garden

My Morning Jacket w/Band of Horses Madison Square Garden Wednesday, December 14 Better than: The other bands on the Bonnaroo roots-jam circuit. I sometimes imagine the young Kentucky rock fan who would one day name himself Jim James surfing the internet in the late '90s (we called it surfing bac ... More >>

This Weekend In New York: Parts And Labor Begin To Bid Farewell

In Waste Of Paint, our writer/artist team of Jamie Peck and Debbie Allen will review goings-on about town in words and images. What is it about the area around South 2nd Street and Kent Avenue that makes it a magnet for good D.I.Y. venues? Is it the tidal pull of the moon? Some type of harmonic con ... More >>

A Replacements Doc With No Replacements Music: Color Me Obsessed

Record Store Day: How Shops, Labels, Fans, And Those Annoying Resellers Benefit

If you can snag this, congratulations, you've won. ​Saturday marks the fifth annual Record Store Day, the celebration of all things indie, vinyl, and limited edition-slash-noble ploy to get customers through the doors of the music stores still standing in the spring of 2011. It's basically the ... More >>

Are You Smarter Than A Rock Critic?: Can You Name The American Idol Finalists?

Michael Becker/FOXWho are these people?​ For weeks, our weekly indignity parade "Are You Smarter Than A Rock Critic?" has been putting our writers at an unfair disadvantage, asking for the intimate details of long dead and gone artists like The Clash, The Doors and Metallica [yeah, no sic]. I ... More >>

Spring Arts Guide: The Feelies Get Perpetually Nervous All Over Again

Plus CSS, Adele, and other spring music picks

Q&A: Craig Finn Of The Hold Steady Breaks Down The Twins/Yankees Series

Twins cap not pictured, for once​The MLB Playoffs begin today, kicking off an annual tradition for many sports-minded New Yorkers: rooting against the Yankees. Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn has added motivation this year, given that his beloved Minnesota Twins once again drew the Yanks in th ... More >>

The National Is Uncomfortably Fun

Matt Berninger makes awkward look cool and despair sound hilarious

Everyone Is Trying To Impersonate Craig Finn All Of A Sudden

​Yes, America, someone has started a fake Craig Finn Twitter feed. Results thus far are a bit uneven (boooooo), but the Hold Steady frontman certain has a vivid style to play with -- what the Times' Ben Ratliff describes, in his review of the band's new record, Heaven Is Whenever, as "typicall ... More >>

Presenting The Ultimate Record Store Day Guide: See Some Music, Buy Some Music, Or Make Your Own

​It's that special time of the year again: Record Store Day, which is like Teacher Appreciation Day for independent record stores. Saturday, to celebrate their tenacity, among other things, record stores around the city are holding performances, releasing exclusives, and offering once-in-a-blu ... More >>

Week in Review: Shut It Down

Scenes from MtyMx. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy told our own Michael Musto to "eat it" and Musto sensibly retaliated by telling him to "suck it" right back, we spent a good chunk of the week unpacking the twin out-of-state enterprises that were SXSW and M ... More >>

Yes In My Backyard: Download Guignol's "Branks" (Featuring the Hold Steady's Franz Nicolay)

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​Brooklyn's Guignol is the best bet for Barbez's crew of hard-working, hard-playing world-music mutants to finally party crash the art-punk party at Death By Audio. With a line-up that includes Hold ... More >>

Paramore Finally Bust Up the Lonely Tears Boys Club

Emo's Femme Fatale, Hayley Williams

News Roundup: The Feelies, Nine Inch Nails, Positive Jam Festival, Michael Jackson

 --Postpunk pioneers the Feelies, whom this paper once called "The best underground band in New York," will reissue their 1980 debut, Crazy Rhythms and the 1986 Peter Buck-produced follow-up The Good Earth, on September 8. The reissued albums will be released on CD and vinyl in their original ... More >>

Coachella 2009, By The Numbers

David AtlasLeonard Cohen: hymnal, transcendant Clubs editor Stacey Anderson sojourned in Indio, California this past weekend for Coachella. She already covered the frantic play-by-play over at our Twitter, so we asked her to wrap-up the festival with a by-the-numbers guide to her three days in the ... More >>

On Beck's Cover of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," and the War Child presents Heroes Benefit Album from Which It Sprung

As the Oscar ceremony credits rolled last night and, via a coming-attractions highlight reel, a grateful nation was alerted to the presence of Night at the Museum 2, perhaps you noticed Beck's glammy, insouciant take on Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" playing o'er top. Not terrible, but no ... More >>

Another Take on Obamamania

The Newfound Joy of a Native Ohioan

Okkervil River's Sweetly Sung Songs of Meta Self-Loathing

Talking Fact (and Probable Fiction) with the Foundling Circus Guild

Status Ain't Hood Podcasts 39 & 40

The Official Guide to Twee Outdoor Summer Dance Parties

Stock up on deodorant, and gird yourself for another trip down the ol’ Slip N Slide

Black Mountain's Fuckup Opus

Pazz & Jop: 2006's Top 25 Albums

Maybe We Shouldn't Do This Anymore

The perils and absurdities of rock criticism as a career in 2008

Hope Solo

Sam Champion’s guitar-heavy classic-rock sound is doing just fine with no label to back it (yet)

Everyone's Gone to the Dentist

Downtown kids chill out, kick back, discover yacht rock, soak in the good life

Separation Saturday Night

Deadpan humor and clever histrionics redeem Okkervil River's classic-rock bathos

Let's Take This Outside

Al fresco shows for real New Yorkers (and their houseguests)

Live: Art Brut Says You Should Listen to the Hold Steady

"Alt-dude from last century fails to embarrass himself."

Evan Dando returns as an immaculate powerpop elder statesman

The Death of Cex?

Dean's List

CMJ Music Marathon

Beguilement and Rage

So many unpretentious young bands with a geniune knack, so many others without a clue

Music

DJ Kicks

Nine sane and rewarding life choices we promise you will not get punished by God for

We Got A Lot

Kvelling over damn near a dozen meanings of life, their average length close to an hour

CMJ Musicfest 2003