Boys and Girls in America

Performer: The Hold Steady
Engineer: TJ Doherty; John Agnello
Producer: John Agnello
Distributor: Fontana Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Dana Kletter, Dave Pirner, Elizabeth Elmore (vocals); Drew Glackin (lap steel guitar); Jean Cook (violin); Caleb Burhans (viola); Peter Hess (tenor saxophone); Lloyd Debonis (trumpet); Alan Ferber (trombone). Audio Mixers: John Agnello; Ted Young. Recording information: Atomic Studios, New York, NY; Water-Music Recorders, Hoboken, NJ. Photographer: Marina Chavez. The Strokes' breakthrough of the early 2000s made indie rock safe for unabashed retro stylings, and no band embraced this ethos more than Brooklyn's the Hold Steady. Synonymous with "throwback" and "bar band," their excellent debut heralded the return of spirited, no-frills rock. Whereas that record brilliantly fused indie aesthetics with the blue-collarisms of Springsteen and Thin Lizzy, BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA, their third full-length and Vagrant debut, finds them getting away from indie rock for a full-blown Springsteen fixation. The whole record echoes the piano-driven orchestral bombast of BORN TO RUN particularly on the opening track, "Stuck Between Stations" (read: "Thunder Road") and the drunken ballad "First Night" (read: "Backstreets"). It doesn't help matters that Craig Finn's throat-and-guts yowl recalls the Boss's more than ever. The difference comes with the lyrics: while Springsteen's offer hope in the face of despair, Finn's wallow in parties that aren't fun anymore, mixed signals and missed opportunities with women, and chemical crutches. The latter figure prominently, and Finn's raw talent for barstool poetics--like "some nights the painkillers make the pain even worse" from "Chips Ahoy"--is unmatched. Finn's undeniable talent positions him--despite his idolatry--less as his generation's Springsteen and more like its Shane MacGowan. No small feat, that. "There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right/'Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together....'" These are the opening words to "Stuck Between Stations," the first cut from Boys and Girls in America, the Hold Steady's third full-length. Before these, however, are piano lines and glockenspiel sounds that could have come from Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album and guitar lines that could have been spit out of an AC/DC song. Sal Paradise, Kerouac's big character, is not the only mythical presence on this meditation of darkly romanticized youth. The late poet (and suicide) John Berryman and one of his monolithic works Dream Songs is in here too: "...I surround myself with doctors and deep thinkers/but big heads with soft bodies make for lousy lovers..." Ain't that the truth. (He should have talked to Chuck Berry instead.) In the meantime, Craig Finn's spilling out an encounter and meditation, and the first person part of his narrative reveals "a damn good kisser and she wasn't that strict of a Christian/She was a real good dancer but she wasn't much of a girlfriend." This is the set up for the slickest, catchiest, and most focused collection of songs by Finn and his rocking Brooklyn quintet. The guy's not just a storyteller, he's a rock historian, a fan boy gone wild, telling stories of everything he says; he's not speaking for anybody but himself, and as a result his appeal is wide. When the band turn Thin Lizzy's "Boys Are Back in Town" inside-out riff-wise on "Hot Soft Light," Finn tries to sound like Phil Lynott, because he's offering a tale of mall rats, suburban kids, drinking, and drug taking -- in essence, addiction--from the inside, not as an observer. It's personal revelation disguised as a pumped-up rock anthem. Try "Chips Ahoy," even more of a fist raiser, with a Hammond B-3 under that wall of guitars and rolling bassline. It's got a whoah-oh-oh oh- ohoho . . chorus from the boys in the band and Finn's talking about the race track, specifically about a girl who bets $900.00 on a horse and has problems enjoying the compulsive sex she engages in. His frustration expels itself as a question both teens and young men have been trying to ask forever, but have been afraid to articulate, or it never occurred to them that they could ask: "How am I supposed to know that you're high if you won't let me touch you?/How am I supposed to know if you won't even dance?" Those looking for Separation Sunday "part two" may be disappointed by the huge sound this record has (the band's moved to Vagrant); it's not much of a concept record, and it's not as Catholic, but all those struggles are in here just beneath the surface (and sometimes on top of it). One of the ballads here, "First Night," begins with a piano and an acoustic guitar lilting a rather loose melody that gives Finn the support he needs to get out of his pent-up, novelistic, wordsmithing mouth: "Charlemagne shakes in the street/Gideon makes love to the suites/Holly's not invincible/in fact she's in the hospital/not far from the bar where we met/on that first night." All of these characters are young, desperate, and fleeing from their inner fear, except for Holly who is wise enough to tell the protagonist that "words alone never could save us"....and then "cried when she told us about Jesus." The piano fills out that unfillable hole in Holly and the rest, no matter where they run. Finn can do nothing but repeat his lines and find a last verse somewhere to let the song just fade into silence because it never really ends. Boys and Girls in America is a sophisticated shambles. There's still a barely-on-the-rail feel, despite the literate compositions. Finn's always either behind or ahead of the beat, but it's alright, his bandmates can more than handle that because they're as engaged as he is. There are a few guests, and even a horn section on one track, and the classic girl group chorus call and response from Dana Kletter and her gorgeous voice. There's real sadness in the Wall of Sound and chanted chorus in "You Can Make Him Like You," which examines everything from addiction to betrayal, to the insecurity in love that can push someone over the edge, never to return. Thin Lizzy makes a return on "Massive Nights," complete with roiling bass as Finn opens the whole escapist mix, swinging and setting up a hedonist's dream: "The guys were feeling good about their liquor run..." There are low expectations and drama where only the music counts. The tune turns back on itself when the singer is trying to convince himself and the huge wailing responsorial chorus that something so utterly suburban could be cool, until "She had the gun in her mouth/She was shooting up at her dreams/When the chaperone said that/We'd been crowned/the king and the queen." And it just ends. The chorus doesn't repeat. Elizabeth Elmore's and Dave Pirner's character triplet vocals on "Chillout Tent" help to create a sprawling narrative. Finn's the narrator, the other two are such broken and wasted -- even OD'ed -- people; they kiss urgently, which is alternately "sexy...but kinda creepy." The song doesn't really work, but it's brave as hell as an experiment. The reason this record is worth embracing and even celebrating is because it's an honest to God rock & roll album. It exposes in the first and third person what it means to grow up right now in the midst of suburban waste. It's angsty, but Finn's got a sense of humor and the band can play their asses off. That they so readily embrace rock history as a means of unfolding Finn's stories suggests that "cool" and "indie" are simply terms in the larger dialogue. This is a smoking little record. Its focus is small, its reach is large; it's a winner. ~ Thom Jurek

Rolling Stone (p.69) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "BOYS is a sweet thing: fist-pumpable rock with brains, heart and words worth coming back to." Rolling Stone (p.103) - Ranked #8 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "[W]ith an abundance of narrative flair." Spin (p.97) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "The Hold Steady's Craig Finn infuses his windy tales of youthful debauchery with a mixture of detective-fiction luridness and first-club-show romanticism." Spin (p.59) - Ranked #21 in Spin's "The 40 Best Albums of 2006" -- "Plunging you into an immediately familiar teenage wasteland, these 11 songs won't ever let you leave." Entertainment Weekly (p.68) - "[T]he swirls of organ they've added to their hyper-literate stomping suggest Deep Purple with a library card." -- Grade: A- Q (p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Finn has tapped into his inner Springsteen. BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA is punctuated with flourishes that wouldn't have sounded out of place on BORN TO RUN." Uncut (p.90) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Driven by devastating detail....Finn's writing is sharper than ever..." Alternative Press (p.198) - "There's something inherently Springsteen-esque about these songs, but Finn's approach is ultimately less romantic. Likewise, the band's approach...is both grittier and more unhinged." Alternative Press (p.136) - Included in Alternative Press's "10 Essential Albums Of 2006" -- "This is blue-collar rock 'n' roll to bridge the new generation." No Depression (p.83) - "The music evokes early Springsteen, with huge guitar riffs, sensitive piano passages, and anthemic vocal choruses..." Kerrang (Magazine) (p.49) - "[Finn's] gruff sing/speak vocal amplifies the grubby minutiae of the everyday into something indisputably universal." Q (Magazine) (p.87) - Ranked #09 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2007" -- "[Finn is] a singular storyteller..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[R]ich and detailed....'You Can Make Him Like You' is a beautifully empathetic portrait of chemically imbalanced romance..."

The thinking man's bar band, the Hold Steady use a thundering classic-rock template--evoking everything from Boston to the Faces--as a base from which lead singer Craig Finn delivers his epic sung-spoken Springsteen-esque narratives of searching for faith and redemption at the bottom of an empty bottle. Refreshingly irony-free, the Hold Steady are one of the best reminders of rock & roll's classic spirit to have emerged in the early years of the new millennium.

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