So I thought I was in for a normal boring lecture last night in my entertainment and media industries class. I took my seat, kept my head down, listened to my iPod, the usual. Class was about to start, so I took my headphones off, looked up, and whaddaya know – Craig Finn, frontman of Brooklyn’s hugely popular The Hold Steady, was sitting in front of us! Apparently I should pay more attention – I had no idea we were having a guest speaker, much less someone as awesome as Craig Finn.
Anyway, he spoke a lot about the music industry, how everything is changing and becoming free and digital and how artists like him make all of their money from concerts and live events. I of course being the resident music blogger, asked him what he thought about music blogs and if they were having a positive influence on bands like The Hold Steady, who received much internet love for their 2008 hit album, Stay Positive. He said yes, it’s always helpful to have grassroots (we’re grassroots eh?) working in your favor and doing as much as they can to create a following. This was certainly a confident sign for me – we here at KR obviously don’t just give you mp3s for the sake of handing out music – we want you to make love to the music, to caress the sound, to seek out the band members. Stalking is allowed, encouraged really.
So on that note, here are two of my favorite mp3s from Stay Positive, just in case you somehow haven’t heard them among the grassroots. By the way, I got around to asking Finn about Stay Positive and how much I enjoyed it and he said they really were experimenting on this album to have as much fun as possible. Amen to that. (P.S. his speaking voice sounds exactly like his singing voice. It was eerie…And totally awesome.)
The Hold Steady – “Sequestered in Memphis” [MP3] (one of my favorite songs of ’08)
The first time I heard “Sequestered in Memphis” I actually thought it was Springsteen and the E-Street band.