The Hold Steady Want You To Stay Positive
Friday June 20, 2008 @ 04:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

The Hold Steady

Although a track from The Hold Steady's last album referenced poet John Berryman's 1972 suicide, the band seem more optimistic with their fourth album. Stay Positive is due out on July 15 through Vagrant Records.

The band spent most of the tour for 2006's Boys And Girls In America writing songs for Stay Positive, which was recorded at Water Music in Hoboken, N.J. and at The Wild Arctic studio in Queens, N.Y. The album was produced by John Agnello (Murder City Devils, Sonic Youth), who also worked on Boys And Girls In America. Stay Positive features guest appearances from Lucero's Ben Nichols, former Guided By Voices guitarist Doug Gillard, Drive-By Truckers vocalist/guitarist Patterson Hood and Dinosaur Jr. main man J Mascis. The Hold Steady vocalist/guitarist Craig Finn says the title is a tribute to the band's fans, who he calls an extension of their music.

"A great American philosopher named D. Boon [guitarist/vocalist for San Pedro, Calif. punk band the Minutemen, who died in 1985] once said, 'Our band could be your life.' I think that is true. But 'your life could be our band' is also a true statement. I know this because we have lived it. These are our lives. These are your lives."

The recording of Stay Positive included talk boxes, harpsichords and banjos, which the band had never used. It also features a change in vocal delivery from Finn, who took singing lessons before The Hold Steady began recording the LP.

Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler were inspired to form The Hold Steady in 2002 after they saw The Last Waltz, a concert film about The Band. Drummer Bobby Drake, keyboardist Franz Nicolay and bassist Galen Polivka were added, and the quintet dropped their Almost Killed Me debut in 2004. The critically acclaimed Separation Sunday (2005) and Boys And Girls In America followed.

Here are 11 ways you can Stay Positive:

• "Constructive Summer"
• "Sequestered In Memphis"
• "One For The Cutters"
• "Navy Sheets"
• "Lord, I'm Discouraged"
• "Yeah Sapphire"
• "Both Crosses"
• "Stay Positive"
• "Magazines"
• "Joke About Jamaica"
• "Slapped Actress"

—Kate Harper