Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XCIV--The Hold Steady: Banging Camp

For whatever reason, my youngest son only listens to two musical stylings:  anything (and I do mean anything) by The Who and the concert film of The Band's The Last Waltz.  Lately he's been on a huge Last Waltz kick and when I listen with him I find myself often thinking, "Man, nobody makes music like this anymore."  I'm wrong, of course--sometimes being an old fart you forget that you have neither the time nor the finances to listen to everything that's out there musically anymore and that there are probably plenty of bands still making music like they did back in the day.

And if I had taken a second to think, I surely could have come up with The Hold Steady (and The Decemberists and The Avett Brothers and Okkervil River and...), which interestingly enough, was formed after the band members from an earlier incarnation of The Hold Steady watched The Last Waltz and lead singer Craig Finn asked the future lead guitarist, "Dude, why aren't there bands like this anymore?"

Sometimes it truly is a small world.

Formed in 2004 in Brooklyn, New York (though lead singer Finn is from Minnesota and carries that midwestern ambiance), The Hold Steady have had a nice run as an "it" band garnering lots of good reviews for their early albums and their live shows.  Known in some circles as America's best bar band (not really sure what that means as I've never been much of a bar aficionado and what few times I have gone, the bands usually did shitty covers), they have released six LPs, six EPs, and one live album in the last dozen years.  They also did an absolute killer version of Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" for the Whatever The Fuck It Was movie I'm Not There.  While they haven't enjoyed a lot of commercial (i.e., chart rankings) success, they're still making records and touring so....

Released in 2005 on their concept album Separation Sunday, "Banging Camp" is a song about...fuck if I know.  Kids trying to find their way, I suppose.  There are religious allusions and lots of teen angst and bravado in the lyrics, but the song is driven by a wondrous back and forth of guitars (if you listen carefully on a system with a pair of speakers the guitars alternate between speakers) and Finn's vocals (which sound a little like Springsteen, not a bad rock and roller to sound a little like).  At approximately the 3:35 mark the song also has a false ending (emaycee fave) before the guitars take over once more and lead us to the end.  It's kind of an odd song for me, because unlike most (though not all) Friday Night Jukebox tunes, there's is no chorus.  Finn tells the story from beginning to end, and though he does repeat the line "There's strings attached to every lover" a number of times, it could hardly be called a chorus.  All in all, it's American rock and roll at its finest--one part Springsteen, one part CCR, and one part the meshing of Minnesota and New York City.

Rap sheet:  "He said, hi, I like to party on the problem blocks/And I can't stand it when the banging stops..."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee