The Hold Steady Play "The Weekenders" On Letterman, Ben Ratliff Pretends He's Craig Finn

The Rolling Stones playing blues didn't make them from the Mississippi Delta.

Right. Exactly. They remained an English band, despite recording Exile on Main Street in France and living around the world.

It just seems like you're using "Brooklyn band" as a pejorative (because Brooklyn=hipsters?), where there's no reason why it should be.

Not really. Or not deliberately. I think a band is from where it's from and some Brooklyn bands are undoubtedly Brooklyn bands — but the Hold Steady is very much a band that comes from a specific physical place musically. There are actual Minneapolis landmarks throughout their songs.

I don't mean to draw the analogy directly, but Leadbelly recorded some of his better known stuff in New York in the Village. But he would never be considered a NY folk singer. Because he was recording "Midnight Special" and it's like.

i kind of agree, but really i think only Craig Finn is actually from the Twin Cities (or Edina anyway)

Ha, yeah, I think drawing a direct analogy between the careers of Leadbelly and The Hold Steady would be a bit problematic. There's no way that I would ever try to deny the Twin Cities lyrical fetishism of Craig Finn, but lyrics are only a small part of music, and generally given more weight than they should have (critics generally coming from a writing background and not as much of a musical one).

I'm more interested in knowing what the Brooklyn sound is and how they don't relate to it. It seems to me like there's an incredible variety of music in Brooklyn and I wouldn't be able to nail it down myself.

I brought it up only because Ratliff's review defined the Hold Steady as a "Brooklyn band." I take issue with that defnition.

I have no idea what "Brooklyn" sounds like (and I'm assuming we're talking only of rock — expanding genres to include the Caribbean diaspora, hip-hop, and whatever else makes too broad a generalization impossible). Brooklyn rock may well sound a lot like a mix of what people played or were into in their hometowns. But I'm not all that interested in knowing either.

But thanks to Westerberg, Mould, and some others I have a fair idea of what Minnie sounds like. And I think the Hold Steady fall squarely in the middle of it.

And I think lyrics are very important. At least to me. I'm not a critic formally, so I can't argue what matter to people who critique professionally.

As for Leadbelly and the Hold Steady, the analogy I'm interested in is only one of place. As in, is the music clearly and directly evocative of and referring frequently to one specific geographical place. The analogy holds that far.

It seems like where we differ is I think that, beyond specific geographical locations in the lyrics, there's nothing that sets them distinctly apart from any wordy, middle-to-upper-middle class band from Brooklyn or Portland or Austin or LA or wherever. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, so I don't see why calling them a "Brooklyn band" is referring to anything besides their place of origin. (In Ratliff's defense, he does say Finn's lyrics contain "allusions to old rock records, Roman Catholicism, drugs and locations in the American Midwest.")

I love Westerberg, though I was never a big fan of Husker Du. I liked the first Sugar record though. And the EP after it.

Anyway, interesting talk!

Here's how this is a Minneapolis band, period.
"I'm pretty sure I wasn't your first choice….I was the last one remaining."

That sums up Minnesotans, perfectly. We may not be the one to break your heart, but we will be probably the one you grow old with.

(also, Jayhawks, Suburbs, Replacements, Gear Daddies, Husker Du and um, Prince)

They were supposed to be a bar band