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A Positive Jam breaks great albums down track by track to find out what makes the music great, what goes into the songs, and why these albums matter. The second season covers The Hold Steady's breakthrough second album, Separation Sunday, an ambitious follow-up that saw the band refine their sound, their style, and their narrative approach, and which put them on the map with the wider music-listening audience. Season 2 is hosted by Shawn Westfall, with Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman along ...
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Season 2 Bonus Episode 2: A Reading Of The Wasteland
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As listeners will know, A Positive Jam Season 2 host Shawn Westfall has called Separation Sunday our generation's The Wasteland, and so our final bonus episode of the season puts that to the test. We read T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland in a Craig Finn-inspired voice. We think and hope you will enjoy it as another lens on the wisdom of The Hold Steady. …
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Season 2 Bonus Episode 1: Dictating Doxologies With Father Christian Raab
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In our first of two bonus episodes for Season 2, we welcome Father Christian Raab, a Catholic Priest and scholar who also has a musical and Midwestern background, which gives him quite the perspective on Separation Sunday. We talk about beauty, man and God searching for each other, female mystics, the strings of baptism, other St. Theresas, and, so…
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Season 2 Track 11: How A Resurrection Really Feels
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We're crashing the Easter mass, hair done up in broken glass, and despite what the mural says up on East 13th (which one?) we're going to walk on back. For the last track of Separation Sunday, we do one of our closest readings, wondering about video booths and redemption, amen cadences and calm and collected priests. Somehow we span from Wilco to M…
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"Crucifixion Cruise" is the briefest track on Separation Sunday, and arguably both the most forgettable and the biggest sign of concept album excess on the album. But! But there are some serious questions the song poses that we try to put our mouth around, like: What's the difference between a poem and a song? Why is it good that this is a concept …
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Season 2 Track 9: Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
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Hard rocking blues, scene reports and literary or religious spirits, and one of the tightest cover bands we've ever heard: "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night" has a lot going on. And since Craig Finn told us what to celebrate, we invited a special guest to join us: Matthew Hess, founder of the famed Clicks and Hisses Hold Steady fan resource. He join…
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Everything is corroding, so we're hitting the road. Well, we never made it to Los Angeles, and Jackie O warned us off of Dallas, but on The Hold Steady's "Don't Let Me Explode", a doo wop dance across the country, we find ourselves talking about curveballs, Rage Against the Machine, things falling apart, and, most of all, the Upper Midwest. It's no…
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Season 2 Track 7: Multitude of Casualties
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For track 7 of Separation Sunday, "Multitude of Casualties", we hit a cruising velocity. We drove this episode like we stole it, but somehow avoided casualties. Instead we romped through Colorado's history, classic cult movies of the 70s and the 80s, and the importance of narrative shifts (or lack thereof).…
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There's maybe no better song to appreciate the Hold Steady than "Stevie Nix", track 6 on Separation Sunday. The song hits for the Hold Steady cycle, with hard rock, balladry, howling vocals, sharp lyrics, storytelling, shifting perspectives, and epic songwriting. To break it all down, we have Shawn Westfall, Mike Taylor, and Daniel Shvartsman on th…
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Season 2 Track 5: Charlemagne in Sweatpants
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Some songs they get slimy, and then they get slinky, and then they get funky. Some tracks feel like skips to some people and the best track in the band's repertoire to other people. Some songs act as a character's theme music and some reinforce stereotypes about the Holy Roman Emperor's namesakes. All of which is to say Charlemagne in Sweatpants is…
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Comes off crunchy but tastes like something deeper: Banging Camp, track 4 on The Hold Steady's Separation Sunday, may evoke tents and summer fun, but there's a more sinister undercurrent. Breaking bread and giving thanks may not mean what you think it means, in other words. We break it all down and figure out why this river trip is more Styxian tha…
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The gateway drug to the Hold Steady. An entrant in the lost best-of-the 2000s Rhino compilation. A straight ahead pop-rock song with verses and choruses and refrains. A backing singer. An emotional gut punch. A study in narrative denial. And a fairly simple song to discuss. That's track 3 on Separation Sunday, the single "Little Hoodrat Friend." Sh…
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A Positive Jam Season 2 Track 2: Cattle & The Creeping Things
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"Cattle & The Creeping Things" is a lot of The Hold Steady's fans' favorite songs, featuring Biblical allusions, world building, tight songwriting, and some of the sharpest and harshest instrumentation on the band's discography. As we find out on this episode, however, not everyone feels that way. We unpack the song to figure out why it rocks so ha…
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A Positive Jam Season 2 Track 1: Hornets! Hornets!
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Separation Sunday, the Hold Steady's second album and the subject of season 2 of A Positive Jam, kicks off with "Hornets! Hornets!", a track that shows both how much the band grew between the recording of their debut (Almost Killed Me) and Separation Sunday and how much they were staying the same. A fuller sound, lyrics with both call-backs and new…
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A Positive Jam Season 2 Playlist: The Best Catholic Rock Songs
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Separation Sunday is many things, but it's hard to listen to the Hold Steady's breakthrough and not think of Catholicism, nor of Rock and Roll. As we lead into season 2 of A Positive Jam, covering Separation Sunday, we thought it would be fun to break down a highly subjective playlist of the best in Catholic (and catholic) Rock. Listen to this epis…
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A Positive Jam Season 2: Separation Sunday - Trailer
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A Positive Jam is a podcast dedicated to breaking down great albums track by track. Our second season follows on our first, as we cover The Hold Steady's second album, the breakthrough Separation Sunday. Shawn Westfall, who joined us as a guest in season 1, will be leading our efforts for season 2, with Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman as co-hosts…
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A Positive Jam Season 1 Bonus: Emily Harris On Almost Killed Me's Sound and Gear
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Emily Harris, host of the Get Offset podcast and guitarist in Sundae Crush, joins A Positive Jam to talk about the Hold Steady and specifically to drill into the sound and the gear that the band uses. She talks us through her experience as a fan, getting to know Tad Kubler and Steve Selvidge, and how the band has evolved over the year. It's a great…
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A Positive Jam Season 1 Bonus: The Minneapolis Roots and Mythos of The Hold Steady
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The Twin Cities ooze through the Hold Steady's work, lyrically, musically, and as a matter of ethos. What does that actually mean and how can we better understand that? We bring on Kyle Undem and Brian Holm, co-founders and editors of 30music.com, a classic '00s webzine that reviewed, covered, and interviewed indie music acts of the time, including…
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A Positive Jam Season 1 Bonus: Bonus Tracks
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Almost Killed Me has a deluxe edition that features five bonus tracks. Bonus tracks are a good thing, especially coming from a great band. So, we break down the five tracks one by one to see what makes them stand out and why they might have been left off the album. These are lesser known but there are plenty of gems here. We cover: Milkcrate Mosh H…
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Every party comes to an end, and some parties almost kill us. We wrap up our review of Almost Killed Me (though not Season 1 of A Positive Jam!) with a look at "Killer Parties", the closing track on the Hold Steady's debut album. It's a ritual as much as a song, and we treat it with all due consideration. That includes making this a four-person epi…
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Sweet Payne starts off on an awkward step as it connects various threads in Almost Killed Me and in the Hold Steady mythology. But it rises from those beginnings to a glorious finish, revealing some of Craig Finn’s best lines and some of the album’s best ensemble playing. It also introduces the idea of the Unified Scene, a defining aspiration and m…
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Sketchy Metal may be the dud of Almost Killed Me. What makes it stand out that way, and what is there to redeem the song? We talk about its down-tempo approach, the ongoing pace of Craig Finn one-liners, the way the band still gets a heavy sound out of this track, and the prevalence of Catholic imagery on this track. And because it comes up, we sha…
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Hostile, Mass is another quintessential Hold Steady track. A mix of punky snarl, classic guitar licks, and Springsteenian sax solos and hope, the track is a stand-out for Almost Killed Me and an ill omen for the band's future at the same time. To break it all down, we're joined by Leon Neyfakh of Fiasco and Slow Burn fame. He explains why this is h…
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More than any other track on the album, "Knuckles" shows what makes the Hold Steady different. The one liners, the pop culture references, the crunchy guitars. The quips and the catalog of missed expectations are enough to fill a couple podcast episodes. But there's more to the song than Craig Finn's comedy routine. Matt Brooks rejoins co-hosts Mik…
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Certain Songs slows things down, and it marks the feature debut of Franz Nicolay’s piano playing - a key sonic element in the albums that follow Almost Killed Me. Certain Songs not only foreshadows the Hold Steady's future; it also raises the question: Do the band’s heartfelt ballads bring the momentum to a halt? We talk about how Certain Songs’ “p…
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A Positive Jam Track 4: Most People Are DJs
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We're on the party boat for track 4 as the Hold Steady brings listeners down to Ybor City for the first time. Mike has been to Ybor City, so we talk about why it's the perfect setting for Hold Steady style bacchanalia. We also get into why this is a lighter and more fun song, and which lines really work well on the track. Also, that guitar solo tha…
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Barfruit Blues starts sludgy and ugly, but turns into a soaring, affirmative song about the power of music. The band's back together, they're back in a bar, and it's better to leave and return than to never go anywhere at all. Right? Mike and Daniel break down the razor-sharp lines on this track and how a jumble of sounds and parts comes together b…
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"Positive Jam" set out what the Hold Steady cared about, but it was "The Swish" that showed who the Hold Steady were and what they were about. Matt Brooks (Washington Post) joins us again to break down the first big rocker of the Hold Steady's album career, track two of their debut Almost Killed Me. We get into the musical elements, including the r…
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We start it all off with a positive jam. Namely, "Positive Jam", the first track on Almost Killed Me. Matt Brooks of the Washington Post joins us to break down the Hold Steady's thesis statement, their scene establisher, their introduction to their triumphant career. We break down how the track works, including how it sets up the band's ethos as mu…
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A Positive Jam Season 1 Playlist: The Early '00s Music Scene
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As we build up for the launch of A Positive Jam - which is one week away, on August 5th - we're releasing a couple playlist episodes. These playlists should help you get excited to dive into the Hold Steady's debut, Almost Killed Me, and will set the context for the 2004 music scene that the Hold Steady crashed into. In this episode, Daniel Shvarts…
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A Positive Jam Season 1 Playlist: The Hold Steady Starter Kit
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As we build up for the launch of A Positive Jam - coming in on August 5th - we're releasing a couple playlist episodes. These playlists should help you get excited to dive into the Hold Steady's debut, Almost Killed Me, and will set the context for the 2004 music scene that the Hold Steady crashed into. In this episode, Mike Taylor walks us through…
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Intro To A Positive Jam Season 1: The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me
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A Positive Jam is a podcast dedicated to breaking down great albums track by track. Our first season focuses on The Hold Steady’s classic debut album, Almost Killed Me. The Hold Steady emerged in 2004 with Almost Killed Me, a record that took a throwback 70s’ rock sound and made it wholly new. In a time of 80s knock-offs, dance-punk bands, and the …
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