The Hold Steady, Built to Spill, Titus Andronicus, and Bully

After the Minneapolis based band, Little Puller, dissolved, their vocalist/songwriter Craig Finn and their lead guitarist Tad Kubler came up with the idea for The Hold Steady and enlisted bassist Galen Polivka, keyboardist Franz Nicolay, and drummer Judd Counsell to be in the band. Franz Nicolay would later leave the band in 2010 to be replaced by Steve Selvidge, and Judd Counsell would leave in 2005 to be replaced by Bobby Drake.

The Hold Steady received critical success with their 2004 debut album “Almost Killed Me”, which was released on Frenchkiss Records. “Rolling Stone” has listed the album as one of the 100 Best Albums of the Decade. The album is considered to be a concept album and focuses on several themes such as near-death experiences. Their second studio album “Separation Sunday” was released in 2005 and was also critically lauded. The album conveyed Craig Finn’s talent for engaging storytelling, which was heavily loaded with religious overtones. The album featured Finn presenting the lyrics in a gritty manner and almost talking the lyrics instead of singing them. The music on the album was also in the vein of classic rock and roll with loud, screeching guitar solos and riff based structures. Such publications as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Billboard gave the album phenomenal reviews.

In 2006 The Hold Steady switched record labels and released their third album “Boys and Girls in America” through Vagrant Records. The album achieved critical acclaim like their previous albums and contained the singles “Chips Ahoy!” and “Stuck Between Stations”. The album was consistent in placing on many publications’ lists for best album of the year. After the release of this album, The Hold Steady was showing an increasing growth in critical praise and commercial success. In 2007 the band was asked to contribute a cover song for the film “I’m Not There”, which is a biopic about Bob Dylan’s life.

The Hold Steady’s fourth studio album “Stay Positive” was released in 2008 and showed the band expanding their sound with more instrumentation. The album also featured several notable musicians such as J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. and Doug Gillard from Guided By Voices. Apart from The Hold Steady, Craig Finn has also released music through his solo career. In 2012 Craig Finn released his first solo album “Clear Heart Full Eyes”. After Franz Nicolay left the band and was replaced by guitarist Steve Selvidge, The Hold Steady released their first song with Selvidge in the band titled “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”. The song was released in 2013 and appeared on the “Game of Thrones” series.

Through The Hold Steady, Craig Finn has released some of the most gripping songwriting of his generation. The band is known for their energetic live performances and have played many headlining shows as well as festival like Lollapalooza. The Hold Steady has also toured with many notable bands such as Les Savy Fav, The Rolling Stones, and Drive-By Truckers.

Formerly of the alternative rock band Treepeople, Doug Martsch created Built to Spill in 1992 alongside Brett Netson and Ralf Youtz. Martsch's initial intention was to change the line-up after every album, and true to his word after the release of the band’s debut album “Ultimate Alternative Wavers” in 1993, Brett Netson was replaced by Brett Nelson, and Youtz replaced by Andy Capps. Built to Spill, and in particular Martsch became known for his jamming style similar to Neil Young, his elaborate indie-rock solos like Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis, and fractured and cut-up song structures and melodies in a similar vein to Pavement.

Along with cellist John McMahon and a number of ex-Treepeople, the band earned their second underground breakthrough with the album “There’s Nothing Wrong with Love”, finding further appraisal from the indie-rock genre. After Martsch’s first of three albums as the side-project, the Halo Benders, and signing with Warner Bros. in 1995, Built to Spill released a split EP with Caustic Resin titled “Built to Spill Caustic Resin” in 1996.

The move to Warner Bros. still allowed Martsch his creative licence and with a line-up of Martsch, Nelson, Netson and Scott Plouf, Built to Spill released their major label debut “Perfect from Now On” in 1997. The album, along with high-profile shows including Lollapalooza, led to a significant swelling of the band’s fan base, and earned a host of positive reviews.

With a notable lack of structural consistency and continuity, Martsch was forced to keep the same line-up as to be able to play both new and old songs, and earned a reputation for an impressively elaborate and unpredictable live show. With a now fixed line-up of Nelson and Plouf, Built to Spill’s subsequent release “Keep It Like a Secret” in 1999 proved to be the band’s tightest and polished release, once again earning warming appraisal from critics and fans alike, and marked their introduction to the pop charts. On the demand of fans, Built to Spill released the unimaginatively-titled live album “Live”, with the same line-up, however featuring once again featuring Brett Netson and Jim Roth.

The band’s subsequent album “Ancient Melodies” (2001) was the first album to be met with mixed reviews, and Martsch went on to release a folk and blues solo album “Now You Know” in 2002. Built to Spill’s sixth studio album “You in Reverse” (2006) was heralded as a return to form, if not their finest album, and the band embarked on a subsequent tour in support of. The band released their seventh full-length album “There Is No Enemy” in 2009 followed by a festival show at the Matt Groening curated All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in Minehead, England, and subsequently release the well-received EP “The Electronic Anthology Project” in 2010.

Storming out of the rough end of New Jersey in the mid-2000's, Titus Andronicus delivered one of the most fully-formed debut albums of all time in the form of their debut album, 2008's “The Airing Of Grievances”. Lead by the incomparable Patrick Stickles, “The Airing Of Grievances” summed up everything that one needed to know about the band. Showcasing everything from their swooping, Springsteen-esque choruses, to their white-knuckle brand of driving punk rock and the eccentricities that mark them out as different from pretty much every other blue-collar punk band in the world, including songs called “Upon Viewing Brueghel's Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus”, and the album essentially opening with a crowd of people literally shouting “F*CK YOU” at God himself.

Almost immediately after the band's release it became one of the most critically acclaimed debut albums of the year, receiving glowing notices from places as varied as Punknews, the A.V Club, The Guardian and Pitchfork. Tours with everyone from The So So Glos to Lucero, to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists followed, and then the band did it again with their second album, 2010's The Monitor. A break-up record told through an extended metaphor of the American Civil War, the record was even more critically adored than their debut, was the first record of theirs to debut on a Billboard Chart and saw the band tour with The Pogues and Bright Eyes off the back of it. To this day, the band remain one of the most respected punk bands of their generation, for their astonishing live shows and records that routinely push the boundaries of what a punk record can be. For that, they come highly recommended.