The Hold Steady: HEAVEN IS WHENEVER

[If you shout...]

The Hold Steady recently put the finishing touches on ‘Heaven Is Whenever,’ their new album set for release May 4th on Vagrant Records and May 3rd on Rough Trade in the UK and EU. The album was produced by Dean Baltulonis, who engineered the band’s ‘Almost Killed Me’ and produced ‘Separation Sunday,’ and was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in Upstate NY and Wild Arctic Studios in Queens, NY, with mixing also happening at Wild Arctic.

Singer Craig Finn says ’Heaven Is Whenever’ is about “embracing suffering and finding reward in our everyday lives.” Piano and keys take a backseat to guitar on the new record, which also gets production help from guitarist Tad Kubler.

Recorded in several smaller sessions spread out over a long period of time, the songs on ‘Heaven Is Whenever’ received the benefit of being tested on the band’s recent tours. As Finn says this allowed them to “see what was working and what wasn’t. I believe this record benefits from us working at a more deliberate pace.”

The tracklisting for Heaven Is Whenever is:

1 The Sweet Part of the City
2 Soft in the Center
3 The Weekenders
4 The Smidge
5 Rock Problems
6 We Can Get Together
7 Hurricane J
8 Barely Breathing
9 Our Whole Lives
10 A Slight Discomfort

See The Hold Steady perform songs from Heaven Is Whenever and more at the dates below:

April 2nd Ardsley, NY LIFE the place to be
April 3rd New Haven, CT Toad's Place
April 5th South Burlington, VT Higher Ground
April 6th Northampton, MA Pearl Street
April 7th Albany, NY Norris Auditorium
April 8th Woodstock, NY Bearsville Theater
April 9th Jermyn, PA Eleanor Rigby's
April 10th Syracuse, NY The Westcott Theater
April 12th Rochester, NY The Club at Water Street Music Hall
April 13th Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
April 14th Pittsburgh, PA Diesel Club Lounge
April 15th Morgantown, WV 123 Pleasant St.
April 16th Harrisburg, PA Appalachian Brewing Company
May 5th Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
May 6th San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
May 29th George, WA Sasquatch
June 12th Newport, Isle of Wight Isle of Wight Festival
June 14th Paris, FR Fleche D'Or
June 21st Amsterdam, NL Melkeg
June 22nd London. UK HMV Forum
Jun 26th Manchester, UK Academy 2

For more information and tickets please visit The Hold Steady -

 

[If you shout...]

Very pleased about the fewer pianos/more guitars claims, but nervous about the (lol) "finding reward in our everyday lives" ones. I hardly fault that premise, taken on its own, but I'm pretty tired of this nu-The Hold Steady image as, like, a buzzed, NPR self-help band. Hoping for a return to the olden days, though it's hardly like I hate the band and where it's unexpectedly gone. I just miss the anti-dancepunk screeds and hopeless/hilarious (rather than hilariously romanticized to the point of self-parody) characters and stories, you know? A return to sub-shitty production may help matters, as I hear the dude who was on the boards for the brutally engineered/mastered Separation Sunday had a hand in this, rather than the EQ-happy John Agnello.

 

[u2popmofo]

There are 2, maybe 3, songs on Stay Positive that I don't hate. Maybe this album will have 4!

 

[IWasBored]

i cannot get into these guys. it's another one of those bands that just totally baffles me as to why i really don't like them much, because it seems like something i should totally be into based off influences, and the people here and elsewhere who i've heard raving about them. i like maybe 3 or 4 songs a little bit, but outside those i really can't stand whatshisface's voice. he sounds so bored, and musically everything sounds so contrived, intentional, and strategically placed to appeal to a certain crowd.

i really, really wanted to like "constructive summer". like, i heard it and wanted it to be my new favorite song. it's trying too hard to be born-to-run-epic, and then there's that joe strummer salute that i'm ordinarily such a sucker for. it's catchy. perhaps it's just the production; i might enjoy it better if the vocals weren't mixed so high above everything else.

then you've got "sequestered in memphis." i like the way the lyrics are set up, and i like the way the narrative progresses. again, it's catchy. however, i don't know what it is but there's something, maybe it's just in the delivery...the boredom in that guy's voice that just says, "hey look at me, i can write a song. i can do it well like all our fucking heroes. i'm awesome."

i can't even get past "chips ahoy" on boys & girls in america. meaning i can tolerate stuck between stations, and no more. OF COURSE you're going to reference kerouac. didn't see that one coming a mile off...


and that's just what i hate about the songs i don't despise. the rest just seems unlistenable to me. song for the cutters? oh please. the one about the junkie chick that meanders on and on and on...shut up already.

 

[u2popmofo]

In its defense, Chips Ahoy is the worst song on Boys and Girls in America. I love that album, but also dislike that song.

 

[IWasBored]

that song is so bad i couldn't even give the rest of the album a chance.

 

[If you shout...]

song for the cutters? oh please.

Holy shit, "One for the Cutters" is terrible. I'm with you, there. Hilariously bad. They actually played it live, too. Like, on a regular basis! That song is seriously one of the most potent momentum-killers in the history of man.

 

[IWasBored]

Holy shit, "One for the Cutters" is terrible. I'm with you, there. Hilariously bad. They actually played it live, too. Like, on a regular basis! That song is seriously one of the most potent momentum-killers in the history of man.

i had to listen to it a few times, hoping to find some kind of sardonic wit behind it. but there really isn't any, is there? it simply is awful.

 

[If you shout...]

It's the "Unknown Caller" of The Hold Steady setlists. They may as well kill puppies on stage. It has a few decent things going on, lyrically, but they get overwhelmed by the retarded, biker movie premise which propels the song. Nothing works, including the good stuff.

Still, I do really, really, really like this band. I'm just realistic about it, you know? Really curious/nervous about this record. Though with a less critical slant, I definitely agree that for a few years now, the band has seemed to be writing for/to a fanbase, rather than just writing what it's going to write. There is just this cavernous gulf between the first two albums and the second two albums in basically every way I can personally imagine--in sound, in intent, in theme, in style, in musicianship, in the lyrics, in image...even in, like, the meter. It's really striking.

 

[LemonMelon]

Really hit-or-miss band for me. I love Separation Sunday, as well as a few tracks on Boys And Girls In America, but Stay Positive was pretty lackluster. I have every reason to think this new record will be poor, but I will try to...ugh...stay positive.

 

[If you shout...]

Not exactly what I was expecting to hear. Curiosity is definitely up, after reading these Q&As with Kubler and Finn:

Shore Fire - The Hold Steady

 

[powerhour24]

I'm excited, I liked Stay Positive a lot, but Separation Sunday is still their best.

 

[Jack In The Box]

There are 2, maybe 3, songs on Stay Positive that I don't hate. Maybe this album will have 4!

LOL

yeah, for me "Stay Possitive" was like... meh

but new Hold Steady is always good news

 

[u2popmofo]

Yeah, despite disliking Stay Positive, I've liked all their other albums. Can't really say I'm excited for a new album at this point, but I still hope it ends up good.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Hell yes!

Stay Positive kicked ass. Everything the band has done has kicked ass.

Fuck you haters. Fuck the haters.

 

[u2popmofo]

Pitchfork: Premiere: Hold Steady: "Hurricane J"

What do yous guyz think?

 

[No spoken words]

I listened, cos I keep trying to give this band more chances, since a few of you drool over them.

But, yeah, no. Still a hater, so I guess it's "Fuck you NSW".

Whatever.

 

[u2popmofo]

I think it's sorta lame too, honestly. I haven't liked the songs they've picked as lead singles for the two previous records either though (and flat out disliked the last album), so there's that.

 

[No spoken words]

I think it's sorta lame too, honestly. I haven't liked the songs they've picked as lead singles for their two previous records either though (and flat out disliked the album), so there's that.

I've tried, Scumbo. Lord knows I've tried. First cos of Shouter, then cos of GAF. Even stood there at Lolla listening to them Live when all I wanted to do was go far away.

It just aint happening. I think that listening to the song on that link represents my last time trying to give this band a chance.

I hope the interlanders that like the band enjoy the album.

 

[u2popmofo]

I've done the same with Wilco. It happens, not everything is for everyone I suppose. Ain't no thang.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I like it.

It's more of the Hold Steady as "self-help band", though, which IYS has been talking about. The whole "I don't want you to settle, I want you to grow" thing.

 

[u2popmofo]

I like the verses a lot, actually. Just not the chorus.

 

[No spoken words]

If you like the verses a lot how can you deem the song to be lame? Scumbo, you're a bigger liar than Bono one way or the other.

 

[u2popmofo]

Probably because the chorus attempts to channel bands like Boner is a part of, and sounds ridiculously out of place.

 

[If you shout...]

Meh. Sounds like it was put out by Vagrant, which is pretty pathetic.

 

[u2popmofo]

Most every record I have from Vagrant sounds better than that.

 

[If you shout...]

Diff'rent strokes, I guess.

 

[u2popmofo]

Oh wellz, I usually don't like their lead single, so there's still the possibility that I'll love the album. Despite all the crap I give Stay Positive, it has 3 tracks from that I absolutely love.

 

[powerhour24]

Sorry to be uncool for liking a well-liked indie band, but I actually really like that new track.

 

[LemonMelon]

Yeah, it's pretty pleasant. Nothing memorable, but the melody is nice. It needs a strong riff to really take off.