Out of the loop
Nick Tabor
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Arts
At a Chicago music festival last June, my buddy and I ditched the !!! Show early to get good spots for The Hold Steady. I'm pretty sure they're going to to be sweet, I told him. The reviews I'd read in 2007, after "Boys and Girls in America" came out, convinced me I'd love their music - they're essentially a bar band that sings about Keruac and John Berryman.
But even in late 2007 I had felt myself falling out of the new music loop. Recent work overload had killed my habit of reading music blogs and gobbling up new MP3s every day, and it seemed shameful to only discover The Hold Steady after they had reached the indie equivalent of the Top 40. See, if a music nerd can't say he discovered a band long before his less nerdy friends, he'd rather say he just doesn't like the band than admit to overlooking it.
So I ignored The Hold Steady and listened to a John Fahey record for the hundredth time.
After school ended in May, I worked in a newsroom in which I couldn't use the Internet much, and my apartment lacked an Internet connection. I would check my e-mail and scan music headlines twice or three times per week. That meant only acquiring new music when I got a chance to visit my hometown record store, maybe once a month.
By the time I had seen The Hold Steady in late June, I hadn't been further out of touch with current releases in years. But Craig Finn came on stage, wearing thick-rimmed glasses and only looking about 10 years younger than my dad, and when the music started, he drawled and spat out names of Midwestern cities and American poets and stories about drinking with his buddies. The piano and guitar sounded like The E Street Band circa 1978.
My Lord, I thought, why did I ever ignore this band.
Here's why: For years, I cared far too much about timeliness. I went to great lengths to make sure I stayed in the loop regarding new music, which meant listening to whatever music received hype from music bloggers in a given week. It also led to dismissing bands I had overlooked during their first wave of critical praise, like the Hold Steady, when they became old news.
But even in late 2007 I had felt myself falling out of the new music loop. Recent work overload had killed my habit of reading music blogs and gobbling up new MP3s every day, and it seemed shameful to only discover The Hold Steady after they had reached the indie equivalent of the Top 40. See, if a music nerd can't say he discovered a band long before his less nerdy friends, he'd rather say he just doesn't like the band than admit to overlooking it.
So I ignored The Hold Steady and listened to a John Fahey record for the hundredth time.
After school ended in May, I worked in a newsroom in which I couldn't use the Internet much, and my apartment lacked an Internet connection. I would check my e-mail and scan music headlines twice or three times per week. That meant only acquiring new music when I got a chance to visit my hometown record store, maybe once a month.
By the time I had seen The Hold Steady in late June, I hadn't been further out of touch with current releases in years. But Craig Finn came on stage, wearing thick-rimmed glasses and only looking about 10 years younger than my dad, and when the music started, he drawled and spat out names of Midwestern cities and American poets and stories about drinking with his buddies. The piano and guitar sounded like The E Street Band circa 1978.
My Lord, I thought, why did I ever ignore this band.
Here's why: For years, I cared far too much about timeliness. I went to great lengths to make sure I stayed in the loop regarding new music, which meant listening to whatever music received hype from music bloggers in a given week. It also led to dismissing bands I had overlooked during their first wave of critical praise, like the Hold Steady, when they became old news.
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