Pitchfork

Earlier this week, Craig Finn and Packers/sausage aficionado Tad Kubler of the Hold Steady were in upstate New York. When we rang them up, they were "driving around," as Finn tells it, and "kind of scouting some stuff for artwork ideas."

Artwork for the fourth Hold Steady album! That's right-- after months of being hunkered down in the studio, growing their beards, the thing is finally in the can. All that needs to be done now is the mastering, sequencing, and, of course, artwork.

Pop the bottle of your choosing: this is reason for celebration.

"It's probably going to be called Stay Positive," Finn says, adding "we can say tentatively. There's a song called "Stay Positive" we've been playing live, and it was just something that's been kind of hanging around in my head a long time. I would say it's safe to say that's the name of the record."

For a band as prolific as the Hold Steady--they'll have four LPs in five years once Stay Positive is released-- tunes tends go from the page to the stage and then the studio in rapid succession, but some of the Stay Positive jams have been kicking around for a while now. "[Keyboardist] Franz [Nicolay] kind of got his laptop set up to do some hotel room demos over in Europe last summer, and we started throwing down ideas through that, and just kind of collected songs. And then when we got off the road from the tour we did with Art Brut, that ended at Thanksgiving, there was kind of a huge push right there when things were coming together. You know, sometimes you get in the creative mode, and you start using the other side of your brain and things happen quickly, there's a warm up period and then things start firing in all cylinders."

Recorded at a handful of New York-area locales over the last few months, the record is the band's second with Boys and Girls in America producer John Agnello. As Kubler says, the combination of the seasoned touring band's tightness and Agnello's deft hand behind the boards created a very fluid studio situation. "I would compare it to a basketball team that plays well together, that can get into that kind of rhythm. You can read people's next move and it allows you to kind of move together as more of a fluid unit or a machine, like a Swiss watch or something like that." He laughs, noting, "though I'm not sure I should describe our band as having quite that precision."

Though both Finn and Kubler are quick to point out that it "still sounds like a Hold Steady record", there's talk of opening up the sonic palette a bit on Stay Positive. Finn adds "there's certainly horns and strings, which I guess we had before, but there's also a mandolin, a harpsichord." Kubler notes the band's growing comfort with the studio setting, particularly with Agnello at the helm. "In terms of fidelity or stereo range, I think John took a little different approach in the way we mixed it in terms of just using some hard pans and doing some things different, rather than just a compressed guitar rock record."

One can't talk to Craig Finn without asking him about words themselves; specifically the ones he'll spit all over Stay Positive. When asked if there was any kind of overarching theme to the tunes on the new disc, he hesitated a bit. "I think the songs relate to each other in a way," adding "I'm not sure I want to talk about that quite yet." I figured maybe Kubler would give up the goods. "Well, he's sitting right next to me, so you're not going to get anything out of me!" Dammit. Let's assume alcohol is involved. Maybe parties, too.

Kubler did offer this: "One thing I can say is that the guy continues to blow my mind. And I'm saying that as a big a fan of his as anybody." Awww. "You rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and you go in and do takes, and takes, and takes, and different tracks of the songs, and then as that comes together, some of the funnest parts of being in the studio are getting to listen to Craig go in and start to do the vocals and hear the story unfold. It's a really exciting part for us-- I think I speak for everyone in the band-- when we're recording."

It's been said before, but what the hell: it's quite clear these guys just love making music. They'll even tell you themselves. "It isn't always just this huge bloodletting process that you sometimes hear other artists talk about in terms of songwriting." Kubler said of making Hold Steady records. "We do it because we enjoy it."

The Hold Steady dates:

02-25 Glasgow, Scotland - Garage
02-26 Manchester, England - Academy 2
02-27 London, England - Koko
03-27 Austin, TX - Emo's
05-09-11 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork) *
05-13 Dublin, Ireland - Academy
05-14 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Spring and Airbrake
05-16 Brighton, England - Great Escape
07-06 London, England - Hyde Park (O2 Wireless Festival)

* with Jens Lekman, Hot Chip, Les Savy Fav, Black Mountain, No Age, Caribou, Vampire Weekend, Of Montreal, Black Lips, Man Man, Los Campesinos!, the Clientele, Times New Viking, Glass Candy, Dirty Projectors, Born Ruffians, Redd Kross, Marissa Nadler, Jay Reatard, Meat Puppets, the Black Angels, Howlin Rain, Harmonia, Wooden Shjips, Shit and Shine, Sebadoh, Car Sick Cars, Ween, A Place to Bury Strangers, Deerhunter, Pissed Jeans, Yeasayer, Apse, Even