Not being one to report much on frivolous celebrity news, gossip, or happenings, I couldn’t pass up the urge to post this, as it is an interesting little piece of smack talk. Thanks to the fine folks over at Stereogum, I came across the comments recently made by John Roderick of The Long Winters in regards to the extremely popular band The Hold Steady, and their music. John’s comments came about on the MSNBC site where he was serving as a correspondent for Bonnarooo, and he has many more eyebrow raising comments about other acts from the festival, and I recommend you check it out for a few giggles.

Bitch slap please:

The Hold Steady
These fellows have a rabid popularity that leaves me deeply conflicted. Although their live show is undeniably full of energy, full of engagement, and full of whimsy, their music is full of s–t.

I mean that admiringly, since most of rock and roll is similarly full of s–t, (Jim Morrison was 100 percent full of s–t). But after a song and a half, I’d lost track of the number of total rip-offs in their tunes, so much so that their set played like a medley of the greatest hits of the E Street Band, Bad Company, Foreigner and Styx. As played by your uncle’s friends.

The singer talk/sings like Bruce Springsteen during a breakdown, and although he may be saying insightful, hilarious things, the whole lot taken together is inconceivably derivative. This is heresy to say in certain circles, and I was stopped numerous times throughout the day by people I respect and admire who all exclaimed, “Weren’t the Hold Steady awesome?” but I couldn’t get past it.

I felt like I was at a dot-com Christmas party and a bunch of drunk webmasters got up on stage to jam, with the company cut-up rapping their mission-statement out of a three-ring binder. And everyone at the party said, “Whoa, those guys are actually good. They should form a band.”

Ouch!

I’m not picking sides on this one, just watching from the sidelines, and getting my monies worth.

mp3s from the feuding couple

The Long Winters ‘Pushover’

The Long Winters ‘Stupid’

The Hold Steady ‘Sweet Payne’

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 2:54 pm and is filed under general music news, mp3's.