#12 The Hold Steady

Location: Brooklyn
Genre: Rock
# of Members: 5
Label: Vagrant
Fun Fact: The Hold Steady is the first rock band in 15 years to grace the cover of The Village Voice.
Track to hear: Chillout Tent
Status: Supporting the critically-acclaimed Boys and Girls in America, released in 2006.


I interviewed Craig Finn, The Hold Steady's frontman (and Twin Cities native) in the summer of 2005. I never published the interview, and most of it is irrelevant now since they have come out with Boys and Girls in America, but I find this little bit entertaining (when I asked him this question there was absolutely no hesitation. It was as if he had actually thought about it before I asked him).

The Top 5 most annoying things about the Mall of America.

1. There used to be this cereal bar and the cool thing is you could get your picture taken and put on a Wheaties box. Les Savy Fav did one and a couple other bands I know. And they closed it down. So that was annoying; that The Hold Steady never got to get a Wheaties box.
2. There’s a radio ad for this restaurant, and they never said it is in the Mall of America, they just say its on the upper east side, not the upper east side of the Mall of America.
3. Glamour Shots. My wife had never seen it before and said “What is this place? They dress you up like a hooker and take your picture?”
4. The roller coast in Camp Snoopy is pretty weak. A kid died in Camp Snoopy in a gang fight. Thugged out Minnesotian gangsters hanging out at the Mall of America.
5. The smell of Cinnabon and those Carmel Corn places. I can smell it on me a day after I leave the mall.