On their seventh album (and first in five years) The Hold Steady isn’t so much “We’re BACK mother****ers!” as they are “Alright. Alright. Alllllright”-ing their way back into our hearts.

Thrashing Thru The Passion finds the band sporting a slightly looser and expanded sound (horns!) and songwriter Craig Finn’s druggy, party-filled universe, a little older, a little beat down, but no less full of life. Join us as we dig into all of the good, bad, and magical highs found on the “return” of one of America’s most celebrated bands.

In 2017, a longtime friend of the podcast Seán Barna was living in New York City and wrestling with some serious life questions. How could he survive as an artist? Did he even WANT to make music anymore? Moreover, did he have anything left to say? In 2018 he found some of those answers through a fateful friendship and a handful of spontaneous studio sessions from which his latest EP, Cissy, was born.

We’re sitting down with Barna to talk about the creation of Cissy, the power of drag queens, struggling artists, and song, and winding down our time in the basement with our friend who was there at the beginning.

In this episode, Kevin sits down with Franz Nicolay, revered multi-instrumentalist / composer / performer who you might know from bands like the World/Inferno Friendship Society, The Hold Steady, Guignol, Anti Social Music and much, much more. Hard at work on his next solo record Nicolay talks a little about the past, a little about life as a solo artist, and even a little about singing like Meatloaf. Tune in to this one kids, because when you’re talking Franz Nicolay, well that’s about as good as it gets!

In our latest episode the curmudgeon is STRONG with the gang as Kevin and Paul face off over the latest from ultimate-bar-band rawkers The Hold Steady, and Adam lets us all know how he REALY feels about Future Islands and their latest super-sweet-dance-move (or maybe not so) powered record, SINGLES. PLUS! Madelyn weighs in on this year’s SXSW and gives her recommendations for the bands you must see in 2014!