The Hold Steady have shared their latest single, “Sixers,” available now on all DSPs and streaming services. The track heralds the band’s ninth studio album, The Price of Progress, arriving on their own Positive Jams label via Thirty Tigers on Friday, March 31. A variety of formats will be available, including digital download, CD, standard black vinyl, translucent green vinyl (theholdsteady.net), metallic gold (Independent Retail exclusive), metallic silver (Vinyl Me, Please exclusive), and white (Rough Trade exclusive). Pre-orders are available now.
“‘Sixers’ was written in the first days of the pandemic,” says frontman Craig Finn. “It’s basically a song about knowing your neighbors. Two young professionals meet up in their building late on a Friday night and spend the weekend partying together. They try to find a love connection, but it’s not quite there. It’s hard to make friends when your job is so demanding. Tad and Steve chime in with some beautiful guitar harmonies.”
LISTEN TO “SIXERS”
PRE-ORDER THE PRICE OF PROGRESS
The Hold Steady – who recently commemorated their 20th anniversary with intimate, sold-out shows in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC – will celebrate The Price of Progress with a live schedule including the 2023 edition of The Weekender, the band’s annual multi-night live event for fans in the United Kingdom and European Union, set for March 10-12 at London’s Electric Ballroom (March 10-11) and Colours Hoxton (March 12). Additional dates include a sold-out two-night stand at Chicago, IL’s The Salt Shed, set for June 30 and July 1, joined by special guests The Mountain Goats and Dillinger Four. An additional sold-out show at Chicago’s famed The Empty Bottle is slated for July 2.
Spring will bring the inaugural “WE CAN GET TOGETHER,” a special weekend curated for the fans in Portland, OR, April 27 – 29. The Hold Steady hasn’t performed in Portland since 2014 and has planned a variety of special events to help celebrate the return. Single-night tickets and three-day passes will be available as will limited tickets to a Soundcheck/Happy Hour event on Friday, April 28. The band will kick the weekend off at Mississippi Studios Thursday, April 27, and then will move over to Revolution Hall for the Friday and Saturday night shows, on April 28 and 29. On Saturday afternoon the 29th, the band will be hosting “WE CAN GET TOGETHER SATURDAY,” three exclusive pre-show fan events at Revolution Hall:
- Lead singer Craig Finn will be hosting his The Hold Steady bandmates for a live version of the podcast “THAT’S HOW I REMEMBER IT.”
- The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay will be featured in a one-on-one interview/discussion about his two books: “Someone Should Pay for Your Pain” and “The Humorless Ladies of Border Control.”
- The Hold Steady guitarists Tad Kubler and Steve Selvidge will be giving a guitar workshop. They’ll talk gear as well as demonstrate some Hold Steady songs, and will take questions from the audience.
Continuing the 20th-anniversary celebration with a visit to Boston, MA, The Hold Steady will be joined for a very special evening with Dinosaur Jr. and Come, at Roadrunner on May 13.
“My friends and I were Dinosaur Jr. mega-fans when I was at Boston College,” says Finn. “We got their album Green Mind the day it came out in 1991 because we literally couldn’t wait to listen. I’ve remained a huge fan. It’s amazing to be coming back to the nearby Roadrunner and sharing a bill with them and celebrating 20 years of THS. This is huge for us.”
Pre-sales for both Portland and Boston shows begin Tuesday, February 14 at 12 noon ET/9 AM PT. The general on-sale begins Friday, February 17 at 10 AM (local). For complete details, please visit theholdsteady.net.
The Price of Progress also includes the first single, “Sideways Skull,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. The track – which The Hold Steady recently performed live at their annual Massive Nights celebration at Brooklyn, NY’s Brooklyn Bowl – was greeted by critical applause from such outlets as SPIN, Relix, NME, Consequence, and Stereogum, which declared it to be “a big, meaty rocker…The Hold Steady are once again returning with a new LP. If the first single is any indication, we should get ready for another ripper.”
LISTEN TO “SIDEWAYS SKULL”
The Price of Progress arrives as The Hold Steady mark the 20th anniversary of their foundation, bringing new ideas, sounds, and textures to a still-evolving canon of nine studio album releases that began with 2004’s Almost Killed Me. The album – which featured front and back cover photographs by renowned Minneapolis-based photographer Alec Soth – was produced by longtime collaborator Josh Kaufman at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY, and mixed by D. James Goodwin. The Price of Progress stands as the band’s most sonically expansive record thus far while also remaining unmistakably The Hold Steady, showcasing narrative rock ‘n’ roll tales of ordinary people struggling and surviving in a modern world.
“These are some of the most cinematic songs in The Hold Steady catalog,” says frontman Craig Finn, “and the record was a joy to make. I feel like we went somewhere we haven’t before, which is a very exciting thing for a band that is two decades in.”
