Almost Killed Me

Debut album from ex-Lifter Puller Craig Finn's new band, The Hold Steady. Here, Finn provides a stream-of-conscious vocal line -- always honest, always brutal -- over a ragged b, late of '70s rock. (Finn's delivery sounds a little like Lou Reed a la 'New York.') The Hold Steady dishes out straight up rock 'n' roll that is, dare we say, almost rousing. 'The Hold Steady is a bar band out to erase the memory of electroclash and wake up somnambulant hipsters dancing to minimal German DJ's wearing electrical tape. Rounded out by guitarist Tad Kubler (ex-Lifter Puller, Song of Zarathustra) and rhythm section Galen Polivka and Judd Counsell (veterans of Punchdrunk, Koester and Verbena), The Hold Steady recorded this debut last summer at Atomic Recording Company in Brooklyn.' --Pitchfork Media