Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
"Atlantic City"
The Hold Steady covers Bruce Springsteen
War ChildWhen The Hold Steady get likened to Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, it’s usually in reference to the big, raucous, arena-sized bar-rock that the latter invented and the former aspire to. So it kind of made sense that the two would be paired up for the 2009 War Child: Heroes benefit compilation wherein artists covered their inspirations, but the song selection was a bit curious. “Atlantic City” comes from Springsteen’s 1982 record Nebraska and being a solo-billed album with a stark, acoustic presentation it doesn’t feature Springsteen’s usual backing band doing what they do. Not that that stopped The Hold Steady from pretending they were on their redo, doing it up big with piano and sax and all those E Street accoutrements.
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn’s solo debut Clear Heart Full Eyes comes out this week and it doesn’t go quite as far as Springsteen did with Nebraska in switching things up from the expected, it’s a leaner, darker work as well. And just this week, Springsteen announced the March 6 release of his new record Wrecking Ball; Rolling Stone has details on that while DIY and The New York Times have feature pieces on Craig Finn. And oh, a new Hold Steady record is also in the works.
MP3: The Hold Steady – “Atlantic City”
Video: Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City”
Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Craig Finn, Hold Steady