Music
The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady may look like librarians, but on their second album, Separation Sunday, they rock with debauched grandeur. And in singer Craig Finn they have a lyricist on par with Springsteen or Reed; his tales star skeezy street hustlers with names like Charlemagne. Finn moved from Minneapolis five years ago and still sets his funny, observational narratives there, but he sees the same types around his Williamsburg home. “They may look more urban,” Finn says, “but the personality’s the same—the guy trying to get you to buy him a drink.” He promises to write about New York soon. “I’m a little sheepish about it. I’m scared of getting it wrong.”