Today The Hold Steady releases their new song, “Heavy Covenant.” It’s the second song released from the band’s eighth studio album, OPEN DOOR POLICY, arriving on the band’s Positive Jams label via Thirty Tigers on Friday, February 19, 2021. OPEN DOOR POLICY is available for digital and physical pre-orders now. All pre-orders will be joined by an instant grat download of “Heavy Covenant” as well as “Family Farm.” In addition, OPEN DOOR POLICY is being released in a variety of formats, including standard black vinyl and limited editions of CD and colored vinyl. Positive Jams/Thirty Tigers will also be offering an exclusive limited-edition colored vinyl for independent record stores.
“‘Heavy Covenant’ is a song about travel, technology, and human connection,” says singer Craig Finn. “The song came out of two different music pieces that THS piano/keyboardist Franz Nicolay brought in, and with the help of producer Josh Kaufman, we combined them. It came together quickly, and when our friends Stuart and Jordan came in and added the horns to the chorus it really seemed to bring it together. To us, this song is a great indication of where the band’s sound is at in 2021.”
The Hold Steady released “Family Farm” in December, just before performing the explosive 2020 virtual edition of Massive Nights, the band’s legendary multi-night celebration of music and community held each year at Brooklyn, NY’s Brooklyn Bowl.
LISTEN TO “FAMILY FARM”
Recorded at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer D. James Goodwin, OPEN DOOR POLICY marks the second LP by The Hold Steady to feature the band’s current six-piece lineup. Additional performers include Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean on horns, Cassandra Jenkins and Annie Nero on backup vocals.
“OPEN DOOR POLICY was very much approached as an album vs. a collection of individual songs, and it feels like our most musically expansive record,” says Finn. “This album was written and almost entirely recorded before the pandemic started, but the songs and stories explore power, wealth, mental health, technology, capitalism, consumerism, and survival – issues which have compounded in 2020.”
“These guys are back in, in such a cool way for a band that’s been together that long and that has such a singular voice and really does something that nobody else does,” producer Kaufman recently told Stereogum.
The Hold Steady is: Bobby Drake (drums), Craig Finn (vocals, guitar), Tad Kubler (guitar, vocals), Franz Nicolay (keyboards, vocals), Galen Polivka (bass), and Steve Selvidge (guitar, vocals).
