The Hold Steady: "Record 4 In The Can"

It seems The Hold Steady, last May's Paste cover dudes, have turned months of beard-growing, er, studio recording into results. The very charming photoblogging at TheHoldSteady.com reveals that the band completed its fourth full-length last week. The album's tentatively slated to be called Stay Postitive, Pitchfork reports, and by the looks of those photos, the band certainly has done so (through the trials of laying down tracks and disqualifications from their beard-off contest).

Producer John Agnello (who says he turned down a recording job with Cyndi Lauper because he was working with The Hold Steady) once again took the helm of the new record. It's the follow-up to their 2006 Vagrant Records release Boys and Girls in America (which we adored) and the band's fourth LP since 2004. "We did it! We finished The Hold Steady record!" the producer gushed last week on JohnAgnello.com. "It is awesome and we toasted last night around 2:00 AM as the last recall was finalized. It has been a wonderful 6 weeks and we still have little things here and there to deal with, along with mastering, but for all intents and purposes, it is done."

The Hold Steady spent the last few months of '07 on the North American NME Rock 'N' Roll Riot Tour with Art Brut, and now the band will bring the rock to venues around the UK (and exactly one Texas bar - tickets through TicketWeb.com). No word yet on whether The Hold Steady will take to the States in a more complete fashion around the forthcoming release.

Holding steady, for now:

February
26 - Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy 2
27 - London, UK @ Koko

March
27 - Austin, Texas @ Emo's

May
11 - Camber Sands, UK @ ATP Festival
13 - Dublin, IR @ Academy
14 - Belfast, UK @ Spring and Airbrake
16 - Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape

July
8 - London, UK @ O2 Wireless Festival

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