The critics and hardcore music fans, those are the people you have to get to first, so we're really happy about it.

The reality is that the shows kind of disconnect from the songs a little bit. You're playing the songs, but they take on a life of their own.

I don't have a problem rhyming "bar" with "car" - I do it all the time - but sometimes it doesn't feel right.

It's really easy, in a band, to overstate - you feel like everything you do is different than the past. I think this is just another Hold Steady record, but at the same time, there is some evolution. Like, "How can we make this chorus bigger?" "What do we want this to sound like?"

I was really obsessed with age. I kept saying it was a record about trying to age gracefully.

One of the coolest things to me about going to a show is you look over, and the guy next to you is sitting there drinking a beer and he's wearing a Donkeys t-shirt. And you're like, "Dude, I love The Donkeys."

The critics and hardcore music fans, those are the people you have to get to first, so we're really happy about it.