Three middle-era Hold Steady albums, one cage match: Stay Positive, Heaven Is Whenever, and the endlessly disrespected Teeth Dreams. This week we settle who actually deserves the skip-button reputation — and why the record everyone wrote off turns out to have more teeth than anyone gave it credit for.

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The Hoodrat Recap heads west for a Pacific Northwest run through Portland and Seattle, joined by Emerald City’s own Rachel and Riverside Matt. Three shows, three wildly different venues: a converted church, a public picnic area, and — yes — an actual working zoo.

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Rachel and Matt break down the weekend show by show, trading highlights and arguing over which setting won. Rachel comes armed with a batch of new zoo-themed titles for Hold Steady classics that get funnier the longer she keeps going. Matt, meanwhile, admits he needed to pull up his credit card statement just to reconstruct where they actually were each night.

Plus: listener voicemails.

Listen to Kevin and Gaspar review the awful Body Cam film with the guys from “The Or Is It” podcast.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/or-is-it-movie-podcast/id1739256989?i=1000781241999

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It’s back, it’s bracketed, and it’s got a drinking game attached — Diamonds in the Drain returns to crown a winner from The Hold Steady’s murky middle era. We’re pulling two tracks apiece from the three albums nobody can ever agree on ranking, and putting them head-to-head for gold, silver, and bronze. Spoiler: we cannot be trusted to be objective, because — say it with us — “but I like all these songs.” Drink every time we say it. You will not make it to the medal ceremony sober.

Before the bracket, we run down the latest Hold Steady news to hit the wire. Then it’s two songs, three albums, one drink-soaked argument about what actually counts as “middle” — and a podium nobody’s happy with.

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Chicago ‘26: three nights, one tornado warning, and a travel itinerary scripted by chaos itself. Night one gets two songs into Talia Hall before everyone — band included — gets herded into the beer cellar for shelter. Night two, the Empty Bottle delivers as the stragglers finally roll in. Night three goes big: massive venue, four massive acts, and Garrett sliding in right as the headliner hits the stage. Gaspar recaps his travel disasters in full Boy Scout rock-uniform glory, and Mike won’t stop bragging about his Lincoln balcony seats in the Land of Lincoln.

They were, against all odds, determined. Chicago ’26 unfolds like a tribute to Planes, Trains and Automobiles—but Unified Scene style.

chalk drawing courtesy of::

https://www.instagram.com/latenightchalkshow

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Tad Kubler stops by The Hoodrat Recap and it feels less like an interview and more like catching up with an old friend. We dig into his new LP Casanova Complex — how he played and engineered more of it than you might expect — and then things get good. Tad unloads road stories from his years with Lifter Puller and The Hold Steady that you will not hear anywhere else. What went down in Albuquerque? Why is Tad Kubler no longer allowed near the fireworks/pyrotechnics? All of that gets answered. So put on your head light…err (or whatever the hell Neil Diamond sang about ET?)

Listen to Tad Kubler's new LP on Bandcamp:

https://tadkubler.bandcamp.com/album/the-casanova-complex

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Mike had less than 24 hours in Boston. Did that stop him from catching two shows at The Sinclair? Absolutely not. Snuck in under the radar, did what he had to do, and lived to tell the tale.

Mark from Minny joins us fresh off four nights in Boston to break down every single one of them — and while he’s at it, he’s handing down the Ten Commandments of General Administration shows. Consider it required listening before your next THS outing. Mark has seen things. Mark has learned things. Mark has smelled things. Mark is passing the knowledge.

Boston weekend in the books. The Hoodrats were there-kinda.

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Rich Tarbell was there from the jump. Like, the actual jump — first shows, floor sweat, all of it. Then somehow he ended up with a camera pass and a direct line to more rock stars than you can shake a setlist at. (Spoiler: they were mostly lovely. Except for one guy from the ’80s who clearly never got the memo that it stopped being the ’80s.) Rich sits down with us to talk Hold Steady history, the beautiful chaos of those early shows, and how a fan becomes the guy with the best seat in the house.

Photo credit: Rich Tarbell

https://richtarbell.com/

Buy Rich's book here:

https://tinyurl.com/3s5jsf8b

Check out Shagwuf here:

https://tinyurl.com/yebxc5r3

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Tad Kubler has a solo album. It’s called The Casanova Complex. It sounds great. It sounds like nothing you expected. It sounds like three different bands depending on who you ask — and the guys absolutely cannot agree on which ones. This is that episode.

Also: Luke from Deepwoods, Michigan called in to vent and accidentally started a whole thing. What begins as a run-of-the-mill ticket buying grievance slowly turns into the kind of honest conversation this community didn’t know it needed!

listen to Tad Kubler’s new LP here:

https://tadkubler.bandcamp.com/album/the-casanova-complex

Listen to a playlist featuring the songs mentioned on this episode here:

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7JOlPRIH0Bk5uDSDl5O1VX?si=lIUOmLvTTp-5_7tvryEhuA&pi=aybY-o0eSXiDS

Apple Music

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/casanova-complex-inspirations/pl.u-qxgxsxbpLl

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This week on The Hoodrat Recap, we kick things off with a transatlantic voicemail from Stuart in Scotland 🇬🇧—because the Unified Scene clearly has no borders.

Then we sit down with Lee from Atlanta for a Scene Profile conversation about one of the sneakiest entry points into THS fandom: the humor. From tossed-off one-liners to blink-and-you-miss-them punchlines buried in heavy moments, we talk about how the jokes are often the hook that pull listeners deeper into the songs—and keep them coming back.

Finally, we turned it over to you. We asked listeners to send in the funniest THS lyrics, and you absolutely delivered. From classic crowd-favorite lines to deep cuts only the most dedicated fans would catch, we celebrate the moments that prove sometimes the saddest stories come with the sharpest laughs 😄🎤📼

Funny when they shouldn’t be. Honest when they don’t have to be. And always worth another listen.

Check out Lee Clontz’s blog here:

https://clontz.blog/2026/02/22/fargo-humor-and-the-hold-steady/

Listen to Tad Kubler’s new songs here:

https://tadkubler.bandcamp.com/album/the-casanova-complex

Send us a voicemail here:

https://www.speakpipe.com/TheHoodratRecapPodcast

Listen to Gaspar & Mike breakdown the movie ”Project Hail Mary” this April here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/film-studies/id1738835569

https://open.spotify.com/show/6U78l2eCnoQ1T5bMbTNLna?si=ir75HvAJSIujqlMQdYGV5Q

They went to London. They survived. And they are NOT okay — in the best possible way. Guest host Beth is joined by Dallas from Dallas and Hurricane Jess, fresh off what they’re calling the greatest Weekenders yet, and honestly? We believe them.

This week we’re recapping every single moment of the London 2026 Weekenders — the Pub Quiz chaos, the meet and greet madness, the Storytellers session, and of course the main sets that had everyone absolutely losing it.

And that’s not all. You, the listeners, came through with so many reviews that this episode basically transports you straight to London. Didn’t make it this year? You will after this episode. Already there? You’ll want to relive every second.

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