"Le' sad" will be what Hold Steady fans are feeling all over the world today... Pitchfork announced today that Hold Steady keyboardist/accordian player/swank dresser Franz Nicolay has left the band.
Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who has been a member of the band ever since sophomore album Separation Sunday, has left the group. In a statement on his website, Nicolay writes, "You should know: I've left the Hold Steady. I told the band I'd be leaving in early September, played my last show with them in Minneapolis around Thanksgiving, and dotted the t's and crossed the i's this week. Five years seemed like a nice round number. Thanks to everyone who was a part of the experience, especially the Unified Scene, who are nice folks."
For Hold Steady fans, this is pretty rough news. Nicolay's old-school bash-it-out piano style has become a huge part of the band, filling out their sound and helping to transform it from an indie allusion at 70s arena rock into something that could compete with the real thing. Also hugely important: Nicolay's backing vocals, which have added plenty of soar to the choruses of songs like "Massive Nights" and "Stuck Between Stations". Nicolay's also the most instantly recognizable member of the band, thanks to his natty fashion sense and pointy mustache. And his constant joy onstage was a thing to behold. He will not easily be replaced.
But Nicolay's got plenty going on for himself, too. Last year, he released the solo album Major General, the 10" single "St. Sebastian of the Short Stage", and the short story collection Complicated Gardening Techniques is out in February. He's also a member of the New York gypsy punk band Guignol, and as he reports in his leaving-the-band statement, he's "producing a record from Brooklyn's The Debutante Hour." We haven't seen the last of that mustache.
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