The Jesuit magazine America has a great online story about The Hold Steady, surely one of the most Catholic (and literary) bands on the scene today.

Lead singer Craig Finn weaves tales of young and awkward lovers stumbling through high and mostly low culture with the panache of a Flannery O’Connor and Bruce Springsteen lovechild.

Those of you unfamiliar with the band can check out some of their songs here.

I particularly recommend “The Cattle and the Creeping Things,” which, let me warn, is NC-17. The Hold Steady are less interested in shiny Steubenville Catholics than barfly Boston College dropouts.

Sample lyric: the priest just kinda laughed/ the deacon caught a draft/ she crashed into the easter mass with her hair done up in broken glass/ she was limping left on broken heels./when she said father can i tell yr congregation how a resurrection really feels?