Earlier this year, while the Hold Steady were on vacation, their workaholic frontman, Craig Finn, decamped to Austin to record a low-key solo LP steeped in the literate roots rock of his native Midwest. This seven-inch single is our first glimpse: "Honolulu Blues" is an artfully shambling Seventies boogie with plenty of dust on its mudflaps and loads of Catholic guilt tearing at its transmission, while "Rented Room" is a post-breakup blues on which Finn rolls out elegantly frayed guitar majesty that suggests he's more than just a brilliant lyricist.

Listen to "Rented Room":

Related
• Review: 'Honolulu Blues' – Three and a Half Stars
• Random Notes, Rock's Hottest Photos

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.