I can't stop listening to the Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in America. I don't know if it's going to wind up at the top of my best of 2006 list (though it's certainly a contender) but goddamn if it's not all over the top of my best of November 2006 list. They've played the lead single -- "Chips Ahoy!" -- on TV already and they are riding high in the world of the indie rock blogosphere, but I fear there is simply no longer a major market for an album like this, which is the artistic equal to Born in the USA, among others. This is a record that could sell to huge segments of the under-50 population, if only they had a way to hear the fucker. Vagrant Records could make a million dollars by sending CD-R's with the first three tracks to every house in America.