Hi-Res Press Photos & Bio: http://www.230publicity.com/franznicolay.html

PRESS

John Barrymore had excellent advice on the subject of reviews: "Actors should never read them. If you don't believe the bad ones, why should you pay attention to the good ones?"

That said...

PRESS FOR ST. SEBASTIAN OF THE SHORT STAGE

Sound Salvation Army: "They say storytelling is a lost art in our digital age...But there is hope out there for those that value the power of the written word, the art of a well-constructed story. His name is Franz Nicolay...Obviously Nicolay [is] an incredibly evocative songwriter; in my heart I believe he's a born storyteller. There's ample evidence contained in this package that regardless of how his words make it out into the ether they'll do so in a significant way. At a time when words are losing their value and importance it is goddamn wonderful to experience the work of someone who holds them sacrosanct and knows how to dress them up and show them off."

Ground Control: "St. Sebastian offers a fantastic portrait of a player, because there is no sense that the music is the work of a commercially-minded performer. It's raw and candid and [covers] the emotional spectrum...That sort of belief against all odds is the most beautiful thing on St. Sebastian of the Short Stage and it's sort of incredible that such growth and dramatic evolution was possible in just four songs...Very few songwriters are capable of grabbing and holding the attention of listeners like that but, in St. Sebastian of the Short Stage, Franz Nicolay proves that he does, clearly. That's a pretty incredible power; here's hoping he wields it well on future releases."

Room Thirteen: "Mad but brilliant...Perfectly executed and brilliantly imagined, charismatic, bold...There's a warm, honest and delightful edge to all of Franz's material that makes it easy to love."

Altsounds: "Fun but also clever, upbeat and terrifically catchy...beautifully poignant...These four songs, ranging from despair to hilarity in less than 18 minutes, cover more emotional ground than many whole albums."

Pastepunk: "'The Ballad of Hollis Wadsworth Mason Jr.' deserves an audience larger than the ones that know off the bat it's a song based on a character from the Watchmen comic book. It's a sad, rollicking number that is an excuse for Franz to do what he does best: Give voice to doomed good men."

Go211: "Haunting and a good reminder that despondency is a universal experience and part of what it means to be human...Nicolay's music is a quick look into a very unique human being."

Sound As Language: "Can induce chills."

PRESS FOR MAJOR GENERAL

Rolling Stone: "The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay is best known for his classic boogie piano lines, jubilant backing vocals and sharply curving mustache, but his new solo album Major General looks to catapult him to star status."

Pitchfork: 7.3/10 "Eclectic and ambitious but unshowy, Major General is about as satisfying as any solo effort from a member of an established band still killing it themselves as I can think of...Major General hits some massive highs and nary a single crushing low. Nicolay's skill at playing punk sage on one song and slightly troubled troubadour on the next is really something special."

Alt Press: 4 out of 5 "Punk rock, the musical: A collection of songs that paint vivid pictures...Nicolay's persona as a storyteller is something between Peter Hammill with a Mohawk and '70s-era Tom Waits. Like those master songsmiths, Nicolay serves it up hot, no matter what musical milieu is on the menu."

Philadelphia City Paper: "Franz Nicolay isn't just another dude from Brooklyn who plays accordion, wears jeff caps and grooms some unique facial hair: He's the best....2009's first great CD, Major General."

UNCUT: 4-stars, Debut Album of the Month: "Yes, Nicolay is a man of distinctive appearance - half-cocked beret, Dali moustache, occasional goatee - and his first solo album exudes a suitably exuberant self-confidence. Few side projects have as much character as the witty and full-hearted Major General."

Q: "Recasting the windswept folk artist as someone with piratical swagger, he comes over like Nick Cave leading an American Pogues, and every see-saw rhythm is shot through with a potent, whisky-drenched drama. In other words, the man's a ham, but a terrific one."

Punknews: 4 stars ""If you've ever seen Franz Nicolay perform with any of the handful of bands he's a part of, chances are you've fallen in love with his delightful mustachioed smile, voluptuous sideburns, skilled musicianship, or the way his free hand flails in the hair when singing backup vocals. Well, now there's a new reason to love Franz Nicolay: his songwriting...rooted in a loose foundation of equal parts folk, rock, punk and jazz, yet with the lyrical charm of a hapless proletariat poet, picking up the minutiae of living on Earth in between urban storytelling and dramatic musical interpretations. Throughout the record, Nicolay never ceases to delight with his wonderful multi-instrumental compositions, veteran musicianship and engaging insight."

LA Weekly: "The chameleonic, boldly mustachioed Nicolay...has his own new solo thingie out called Major General, a charisma-dripping identity crisis in which the multi-instrumentalist (and very suave individual) makes the best of his time with a cinematically scaled opera of open-heartedly big ballads, wayward Gypsy troubadour tales and hilariously scabrous sermons about the importance of living large in these crampingly caution-strewn times."

Daytrotter (includes exclusive downloads: "Nicolay treats us to songs that float between the odes of men ready to make amends and men wanting to break things, men who are just shaking from being too livid or too slighted. These are men who haven't gotten over caring all the same. They're not too old to have their feathers ruffled or their asses embarrassingly chapped by someone who doesn't deserve the right to step all over the trodden frames and loose-leaf limbs...It's good to just be prepared for the next night and the next fire that will consume and burn up everything in its path - Franz, these drinking songs, the dancing ones and the Celtic dirges, the women, the frays, all of it."

The Onion AV Club: "Mustachioed Hold Steady keyboard player Franz Nicolay had a thriving music career both as a solo artist and a sideman before he signed on to serve Craig Finn and Tad Kubler's vision of party-ready pulp-rock. On his solo album Major General, Nicolay showcases that versatility, moving from rousing piano ballads to tinkly cabaret to meat-and-potatoes rock 'n' roll."

Spectrum Culture: "What might be most surprising about Major General is that Nicolay does not sound remotely exhausted with music: the album's 13 tracks explore a whole range of instruments and genres. Possibly sensing that Major General would be evaluated against his already massive body of work, Nicolay manages two fronts: producing something new while remaining accessible to his eclectic fan base...Franz Nicolay performs these songs with both abounding energy and the vulnerability of a drunken crooner. Every track on Major General offers the listener the possibility of raucous excitement or unguarded elegance."

Chicago Reader: "Franz Nicolay is best known as the grandly mustachioed dude whose piano, organ, and "woah-oh" backing vocals help push the Hold Steady's songs firmly into the realm of the epic, but he also maintains a couple of steady side gigs--including a role in the theatrical art-punk collective World/Inferno Friendship Society--and has sat in with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Leftover Crack. Recently he's added to his impressive CV a solo record, Major General (Fistolo), which applies the Hold Steady's wide-screen scope to a skewed take on cabaret, klezmer, and Gypsy music--an aesthetic evident in his choice of collaborators, who include members of the Dresden Dolls and Balkan Beat Box. Musicians with stellar reps as backing players are often only good in supporting roles, but Nicolay's got the songwriting chops and vocal presence to be a front man--and he proves it on tunes like "World/Inferno vs. the End of the Evening," a Hold Steady-ish ballad that looks at life on the road in a punk band through the fuzzy lens of nostalgia."

Aversion: "Spinning between the double-whiskey excesses of The Hold Steady and the cabernet sauvignon sophistication of the Society, Nicolay blends the impossibly different, though spiritually similar, bands into a concise and idiosyncratic package. All bluster and style, Major General sounds as if it's the natural byproduct of a classical upbringing that slummed it in the underground all its life. More importantly, Nicolay's one-of-a-kind style never sounds forced or contrived...Major General feels less of a high art/low culture hybrid than simply a masterful condensation of both ends of the spectrum into a new alloy."

Aversion (feature): "It's less a traditional rock show as much as it is a post-modern brand of vaudeville, where the ancient style's tilted on its ear, twisted by irony, punk influences and a self-awareness to which the old performers never had access...It'd be an unpredictable, possibly uneven, set if it wasn't anchored by Nicolay's charisma. Injecting his songs with an over-the-top energy, he solidifies his disparate elements with the natural abilities of a born performer, as he straddles the line between The Hold Steady's barroom classicism and the Society's cabaret excesses. It's the sort of thing born to be pushed onto the stage and enjoyed by a crowd well lubed by alcohol and rock volumes. Think of it as populism at its finest."

Philadelphia Inquirer: "Major General, his first solo album, is full of dramatic talk-sung anthems and melodramatic power ballads - propelled by guitars more often than keyboards - full of failed dreams and N.Y.C. street scenes...He has his own compelling stories to tell."

Philadelphia Weekly: "an excellent slab o' tunes that merges Hold Steady-ish anthemic bar rock and sharp lyrics with Old World/gypsy melodies and cabaret-style melodrama"

Franz on NPR's "World Cafe" with David Dye

Hex Ed Journal: "I am sure there is an old adage that goes something like, behind every great songwriter is, well, a few more great songwriters...[Nicolay's] personal offering of tunes deserve to be added to the great American songbook immediately."

Sound Salvation Army: "(A) singular piece of work that is a real achievement for a first-time solo artist."

Time Out NY: "Though Nicolay's day job is playing keyboards in the Hold Steady, he's as word-drunk as that band's frontman, Craig Finn....And he's actually a better balladeer than Finn: The CD's most memorable cuts - 'Note on a Subway Wall,' 'X-Games' and 'Do We Live in Dreams?' - could be outtakes from the Dracula musical Jason Segel's character writes in Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

Delusions of Adequacy: "Nicolay writes earnest, genuine lyrics that carry a certain soul to them...[he] doesn't shy away from the melody and he allows his voice to command what happens in the song - emotion, regret, honesty - in a poignant manner. With subject matter that revolves around everyday life and the people that live it, Nicolay focuses on the themes that crowd these people's struggles and joys."

Venus E-Zine: "Musically speaking, the record lays hold to the chaotic rock that is uniquely Nicolay's style: part cabaret, part ballad, part carnival. Mr. Franz Nicolay is on a roll...You canÕt help but be on his side."

Minneapolis City Pages: "Chances are, you know of Franz Nicolay, the dapper Brooklyn gypsy punk frequently found pop-eyed and hitting high notes behind the Hold Steady's keyboard, but you probably thought all he did in his downtime was wax that much-discussed mustache. Turns out the work of a full-time Renaissance man is never finished...Somewhere in there, Nicolay managed to record a solo album; titled Major General, it successfully combines his fetishes for polished fist-pumping rock and revivalist theatrics."

Charleston City Paper: "[Nicolay is] a multi-faceted gem."

NY Press: "One might expect a perfect conglomeration of all the styles of the bands he's worked with: a gypsy-vaudeville-classic-rock-punk fused album. That wouldn't be too far off."

Philadelphia Weekly: "Major General...merges Hold Steady-ish anthemic bar rock with Old World melodies and cabaret-style melodrama. Nicolay and his crack band - which features Dresden Doll Brian Viglione on drums as well as members of Demander and Nanuchka - dig into that new material with gusto."

Snob's Music: "A refreshing sound in indie rock...An album of accessible pop nuggets that are guaranteed not to wear out their welcome. 8/10"

Twangville: "World/Inferno Vs. The End Of The Evening: Put this in the color-me-impressed file. Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay unleashes this tremendous ballad from his forthcoming solo debut. The song is filled with dramatic tension and Nicolay's passionate vocals."

Buffalo Artvoice: "His songs range from fierce maelstroms reminscient of his current band to sparse odes to love and melancholy that you could envision Cole Porter writing. Rife with cultural references both old and new, Nicolay invokes a voice and feeling all his own, independent of his past or current endeavors."

Slug Magazine: "Major General is another impressive addition to his resume, as the mustachioed one emerges on his own as a talented lyricist and vocalist...simultaneously familiar and unique."

Vue Weekly (Edmonton): "Nicolay faces the songs down like a Broadway singer thrown into a prizefight...Nicolay sounds like a man who is using every ounce of his strength to keep himself restrained...imagine what he'd sound like if he let himself run completely wild in the songs - that would be reaching towards spontaneous human combustion. Even on the otherwise quiet piano ballad "Note on a Subway Wall," Nicolay is on the verge of explosion. All of that adds up to a compelling energy throughout Major General."

Time Out Chicago: "Wax-mustachioed mysterioso Franz Nicolay exudes a distinctly vaudevillian vibe, but his old-timey attire belies a broad musical competency. The man's a chameleon, equally comfortable prowling the stage with the goth-punk troupe World/Inferno Friendship Society, playing accordion with the Gypsy-folk combo Guignol or hammering away at the keys in the Hold Steady, stage right of Craig Finn...Nicolay's at his best on cocktail-jazz gems such as the klezmer-inflected 'Do We Not Live in Dreams?' or the gentle swing of the closing track, 'I'm Done Singing.' He's not too dim to ditch his gig with Brooklyn's finest bar band. Still, we prefer him in the lounge, hamming it up as the pervy piano man."

The Big Takeover: "Energetic, anthemic, and world-tinged punk songs. Think Ted Leo fronting DexyÕs Midnight Runners; and while that might not be for everyone, itÕs exactly as much fun as you let it be."

Time Out London: "Witty and warmhearted."

Pastepunk: "This release is just fun... Nicolay has made his mark in both World/Inferno Friendship Society and the Hold Steady, and on his first solo outing he revels in his own insecurities in riotous fashion, including the soon-to-be-classic "Jeff Penalty." If you like Gogol Bordello, you'll love the relatively stripped down full-length from Franz Nicolay."

Chris Riemenschneider, Vita.mn: "Major General is full of boisterous, sneering, anarcho-punk that's more in line with Gogol Bordello or Against Me! than the Hold Steady, but fans of the latter will still appreciate Nicolay's character-filled, novella-like songs and sheer rockability."

Nottingham Evening Post: "[Nicolay] probes life's dark nooks and crannies with the wayward vibrancy and vigorous endeavour of Phil Lynott and the vaudeville charm of a 70s Tom Waits."

Favorite10.com: "Major General is an odd (in a delightful way) collection of tracks that are utterly surprising as the man who generally lurks in the shadows (with a bottle of wine) in The Hold Steady steps out, into the light."

Spike.com: "If you enjoy the power pop structure that Nicolay's full-time band throws down, youÕre sure to love this, although this new LP also features a more diverse sound. With cabaret-inspired tracks like "Hey Dad" and "I'm Done Singing,"Major General will hopefully deliver a breath of fresh air to the indie community."

Illinois Entertainer: "Craig Finn may be The Hold Steady's undisputed attention-grabber, but HS keyboardist Franz Nicolay's solo record makes a solid case for who the band's most diverse songwriting talent is."

Blurt: 8/10 "'Jeff Penalty"...offers an astute analysis of the nuances of punk purism and the performer-audience relationship...These and the other rock tunes on the album, particularly 'This World is an Open Door,' are positively exhilarating, made more so by Nicolay's commanding tenor; who'da thunk that all these years, his voice has been his secret weapon? The Brechtian 'Dead Sailors' and the Django Reinhardt-esque 'Do We Not Live in Dreams?' offer bittersweet counterpoint to the louder fare, but Nicolay can deliver a rock anthem with the best of 'em."

Tiny Mix Tapes: "The man is dynamically and emotionally aware like few vocalists are anymore, and his abilities behind any instrument with keys is peerless."

PopMatters: "'Jeff Penalty'...may end up as one of the best songs of the year."

Chicago Decider: "There are plenty of bands with stories to tell, and some of them even make listeners want to pay attention to what they're singing about. The Hold Steady is one; leader Craig Finn's smart-yet-accessible lyrics put most of his contemporaries to shame. But it's time to pay attention to Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay."

Picasso Blue: "When the record is in full swing, it's every bit as catchy as Stay Positive, Bat out of Hell, or Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's schmaltzy and alive."

Sequenza21: "Franz Nicolay makes a compelling case for his work as a solo act on Major General...Nicolay is as talented as he is versatile."

Short and Sweet NYC: "Nicolay plays a poetic actor to a rambunctious soundtrack of reckless yet well-crafted slashes of guitar, piano and wild drums. His vocals are so full that this record could be played at the edge of skyscrapers and still hold up because they fill up so much space...It is hard not to be charmed by Nicolay's passionate lyrics and his emotional delivery."

LIVE REVIEWS

Music OMH (London) - "Nicolay is a storyteller and an entertainer in the cabaret and vaudevillian tradition of his heroes. Each song contains characters and events one might suspect of being at least half true, and the tales are infused brilliantly with equal measures of cunning wordplay, comedy and pathos...It gets crowded and clumsy down the front, but the ramshackle confusion is a perfect fit for the show, which has been an almost anarchic and freeform tribute to musicians, lovers and heroes."

Philadelphia Inquirer (show review): "Though his worth as a composer and crooner is apparent from his debut solo CD, Major General, Nicolay's live appearance Friday at the way-intimate chapel at the First Unitarian Church on Chestnut Street drove that point home like a punch in the schnozzola.There was something delightfully old-school about almost everything he approached. Not "old-school" like hip hop; really old school. Like covering Durante, plucking the banjo madly or breathing life into what he calls "the first most-hated instrument - the accordion" - as would an aged French boulevardier, on the elegantly complex ballad "Trains". But make no mistake, Nicolay was no throwback. Each lyrical couplet formed its own rich story, and each delicate melody grew into a minor opera. There's nothing old about that."