John Darnielle channels his inner Craig Finn to tell a very specific story in “For the Krishnacore Bands.”

Track: “For the Krishnacore Bands”
Album: Unreleased

John Darnielle has said that “For the Krishnacore Bands” is an attempt to write a song about a specific genre of music in the style of a Craig Finn song. That alone explains the mention of “Creeper Dave” at the end, because what is more of a Hold Steady thing than an unexplained, specific mention of a local that we never hear from again? In that vein, we also hear about the Fireside Bowl, a venue in Chicago where I once spent a bizarre New Year’s Eve and also some pretty good, unrelated afternoons.

Craig Finn, and the Holy Steady overall, writes about specific circumstances, mostly in Minnesota and surrounding areas, that feel like your own experiences if you tilt the camera a little bit. You didn’t meet Jester and Jules, of course, but you met someone who you only know as a first name that probably isn’t their real name. This isn’t your story, but it’s a story that rhymes. That specificity helps a lot with John Darnielle’s writing, as you almost certainly do not know what Krishnacore is. Maybe you do and maybe that’s projection, but I think the odds are you only have the context given in this song.

That’s enough, though! You hear the journey of someone trying to tell a message. John Darnielle was a member in his youth and even if you don’t know a thing about Krishna outside of this song, you don’t need to in order to follow it. This is about the story. Maybe you relate to it, even just the feeling of doubling down despite no one getting it. I suspect that part might ring true.