Recent Updates

Eric Nelson

Eric Nelson
Vocals/Guitar
Favorite movie: High Fidelity, Black Belt Jones
CD currently in stereo: Blink-182 "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket"
Favorite non-band activity: Leering
Favorite song to play live: Loosen Up, Man
Best thing about playing shows: Making fun of people when they don't clap
Goofiest HFS moment: Cracking wise in the car on the way to check out the Sound Farm

Max Kenkel
Max Kenkel
Bass/Vocals
Favorite movie: Blazing Saddles (and many more, ask him)
CD currently in stereo: Alkaline Trio "From Here to Infirmary"
Favorite non-band activity: Hollering
Favorite song to play live: The Record Skips, Andre Extra Dry Has a Posse
Best thing about playing live shows: When we play somewhere that everyone knows the words and they are screaming as loud as they can
Goofiest HFS moment: The last time we played the 620 House. It was out of control.
Nick Talley

Nick Talley
Drums
Favorite movie: Stranger Than Fiction
CD currently in stereo: Lydia "Illuminate"
Favorite non-band activity: Free jazz interpretive dance
Favorite song to play live: OLD - My Promise; NEW - The Record Skips
Best thing about playing live shows: Meeting new pepople and seeing old friends
Goofiest HFS moment: Listening to Max and Hooli-Phil sings songs about properly baking cakes

From Des Moines Cityview: Remember when you were young and breaking up with your significant other and having a fling was a rite of summer? Maybe you're trying to forget. Local rockers Hold For Swank hasn't, which is why the timing of their new album, "This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things," rife with breezy tunes of young love (and lust) sugar-coated with digestible pop melodies might be the perfect soundtrack for adventurous young lovers this summer. Vocalist-guitarist Eric Nelson, bassist Max Kenkel and drummer David Dempster seem to revel in the roller-coaster emotions of heartbreak in a surprisingly uplifting way on songs like "The Woes of Love," "Does She Realize," "Sleeping With the Enemy" and "My Promise (Another Fucking Love Song)." Ah, youth. - Michael Swanger

From Art Scene Iowa:
Hold For Swank - 4 Stars
Similar to: Angels and Airwaves, The Fray
Hold for Swank are among the cream of the crop when talking about artists from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area. HFS has an easily accessible sound that creeps up on the listener and once the music takes hold, it doesn't let go until the end of the record. The most appealing part about "Nice Things" is that never does the band take themselves too seriously. Tongue in cheek nods to unrequited love and obvious cliches are sometimes hidden and sometimes very overt. A record full of great music with zero pretenses. - Tony Tarbox

From Datebook/Des Moines Register
Hold For Swank - 3 Stars
A rock trio formed in Storm Lake whose 17-track album of romantic foibles serves some catchy melodies laced with self-deprecating humor. Start with "Alicia."

Upcoming Shows

9 p.m. Wednesday, March 17
Backbeat Cafe
300 N Akard St
Dallas, TX
ages & cover TBD
on our way to Austin!

4 p.m. Thursday, March 18
Six Flags Over Texas
Arlington, TX
free w/park admission
we're playing three 30-minute sets, and riding rides all day!

6 p.m. Friday, March 19
Darwin's
223 E. Sixth Street
Austin, TX
free as can be!
a free HFS show during South By Southwest?! holy crap!

10 p.m. Saturday, March 20
Mojo's Downtown
Shreveport, LA
ages & cover TBD
last stop on mini-tour!

5 p.m. Saturday, March 27
McElroy Auditorium
Waterloo, IA
cover TBD (all ages!)
a big Red Cross benefit featuring many local bands! we go on around 9 p.m.

5 p.m. Thursday, April 8
Vaudeville Mews
212 Fourth St
Des Moines, IA
cover TBD (all ages!)
w/Killola, Sick of Sarah, Goodbye Kai

TV PLACEMENTS
Music by Hold For Swank has been heard on the following TV series:
"The Bad Girls Club" (Oxygen)
"Real World/Road Rules Challenge" (MTV)
"True Life" (MTV)
"Exiled" (MTV)