I can't stop listening to this band and even when I'm not, their songs play on repeat in my head (waoh waoh waoh we've gotta stay positive!). Anyone else?

To me, they are popular for a few reasons:

1. They constantly sing about the "good years" of high school & college when everyone was supposedly getting drunk, high & laid without abandon. Late 20s-early 30s males (that have full time jobs now and only drink expensive Belgium ales if they drink anything at all) in particular relate to this. On the flipside though, it can sometimes be creepy to hear Craig Finn singing lines like "how am I supposed to know if you're high if you won't let me touch you."

2. In this vein, they are not only a graduation from the hardcore music of youth (see: "Stay Positive"), but they are also a graduation from indie rock. Their recent interview on Sound of Young America only solidifies this for me.

I loved Lifter Puller (Finn's previous band), so when I first heard Craig Finn on the first Hold Steady album ("Almost Killed Me"), I was in to it already. But they were just finding their way and a few of the songs are about songs (see "Positive Jam") but others like "The Swish" sounded like Lifter Puller with the talk-singing. But then in "Certain Songs" they talk about Billy Joel piano rock and later they talk about being a bar band. Basically Finn and the rest of the band realized that they shouldn't resist their love straight-up guitar rock/roll and this first album was setting the building blocks for future albums

On "Hoodrat Friend" from their second album, they turned the corner as it was their first actual single that was catchy with Finn actually singing. Then on their third album, "Boys & Girls in America", it was all fully realized and "Stay Positive" is the victory lap. A part of me can't wait until I can look back on "Sequestered" with nostalgia. Here they are rocking out on Letterman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7RO0y1-ZAE

Even Finn holding a guitar is a progression- in Lifter Puller he was just a bad-poetry guy that couldn't play an instrument, now he's slinging a guitar over his shoulder like a rock star.

So basically, I'm obsessed with them, they're the most exciting band out there today and the nerd part of my brain just loves seeing a band grow and evolve like they have. I don't see it happen very often, anyone else have any examples?