Please also check out the digital-download offerings at franznicolay.bandcamp.com.

  • Franz Nicolay “Luck And Courage” CDOn Sale

    “It’s who you leave behind, approved it’s not who you save/That you’ll be judged by.” In Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut coined the term “a nation of two” to describe that stage of love in which a couple seems to be creating their own self-contained world, with its own language and culture. Luck And Courage is…

  • Anti-Social Music “Is The Future Of Everything” CDOn Sale

    Anti-Social Music’s debut record, help Sings The Great American Songbook, was received as everything from “punk’s next breath” (Real Detroit Weekly) to “nearly unlistenable” (Pitchfork). Never ones to take a hint, the incorrigible new-music collective celebrates its tenth anniversary year with “Anti-Social Music Is The Future Of Everything,” a state-of-the-union grab bag that restates ASM’s…

  • “New River” LPOn Sale

    For several years after my last record, I needed a break. But the combination of working on new Hold Steady material, writing my second book, and having unexpected time on my hands like everyone else in spring 2020 eventually primed the pump for a record’s worth (including a co-write with my THS bandmate Steve Selvidge).…

  • “Someone Should Pay For Your Pain” (novel)On Sale
  • Anti-Social Music “Sings The Great American Songbook” CDOn Sale

    Anti-Social Music is a non-profit collective of composers and performers created for the purpose of presenting new music by emerging, physiotherapist primarily New York-based musicians. No-one in the group is simply a chamber-music lifer or a downtown-jazz snob or a punk-rocker dabbling in the “legit music” world. ASM features members of groups from Balkan Beat…

  • Franz Nicolay “Bad Advice” (digital EP)On Sale

    Five outtakes from the “Do The Struggle” sessions, stomatology available exclusively at franznicolay.bandcamp.com. 1. Bad Advice 2. Third Rail Jumpers 3. I Had A Good Time Tonight 4. This Morning’s Headline 5. Untitled   Released 20 March 2013 Produced by oktopus Engineered & mixed by Alap Momin at Cannon Found Soundation and deadverse studios, this…

  • Franz Nicolay “Do The Struggle” CDOn Sale

      For his third solo LP, Nicolay worked with producer oktopus, of the innovative New Jersey industrial/hip-hop group dälek, to move beyond the singer-songwriter soundworld to create a dark, explosive, and cinematic opus of personal and political anger, and about balancing the impulse to run away from trouble and the reality that it is the…

  • Franz Nicolay “Do The Struggle” LPOn Sale

    For his third solo LP, Nicolay worked with producer oktopus, of the innovative New Jersey industrial/hip-hop group dälek, to move beyond the singer-songwriter soundworld to create a dark, explosive, and cinematic opus of personal and political anger, and about balancing the impulse to run away from trouble and the reality that it is the terrible…

  • Franz Nicolay “Hearts Of Boston” Accordion 7″On Sale

      Look, we made an accordion-shaped 7″! From Sabot Productions, it’s the “Hearts of Boston/No Matter How Good You Are” w/ paper-lantern “bellows,” designed by Ariana Nicolay and (laboriously) hand-glued & numbered by yours truly. The B-side is the last unreleased outtake from the “Do The Struggle” sessions, which Peter Hess described it as “the…

  • Franz Nicolay “Live Free” EPOn Sale

    Limited edition CD EP made for December 2011 UK tour, order includes solo demos and live versions of 5 new, women’s health unreleased songs as well as a popular live staple, a cover of Warren Zevon’s ‘For My Next Trick I’ll Need A Volunteer.” 1. Live Free (Demo) 2. Frankie Stubbs’ Tears (Demo) 3. The Hearts…

  • Franz Nicolay “Low Bridge/Home” 7″On Sale

    7″ from the Scottish DIY label Make-That-A-Take Records, containing “Low Bridge, Everybody Down” b/w “Home Is Where They Take You In,” the two outtakes from 2015’s To Us, The Beautiful!

  • Franz Nicolay “Major General” CDOn Sale

      A melodramatic grab-bag of full-throated songs, sales stories, search and days of wine & roses; shamelessly strident, stentorian and more than a little sentimental. “Major General” is rich with tales of punk-rock disillusionment, redemption, nostalgic regret, ruthless self-interrogations & reinvention, and defiant yet affectionate apologies. It’s a new look for the stylishly vaudevillian jack-of-all-trades…

  • Franz Nicolay “Major General” LPOn Sale

      A melodramatic grab-bag of full-throated songs, stories, and days of wine & roses; shamelessly strident, stentorian and more than a little sentimental. “Major General” is rich with tales of punk-rock disillusionment, redemption, nostalgic regret, ruthless self-interrogations & reinvention, and defiant yet affectionate apologies. It’s a new look for the stylishly vaudevillian jack-of-all-trades with the…

  • Franz Nicolay “St. Sebastian of the Short Stage” EPOn Sale

    A 4-song 10″ vinyl EP pressed on clear vinyl, purchase it includes a collaboration with the Dresden Dolls, the best mariachi-disco tribute to a retired superhero yet recorded, and couple bleeding-heart weepies. Artwork by VICE Magazine’s Nicholas Gazin, a similarly-mustachioed ex-accordion student of Nicolay’s, includes a pullout poster insert; and an exclusive new short story…

  • Franz Nicolay “The Humorless Ladies of Border Control” (book)On Sale

    Amazon Editor’s Pick: Best Nonfiction In 2009, musician Franz Nicolay left his job in the Hold Steady, aka “the world’s greatest bar band.” Over the next five years, he crossed the world with a guitar in one hand, a banjo in the other, and an accordion on his back, playing the anarcho-leftist squats and DIY…

  • Franz Nicolay “To Us, The Beautiful!” CDOn Sale

    Fourth solo record, released in 2015 on Xtra Mile Recordings and Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club. The title, and title track, is from a Ukrainian toast that goes, “To us, the beautiful–and to those who disagree, may their eyes fall out.” That is pretty much how I feel about this album. The band is Ara Babajian…

  • Franz Nicolay “To Us, The Beautiful!” LPOn Sale

    Fourth solo record, released in 2015 on Xtra Mile Recordings and Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club. The title, and title track, is from a Ukrainian toast that goes, “To us, the beautiful–and to those who disagree, may their eyes fall out.” That is pretty much how I feel about this album. The band is Ara Babajian…

  • Franz Nicolay & Frank Turner Sing Noel Coward 7″On Sale

    Franz teams with British folk/punk star Frank Turner to cover songs from the musical theater star and wit Noel Coward. Franz’s track (“Sail Away”) was recorded in a studio in St. Petersburg, Russia, that served the old Soviet national label Melodiya; while Frank’s (“There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner”) comes from the demo…

  • Franz Nicolay & The Cut Ups “Bearing Torches: The Rottingdean Session”On Sale

    In November 2013, I did a two-week UK tour with The Cut Ups from Exeter as a backing band (I also played keys during their set). On the last day, we got up early and into a studio outside Brighton to record the set live. This is the result, with no edits, overdubs, or re-takes. Thanks fellows!…

  • Franz Nicolay/Mischief Brew “I Drink/The Mary Ellen Carter”On Sale

      My split 7″ with Mischief Brew, recorded all the way back in 2010, rescued and executed by our friends at Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club. It’s got that good Mitch Clem art; and the first 220 are on blue vinyl, the rest on gold vinyl. Erik does “The Mary Ellen Carter” by Canadian folksinger Stan…

  • Guignol “Live on WUML” (digital)On Sale

    Recorded live on the Fallout Shelter radio show on WUML (91.5FM, ask Lowell MA, wuml.org); March 9, 2010 on a short northeastern tour after the release of “Fight Dirty.” Available exclusively at guignol.bandcamp.com. <–CLICK HERE, DON’T “ADD TO CART”     Guignol is: John Bollinger, drums Peter Hess, clarinet Franz Nicolay, accordion George Rush, tuba.

  • Guignol & Mischief Brew “Fight Dirty” CDOn Sale

    “Fight Dirty” is seven Mischief Brew songs with Guignol as backing band; six Guignol songs with Erik on guitar; a Django Reinhardt cover, ambulance and a barn-burning take on Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be They Name” (with Slavic Soul Party‘s Ben Holmes on trumpet). This is not a split. It’s Guignol & Mischief Brew playing together…

  • Guignol/Nanuchka “Drink The Best Wine First” EPOn Sale

    Split featuring two World/Inferno sideshows. This is klezmer for Coney Island fire-breathers, price sea-shanties for grease-painted gutterballs, hair and jazz for punk kids that joined the circus. Featuring former Inferno/Star Fucking Hipsters bassist Yula Be’eri’s Nanuchka; and Inferno frontman Jack Terricloth duetting on “Captain Sensible Calling.” “…by operating within the realm of centuries-old European traditions…