The Hold Steady have been given the "what are you listening to" treatment by the New York Times' Playlist feature. Whether it's the Times or Pitchfork, these columns are almost by definition used by bands to show off their exceptionally eclectic and obscure tastes in music. But in between the Nomadic french musicians Tinariwen and rapper Brother Ali from their native Minneapolis, the members of The Hold Steady added a distinctily populist touch to the list: Oasis, kind of the biggest band across the Atlantic since the Fab Four:

KUBLER “Stop the Clocks” (Columbia) is kind of a best of, but they’ve refused to call it a greatest hits. It’s kind of a love-hate thing for me. The chord structures in the songs are brilliant, the melodies fantastic. They’re not reinventing the wheel, but it’s fantastic songwriting. I enjoy that there’s a lot more to them than meets the eye. When you initially hear it, it sounds like sugar-coated pop music. But when you listen, it’s a lot more intricate than you expected. It’s like Michael Jordan makes basketball look easy, but when you actually try to apply that to what you do, it’s incredibly more skillful than you had initially thought. They had four No. 1 singles off their first album. There aren’t a lot of bands that can do something like that. They have continued to write good songs. Like Oasis when we go into the studio, we go in with more material than we know we can put on an album.

Hold Steady wordsmith Craig Finn admitted that he "doesn't have any Oasis on his iPod or anything," but he appreciates their impact on the U.K. Silly Finn, he should have lied and said he was a huge fan—you need to maintain your populist cred!