It's kind of weird. We usually like our country dark and slow and lugubrious and miserable. And SLOW. But Split Lip Rayfield are one of the few bands who are a full on, rollicking bluegrass outfit, that kick ass and still hit the spot. Fierce and furious, these guys are all wicked players, insane fiddling, blazing banjo-ing and manic mandolining mesh into wild and wooly footstomping knee slapping old school bluegrass. With awesome harmonies and clever funny lyrics (songs like "Redneck Tailgate Dream", "A Little More Cocaine Please" and "C'mon Get Your Gun") these guys are unbeatable. When they do slow down even for a song or two, it's soooooo good. Dark and minor key, heartfelt and miserable. But even when they are at their most sensitive they are secretly taking the piss, like on the seemingly poignant, perfectly titled "Just Like A Gillian Welch Song."
The second archival release from obscure sound-art resurrectionists Dead-Cert (a label connected to Finders Keepers and Demdike Stare). The first was Suzanne Ciani's terrifyingly clinical Voice of Packaged Souls. This time around it's a revival of a 1982 souvenir recording from a sculptural installation project with Swiss electronic jazz musician Bruno Spoerri and Material Design theorist and artist Betha Sarasin, as they utilize stainless steel sculptures for an array of acoustical sound investigations, how cool is that? You may remember Bruno Spoerri from the eccentric Finders Keepers collection, Gluckskugel, of off-the-wall musique concrete compositions, zany musical inventions and rejected TV themes, here he strikes a slightly more serious tone as he melds jazz organ and reeds with electronic drones and modular synthesis, as Sarasin employs tape manipulations and computerized sounds. But while we were expecting this to be cold "furniture music", there is also room for the playfully melodic, rhythmic and the sublime as well. Beginning with layered recorded voices that create a syncopated rhythm of which computer and organ sounds are built upon into a strange formalist jazz motif, each piece explores a strange new sonic territory. Later industrial oscillations are revved up into a keening pitch before imploding noisily. Some pieces have a library sound-relief quality that reminds us of Egisto Macchi's wondrous planetary explorations on I Futuribli. Other pieces remind us of Moondog's idiosyncratic rhythmic jazz extrapolations. A gem of a recording for any fan of unusual avant-garde sensibilities. Limited to 700 copies!
The Andy Votel-affilated Finders Keepers label rarely, if ever, disappoints. They've brought us "Welsh Rare Beat", Jean-Claude Vannier, The Yamasuki Singers, etc., etc. Yep, Finders Keepers dig the crates like nobody's business, coming up with some incredible, unheralded psych/prog/funk gems to reissue. That brings us to Gluckskugel, a very interesting n' entertaining first-time-on-cd collection of music by Germany's Bruno Spoerri, whom we're told is an electronic, musique-concrete composer with Can connections. He certainly made a whole bunch of far-out, fun sounds in the '70s, ranging from rejected TV themes to experimental film soundtracks to industry demos, as documented here. Weird, wild, kinda kitschy! Sometimes augmenting his arsenal of electronics and tape loopings are live jazz/funk musicians, resulting in plenty of percolating, analog-synth laden grooves that recall the work of Goblin or John Carpenter (without the fright factor). Or, Spoerri would work alone at home with his musical gizmos, producing, for instance, the aptly titled "Drillin'" from 1971, using an early-model Japanese drum machine to great effect (and to the annoyance of his family). This comes packaged with cool photos and track-by-track liner notes by Spoerri himself, who promises that more unreleased music of similar vintage might be forthcoming, if he can find the tapes!
From 1967-1970, deep in their own little world in Urbana, Ill., the Spoils of War started making peculiar pop songs, layered with exotic instruments and experimental electronics, all performed with infectious warmth and emotion. One moment, the group is creating music that sounds like a jingle that sticks in your head forever, while the next moment, they allowed a folky sense of emotion and levity to rise above all else.
You know something pretty great is going on when you hear instruments more common in Afghanistan and Russia -- such as the domra and rubab -- on a record that also encompasses lots of heavy organ, male and female vocals, and a '60s fuzzy rock guitar sound. The Spoils of War had an ability to be both smart and catchy, sultry and playful, haunting and wholesome. They were the even-more-obscure sonic cousins of the United States of America. The spike in the drink of the Free Design. The fun daydream of Van Dyke Parks hanging out with the Monkees. Acid rock with a skip to its feet -- and a whistle in its pocket. Not a new reissue but one we just had to get around to listing.
Even the few of us who don't really dig this all that much, LOVE the bonus tracks, live and blown out acid drenched droning krautrocky nirvana, spacey and murky, heavy and so weird and amazing!
We love Spongebob. How can you not? Voiced by Mr. Show's Tom Kenny, SBSP is dumb and silly and loud and obnoxious enough to keep kids giggling and mesmerized, but it's also so drug addled and completely fucked that adults will be in stitches as well. Cartoonist Kaz even does some of the design so you know it's gonna be weird. Don't believe us? Go see the movie. You will understand. And if that's not enough, the soundtrack is fucking amazing! Mostly original tracks written specifically for the film by bands that are huge fans (or whose kids are huge fans). Flaming Lips perform their ditty "Spongeob And Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy", a song so good it could have come right off Yoshimi or the Soft Bulletin. Ween contribute "Ocean Man" (from one of their proper records, but so fitting for Spongebob), a warbly underwater pop song with muted melodies and slowed down vocals. Then there's tracks by Wilco (exclusive!), Motorhead, Electrocute, The Shins, and Avril Lavigne (who some of us love so pppttthhh!) doing the Spongebob theme, as well as a bunch of awesome songs from the movie including the Twisted Sister-ish "Goofy Goober Rock" and the Spongebob theme performed by a bunch of pirates! Awesome!
Imagine the Roots, if Busta Rhymes and Onyx were members, and Bjork sang all the refrains. Sounds like a mess, but it works perfectly. This was kind of a hard record to pin down. The first track is all stuttering Timbaland, with a demented, off-kilter, Busta Rhymes style flow. Track 2 is a bit of jungle fluff, but from then on, it's all cream. Kind of like a grittier, streetwise Bjork record, with catchy as fuck melodies, wicked beats, and really funny, super creative rapping. Now usually I don't go for the light stuff (you know, Del, Tribe Called Quest, and all that), but the Spooks manage to add some grit and grime, making this record darker than I expected. And consequently, my favorite hip hop record since the Zion I.
The Spooky Dance Band were an offshoot of Belligham's legendary funereal garage folk blues outift The Reeks And The Wrecks. The tragic death of Reeks guitarist Orion Satushek ended several brief but gloriously productive musical collaborations. The Reeks were gone, leaving a recently finished album, released earlier this year on Andee's tUMULt label, as well as a record by the Spooky Dance Band a group that featured Orion, his Reeks bandmate Jason Sands and his good friend Caroline Buchalter. The Spooky Dance Band shares a lot of sonic similarities with the Reeks, a stumbling, basement recorded, home made vibe, sort of dusty and grimy, a ramshackle jubilance, and a totally infectious love of music making that came through in every note they played. But where the Reeks took folk and blues and garage rock and twisted those all up into a beautifully skronky lurch, the SDB take bouncy circus keyboards, gypsy folk and angular new wave and turn it into a lush and bouncy warm and warbly haunted house new wave dance party. Farfissa organs wash over moaning deadpan vocals, wild wah guitars balance atop woozy sea sick rhythms, Buchalter's viola spinning melancholy gypsy melodies over infectious angular new wave punk rock. There's even a couple of covers, truly creepy haunting versions of Brian Eno's "Baby's On FIre" And T. Rex's "Cosmic Dancer", all droned out and slightly atonal, giving them a super otherworldly vibe.
Comes packaged in a gorgeous gatefold, with lots of photos and some truly heartfelt liner notes from bandmates and friends. R.I.P. Orion...
Hmmm. Don't know exactly what to make of this. It's a sorta sci-fi themed mish mash of frantic beats, scratches, spacey fx and heavy guitars credited to the odd pairing of uber-intellectual DJ Spooky and Slayer/Fantomas drummer Dave Lombardo, with such equally unlikely guests as Chuck D, Dalek, Meredith Monk, Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers and Living Colour's Vernon Reid. Maybe the only question to ask is: how come Buckethead's not on this too? ...or Bill Laswell? Or Anthrax?? There's something very early '90s about this, and the trio of updated, electro-metallized PE raps that Chuck D contributes -- "Brother's Gonna Work It Out (2005)", "B-Side Wins Again (2005)", "Public Enemy #1 (2005)"-- just add to the deja vu. We mainly ordered this in 'cause the last unlikey Dave Lombardo collaboration (the one where he plays Vivaldi!) we encountered was actually weirdly cool. But this... not sure why it exists, exactly. Some parts are all right in and of themselves, but it doesn't seem to add up to anything other than a demonstration of the range of Spooky's Rolodex.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A split 10" with two tracks from each. Spooky does hyper kinetic blunted drum & bass followed by a weird little downtown jazz / electronica / illbient number, while Spectre keeps up the doom and gloom with his morose style of hip hop.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Spooky's very own album of breaks for adventurous DJs. Still retains respect to the old school battle records, but has creepy repetitions we would expect from DJ Spooky. For battling with goblins, phantoms and the like.
(darn we're out of this new Spooky remixing Shadow label stuff thingambob, and I had so many nice things to say about Mr. Miller.) (actually now supposedly we have one) (oh, crap. do i really have to?) (yes, now go do as you're told, and listen to dj spooky) (of all of the horrors that could be thrust upon me, did it have to be spooky?) (quit whining) (hey, i'm just saying... why don't you go fuck yourself, and while you're at it go fuck spooky) (you can't talk to me that way) (oh yeah?) (yeah!) (bif) (bang) (pow) (thwap) (slam) (thud) (ouch, no biting allan!) (thup) (crak) (bam) pant, pant, pant, pant (so will you review that spooky record?) (never! i quit) (no you can't quit, you're fired!) (go screw, jerkface) (right back atcha!)(who said that?!)
An interesting project -- DJ Spooky, resident illbient black boho issuing missives to the masses from NYC (eeuw, I'm starting to talk like him), enlists the talents of excellent avant / free jazzmen: shimmering piano courtesy Matthew Shipp, cakewalkin' groovy bass from William Parker, squeals and cries from Joe McPhee's horns, athletic, careful drumming from Guillermo E. Brown. And of course, Spooky on laptop / turntables / kalimba etc. I was all set for this to suck, but it doesn't suck. It's "jazzy" trip hop that works. It's actually some of the most accessible work I've heard from these jazz virtuosi, so it's a nice introduction to them if you find truly free jazz too abstract to enjoy. Once in a while some sadly predictable breakbeats cheapen the music, but those segments don't occur too often. Augmented with the vocal flow of Carl Hancock Rux, Napoleon, High Priest (Anti-Pop Consortium). Pauline Oliveros even makes an appearance. If you like the clips below, you'll like the album.
WARNING: Just for heavens sake *don't* read the liner notes -- Spooky's so frickin' pretentious he ruins the experience. Let others do the critical analysis, no one wants to hear you analyze your own work, man! It's as if he thinks we won't "get it" unless he takes us by the hand and explains. The guy needs an editor:
"Check the vibe as jazz for the gene-splicing generation. An echo of the here and now put through the hard drive... It's a voodoo economics of the sound waves rolling across the basilar membrane... It's a post-rational thing... It's a synaethesia [sic] thing...Use your eyes to hear and your ears to see -- check the rhythm reality." Aaargh! Is he stoned or something?
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Surprisingly excellent album from Spooky, full of kickass hip hop (with Sir Menelik and Kool Keith), non-boring drum'n'bass, and obvious-yet-not-irritating influences from bhangra to dub to ketjak to electric-1970s-era Miles Davis. Even the "filler" bits are interesting. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth guests on one track. The cd has a few more tracks than the vinyl version.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
7 songs that completely kick ass and surprise even people like me who have never been all that impressed with the Subliminal Kid. He's cut out all the whooshy filler and noodling, leaving only actual pieces with beginnings, middles, and ends. This even gets AQ-designer Mark Wasserman's full on seal of approval. The best song is a collaboration with Panacea -- that should give you an idea of this record's power. Recommended.
Gap poster boy (in good company, I must say: Tina Fey! Will Farrell! etc.) Paul "DJ Spooky" Miller turns up on the world music leaning electronica label Six Degrees with a DJ mix cd for their "Under The Influence" series, showcasing his influences (natch) rather than current faves... So we hear from Moby, Carl Craig, State of Bengal, Ryuichi Sakamoto/Talvin Singh, Antipop Consortium,
While we might not always like DJ Spooky's output (both musical and, uh, academic) we'll always at least give it a try. Working here with the a string ensemble called the Freight Elevator Quartet, Spooky weaves a mostly dubby illbient score (broken occasionally by a funky junglist break or a droning turntablist collage with The Conet Project) for the already haunting Victorian violins, etc. Actually this is pretty good!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Don't know if you've been keeping track, but this is the fifth in DJ Spooky's series of "Elementz DJ Toolz", and sees him teaming up with noted Japanese electronica experimentalist Takemura. PowerBooks set on "fucked". Limited.
Solipsistic is the only to describe this. It's unfortunate that Spooky (after making some fairly interesting records) would return to the sound of his first recordings which were nothing more than Bill Laswell ripoff - an "illbient" concoction of plodding bass heaviness with a boring display of electronic squiggles. Scanner's samples (which include a less than inspired 'remix' of The Conet Project's numbers stations) don't amount to much on the record. Well at least the packaging is sorta neat with its diecut digipack.
Kool Keith and Sir Menelik rap SF hallucinations over wonky, spacey beats. Six versions on heavy vinyl. Really surprisingly good.
New single from AQ pop faves Spoon. Described in a former list as: "rough and raw, simple and dark, late night pop. Breaking up with your girlfriend mixtape pop. Really stripped down sounding with warm guitars and shimmering vibes, and a fucking amazing voice." This single has one track from their recent and brilliant album Girls Can Tell, one non-album track, and a Yo La Tengo
First things first, we've gotta tell y'all that "The Underdog" otherwise known as the first single off of this new Spoon album sounds SOOOOOOO much like Billy Joel! Go on guys, give us a few bars of "I don't care what you say anymore, this is myyyy life!" Not a bad thing in our books really. We bet they'd do an awesome cover of it. Billy Joel has made some fine fine music over the years, hasn't he? Anyways, this is Spoon at their most buoyantly upbeat and poppy. Their usual whip smart core arrangement of drums (and hand claps!) well defined guitars, undercurrents of piano and Britt Daniel's softly husky voice is polished off with some deliciously effervescent horns. Great!
Really the only problem we have with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is its abrupt end... and it comes much too soon. Thirty six minutes of Spoon? Simply not enough in our books, but...
Note: the limited edition cd which we currently have in stock includes a bonus disc of 22 more minutes of Spoon -- basically a mishmash of odds'n'ends like rough renditions of album tracks such as "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb", effected guitar abstractions and the like. Don't know how long they'll last, so if you want one of 'em you'd better act fast!
Geez, life is hard, innit? Don't wanna be a broken record about it, but there aren't enough adjectives in our thesaurus to describe how much we dig this band. Have to admit though, that each time a Spoon release date looms on the horizon, we anticipate it with more than a little trepidation. But there really hasn't been any real cause for concern, Britt and co. have yet to disappoint. Yeah, we totally blew our wad gushing over their brilliant Girls Can Tell album back in 2001, then its follow-up Kill The Moonlight took a little longer to sink its teeth in and find its own cozy place in our hearts. Now its follow-up is here. Marking more subtle shifts in the band's direction and sound, Gimme Fiction definitely dips a toe into some new territory -- very tasteful though, nothing outlandish. Perhaps most noticeable is the lower level of pep and fewer obvious hooks. In their places are darker, somberer tones. The addition of strings, horns and mysterious 'sound effects' build the band's already dynamic mood swings to much more pronounced highs and lows. In fact, the first song "The Beast And Dragon, Adored" is so somber that when we heard the first few piano strains it made us think we'd put on a Black Heart Procession album. Then there's a very strange funky detour on the third song "I Turn My Camera On" in which Daniel affects a Prince-esque falsetto, once again causing us check to make sure that our stereo was indeed playing Spoon. And doesn't "I Summon You" sounds like a scaled down E.L.O. song? In contrast to those three decidedly 'new' directions, there's also lots of warm, familiar Spoonisms like "Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine", "My Mathematical Mind" and "Merchants Of Soul". Great! With guests John Vanderslice, Crooked Fingers' Eric Bachmann, and members of the Tosca String Quartet.
Added Spoon treat, while they last, and only with the cd: you also get a four-song cdep with bonus songs "Carryout Kids" (Byram and Cup thought its piano/vocals beginning sounded like an audition for a Broadway musical) and an incredibly distorted, farty "You Was It" as well as demo versions of "I Summon You" and "Sister Jack".
Not sure how this band has managed to remain so unpopular for so long, 'cause god damn if Spoon aren't one of the best pop bands around. And not sugary sweet Kindercore pop, or retro sixties Elephant Six pop, but more rough and raw, simple and dark, late night pop. Breaking up with your girlfriend mixtape pop. Really stripped down sounding with warm guitars and shimmering vibes, and a fucking amazing voice. Spoon seem to suffer from the Sloan syndrome; being a really creative and intelligent pop band, that doesn't sound enough like other pop bands to 'make it big', and end up being bounced from label to label and dropped, even after recording amazing record after amazing record. It's hard for me to objectively describe Spoon in terms of 'their sound' and/or other bands since they have been one of my favorite bands for so long now and everything they do seems so unique to them. They obviously fit somewhat comfortably on the various labels they have recorded for (Matador, Merge, etc.) which gives you some idea, but their sound is really unique. Definitely for fans of the above (Matador, Merge, Sloan), but maybe also for those folks who feel like they may have outgrown pop or indie rock.
This just might do the trick.
What more to say? A new Spoon record! Sure it may only be 4 songs (not 3 like it says on the sleeve), but heck, how long has it been since we've had some new Spoon? Far too long. And "Got Nuffin" is just what we've all been hankering for, nothing super new, no sonic reinvention, but then who wants that, it's just another killer brooding, chugging chunk of moody indie rock, a sound that few other modern rock bands can even come close to. Lots of fuzzy bass, minimal piano plink, some cool effected guitar, and Britt Daniel's unmistakable croon. Catchy and kick ass, sounds like it could have come right off any of their last few full lengths.
The other three tracks are all over the map. "Tweakers" is some cool abstract piano and drum experiment. Just a looping drum jam, super muddy and muted, with the occasional bit of electronic crunch, or atonal piano pound, even a little bit of drone-y high end, but it's mostly just the drums, and it's kinda cool. Leads right into "Stroke Their Brains", a shuffling slow burner, all fuzzy jangle and skittery rhythm, minor key melodies, strange effected vocals, an awesome Daniel vocal part, and lots of woozy twang.
Then after a few minutes of silence is the "Tweakers" remix, which sounds almost exactly the same, slightly altered, the beat subtly effected, the song a bit chopped up and stuttery, really cool, but then for a brief moment, there's some rapping, yep, rapping, really goofy dorky distorted rapping. It's only for 30 seconds or so, and it somehow works, sort of, but we imagine there's a reason it's tucked away after the silence and is unlisted on the sleeve. Maybe that track's for Spoon freeks only, but the rest of this way too brief ep definitely has us chomping at the bit for a new full length!
Okay, you're all probably just as anxious about this release as we are here. And you're probably wondering, as we were here, "just how the fuck are they going to top Girls Can Tell?"It's a tough thing for any band to take that next step after releasing a -- dare I fucking say -- perfect record. It's twice as hard since everyone is expecting to be blown away from the first beat. So is it as good as the last? Hmmm... Well, it didn't punch anyone's lights out on the first, or second, beats. But after listening through a couple times, 4 out of 6 lovers of the last album feel that this album kicks ass. And while it doesn't have as much immediate impact, or as many sure-fire "hits" on it, that doesn't seem as important. It feels like they're trying something new and completely different. Well, as different as they can be while still retaining their Spoon-isms. A customer new to Spoon described this as the record that Elton John would've made if he had the White Stripes and the Strokes as his backup band. Which is to say it's got a lot of swagger and incandescent hooks, but it's not trendy or prefab in any way -- more like Squeeze with their sparkling, precise, stripped down pop songs. Fucking fantastic. Kill The Moonlight seems like a much more introspective record than Girls Can Tell, rife with a greater amount of studio experimentation and instrumentation. Daniels and crew tinker around with piano, mellotron, *human beat box*, and a great multitude of effects. Which isn't to say that this is an "experimental" record at all. Nor is it all unstructured "jams". No, it's a lean machine with nary an ounce of fat on its almost brief 38 minute run time.
After an absolutely brilliant and criminally overlooked record on a major label (the absolutely essential 'A Series Of Sneaks' which we also carry), Spoon have made the move to the ever-flourishing Merge label. While still undeniably indebted to the almighty Pixies, Spoon just keep getting better and better. We can only hope that people notice and make them the stars they deserve to be.
'Love Ways' is a brooding and tense record, taking the sounds of Yo La Tengo and the Pixies, stretching them out a bit, adding a gravelly, world weary voice, and a dark intensity, without sacrificing their perfect pop hooks. So recommended!
Spoon completist alert... To keep Spoon on your mind and in your ears and in your eyes, Merge Records have just released this cdep following up their great Gimme Fiction album that came out back in May. There's three Spoon treats to listen to and one to watch -- the album track and video for "Sister Jack", a remix of "I Turn My Camera On" by John McEntire and an additional song "Sunday Morning Wednesday Night". Hurrah!
A little vinyl teaser for those of us that still have the ability to play it. The A side is from these Texans' forthcoming album on Merge and the B has a couple of exclusive tracks. If this 7" is any indication of things to come, fans of Spoon's last album Girls Can Tell will not be disappointed by Kill the Moonlight. "Someone Something" is much like what Britt Daniel and Co. were doing before: Elvis Costello fused with Pixies pop goodness. The two exclusive tracks include "Is This The Last Time?" driven by a pulsing rhythm guitar riff not entirely unlike AC/DC's "For Those About To Rock We Salute You", does not approach the heavy magnitude of AC/DC, but this is Spoon after all and "In The Right Place At The Right Time" is a spacey little ditty, almost an ambient Spoon track which may not appeal to all but the most die hard fans.
Longtime indie rock / perfect pop faves Spoon have this limited edition 45rpm 10" single out for this year's "Black Friday Record Store Day", the A-side being their cool cover of the Cramps song "TV Set" (which also appeared on the soundtrack to the Poltergeist remake/reboot, apparently), with all the hectic fuzz and swagger you'd hope for. Wonder if they thought it was clever, also, since lots of people buy TV sets on Black Friday? On the flip: "Let Me Be Mine (Night Version)", an alternate take on a track from last year's Spoon album They Want My Soul. Pink marbled vinyl, limited stock!
It seems like there are a million bands these days doing their best Spoon impressions. And who can blame then? Spoon are awesome. It's no surprise bands want to sound like them. And who can complain really? We love their dour moody groove and propulsive indie jangle. So the more the merrier. As long as it is in some way acknowledged that they were the first, and remain probably the best at being, well, Spoon! But there was a time, when that dynamic was reversed, when Spoon were the ones cribbing their sound from another band. They weren't alone though. In fact some of your past and current faves were right there along with them. Crafting hauntingly oblique angular indie jangle, whispery loping verses and huge crunchy choruses. Sound familiar? You're thinking Nirvana maybe? Nope, but Nirvana were one of the those bands who also borrowed a critical element of their sound from one of the most influential indie rock bands of the nineties. We're of course talking about everyone's favorite outsider indie, loud/soft rockers the Pixies. The band who singlehandedly launched a million bands. And then of course tons of THOSE bands launched a million more.
Back in 1996/97, Spoon were offering up their own take on the Pixies sound. Sometimes it's uncanny actually, Spoon frontman Britt Daniel's crackly croon a dead ringer for Frank Black, the band's loping, muted guitar shuffle and bombastic choruses sounding like they could be some elusive Pixies B-side. In fact the Pixies worship on display here is almost too much for some. Even around here, a bastion of massive Spoon love, a few Spoon fans just can't handle how Pixie-ish these records sound. But heck, every band borrows, the key being to infuse the borrowed sounds with ideas and music that are distinctly your own. And in that respect these two discs are completely brilliant. The seeds of what would blossom into the Spoon we know and love, planted in the rich soil of all the Pixies bombast that came before. Personally, we didn't really notice the Pixies thing until it was pointed out to us. Instead, we dug these records, mostly because they happen to feature Spoon at their most rocking. Imagine Girls Can Tell or Kill The Moonlight supercharged, a little more chaotic and scrabbly, a bit more, dare we say, punk sounding. The guitars are more raw, Daniel's voice is a bit more scratchy and less croony, the arrangements are much more ROCK and a lot more dynamic. It's still Spoon, so there are hooks everywhere, but they're wrapped in big jagged guitars, the drums pound and the production is definitely a hint at Spoon's studio experimentation/mastery to come. On one of our favorite tracks, "All The Negatives Have Been Destroyed," voices and weird sounds careen all over the place in the background, while the band kick out the jams on a track with one of the catchiest choruses ever.
This double set collects the 1996 Telephono full length and the 1997 ep Soft Effects, which features one of our other favorite Spoon tracks "Waiting For The Kid To Come Out", a classic Spoon track for sure, but like the rest of the tunes here, much harder edged and just way more rocking. In fact a few of us here, if forced to pick, might just claim these discs as our favorite Spoon records ever.
Fans of Spoon who have yet to hear these discs will flip. And if there are somehow, inexplicably, some indie rockers out there who have yet to discover the glorious joy of Spoon's dark moody pop world, or for some reason, wish that Spoon would let loose a little more, well then, this here set should pretty much set you straight!
Packaged in cardboard gatefold, housed in a cool two sided slipcover.
Spoon records are a curious thing in this day and age. Drop any given Spoon record onto an iPod and hit shuffle on said device; each of Spoon's songs will just disappear without their neighbors to act as buffer, buttress, or whatever it is that makes them work so well. It's not that Spoon has ever constructed meta-narratives or long-form mythologies within their albums; they peddle in the brevity of a perfect short story. Get in, get out, get on it with. Girls Can Tell (2001) was arguably the best example of this aspect to Spoon, though pretty much any of their albums (minus a couple of swarthy tracks on Gimme Fiction) would follow this rule of thumb. As has been restated elsewhere by everyone, Spoon took a well needed break following their 2010 album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; and the band holed up in a studio with Dave Fridmann (of Flaming Lips production fame) and luxury-brand caliber producer Joe Chiccarelli. It's gotta be said that the songs that Spoon write are the songs that Spoon are ALWAYS gonna write: smart-ass lyrics with world-weary earnestness gracing some impeccable post-power-pop hooks and laced upon those tautly jangled / white-boy swaggering grooves. Fridmann and Chiccarelli roll up their sleeves and give these tracks much more polish than has ever been realized on a Spoon album. It's enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be fussy or get in the way of Spoon's bare simplicity. Like every other album by Spoon, They Want My Soul succeeds in the art of bravado expressed through all the little things that make a perfect pop song.
The return of Spoon always means another batch of subtly kick ass indie rock, and with Transference the same holds true. While lots has changed since the days of Girls Can Tell, still maybe our favorite Spoon record, not counting the early way more rocking ones like Telephono or Soft Effects, later Spoon records seem more like growers, the kind of records the blossom with repeated listens, which is definitely the case with Transference. Minus the obvious single, "Got Nuffin", which was already released on its own, none of the other tracks here leaps out and screams 'Single!' or 'Hit!', but that's the magic of Spoon, that most of the songs here, just like on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Gimme Fiction, will end up stuck in your head, and most definitely on repeat play after a handful of listens.
Record closer "Nobody Gets Me But You" is our current fave, stripped down and skeletal, with bloopy bass, and some cool little flurries of piano, and a lazily drawled main hook, but "Written In Reverse" with it's falsetto vocals and vampy piano is another contender, as is "I Saw The Light", which definitely harkens back to the rocking old days, with some crunchy guitar and moody vox, but hell, every listen we pick another one to obsess over. And while Spoon would have to do something seriously stellar to top Girls Can Tell, we're perfectly happy digging into Transference. Again and again...
Edition 2 (studio version) of the Spoonbender 1.1.1 Stereo Telepathy Academy trilogy...
Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you AQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of 'third mind' techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The material for Stereo Telepathy Academy was debuted during a live performance in which Spoonbender 1.1.1 performed with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV; however, for the second edition of Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 recomposed all of the material in the studio -- expanding and elaborating on their live performance, and making for a distinctly new and different listening experience that stand on its own with or without the visual accomaniment. That said, as in the first edition, Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional" for a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics.
The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. In their score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well.
PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging. The first version arrived as a cd-r edition of 111 copies sporting a white glove as an allusion to 'Crimes Of The Future.' (only a few remaining in stock!!). This is the second edition, a proper disc that comes with letterpressed artwork in an edition of 333. The final edition will be in an edition of only 3 copies!
Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you AQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup (of AQ!) consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of "third mind" techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Okay, not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The Stereo Telepathy Academy cd-r documents Spoonbender 1.1.1 live in SF while performing with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV.
The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. Spoonbender 1.1.1 composed a musical accompaniment for these texts and images to a third film whose identity is both unknown and irrelevant. As Donaldson announces in the introduction to this performance / recording (a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics), Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional". In this score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well.
Special handmade packaging comes with a single white glove (as seen in the film) for your edification.
PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging (versions 2 and 3 will be non-cd-r, and on a proper label, with pressings of 333 and 3 copies respectively). Available here at AQ exclusively, this first version is limited to 111 cd-r copies only, so you know what to do!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
From the land of Cornelius, Buffalo Daughter, Pizzicato Five, and the like (Japan, specifically Tokyo), come space/pop/electronauts Spoozys. Silly, fast guitar and synth based beat-o-rama, like robot B-52s dancing with a hyperactive Kraftwerk. Undeniably fun.
We rave on and on elsewhere on this list about the Cardiacs, who are a damaged out-there pop-punk-prog beasty from the UK, described by me as "the Pixies meets the Sweet meets the Toy Dolls meets Uz Jme Doma meets Queen meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack meets XTC but more punk rock, and more prog". Sounds good huh? Well if that sounds good to you (and it should) then check out Spratleys Japs, a logical continuation soundwise of the mighty Cardiacs, with Ms. Spratley, sometime vocalist for the Cardiacs, taking center stage and Cardiacs mainman Tim Smith right there by her side! A little more stariaght forward structurally, the sound is still gorgeous and damaged, with keening high vocals (almost impossible to tell whether it's Smith or Spratley!) perfect hooks, lots of reverbed keyboards, lush harmonies but more space than on the Cardiacs records, lots of shimmer and buzz and stretched out spaces scattered between the dizzying chunks of perfect pop. You might as well buy this one too since I KNOW you're gonna buy both the Cardiacs records and you'll be kicking yourself if you don't!!
Noise/jazz/improv/rock unit Sprawl has a lineup that includes saxophone legend Peter Brotzmann, bassist extraordinare William Parker and reedsman Alex Buess (of Swiss jazz-industrialists 16-17 as well as Ice and God). Since any of those names by themselves pretty much insures top quality, we had high expectations for this disc, and it's no disappointment. Also in the band, guitarist Stephan Wittiuer and drummer Michael Wertmuller (Alboth!, Caspar Brotzmann Massaker). Fans of those bands, Last Exit, etc., must take note. Looks like a 1997 release, but we've not come across it until now, due to it being a Austrian import.
Twee olde folk.
Twee olde folk.
There are no frills on Bay Area's Sprills Of Ore, and none are needed. Just intimate recordings of hushed folksy acoustic guitar, accordion (we think), cello and breathy soft female vocals by Ms Eva Kelly. Nine songs total, and each of them really really lovely!
