Four Songs by Spoon that Everyone Should Hear!
(except Hitler)
As you can say, Spoon is a wholesome, delicious indie group from Austin, Texas, half of whom are rather blurry. Their music sometimes borders on generic pop rock, but there are always one or two production tricks, tweaks and twiddles to keep my interest like a dog in suspense. Some prefer the short `n snappy rawness of old, I'm partial to the creativity of "Kill the Moonlight". In other news, the singer sounds a fair bit like that nice young man from LCD Soundsystem - Lennon with a cold, says I. Anyway, here are four fantastic, fun fsongs fby fSpoon:
"I Turn My Camera On" (2005): Starting with my favorite track from their latest release, "Gimme Fiction", I find that a rock band's foray into Price-like funk, falsetto territory, it's either a complete disaster (U2's "Lemon") or unbriddled genius (Ween's "Monique the Freak"). Like many of Spoon's best songs, this one employs studio trickery disguised as simplicity - a few guitar notes, a drum beat that's so easy it's impossible and a groove. "I turn my camera on, I cut my fingers on the way." sings Britt Daniel in a suave falsetto, and suddenly that subtle *ding!* has meaning! Overdubs so subtle they might as well call `em underdubs!
"Paper Tiger" (2002): My favorite Spoon song ever (really!) also finds genius through minimalism. The band builds the elements slowly like a painter laying down the initial flourishes - a floating percussion loop, a drumstick repetition, four tremolo guitar notes and soul! "I will no longer do the devil's wishes; something I read on a dollar bill" By the time they bring us to the xylophone and string-laced chorus, something about the song just glides on air. Slow down, Mr. Van Halen - it's over here! Move over, Philip Glass, it's over here! And by "over here", I clearly mean "directly below". Look:
"Stay Don't Go" (2002): Oom! Ah! Oom oom ah! Oom! Ah! Oom oom ah! Here, our friendly Spoon-friends take an infectious beat-boxing basis and take it apart until dinosaurs rule the earth. The thing about the genius of Spoon is that the minimalism makes the few elements mean so much more - like, no other band could get those three chorus piano chords to hold as much weight. But they do. The tambourine towards the end furthers my point.
"Staring at the Board" (1998): I was searching for a song that encapsulates the tuneful lo-fi aesthetics of their earlier works ("A Series of Sneaks" is also highly recommended, any song on the album could have worked) and I came across this under-a-minute ditty. Really, not so different from the Spoon we know today - just shorter, more crackly and less shinny gloos on top! Another great melody, Daniels already sounded like he had a cold, and the "Ooooh"'s in each verse make this song worth including.
As you can say, Spoon is a wholesome, delicious indie group from Austin, Texas, half of whom are rather blurry. Their music sometimes borders on generic pop rock, but there are always one or two production tricks, tweaks and twiddles to keep my interest like a dog in suspense. Some prefer the short `n snappy rawness of old, I'm partial to the creativity of "Kill the Moonlight". In other news, the singer sounds a fair bit like that nice young man from LCD Soundsystem - Lennon with a cold, says I. Anyway, here are four fantastic, fun fsongs fby fSpoon:
"I Turn My Camera On" (2005): Starting with my favorite track from their latest release, "Gimme Fiction", I find that a rock band's foray into Price-like funk, falsetto territory, it's either a complete disaster (U2's "Lemon") or unbriddled genius (Ween's "Monique the Freak"). Like many of Spoon's best songs, this one employs studio trickery disguised as simplicity - a few guitar notes, a drum beat that's so easy it's impossible and a groove. "I turn my camera on, I cut my fingers on the way." sings Britt Daniel in a suave falsetto, and suddenly that subtle *ding!* has meaning! Overdubs so subtle they might as well call `em underdubs!
"Paper Tiger" (2002): My favorite Spoon song ever (really!) also finds genius through minimalism. The band builds the elements slowly like a painter laying down the initial flourishes - a floating percussion loop, a drumstick repetition, four tremolo guitar notes and soul! "I will no longer do the devil's wishes; something I read on a dollar bill" By the time they bring us to the xylophone and string-laced chorus, something about the song just glides on air. Slow down, Mr. Van Halen - it's over here! Move over, Philip Glass, it's over here! And by "over here", I clearly mean "directly below". Look:
"Stay Don't Go" (2002): Oom! Ah! Oom oom ah! Oom! Ah! Oom oom ah! Here, our friendly Spoon-friends take an infectious beat-boxing basis and take it apart until dinosaurs rule the earth. The thing about the genius of Spoon is that the minimalism makes the few elements mean so much more - like, no other band could get those three chorus piano chords to hold as much weight. But they do. The tambourine towards the end furthers my point.
"Staring at the Board" (1998): I was searching for a song that encapsulates the tuneful lo-fi aesthetics of their earlier works ("A Series of Sneaks" is also highly recommended, any song on the album could have worked) and I came across this under-a-minute ditty. Really, not so different from the Spoon we know today - just shorter, more crackly and less shinny gloos on top! Another great melody, Daniels already sounded like he had a cold, and the "Ooooh"'s in each verse make this song worth including.
Labels: Spoon
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