I thought it necessary to Blog one of my favorite current bands (just check out the title of this Blog), and I was just given a strong reason to when Spoon appeared on Leno earlier this week. The performance is a very nice indication of what to expect at The Moon in a couple months -- a top-notch original band with deep groves and tight hooks locking in together.
03/26/08 Edit: I've replaced this video with a YouTube of the same song at a different live performance. The Leno video was great, and the following fact still applies. I've read that, with this performance, Spoon was the first band from Merge Records (which hosts Arcade Fire, Dinosaur Jr., and Superchunk, among others) to play Leno.
For Spoon's latest, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the band revisits its earlier aesthetics following the marvelous albeit meandering Gimme Fiction. Outside of the catchy, sparse, and minimalist single "I Turn My Camera On," Fiction teemed with rambling songs that differed from previous Spoon outings, requiring a degree of patience and repeated listenings to fully appreciate it. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, however, strives to catch the listener on the first pass and keep him hooked, much like earlier albums Girls Can Tell and Kill the Moonlight.
In fact, Ga could be seen as a compromise between Girls' infectious grooves and Moonlight's experimental nature. Ga offering "The Ghost of You Lingers" immediately reminded me of the arguably superior experimental effort "Paper Tiger" from Moonlight.
Album opener "Don't Make Me a Target" could be the most typical Spoon song on Ga (not necessarily a bad thing), while the middle section of "Don't You Evah," "Rhthm and Soul," and "Eddie's Ragga" display the band's ability to form the deepest of grooves. And although every song could be considered "pop" to a degree, horn laden tracks "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" and "The Underdog" constitute some of the best offerings of the pop realm by an essentially "indie" rock band. (I don't think Spoon is inherently indie outside of being on an independent label. Britt Daniel has acknowledged a significant influence from indie icons The Pixies, but also from mainstream groups like Fleetwood Mac and The Clash, and given the right opportunity -- this album release, for example -- I think Spoon could do very well in a Wilco-esque realm of mainstream rock without national radio exposure.)
At under 40 minutes, Ga clocks in at what Daniel would consider to be a perfect album length (he cites Beatles albums in his argument), and the surprisingly short running time for everything that is happening during the course of the recording certainly demands repeated listens. Longtime Spoon fans shouldn't be disappointed with this group of songs, although it does veer away from Fiction territory and heads a little more towards pop territory. But rest assured -- Spoon is one of the few amazingly consistent recorded bands in existence. The band takes its time to deliver excellent recordings every time, and it's about time that it is getting the attention it deserves in the form of TV spots, movie soundtracks, and general pop culture awareness.
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Random notes:
I think I've come to realize that the only Spoon record I really like is "Girls Can Tell". When I first started listening to them, I thought I was getting tracks from multiple albums (shout out to the sadly expired AudioGalaxy Satellite) when it was pretty much stuff from that one album. The other stuff, it doesn't hit me as hard, I don't get into it as much. It doesn't seem to have as much to say.
I hate the horns on the new record. They don't add anything and would have sounded much better as edgy synth or guitar parts. It's almost loungey the way they did it. And the cheesy lounge revival died with that Gap commercial from ten years ago.
Of course, the record is still listenable and catchy.
The Clash and Wilco, while probably seeming mainstream to us, are still on the fringe of true popularity. Rihanna, 50 Cent, Kanye West, yes even Nickelback, those guys are mainstream. Even though Wilco, Ryan Adams, and the Clash moved towards more polished sounds and mainstream ideas as their careers progressed, I can't justify categorizing them as mainstream artists. Remember, the Clash lived in the era of disco.
It's a whole nother thing to talk about ads ... for example, the set of VW ads that came out where they basically used every single song off the most recent Wilco record. I forget where I've heard the new Spoon stuff but I know it's out there, too. Heck, Jack White wrote and recorded a song for the sole purpose of being used in a Coke ad.
Your point of Spoon getting some props is a good one. Last I read, the guys in the Hold Steady are still working day jobs in between recording and touring. So it's good to see somebody's work pay off like that.
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