Spoon - QUOTE Transference UNQUOTE

P4k reports:

The band's seventh LP, Transference, is due out January 26 in North America via Merge and January 25 in Europe via Anti-.

*pumps fist* This should rule.

http://pitchfork.com/news/36971-new-spoon-album-yes/

PLEASE MASTER THIS BETTER ON CD THAN GA GA GA GA GA THANK YOU BYE

this deserves it own thread, so excited for this!

Transference:

1. Before Destruction
2. Is Love Forever?
3. The Mystery Zone
4. Who Makes Your Money
5. Written in Reverse
6. I Saw the Light
7. Trouble Comes Running
8. Goodnight Laura
9. Out Go the Lights
10. Got Nuffin
11. Nobody Gets Me But You

p.s. also please write better songs than ga ga ga ga ga while you're at it

also include a guest spot by lady gaga

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is a great album, very little wrong with it overall. it's quite possibly Spoon's best overall album from one of today's best bands.

i can't go on ... [checks ilx] ... i'll go on.

i'm sure i'll like this but can't really get excited about a new spoon album. i mean, you pretty much know what you're gonna get at this point, right?

yeah, but at the same time you know you'll like what you get!

will wait for the vinyl on this

i saw the light is not a cover of that Rundgren cover song,right?

I want more trumpets on this one.

someone should take the quotes off transference in the thread title cause if you search for transference now all you get is the locked thread.

not really anticipating this tbh

http://www.spinner.com/2009/11/02/spoons-britt-daniel-calls-transference-an-uglier-record/

With the recent announcement that Spoon will release its seventh album, Transference, in January, fans have been wondering what to expect from the new material. "Every record's always a little bit of an unconscious reaction to the one before. I think it's an uglier record," frontman Britt Daniel tells Spinner, comparing it to 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. "A lot of it is either demos, or tracks that started out as demos and we just built on top of it. That earlier, rawer, more spontaneous take on what the song was just seemed like the way to go..."

Those sessions were somewhat unique for their live-in-the-studio, full band approach. Among those tracks are 'Written in Reverse,' which is likely to be the first single and video, and a fresh take on 'Got Nuffin',' redone from this year's EP of the same name.

"We've done it before, but not a lot," Daniel says of the recording process. "'My Mathematical Mind' [from 2005's Gimme Fiction] was live. 'Jonathan Fisk' [from 2002's Kill the Moonlight] was. It's different. We did some shows in May right before we got to Nicolas's place and I think we all thought those songs were sounding so much better and faster than the recorded versions we already had, so we totally redid them. There's something about playing live a bunch of times that give you a certain level of confidence and swagger in the studio."

But anyone who saw the band perform songs like 'The Underdog' -- at times complete with a live horn section -- last time around will find 'Transference' to be very different. "'The Underdog' has a million chords," says Daniel. "A lot of songs on this record are just one or two chords. There's a lot more droning."

not really anticipating this tbh

― call all destroyer

Thank you for being honest. When January rolls around I would hate to find out you had spent months pretending to anticipate it.

"can't really get excited about a new spoon album. i mean, you pretty much know what you're gonna get at this point, right?"

not according to the xpost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJDvjOmj88

I really hope they play a few UK dates. One of the few bands I'd travel a considerable distance to see.

As a latecomer to the Spoonwagon - they don't seem to have much currency here in the UK - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is far and away my favourite, so this talk of fewer horns and fewer chords doesn't fill me with glee.

http://hypem.com/track/948331/Spoon+-+Mystery+Zone

'The Mystery Zone'

getting a Gimme Fiction vibe.

good track:
going back to the minimal,more "difficult"/arty/wire influenced sound

i mean, i like ga ga, but i'm glad they don't (hypothetically) continue with being more and more accessible and "fun"

It didn't seem that big a break in style or vibe from Ga Ga Ga to me. I liked it, tho.

I'll have to listen to it again.

i think it's thinner and has a demo vibe into it,while ga sounded polished and sometimes richer in sound

One date in London, very tempted but need to get a job first!

http://www.atpfestival.com/events/spoonlondon09/news/0911121421.php

I want this to leak so I can be listening to this right now instead of thinking about how great it's gonna be

Glasgow & Manchester too.

Have booked tickets for London gig.

ditto

Also almost certainly to go see this the next morning - http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/vandoesburg/default.shtm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120830261&ps=bb2

New single available for streaming.

I want this to leak so I can be listening to this right now instead of thinking about how great it's gonna be

― iatee, Thursday, November 12, 2009 7:47 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

is it actually done yet i thought they were still recording for some reason

that new single,written in reverse, is great.
the dirty,aggresive "exile on main st." style of it is awesome.

Hope this links works

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/46381727.jpg

Nope, never mind. Album cover:

http://www.twitpic.com/rm4db

I like the single a lot

11 songs = 11 new riffs.

Correction: 11 songs = 11 recycled riffs.

good try

YEAH!

http://stereogum.com/img/spoon-transference-aa.jpg

that didn't sound like exile on main st at all. it sounded like spoon.

whether spoon's riffs are uh...'new' or 'recycled'... really doesn't matter cause spoon basically rule and so will this album

otm imo

my bff is begging me for this, can u hook a bro up? lmk ;-P

Amazon US has a deal almost too good to pass up:

Save $2 off Contra by Vampire Weekend when purchased with 1 of Transference by Spoon, Phrazes For The Young by Julian Casablancas or Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Save $2 off Transference by Spoon when purchased with 1 of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon or Contra by Vampire Weekend offered by Amazon.com.

so i bought Contra, Transference and added Beach House's Teen Dream [CD + DVD] and this is how the deal looks:

Subtotal of Items: $29.97
Shipping & Handling: $4.96
Super Saver Discount: -$4.96
Pre-order Guarantee: -$0.00
Promotion Applied: -$2.00
Promotion Applied: -$2.00
MP3 Credit Applied: -$0.00
------
Total for this Order: $25.97

Shipping estimate for these items: February 1, 2010
1 "Contra"
Vampire Weekend; Audio CD; $7.99

Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC Because of Pre-order Price Guarantee, you might pay less. Why?
1 "Transference"
Spoon; Audio CD; $7.99

Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC Because of Pre-order Price Guarantee, you might pay less. Why?
1 "Teen Dream [CD + DVD]"
Beach House; Audio CD; $13.99

so i paid $5.99 each for both Vampire Weekend and Spoon.

What if you enjoy Spoon but not Vampire Weekend? :'(

why don't you help me find a better deal aka via rapidshare? ;-)

i know, when it going to leak? we only have two weeks to go before you are able to buy it.

god i love me some Spoon, i can't wait for this!

it's like exile in guyville over and over, not a knock

this has finally leaked!

Heard "Written in Reverse" on the mainstream "alternative" rock station today - sounded great! I think mainstream rock has been coming closer to Spoon the past few years - more angular and spare and less of the Eddie Vedder clone-groan than hitherto - and Spoon are toughening up their sound again, for a nice convergence. I kinda hate it when my favourite bands hit big, but if they do (and I think they just might with this one) it'll be well deserved.

i'm loving this! reminds me of Kill the Moonlight album more than anything else.

i think Spoon have done it again, another very solid album. fans should not be disappointed.

this album is spoon-y, even for a spoon album. I think I like ga better but I still like this album.

mystery zone would make my spoon POX

Lots of Daniel's ugly-awesome guitar (dig "I Saw the Light" and "Who Makes Your Money") -- that's a big plus. Not so many memorable tunes -- a big minus. Maybe their first dud.

yeah I've listened to it maybe 5 times and still can barely pick out the songs. it's not a BAD album but it's a dud/disappointing in that they didn't go anywhere new.

I felt the same way about "ga" for the first month - now it's my favourite Spoon record.

The key will be how good it is to drive too.

Feels like one of their less immediate records for sure. A few of the tunes are melodically too-familiar, though.

Mid-album run - Mystery Zone, Who Makes Your Money, Written in Reverse, I Saw the Light, Trouble - is classic. The edges are a bit fuzzy though.

Gimme Fiction's second half draaaaaags. Ga flowed well straight through, and each song was excellent. Looks like this one might be a little less tight.

(I've only heard one song--I think it was the single. For the rest, I'm just going to wait until it's released.)

The key will be how good it is to drive sing mosh drink fight sleep dance fuck too.

Ga ga ga ga gaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!

Streamin'

Thanks, Eazy! Listening now.

Likewise.

zzz

Thanks for your killer insight!

haha. Worst album ever, eh?

Echoing Whiney. As a local Austin guy, I've been a fan since the second album in '98 or so, whenever that was, and I've enjoyed each of their albums to varying degress. This one has a couple redeeming tracks but, so far, is a big, underwhelming snooze.

Reminds me of what I like about Sam Roberts, but not quite there.

"Who Makes Your Money" sounds a bit like Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" with those vocals and the way the guitar creeps in and out for brief seconds.

Hurdy Gurdy vocals will eventually replace autotune imo

and I now that it's been stuck in my head again, I realize "Got Nuffin'" sounds like Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4"

This gets better and better and better with every play.

The second half of the album is much stronger than the first, and it contains some real gems.

This gets better and better and better with every play.

Conversely, I find it easier and easier to pick apart with every play, to the point there's almost nothing of value left.

This sounds increasingly like a transitional album -- they're figuring out the limits of their sound. I wish every song sounded like "Got Nuffin."

"Nobody Gets Me But You" sounds like "1999" era Prince, and yet ... this album is not that good.

it is a dissapointing release.

on the other hand - all the cards were on the table - Britt Daniel said it's gonna be like a demo tracks record or something.
and it shows.

y'know, i keep giving new spoon albums a chance when they come out even though i haven't liked one since "Kill the Moonlight". this was one of my favorite bands during the first few years of the decade but they really do "got nuffin" lately. there are always a handful of good songs on each release, but they have become very predictable. most of their songs nowadays are just variations on a few specific types of songs from previous releases. each album has an "i turn my camera on", a "small stakes", a "something to look forward to". the reinvention of their sound on Girls Can Tell and the subsequent experiments with it on Kill the Moonlight were so unique and wonderful but now they just can't get away from it. they need to find something new.

I don't understand that at all.

I do.

what's not to understand?

I think Gimme Fiction added some entirely new aspects to what they do, the elongated grooves and outros for instance, and I think Ga Ga etc did too, with the brass arrangements. There are similarities across the albums, definitely, it's the same band after all, but I don't hear a "Small Stakes" on Gimme Fiction or a "I Turn My Camera On" on Ga Ga. And The Ghost Of You Lingers was something totally new to my ears. The only "this is this album's version of that Spoon song" I get across all their records is their closing tracks since Girls Can tell, which all have a similar feel to them, to my ears.

I've not listened to the new one yet.

Then again I only discovered them with Ga Ga so didn't have the slow unveiling of albums over years; even so I'm not hearing what you describe.

yeah there were a few new things on "Ga5x". I was referring to "Ghost" as a "Small Stakes" re-write, but maybe i'm hearing something different from you. But listen to the new one, i'm curious to know what you think of it. I agree with others who think it's unusually half-baked for them. Though i think it's interesting they recorded a "lo-fi" song. It's my favorite of the news too, sounds like "Soft Effects".

Is there a decent rip? I've only seen 128kbps around; I want a decent rip or to wait for the CD, as I have a hunch it's going to sound pretty awesome on a phenomenological level.

Interesting if a tad overly reverent and worshipful interview piece by Melena Ryzik in the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/arts/music/10spoon.html?hpw

after two+ listens through (thanks NPR!), I'm getting a clearer "art rock" vibe with Transference than any previous album. Not sure why that term never came to mind before re:Spoon, and on reflection it could have applied to previous albums, but for some reason it seems a particularly apt appellation for Transference.

how do you define art rock?

they started out as pixies copyists, and really good ones too. i still think their first album is my favorite of theirs, for sentimental reasons probably. now they're trying to find the exact midpoint between tom petty and wire, between really satisfying american rock and intentionally dissatisfying un-american rock, or using the elements of one to make the other, or something. i think they've been in rut for a while but maybe it isn't a rut.

It's not that Transference fit an 'art rock' definition so much as suggested an association with certain tropes/approaches. 70's album rock sort of stuff?

but the spikier/more difficult sort of 70's album rock...

I've liked Spoon ok since the beginning, but have never flipped out over them. That said, have come to realize that their production factors hugely, much moreso than many bands. I realized at a certain point that they sound way more interesting on headphones than on speakers. Possibly explains their surprisingly lousy live reputation.

They have a little bit of genius for mixing and positioning things in space, and yeah that sounds like a geeky reason to like a rock band, but there you go...

So, um, based on the stream I have no idea if I like this or not.

i think they've been in rut for a while

Are you arguing that Gimme Fiction and Gax5 are part of some kind of "rut"? Cuz I've had a few and I haven't been in a fight for a while.

i think theyre lesser records than kill the moonlight and girls can tell. i don't really know abt "rut."

I suppose it makes perfect sense that someone whose fav Spoon album is Telephono would diagnose them as "being in a rut for a while"

I think KTM and Gax5 are their peaks, to be honest.

They've made variants on the same album for years. Their command over their sonics is impressive, and also easily dismissed if you're not in the right mood.

with a band as consistent and sonically well-defined as Spoon I think it's natural to have a lot of variation as to personal fav albums

they're also one of those bands where the first album someone heard is usually one of their favorites and really defines what they think about the other albums. i heard series of sneaks and telephono first and tend to prefer their tighter, songier, edgier stuff (those albums, kill the moonlight, and gimme fiction) and not the softer and jammier albums (girls can tell and ga ga ga ga ga). at first i was not impressed with the new one but it's growing on me.

Gax5

Can we please stop calling it this?

@congrats: I think that's another symptom of sonic/stylistic consistency

they're also one of those bands where the first album someone heard is usually one of their favorites and really defines what they think about the other albums.

^^^ this.

and I also agree that Transference is gonna be a grower for people too

i do give them some credit for the courage to just sit on an idea forever until it yields something (or not), in a song, over an album, or their whole career.

Guys. I Saw the Light. :O :D

\m/ d(^.^)b \m/

they've just been working this formula for so long that each new album has started bringing diminishing returns. they had a radical change in style between "series" and "girls can tell". why can't they do it again? this is getting really really REALLY old.

eh well I'm a newcomer from Ga meself.

"Why can't they have a radical change in style again?" - pretty big ask.

i loved the atmosphere of gax5, this one... idk - i really didn't like "got nuffin" and hoped they'd move away from the spiky, angular structure of that song and write some loose-limbed ga-style joints but it seems not?

i guess it is a pretty big ask, but i only ask because i know they could do it

the second half of this is actually way better -- gimmee fiction is actually the only spoon album that i immediately loved. they were all "growers" for me... i didn't love ga until like the summer after it came out

odd, I always found Gimme Fiction was the least immediate/most grow-y; all that space-y, groove-centric jamming (for spoon) and murky (for spoon) production. I love it now, of course.

it was also the first album of theirs i heard! but i think 'the beast & dragon', 'two sides', 'camera on', 'mathematical mind', 'i summon you' & 'sister jack' are all immediately lovable songs

they're also one of those bands where the first album someone heard is usually one of their favorites and really defines what they think about the other albums

more true by the second

odd, I always found Gimme Fiction was the least immediate/most grow-y; all that space-y, groove-centric jamming (for spoon) and murky (for spoon) production. I love it now, of course.

That's funny because, to that point, I think of I Turn My Camera On as one of their most accessible and immediate songs. You're right about other stretches of that disc.

the second half of this is actually way better -- gimmee fiction is actually the only spoon album that i immediately loved. they were all "growers" for me... i didn't love ga until like the summer after it came out

― J0rdan S., Thursday, January 14, 2010 2:51 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I said the same thing yesterday. I like "Goodnight Laura" a lot. From "Trouble Comes Running" on the record is pretty solid.

gimme fiction shapes up like it's gonna be the sickest spoon album ever and then this:

# "The Infinite Pet" – 3:56
# "Was It You?" – 5:02
# "They Never Got You" – 4:59

yeah, it really drags at the end

1-4 on that album are unbelievably good though

i would go so far as to say 1-7

(sister jack is a little slighter than the rest of those, but still)

i love sister jack though like half this album it needs to be about 30 seconds shorter

i really like "they never got you"

btw i am kind of intrigued by the reactions to transference--i really have no idea what i'm going to think of it

i think they never got you is the best of those three songs

yeah i would def agree with that

I love those three groove/jam ones. Especially Was It You.

Three full listens in, I'm pretty much sold. It's groove-y like Fiction, spiky around the edges somewhat like Sneaks, dusted with punchy production surprises like Moonlight. If there's anything novel to the Spoon sound in it, I hear this extra-deliberate, worked-over left-brain intricacy to the instrumentation/production. Hence why the term "art rock" sprang to mind (see above)?

I'm glad to see no one rag on Merchants of Soul in all this side-b slamming, cause that track is killer.

goes without saying imo

i don't want to be contrarian but "merchants of soul" is, imo, the first throwaway track on a spoon album. coming so quickly after "was it you" (a nice groove that ultimately doesn't go anywhere and outstays its welcome), it kinda kills that album for me.

my favorite is still Girls Can Tell because of its melancholy mood. it's the last spoon album that has feeling and heart and a multitude of moods before it all gave over into the "awrights" and "oh yeahs" of a guy who's too cool to show any emotion. you can still catch glimpses of the original feeling here and there ("i summon you", "finer feelings"), but not like on Girls Can Tell.

aw hell, i can't explain it. maybe i'm crazy or maybe, as someone points out quite truthfully, Girls was the first one I fell in love with.

My fave (and first) has always been Kill The Moonlight, perhaps because of the way it sublimates more direct displays of emotion underneath groove and mood. There's still a sense of these intense emotions right on the cusp of expression, but they're stifled or fraught, transmuted in a really controlled and musical way. By comparison, I've always found Girls Can Tell somewhat overwrought and on-the-nose, a step backward. I've been very happy to see them continue down a more indirect path this decade.

not sure what I think of the album as a whole yet, but I really really dig "Who Makes Your Money?", which perfectly marries propulsive strutting minimalism (cf "I Turn My Camera On", or, to pick an earlier reference point, "Take the Fifth") with the murky alien soundclouds of a "Paper Tiger" or "The Ghost of You Lingers"

just a heads up for anyone who uses Amazon Mp3 -- "Transference" is only $3.99 today

oh, and it's out in stores today too

does "The Mystery Zone" cut out for anyone else? in the version I have, Daniel sings "oh the mys" and then it cuts off at 4:59

thanks for the tip on the amazon sale: picked this up, giving a listen; "Who Makes Your Money" is fab, esp. for the bass. "The Mystery Zone" cuts out at 4:59 on mine too.

The first album of theirs I heard was Girls Can Tell back when it was the new thing. I don't think I rate their later albums by how it compares to that one (not least b/c yeah, these guys are mining the same vein on every album since Girls Can Tell). But haha here is "I Saw The Light" and I'm hearing the guitar from "Believing Is Art" so maybe I do!

Yeah that's how "Mystery Zone" ends.

Yes it ends like that. Sounds killer on the record.

Harvilla in the V.Voice says the new one is their most minimal and he does not like it, Malitz in the W. Post agrees it is their most minimal but loves it. Me, I haven't heard it yet so will defer my interpretation of less is more till later.

w/o hearing it, i find it hard to believe it's more minimalist than "series of sneaks"

uh series of sneaks is really dense

depends on what we both mean by each term, but, yeah i think i get you

lol

gimme fiction shapes up like it's gonna be the sickest spoon album ever and then this:

# "The Infinite Pet" – 3:56
# "Was It You?" – 5:02
# "They Never Got You" – 4:59

― call all destroyer

I like 'the infinite pet' :(

i like "Was It You"

Harvilla in the Voice- But these are not so much songs as attitudes, stern and spare and stubbornly unpolished, mere ghosts of the fully realized grandeur the nominally Austin-based quartet is capable of delivering. The band notes that five of these 11 songs are presented in their original demo versions—they clearly consider this a good thing. Whatever comes after "skeletal," this is it. Any more forced entropy and the next Spoon record might consist solely of Polaroid photos of their instruments.

Malitz in the W. Post- On its seventh album, "Transference," Spoon takes its less-is-more strategy to the extreme, with staggering results. It's the band's most skeletal set of songs yet; the open spaces create a vacuum that emphasizes each and every bass thump or piano plink.

Ok, skeletal not minimal.

lol @ spoon songs ever being described as having "fully realized grandeur"

man, i love Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga so much

the new one isn't clicking yet, but i've only had it for less than a day, so i'll have to check back in later after i've listened to it more closely

man, i love Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga so much

Quit stammering, man, and spit it out already.

i haven't heard it yet, but i'm getting really excited from the reviews (especially the bad ones)

I noticed that "Mystery Zone" doesn't have that hard cut on the vinyl.

What happens on the vinyl? The needle is gently lifted by a gentle and mysterious hand?

(I'll find out on payday, I guess.)

1st listen today - love the sonics, the playing, the production, the atmosphere. We'll see if the songs stick around.

I'd hate to ruin the surprise.

the "most minimal" meme is a red herring, maybe originating from those who see Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and its big pop gestures as the definitive Spoon album and are defining Transference against that context, but come on, there's a lot of stuff going on here. "rawest" mature Spoon album would be more accurate

Finally listening to the album itself (as opposed to the stream) and yeah, I'm already liking it a whole lot better based on better sound. One of the few bands around these days that actually makes me wish I still had my good stereo/speakers unpacked.

Yeah, "rawest" is a much better description than "most minimal" ("Small Stakes" and "The Ghost of You Lingers" both feel more minimal than the material here).

I've listened to this album three or four times now and I'm still not sure what to think of it. It's tremendously engaging for how it sounds--I love analyzing their production choices and the record's overall aesthetic--but most of the songs are passing me right by.

same here, i guess, but i don't mind. it's a really exciting & unpredictable listening experience, because all bets are off in terms of what might happen in a given song. it's almost like remixes & dubs of an album that doesn't exist.

at first i thought it was a pretty bold move given that they could have gone even more mainstream & made even more licensing dollars, but since this might not be their strongest batch of songs ever, it's definitely a cool tactic to make it more interesting.

'i saw the light' is a jam.

Ha, just came on to say that! After just a handful of listens, this seems destined to settle in behind KTM as my favorite...

Tom Ewing talks Spoon (and indie rock and its appeal).

Excellent piece.

It is indeed.

I find obtuseness, be it emotional, lyrical, or musical, to often be the thing that drags me back to a record. I'm not sure it's an 'indie' trait though; landfill indie seems to suffer from being over-obvious, and obtuse is definitely a positive descriptor of The Knife, say.

Anyway, now I've had a little time to bed in with Transference I'm getting along with it very well.

They are named after a CAN song after all.

Don't you (& Ewing) mean "abstruse"?

I get these mixed up sometimes, I think it has to do with mixing in the word "oblique."

"Oblique" was mine, "Obtuse" was the sub-editors. "Abstruse" is a nice word too though but a bit cerebral for Spoon.

Sub-editor maybe should be somewhere subbier.

No, obtuse was good as a headline! Made it seem a bit more provocative at least.

Amazing piece. Tom stop being so good.

Least they didn't sub in "angular".

A even more provactive and no less accurate headline: "Does Being a Bit Monkey (Sex/Apple/Murder) Make For Better Music?"

It doesn't mean what (s)he thinks it means.

Anyway, great piece.

Aw shit PROVOCATIVE. See what happens?

tom just gets better and better, glad to see he's now on-board at the guardian

i listened to this this morning and have no idea what to think. it is undeniably a spoon album, but damned if i have anything else to say about it yet.

yeah i listened to it once and i feel the same way

been digging this a lot this week. "who makes your money?" is the jam.

dude REALLY likes his descending chord progressions

Tom Ewing talks Spoon (and indie rock and its appeal).

Surprised to see you in this thread, Ned.

Are you still cold on Spoon? Stick a fork in 'em, etc.?

Cold, yes, but I'll always read anything Tom has to say, and that's a v. great article.

pb14

22 Jan 2010, 1:41AM

But who has the time these days to play a record five times? Its a sunk cost when you have bought the record. If its a download (29p a track) or Spotify, I am not as attached. And perhaps this may lead to the demise of "difficult" music. Not that Spoon are difficult. How difficult could a band called Spoon be, for fork sake.

On rereading the Tom Ewing article, I'm not sure that he actually likes them all that much.

Was thinking about "taut, minimal" bands to compare them with, and aside from Wire I thought of 18th Dye, who even shared the raspy vocals (though not the wacky spacial production). And thinking of that really brings into focus the classic rock side of Spoon that probably has given them their wider appeal. I can completely imagine them covering "The Boys Are Back In Town" and completely Spoon-ifying it.

^This.

part of Spoon's big appeal for me is how they tap into "classic" (i.e. not "indie") rock vibes without really sounding like classic rock at all. Most of the mainstream people I've played Spoon for have more or less dug them - I really do think they're headed for REM territory, though god help them (and us) when they get there; a lot of underground-turned-top-40 bands made one good or great album at or near the peak of their ascent and then began sucking haaard (REM classic example of this).

Having listened to Transference a couple times, I have a hard time imagining that this will be the album to break them. And if it never happens it will probably be because of a conscious effort by Daniel & Co. to avoid such a fate.

funny you say that, because -- at least until the last album -- i figured that if spoon was ever going to break big, it would have already happened.

for their sake, i hope they get huge (if that's what they'd want). great band.

you'd think if any album would have "broke" them it would have been Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and I guess it kind of did. Transference almost feels pre-emptively reactionary against that album.

Of course Tom doesn't like them all that much.

I'm finding "Who Makes Your Money" extremely addictive. I also think that it could be a great hip-hop number, in the hands of some enterprising rapper.

So if I'm reading Ewing right, immediacy is a virtue in itself, and Spoon uses the tactic of willful difficulty to trick people into thinking their music possesses a higher aesthetic value. (And I see he just called Spoon the indie rock King Crimson on his blog.)

xp ga was #1 in the states so um yeah i'd say it broke them.

No it wasn't.

It did go top ten.

oh ok well close enough

But even so: an album only has to sell like 1476 copies in a week to hit the top of the charts, so a #1 record is nothing like a guarantee of stardom. Your mom still doesn't know who Spoon are.

Immediacy is only a virtue in those who value it.

Whether Tom likes them or not isn't of concern to me--he nailed a lot of their appeal in that piece, probably because he has no attachment to them. And I'm glad he pointed out the new album's structural dovetailing with minimal techno; that's precisely what I like about it. Particularly "Who Makes Your Money," the one that reviews I've seen have complained about most and to me easily the album's biggest earworm.

Precisely; if Tom "loved" Spoon he'd not have nailed that piece so much.

But even so: an album only has to sell like 1476 copies in a week to hit the top of the charts, so a #1 record is nothing like a guarantee of stardom. Your mom still doesn't know who Spoon are.

this may have been true like on a bad week here or there but generally you actually have to do much better than 1500 copies in a week before you even crack the top 100

I like them a great deal! Transference will be in my top 10 this year, probably: it's a really satisfying record. Whether I do or not doesn't matter to the piece though. Thankyou for the compliments, people who liked it!

I happen to like immediacy, but Spoon are pretty immediate anyway. I was casting it as a virtue in time management terms really. I think they're a band that rewards concentration (especially the latest one but it's always been there) and bands that reward concentration tend to do well with critics because concentrating on records is sort of key to the job.

holy hell @ the strong guided by voices vibe on trouble comes running

it turns out that this album is actually really good

"No, obtuse was good as a headline! Made it seem a bit more provocative at least."

Even if it's the opposite of what he stresses in the article? Critics should not be allowed to write about bands they know little about. In their attempt at ultimate perspective, they have no choice but to overreach. They end up sounding a bit obtuse cryptic, which does not work as well in an essay, as it does in a pop/rock song.

just listened to this for the first time tonight -- need to give it more time, but thought it sounded pretty fucking good. Spoon!

this may have been true like on a bad week here or there but generally you actually have to do much better than 1500 copies in a week before you even crack the top 100
I was exaggerating for effect, J0hn.

"Obtuse" is blunt, dull, dumb.
"Oblique" is approaching from slant angles, un-obvious.
They ain't the same word. (fwiw, it's a similar confusion to the one a lot of people seem to have viz. "eclectic" vs. "eccentric")

been listening to the Who Makes Your Money -> Written in Reverse -> I Saw the Light triumvirate over and over. good album.

ok i really am trying to hold back from freaking out and saying things like "this is the best spoon album since girls can tell and possibly ever"

Pretty easy to hold back when it's not true, huh?

j/k

beautiful, sad record. best spoon ever? might be!

(but i do kinda feel the end drags.)

Not the best Spoon album ever but it is great.

I love this band. Like, adore them. However, this is just passing the fuck through me. The nuance is there sure, but the tunes are lacking. It was the combination of all the little sonic subtleties PLUS the hooks that always won me over. This could be their weakest effort. Maybe things will change?

http://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/no-booze-february/

"a lot of it sounds like a demon."

good post, nick

Haha, yeah, that should say 'demo' but fuck it, I'll let it stand.

can't get into this band since kill the moonlight and i can't really be more articulate as to why than, they completely bore me. maybe it's that the spareness isn't interesting anymore, just a deficit in sound. watching britt daniels get all worked up and passionate while backed by this stupid clunky minimalism is embarrassing for me. like i'm watching a washed up male clothing model pretending to be significant. i still dig that "lines in the suit" song or whatever though.

like i'm watching a washed up male clothing model pretending to be significant.

Seeing him in the Chipotle queue at Pitchfork Festival was an enlightening experience, I must say.

they were giving out coupons for free burritos, that's just smart financial planning right there

alfred pls elaborate!

what did he order?

^that doesn't sound like the most interesting part!

i can't believe the dude from Spoon eats burritos

chipotle is a horrific restaurant and i'd expect more from a texan but hey

Hey I enjoyed Chipotle when I was in the states. Maybe it's just because London is barren for good Mexican food.

i spent the night in the Chipotle line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87O0C1aPhrc

Britt Daniel in 'Coooking with Rockstars'. Bizarre interview.

alfred pls elaborate!

He had nice legs and ordered a burrito and beer. With his Converse he could have been a Spoon fan.

P4k.tv to launch an indie rock cooking show early next year

making a caesar salad with Tapes 'n Tapes

in the space of a handful of listens i flipped from nearly every song on this is meh to nearly every song on this is really great. it has the weird feel of a comeback record for a band that never went away.

yeah that's exactly how i feel.

and alfred i wasn't sure if you meant he was acting like a big shot in a chipotle line or something. he is def a good-looking dude.

I thought so too until I saw him upclose.

hmm, well i have never seen him up close

Al got close enough to see his burrito

they were giving out coupons for free burritos, that's just smart financial planning right there

I read that as 'corpses for free burritos' and thought, "Hmm...could work."

and alfred i wasn't sure if you meant he was acting like a big shot in a chipotle line or something.

No one has a right to act like a big shot in a Chipotle line.

otmfm

This album's great, wtf are people bummed about (those who are bummed, which is a shrinking population)?

See upthread.

when britt got to the front of the line, they told him they were all outta burritos and he was like, "aw coo-mawn!"
then they found one and gave it to him and he was like, "well, awwright!"

Xpost. Strikes me as classic example of band with two (or three audiences) that only partially overlap. Personally, I've been bored to tears by most of their post KTM stuff, where it seems like a lot of their fanbase has been in heaven...

i agree. i was extremely disappointed with 'gimme fiction' and am continually surprised that each new album is received so well. but whatever, lots of people now feel the way i used to feel about them, so more power to them. i'm glad they've crossed over and are able to live comfortably off the band, though. couldn't happen to a more talented group of guys.

when britt got to the front of the line, they told him they were all outta burritos and he was like, "aw coo-mawn!"
then they found one and gave it to him and he was like, "well, awwright!"

― johnnyo

LAWL.

Side 2 is perhaps my favorite Spoon side ever. Actually, the last 3 songs...wonderful. I love the gauzy mood of this thing. Top 3 Spoon albums for me, and the only album in 2 or 3 years that I've played several times a day for 2 weeks. Great stuff.

This is such a fantastic album, even the piano ballad! Like Spoon should totally branch out into architecture, because rarely have I seen better use of negative space. Right now my favorite track right now is "Trouble Comes Running", mostly for the way the guitar sounds like a field recording from Bob Pollard's garage.

when britt got to the front of the line, they told him they were all outta burritos and he was like, "aw coo-mawn!"
then they found one and gave it to him and he was like, "well, awwright!"

Serious LOLZ out loud 4 me.

I actually didn't know this was coming out until I saw this thread. I liked Ga Ga Ga (my first experience with Spoon) especially "Don't Let Me The Target." After given this two listens I'm underwhelmed. It's just not as catchy as Ga Ga... The music is economical and interesting but the lyrics are meh to me. I guess this one will have to grow on me.

I mean "Don't Make Me a Target." ***Roll Eyes*** I blame a big lunch.

Debuted at Number 4 with 53,000.

What a disaster for indie debuts at number one. Oh wait.

does this mean the death of indie? or the rebirth. i get so confused.

Album moments of the moment for me: the quick fadeout of "Got Nuffin'" into "Nobody Gets Me But You"...and then the stereo ping-ponging double-tracked bass part...and then the added drum kit playing along over to the side that fades in abruptly. Favourite headphone album of the last couple weeks.

This and the new Scout Niblett have both wowed me in a back-to-front way I wasn't expecting.

definitely a bigtime headphones album. also far and away an album for people who have been listening to spoon for 10 years and absorbed all their quirks.

that said, i think what might really make this is that all of britt's vocals are like ridiculously good. the changing melodies, slips into falsetto, knowing when to be harsh and when to be soft; just a great performance by a great singer.

goddammit this album is so good. kinda freaking out about how good it is tbh.

"The Mystery Zone is a private association created to further the free practice of an alternative lifestyle of like minded consenting couples and singles."

Wonder if Britt's been to this classy-lookin' Houston nitespot?

Loving this album, btw. Full of subtle little hooks.

Er, there should have been a link there: http://themysteryzone.com/Home_Page.php

noticed this morning that got nuffin sounds like joy division. not the vocals, obviously.

Joy Division would be such an order of magnitude better if Ian Curtis went "woooh, alright, yeah, c'mawn" more.

he's dead

^ made me LOL out loud at work.

"trouble comes running" is the jam off this one

awesome:
Is Love Forever?
Who Makes Your Money
Written In Reverse
Trouble Comes Running
Out Go the Lights
Got Nuffin

good:
The Mystery Zone
I Saw the Light (first half is eh, second half is awesome)
Nobody Gets Me But You

eh:
Before Destruction
Goodnight Laura

actually "Nobody Gets Me But You" should be in the awesome category too

the mystery zone is awesome!

I find the backing vox on Before Destruction massively affecting.

mystery zone & i saw the light are my top two. written in reverse does nothing for me, just sounds like empty bluster, and the first line comes across like a lame gag.

i keep wondering if there's some formal trick to be found in that tune, like they actually wrote it in reverse (whatever that might mean, maybe flipping around a chord progression or a melody)

"Out Go the Lights" might be my favourite song on here. "The Mystery Zone" is great, too. There are some really funky basslines on here, I've noticed.

"Written In Reverse" is easily my least fave thing on here, and I can see myself beginning to skip it in a few more spins. I just despise the "hearse" rhyme. My least favourite Spoon song since "The Fitted Shirt."

u crazy fitted shirt is amazing

I don't like it when I can understand what his words mean. Same as Black Francis, now that I think about it: evocative in his abstractness, but when the spaceships come I'm "Aw, is that all you got?"

I mean, I like "Fitted Shirt" musically - "Written in Reverse" too - but the lyrics make me go "ugh."

the reverse/hearse line is super corny yeah, but the last 2 mins of that song are hellacious. also it has the awesome lyric about high school poppers.

yeah i mean i assume britt is delivering that line with a huge wink

kind of hate the hearse line, but it's a pretty great song. this album has grown on me a bunch--reminds me of kill the moonlight for some reason i can't put my finger on.

i love when he howls like a werewolf in the mystery zone

"Mystery Zone" starts strong but there's this moment just past the midpoint, with about 2 mins to go, where it feels like they could have ended it but chose instead to jam it out. For me, it starts to drag. Actually I think that's the defining characteristic of the album, for better or for worse depending on your preference - there are three or four songs here that include these extended instrumental bits. Some more successful than others - some of the album's most transcendent moments but also some of it's most draggy.

see i thought for anything i'd feel like you do about mystery zone but i've been listening on headphones and really focusing on the vocals and it's kind of magnificent

So, who's seeing them in London tomorrow?

yo

me.

scott otm.

spoonfap then?

Word on the Glasgow show is that it was really bad! :(

In what way?

Anyway; unsure what our plans are, but I'll be carrying s red bag if anyone wants to say hello, and I'll check this thread to see if anyone suggests a pub.

I thought they were great tonight. I didn't see you there, Nick, I would've said hello. I did see Adam Buxton though. He is fucking tiny. Like, 5' 5" tiny. I also spoke to Britt Daniel earlier, the band's staying in the same hotel. Seems like a nice guy.

They seemed to cut Mystery Zone down quite a bit. Maybe they've been reading this thread.

Really good show though, their setlist is chock full of hits nowadays.

We got there about 2 mins before they went onstage cos of bag issues (don't ask). Thought they were very good. Met the very pleasant David Katz of this parish. Saw Michael Hann leave, and possibly say goodbye to Ricky Gervaise.

Hi Nick! Maybe I was a little harsh with my initial judgement...great live performances just add this interesting dimension to a beloved band, where you can see them in the flesh and observe how they operate and play as a unit. It can make you adore them more, and Spoon seemed just a very solid pop combo tonight, rather than the beautiful, concise, sonically fascinating band they are on their studio recordings. Although I loved the motorik-enhanced 'Small Stakes'..

Sorry if I was a little curt in person, desperate to connect to this wonderful community however I can.

10 years ago I'd have been wanting some kind of revelatory experience; these days I'm just happy that the dude can sing live and that the PA isn't shit!

Small Stakes was the song of the night.

"They Never Got You" imo. "Ghost of You Lingers" was pretty astonishing too. I think there was a slightly uncomfortable tension though, between their well crafted songs and exemplary musicianship, and their desire to rock out. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be quite so loud.

Bumped into G00blar, ex of this parish.

Not sure where the rumor that the Glasgow gig was bad started but it certainly wasn't the case. I thought they were great. Last time they were due to play in Scotland I bought a ticket but they ended up cancelling the gig for some reason (low ticket sales?). Crazy to see a band as recognized as Spoon playing King Tuts. I was speaking with the owner of my local indie store the other week and he said they would be getting no copies of 'Transference' as Spoon ". . . just don't sell . . ."

Anyway, the Glasgow gig was great. They didn't come on until 10.15 though which meant I had to leave before the encore to catch the last bus to Edinburgh. Still, will def catch them again at Primavera this summer.

Setlist in Glasgow was pretty much all stuff from 'Kill the Moonlight' onwards. Wouldn't have minded a couple of tracks from 'Girls Can Tell'. Guessing they probably played 'Everything Hit's at Once' during the encore.

Yeah its a little odd how low profile they are over here. Maybe something to do with Merge not having a UK office? There were tons of Americans at the London show.

wooping right in my ear.

10 years ago I'd have been wanting some kind of revelatory experience; these days I'm just happy that the dude can sing live and that the PA isn't shit!

Be thankful you didn't actually see them 10 years ago in small Texas venues with shitty PAs and Britt still learning his chops.

i.e., They are much better nowadays!

Merge's small UK office certainly didn't hurt the Arcade Fire, so it must be something with their UK label 'Anti-'. No reason they couldn't be as popular over here as similar-sized overseas acts.

oh right didn't realise anti did their uk stuff for some reason.

Fopp seem to have a few copies of the new album but aside of that I saw no copies of any Spoon albums in all of the indie record store in Glasgow and Edinburgh over the weekend.

Pretty much everyone I spoke of whilst out having a cig at the Glasgow gig said they didn't really know Spoon and were following friends etc.

Really is a total mystery how their stateside sucesss hasn't translated into anything over here in the UK.

They do feel... very American, if that makes sense. Much more so than the likes of Animal Collective or Arcade Fire. (I know I know w/ the latter, but Canadian may as well be American as far as most UKers are concerned, even if that does piss off Cannucks.) Maybe it's because they're Texan rather than from NYC, maybe it's... I dunno. I'm finding this really hard to pin words on, but there's something about every aspect of them that's very American. Same way as The Hold Steady. It's in how they dress, in the guitar tone, the drum sound, in Britt's adenoids. It's not inward-looking, but it is... I dunno. Whenever I listen to their music, or whenever their lyrics filter into my head, the images it conjures are more American than Springsteen, somehow, whilst also very different.

As an American, what you're saying makes sense. I was thinking today how I get a very American feeling from Stars of the Lid and Emeralds. Those are more farfetched, curious if they resonate as well.

Hmmmm. Dunno Emeralds, do know SotL but not sure. Do get a similar feeling from Lift To Experience, who are similarly Texan.

Is Texas, ahem, the most uniquely American state? Are other states 'infected' with different external nationality personalities? Thinking of the Scandinavian thing writ-through Fargo here, to be honest.

I'd say stars of the lid have an extremely european sound.

Maybe it's just cuz I knew they were Texan, so I naturally thought of vast empty spaces.

Texas isn't any more American than, say, New York, but it's easier to distinguish from Europe.

"easier to distinguish from Europe" is a great way of putting it, aye.

I generally listen to SotL in a small room while reading, so the vast open spaces thing hadn't struck me!

I mean, it's obvious to me that Spoon are pretty Europe-aware guys, but they're also really obviously NOT European, if that makes sense.

Spoon are from Austin which is a pretty arty place (same with SoTL, Explosions in the Sky)

I guess they do have an American sound to them but I'm not sure that's the major obstacle. Maybe it's because they've done their most accessible material quite late on into their career. If 'Ga Ga Ga' was their first album I'm sure the UK hype machine would have gotten right behind it.

Austin is in Texas of course, but it's pretty different from the rest of the state I believe.

The theory goes that the further out and more conservative a state gets the more likely you're gonna get a pocket where things open up and become more liberal in revolt.

^

Seconding this as a guy in Austin, btw.

Xpost back to the reasons for their relative obscurity in Europe. It's not Anti-'s fault, I don't think (only last two albums have been on Anti-, I think). Problem was that the run of early noughties albums that made their name came out in Europe on 12XU, which had little or no distribution or marketing over here, so only half a dozen people even knew the records existed. I'm guessing 12XU also offered no tour support, hence the extreme infrequency of Spoon's visits to Europe. Basically, when they should have been highly visible, they were completely invisible. Someone told me 12XU was Gerald Cosloy's bedroom outfit when he wasn't doing Matador stuff. Is that right?

Internet Archive recording of this week's London Electric Ballroom gig: http://bit.ly/cMzADP

Set list:

Don't Make Me A Target
The Mystery Zone
The Beast And Dragon, Adored
My Mathematical Mind
The Ghost Of You Lingers
Is Love Forever?
Don't You Evah
Small Stakes
Love Song (The Damned cover)
Written In Reverse
Who Makes Your Money
The Way We Get By
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
They Never Got You
I Summon You
Rhythm & Soul
Got Nuffin
Black Like Me

Encore:

The Underdog
Nobody Gets Me But You
I Turn My Camera On
Jonathon Fisk

I was convinced they did a Series Of Sneaks tune in the encore.

good list, i could go for even more transference tbh

Black Like Me was awesome.

Kind of wish they had some live brass, though. But I wish EVERY GIG EVER had live brass.

I would've loved a few Girls Can Tell songs. Can't complain though, must be tough choosing a setlist from 7 excellent albums.

Love Song (The Damned cover)

Seen them about a dozen times here in Austin and I've never seen this in the setlist. Nice one!

Kind of wish they had some live brass, though.

Enjoy, Nick (I was at this one, it's a pristine 400 person venue and the sound is to die for):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLuhUH0HI2k

Asshole.

Here's a couple tunes from Girls Can Tell -- same show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsFwlp7wGs8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8NB2Vqie18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI6SNNeojw8

good performance. i've been warming up to the new one more, but I still think Ga is better.

Girls Can Tell > Gimme Fiction > Kill the Moonlight > Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga > Transference > A Series of Sneaks > Telephono.

Or...

Kill the Moonlight>Transference>Series of Sneaks>Telephono>the other ones which all kind of aren't very good

have the band ever given an official reason why "The Mystery Zone" is cut on the CD? it's obviously a mistake with there being a 5:50 vinyl version.

Don't know if it is a mistake, they ended the song in exactly the same way when I saw them live.

(still) haven't listened to the new one yet, but that above letterman performance of 'got nuffin' is the most boring/lazy song i've encountered in a while. i understand simplicity for simplicity's sake i suppose but when every single riff and part is the most pared down, characterless version of whatever it is yr trying to say it just builds up to a big, underwhelming zero for me. at least in this case. i dunno, i've seen spoon live and really enjoyed their show, and i do dig a bunch of their songs, but there are just so many tracks like the above one where it feels like there're no clothes that i'm really not sure i understand why they get so much adulation, especially now.

& i always feel a little guilty taking shots at bands, especially those who have put out work i admire and very well may continue to do so, but i rarely see anyone do anything but praise them, even if just for their 'consistency'!

it's ok to be wrong sometimes. you shouldn't feel guilty about that.

'got nuffin' is kind of the most of-type thing on the record

i dunno, it's taken me until this record to hear them as 'minimal' and 'interesting' and not 'simple' and 'generic'

have the band ever given an official reason why "The Mystery Zone" is cut on the CD? it's obviously a mistake with there being a 5:50 vinyl version.

― Bee OK, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 03:30 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Don't know if it is a mistake, they ended the song in exactly the same way when I saw them live.

― nate woolls, Tuesday, 9 March 2010 07:02 (6 hours ago) Bookmark

pretty much every track on the record has *something* that cuts out abruptly - this is the most obvious but generally they end mid-word or mid-syllable

it's obviously a mistake with there being a 5:50 vinyl version.

Because CD and vinyl pressings are *always* identical, right?

'got nuffin' is kind of the most of-type thing on the record

otm. I was underwhelmed by it when they put it out as a single last year, and it may be my least favorite song on the album. It's not BAD, just not exciting. It's like Spoon said "let's write a song that sounds like Spoon."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgdKZNshDLI&feature=player_embedded

Spoon + Bradford(!)

they also did a second song for Jimmy Kimmel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A2Lzkpivmk&feature=channel

*pumps fist* This should rule.

― kshighway1, Friday, October 30, 2009 12:21 PM (6 months ago)

:-/

I think the main problem with this album is that it's their first that doesn't introduce anything they haven't done before, so it's just kinda like "ok, it sounds like a Spoon album, that's nice."

sure, but this really blows compared to Ga, for real

seriously, did anyone else love Gax5 and just think this is more or less worthless?

that's kind of their best album by a considerable margin tho imo

I don't hate this album, but I don't see myself going back to it either. It was fine for a handful of plays, though. But yeah, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is definitely their best (unless one of the first two, which I haven't heard, is their best, but I kinda doubt that).

i've only heard everything from Kill the Moonlight on, but Ga is definitely the best of everything they've done since then

yeah i'm pretty much with you -- worthless is a good term cuz it's not bad, in fact i think it's generally 'good' but yeah i have no use for it (tm soto)

kinda like the new sade record in that regard :(

i think they had gotten exponentially better every album until this one

word

by far the worst thing Spoon has put out, so disappointing. this album does sound like Spoon but is missing something and i can't put my finger on it.

n fact i think it's generally 'good' but yeah i have no use for it (tm soto)

I see what you did here.

I played this for the first time in months last week and -- wow. It evaporated the second it ended. I looked at the slipcase and still couldn't hum most of the songs.

I looked at the slipcase and still couldn't hum most of the songs.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, May 23, 2010 2:23 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark

^^this

'before destruction' is the only one that ever finds its way in my head

mostly just the intro

one of the handful of small subset of big indie bands making records i still cared about . . . until this one

Matos excited me when he said "Who Makes Your Mone" had a minimalist techno vibe, but the song doesn't support such a good analogy.

one of the handful of small subset of big indie bands making records i still cared about

says the guy who comments on every PFM-esque indie thread!

*Money

xpost

says the guy who comments on every PFM-esque indie thread!

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, May 23, 2010 2:26 PM (31 seconds ago)

i still have hope!

i like the return to a rougher sound. it's a very good record, and filled an early-year void nicely.

still really like the Sleigh Bells and, on first listen all the way through, the LCD Soundsystem

NO LOVE FOR JOANNA NEWSOME, EH?

so what the hell do sleigh bells sound like? i keep seeing the name, but not any useful description

one of the handful of small subset of big indie bands making records i still cared about . . . until this one

― ksh, Sunday, May 23, 2010 2:25 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

this album isn't so bad that i wouldn't get excited about another spoon album. like... transference = stay positive right? altho maybe stay positive is considerably better, but still it was a step down from an obvious career peak. if spoon put out a heaven is whenever then i'll stop caring.

xpost to Daniel

according to iTunes, i've listened to "'81" 74 times, "Good Intentions..." 25, the rest of the first disk a bunch, and the other two disks barely at all

(yeah, i do realize i'm being too lazy to research this, but i need at least some incentive) self-xp

J0rdan: totally on the money, really

so what the hell do sleigh bells sound like? i keep seeing the name, but not any useful description

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z8ppcFGPlY

rev i could see you digging sleigh bells

that's the demo version fwiw

seriously, what awesome "big" indie rock records have come out this year?

what am i missing?

i dig what i've heard of sleigh bells, and i didn't really expect to.

I haven't had functional sound on my computer for a couple weeks now :/

i've only even been able to listen to stuff by burning it onto cd ;_;

i feel like i'm in the stone age

seriously, what awesome "big" indie rock records have come out this year?

― ksh, Sunday, May 23, 2010 2:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

what = big?

dunno, dude. i would say Spoon/National/BSS level "big," but all of those records have been kinda O_o . . . so i guess switch "big" w/ "at any level of popularity whatsoever"

big critically acclaimed records = lcd & newsom, national
not so critically acclaimed records = spoon & hold steady, bss

seriously, what awesome "big" indie rock records have come out this year?

not really surprising that the critical zeitgeist moved beyond these bands a bit, but i'm very satisfied with this year's discs from spoon and the new pornographers. i like what i've heard of the new hold steady, too. lcd soundsystem i guess doesn't qualify under your criteria?

what you see depends on where you sit, too. i've grown to love spoon and the new pornographers, so i'm inclined to see the good in their work and be happy for new material. i probably forgive their shortcomings too often, but i'm sure most people can say that about acts close to their heart.

HEY, GUYS

http://themorningafterpills.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/ezra-koenig.jpg

gabbneb at a spoon concert?

lol

i mean, my listening habits have definitely shifted towards metal, but i'm still interested in indie and haven't heard a Microcastle, Dear Science, or Hospice yet

(all three of those just being indie rock records that i really love)

have you heard a hissing fauna are you the destroyer?

BECAUSE THAT DISC WAS REVOLUTIONARY

irl lol

oh yeah forgot about vamp week

everybody did.

Contra is a record that's nice enough to listen to, but i never feel drawn to put on

i'll probably get it when it arrives on emusic.

any day now . . . . .

musicnerd | Posted on Nov 1st, 2007

in a year where so few good albums came out, (seriously I find it hard to even think of 15 true contenders for classics) Of Montreal at 27 is just uncalled for.

lol @ the idea that "so few good albums" came out in 2007

COME ON NOW THAT GUY IS THE "MUSIC" "NERD," SO HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT.

voting Daniel, Esq. for one of my favorite posters of May 2010

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/Images/ap_sally_field2_070223_ssh.jpg

(i'm actually a little taller than academy-award winning actress sally field).

I still really like this.

It's a contact record, though; the pleasure is in sensation, in listening, not in having listened.

pleasure is not a word i'd associate w/ my experience of having listened to this record

the pleasure is in sensation, in listening, not in having listened.

I'd argue this is true of all music...

don't think you'd still be saying that if I handed you a record called Some Loud Thunder, tbh

such rong on this revive, my life. this record being less than great and gax5 being the best spoon album? smh @ kids today.

u old, doggie?

the pleasure is in sensation, in listening, not in having listened.
I'd argue this is true of all music...

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:48 PM (9 minutes ago)

Ha, yeah, but so totally not true of the way so many people seem to approach music; especially net geeks. The hoarding, the seeking, the rating - it's all about having listened, not about listening.

ksh, do you listen to anything other than indie? No criticism, just a question.

Nick is so so otm. He is talking about the voice in which we think about music sometimes out-shouts the music itself, and how, perhaps it might allow us to exalt certain records over others. Come on, think about how when you listen to certain albums you haven't 'thought' about in ages...they might blind you with how good they are, and how much you enjoy them? And how records which we find ourselves thinking about and constantly waver on and bring into the conversation...well it's not as if we're necessarily overrating things, but one carries a sense of their non-auditory status into the realm of simply listening. I can't help it (and I would be interested to hear others on this) but I cannot help but *hear* one of my favourite records (Discovery) as a classic so many people love and like The Real Ramona as a classic of my *own* designation.

xpost I don't know about trying to get inside ksh's head, but he definitely seems like an open-minded listener trying to branch out from a comfort zone.

yeah, but this isn't a blind you with how good it is type record. it's a bit of trudge in fact. a fully competent trudge, but a trudge nonetheless.

This record is a really good conversation suddenly aborted.

^^a compliment.

The last couple of Spoon outings are more like one-letter text messages from someone you only met last Tuesday.

xpost I like that but is it a person you really fancy?

Alfred, you don't like Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga?

Creepy to call this out, but I remember Ga was on Alfred's 00s list.

It's okay; I can't think of an incisive remark that'll stick. I'm about to make a reference to an artist at the other end of the aural spectrum, but Britt Daniel's project the last couple of albums reminds me of what Bryan Ferry did in his late eighties recordings: nail a sound and a mood to the wall, then stare at it obsessively for hours.

Creepy to call this out, but I remember Ga was on Alfred's 00s list.

I'll have to check, but I'm a Gimme Fiction guy. At any rate I know I played Ga through Christmas.

Ga is totally varied tho, probably moreso than any of their others! I mean, if "The Ghost of You Lingers" and "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" are the same sound, I don't know what to say.

Maybe that's why Ga might be their best record, but the creepy atmospheric incredible production unites all the songs, catchy ones like Bomb and spare ones like Ghost. You can shout Underdog, but the crashing discordant ending of that is totally in sync.

xpost

And you can add "The Underdog" and its horns too. But they're embellishments on a song whose ethos isn't much different from its predecessors. I prefer GF's approximation of an R&B groove.

It's possible I'm losing patience with his gnomic ways.

It feels weird repping for Spoon on this thread by the way, as I've really soured on them for about six months now. It is what happens with me when I listen and totally adore certain bands, you just sick of them. Too much of a good thing.

xpost I really agree with when people compare Spoon with RnB or 'maximum RnB'. It makes sense in many ways. Search: All The Pretty Girls Go To The City, Lines in the Suit.

ksh, do you listen to anything other than indie? No criticism, just a question.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, May 23, 2010 4:54 PM (44 minutes ago)

hey Alfred! these days i'm mostly listening to metal -- catching up on stuff from last year mostly, and i'm having a blast. probably not too evident to ILM, as i mostly limit my metal posting to Rolling Metal, for obvious reasons

i also listen to pop & rap/r&b radio in the car, and, obviously, a lot of indie

why do you ask?

GF's approximation of an R&B groove.

I don't really get this.

It's probably worth mentioning that Ga was the first album of theirs I heard and worked backword from there, so my expectations of their previous albums were based on my reference frame of Ga, rather than vice versa. I do find each of their albums up to Ga a bit more limited than the next, though.

Naw, just curious; it's all good.

i'm mostly listening to metal

xpost

ok!

Ga was actually a massive grower for me, I had heard a few other songs too but they didn't really click with me. Then I listened to KTM all the way through properly and it blew my mind.

summer 2007, i can't think of any record i played more in my car than that one. it's perfectly sequenced too!

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is neck-and-neck with Kill the Moonlight for best Spoon album.

As far as Transference goes, I find I'm having the opposite reaction than a lot of you. I was mildly disappointed with it at first but have found that in the last four or five months I've kept coming back to it. Once I keyed onto the album as being their "jam record", I got more into it. Like, I figured out how it was different from their other albums--and it took me a lot of listens to identify it! But a lot of these songs really stretch a couple minutes longer than they could be. Think Mystery Zone or Out go the Lights or Nobody Gets Me but You. The band hits a groove and just hangs on it forever; even Britt gets out of the way a lot of the time and the band just vamps instrumentally for a while. Now, it borders on boring... but I've come around on the repetition and the aimlessness of it.

lol @ all this--transference might be my favorite spoon record ever and it blows gaX5 away

i can't believe y'all can't hum is love forever or trouble comes running

i hear what you're saying about it being their "jam band" record because the songs are long, but isn't a more important trait of jam bands their wonky, meandering "noodling"? and transference's songs are hardly examples of "noodling." one of the problems i have with the disc is that the songs go on too long repeating the same lines and themes, without evolving. (xp)

(i do like the disc a lot, mind you. also, my post wasn't very coherent. apologies).

cad dropping in w/ a bowl of challops big enough 4 all of us

the adjective we're looking for is not "jammy" but "interminable"

Transference is a great record to stan for if you hate music

cad dropping in w/ a bowl of challops big enough 4 all of us

― ksh, Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:49 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean

it's a good record! but better than ga is challO_ps

ksh OFFtm

There's nothing wrong with repetitive music that goes on too long "without evolving", as long as its done well. I mean, I never want "Hallogallo" to end after 3 minutes. Not equating Transference to Neu by any means, but I like the way they meander on this one.

There's nothing wrong with repetitive music that goes on too long "without evolving", as long as its done well.

agree w/ u here

problem is, on this record, i don't think it's done well. there are few good ideas, and it's good enough as a whole, but it feels like a more lifeless, uninspired Spoon than the one we got on Gax5 imo

few good ideas = a few good ideas

Fair enough, I just love the way this one sounds.

Yeah I'm down with the repetition vibe on this one, and it is the same kind of enjoyment I get from minimal techno - just hitting a zone and riding in it for as long as possible. That said, most of the tracks aren't completely static, e.g. Who Makes Your Money switches it up around 1:45, and of course I Saw the Light completely changes halfway through, and then builds, and builds, and builds...

cad dropping in w/ a bowl of challops big enough 4 all of us

― ksh, Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:49 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean

― mr. milquetoast (J0rdan S.), Sunday, May 23, 2010 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's a good record! but better than ga is challO_ps

― mr. milquetoast (J0rdan S.), Sunday, May 23, 2010 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you guys this isn't really "challops" because i don't think i'm nec. going against any conventional wisdom--i mean is gaX5 universally agreed to be the best spoon? i mean i guess it could be and no one told me ¯\(°_°)/¯

the middle of ga is a complete drag imo

eh, i guess it speaks highly of spoon that there can be so much variance in opinion on which albums are better. people here have put up gax5 and gimme fiction as contenders for their best album, and girls can tell won the poll iirc, and those 3 are prob my least favourite after telephono. but they're all good records.

i always think of ga as spoon's big album -- certainly their most popular album commercially -- i know lots of ppl love KTM but i think ga has replaced it in the cannon, maybe not tho

maybe "eddie's ragga" drags a bit, but "don't you evah" & "rhthm & soul" are great i think

canon, obv

KTM has a classic first side, meh second.

yup

You know what? This is really good.

YEp!

Although on the copy I have, a lot of the tracks stop really abruptly. Is there something wrong or is this just some wacky Spoon-style subversion?

it is. whoever said above this is spoon's "trance/groove" record was right.

too bad everyone will forget about it at year-end listmaking time. otoh, who cares about that?

That would be me: totally forgot this came out this year, and I loves it...

best album of 2010

wow! i like it a lot, but i can't say that.

exciting and sad and hidden and detailed and somehow so plain. just wonderful.

there's a pretty good chance this will be my #1

yeah I like the album a lot but haven't really listened to it much since it came out. probably still make my top 10 tho cuz it sounds. so. good.

not really anticipating this tbh

― call all destroyer, Monday, November 2, 2009 12:54 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha I was jsut about to quote that!

also

This record is a really good conversation suddenly aborted.

― Davek (davek_00), Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:18 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^a compliment.

― Davek (davek_00), Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:18 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The last couple of Spoon outings are more like one-letter text messages from someone you only met last Tuesday.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:22 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

xpost I like that but is it a person you really fancy?

― Davek (davek_00), Sunday, May 23, 2010 10:24 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

Still can't remember more than a couple of songs.

this is one of few records of the last several years that i've listened to enough to burn the songs into memory.

Kinda says something about 2010 though if Spoon's third or fourth best album might be the best album of the year.

not really anticipating this tbh

― call all destroyer, Monday, November 2, 2009 12:54 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― i should loko (rip van wanko), Sunday, November 28, 2010 1:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha I was jsut about to quote that!

― 'The Road'(a hundred less-than signs)'Taken' (bernard snowy), Sunday, November 28, 2010 1:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i know! i was assuming they would make another record like ga x5

Kinda says something about 2010 though if Spoon's third or fourth best album might be the best album of the year.

― scott pgwp (pgwp), Monday, November 29, 2010 9:47 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

or maybe it says something about spoon. but most likely, it doesn't say anything at all.

Yes, that's the glass-half-full way to look it.

this record is a fantastic record in a great year of records, for me.

i don't hear it as jammy or as stuck on vamps or repeating the same lines or meandering. the people who have referenced minimal techno are onto something; the way the music changes is very gradual and very exact, and it depends a lot on the interplay between sounds.

man this has grown on me like nothing else

what about hair?

xxpost "Eddie's Ragga" off the last album seems kind of prototypical here — that one, endlessly repeated guitar chord, with the reverb coming in and out unpredictably, is like a metonym for Spoon's entire approach

man this has grown on me like nothing else

― ciderpress, Monday, November 29, 2010 11:38 AM (11 hours ago)

what about hair?

― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 29, 2010 11:39 AM (11 hours ago)

actual lols, thankig u alfred

i'm balding actually

listened to this album twice yesterday -- hadn't really given it a whole lot of time before, but wow! i'm convinced this is another great spoon record. love the way the songs kind of unravel as they go on.

haha you're welcome

OK I'm listening to this now.

"Goodnight Laura," "Written in Reverse," "Got Nuffin," and "Who Makes Your Money" I immediately remembered. The rest remain ciphers or dribble on longer than they need to (e.g. "Out Go The Lights").

scanning the METACRITIC pull-quotes (good and bad) makes me want to revisit this album.

I have been otm like crazy on this thread.

"got nuffin", "who makes yr money", and (esp) "mystery zone" all i really remember/need from it. 2 of their last 4 (kill the moonlight, gaX5) i played to death, the other 2 i listened to a couple of times and cherry picked for my ipod. i can't pretend there's a huge gulf in quality between the lps either really, they either just hit me hard or leave me cold. looking forward to their next one!

"out go the lights" is a really pretty song

i'm surprised that people find 'got nuffin' memorable—i mean, it's not unmemorable, but it seems like the most boring song on the record to me. the most familiar. i heard it as a regular radio cut last year on a very poor radio station and it had a hard time distinguishing itself in that sort of company.

i would say that 'i saw the light' or 'out go the lights' justify their length, but i don't think it's a liability—it's intrinsic to what makes them good. the points at which the guitar solo and the return of the lead guitar in each are placed, late in the tracks after long 'down' sections, seem very balanced and elegant to me. i especially like the setup in 'i saw the light': it's like the latter half of the song is constantly descending. and yeah, 'out go the lights is beautiful'.

alfred, i would be really curious to read you going over one of the ones that's a cipher to you. i can understand the impression, especially with spoon (i remember the songs from a few albums back seeming really inert and boring to me before i settled into them), but i have a hard time hearing it now, even though i could, a bit, right at first; it was actually pretty remarkable how fast the songs opened up during my first several listens.

'out go the lights' is beautiful, i've never heard that other one.

zzzz amirite

I TURN MY CAMERA ON

It took me picking up a used copy on CD to acknowledge that this might actually be my favorite Spoon album