Are Spoon Like The Eels Or Something?

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What is their deal? People really listen to them? They are the ones that wrote an album about being dropped from some label cuz the label hated them or something? Or is that some other sadsack band? Why don't people listen to the new Transistor Transistor album Instead of Spoon? What's up with that? Spoon is a pretty dumb name, isn't it? Were the members of Death Cab For Cutie inspired by Spoon? If so, shouldn't Spoon be deported? Why is Maria listening to a children's album by They Might Be Giants in the other room? What is wrong with her? Were those geeks ever funny? Why do the British like the Eels so much? Isn't it kind of funny that we unloaded the Fun Lovin' Criminals on the Brits and that they fell for it? Are they still laughing that we fell for Bush?

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:47 (twenty years ago)

transistor transistor is a GOOD band name? i dont know dude, every band name is stupid, if you really think about it.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

i kinda like spoon, i think you might too, scott. They Might be Giants definitely recorded some guilty pleasures - Flood is still kinda awesome in spots, no?

― overbite, Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:51 (twenty years ago)

dude, i'm English and i don't know a single person who likes or liked the Eels. you have been lied to!

the whole Bush thing is pretty funny, tho.

― fsharp (fsharp), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

i like the band name "deftones"

― charleston charge (chaki), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

Spoon are SO boring.

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

i love bush like i love a smack in the head

― PiersT, Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

yo skrot, even i kind of like spoon, and i think indie rock is the worst music in the history of mankind (except for the eels maybe), so there! i even got the new spoon album in the mail a couple days ago and plan to listen to it, um, eventually! (though believe it or not i actually listened to the new sleater kinney album! their singer still kinda stinks but it has a decent guitar sound, believe it or not!)

― chuck, Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:56 (twenty years ago)

gah, haters. begone the lot of you. it's a Spoon love-in on ILM today.

― fsharp (fsharp), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:56 (twenty years ago)

OMG, I'm a Spoon Troll!!! I've had 3 beerz and no dinner. I'll get back to you. The TMBG Kidz album is pretty fuckin' annoying though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

Spoon are so NOT boring.

― PiersT, Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of band names, are there any acts called Knife or Fork?

― PiersT, Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

scott! you are so wrong!

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

and why did this need its own thread?

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

Are they still laughing that we fell for Bush?

The band or the slightly challenged guy who keeps being on TV?
(Both are quite funny, actually).

― Si Carter (Si Carter), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

but scott you are very right about the fact that tmbg were never funny. (though that "malcolm in the middle" song is okay, i suppose.)

― chuck, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:03 (twenty years ago)

there's 'the knife', in't there.

I own a spoon record that I have never listened to. sometimes I look at it and I think '...spoon,' and then I listen to something else. not intentionally, it just happens.

― cis (cis), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:03 (twenty years ago)

there's knife in the water -- they're from austin as well.

knife and fork band might be another one, but ill have to double check.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:05 (twenty years ago)

Did Spoon have a hit like Sex & Candy before everyone forgot who they were? Do the Brits still love Lambchop so much it isn't even funny? Were Spoon friends with the aptly named Failure? Or did they travel in different circles? Why does Chuck Eddy like this band Spoon anyway? They aren't from Mexico or Norway, are they?

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:06 (twenty years ago)

I never got it either. I always got Spoon mixed up with Sloan. Didn't they come out at the same time? But I THINK i've got it straight now. Spoon is the band that is/was on Matador? I remember their debut coming out and thinking it was the most generic thing in the world. But a lot of people I respect like them. Baked Bean Teeth here on ILM likes them. He told me that, yeah, that first album wasn't too hot but that they got better. and I think Peter Margasak really likes them too. And these days he's more of a jazzbo / world music guy, so if he's down with a straight-up guitar rock type band I'm usually intrigued. Who knows.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

Is the new Spoon album as good as the new Blood Red Throne album? Is it as creepy as the new YingYangTwinz single?

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

Am I the only person who bought Teenage Fanclub's A Catholic Education cuz you heard that the guy from Homestead had started a new label and you listened to it and thought to yourself: "eh, this is what you build a label on?"?

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

WHO AM I? WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

― Dude, are you a 15 year old asian chick? (jingleberries), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

Actually it was more like that first Superchunk record for me, and yeah it DID sound like teh future of indie.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

scott, spoon sound more like human switchoard or human sexual response or slow children or somebody like that than like sloan or the electric eels. well, sort of. i don't think they have any girls in the band. or, um, the brains? ok, that's an exagerration. but there is something 1980 fake new wave post-roxy about them. honest.

― chuck, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:16 (twenty years ago)

Yes, there is a band called The Knife, and they are fantastic.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

i hated superchunk and teenage fan club so much back then! superchunk were probably okay, though, in a 20-th generation new day rising kind of way. which was better than being 30-th generation big star, at least. i just thought it was real creepy that these generic powerpop bands were being billed by spin as a whole new thing in those days.

― chuck, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

The Knife are alright. Their best song is a remix!

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:19 (twenty years ago)

i meant the eels, not the electric eels! who were great! and who sound nothing like spoon! (though maybe they sound something like human switchboard, oddly enough. or at least they sound something like the mirrors, who sound something like human switchboard.)

― chuck, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:20 (twenty years ago)

I like that one spoon song and none of the others.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

the one that goes dup-adup-adup woah. maybe that's not them.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:23 (twenty years ago)

Pitchfork The Knife Spoon

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:23 (twenty years ago)

So Fork is still up for grabs. Hurry kids!

(edit: Pitch...doh!)

― PiersT, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

x-post
Matthew, can't find The Knife on the Interweb, but I'm thinking a Japanese band for some reason. But perhaps I'm thinking of Shonen Knife! Do you have info/a link?

― PiersT, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

http://www.rabidrecords.com/theknife/

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

Thanks Adam, downloading Christmas song.

― PiersT, Friday, 18 February 2005 00:57 (twenty years ago)

huh funny i should come across this now, the girl across my hall is playing "thats the way we get by." I wonder what she likes about it? Its a melodic little ditty i suppose but nothing really wonderful. I'm listening to the Paper Faces remix of "Gem" by Zoot Woman. I'm probably annoying her more than vice versa.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Friday, 18 February 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

Am I the biggest nerd in the world for buying a human switchboard album at my library's book sale when i was 12 cuz they thanked christgau on the back of it? did you know that one of the guys from human sexual response runs the theatre across the street from my brother's record store in hudson, new york and that sometimes my brother books shows there? Do spoon have a song even HALF as good as "land of the glass pinecones"?

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 18 February 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

My god, what a crazy wonderful thread.

Knife and Fork opened up for PJ Harvey last year and they were all right!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

That disco song on the new Spoon with the "false"etto is annoying.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Hi, Scott! I think you'd really like Spoon! Chuck's sorta OTM re: the "1980 fake new wave post-roxy", but I don't know Roxy Music, so I can't say for sure! Sometimes, the lead singer sounds like Donald Fagen, which is cool! His voice is really scratchy! I actually think Spoon sounds like the Strokes, but that was 3 albums ago! And they wrote a SINGLE about getting dicked over by their A&R guy, or maybe their label, I dunno! I think you'd like their 2nd album, A Series of Sneaks, especially given your Lansing-Drieden love, though they don't sound like L-D at all! I've never heard Human Sexual Response, but I want to!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:08 (twenty years ago)

They Might Be Giants are not a guilty pleasure. They Might Be Giants are one of the best bands ever.

― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 18 February 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

I don't think TMBG set out to be a "funny" band. They really just want to be a band, right? And you can't really fuck with their first album.

Spoon is a solid indie rock band -- nothing more, nothing less. If that's your thing, then you probably love Spoon. I do. I think they're great. There's a track on the new album that makes me wanna shake my butt. What else do I really need?

Though I will admit that they're boring live. Total snoozefest.

― robot mark (robot mark), Saturday, 19 February 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

Surely there is a jam band called Spork? Because, you know, haha, spork!

― Aaron A., Saturday, 19 February 2005 04:57 (twenty years ago)

No Knife are pretty good.

― aaron ef, Saturday, 19 February 2005 07:10 (twenty years ago)

Dude, I don't even like ROCK MUSIC generally, but I love Spoon.

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 19 February 2005 07:41 (twenty years ago)

TMBG rules, I never liked anything I've heard by the Eels, and the only thing I remember about Spoon is that when I saw them open for GbV in '96 some drunk guy kept yelling "HEY,YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE PIXIES" all throughout their set - which they did at the time at least, in a boring sort of way.

― Un investigador del siglo XXI (AaronHz), Saturday, 19 February 2005 07:48 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

maria downloaded some spoon from one of those feetune places and is listening in the other room and i even went in the other room and listened and they are okay i guess. i like them better than wilco anyway. they've got that phony beatlemania thing going on so i can see why ilm folx would like them. are they big world party fans? lotsa songs with that anti-guitar solo guitar solo. the helium pavement anti-solo who perfected it and when? or maybe not pavement but someone on matador. i still like the creep solo best maybe and always thought the whatever nevermind efx pedal grunge stomp solo was lame for the most part cuz so obvious and calculated in a dumb way or dumb in a calculated way and expertly timed and crafted anti-solos can also seem devoid of juice or grit which is probably okay with spoon fanz for the most part unless they are spoon fanz whose hearts beat strongly for lennon's fetal blue baby period or even sweet's aproximation of lennon's fetal blue baby period with new added sprawling wank. i am so sprawling wank it isn't even funny. why does xhuxk like them so much again?

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

Girls Can Tell is a mighty fine album. The other ones I've heard bore me, but that one, man. Great hooks, great riffs, great lyrics, everything stripped down so each note tells. There's even a response song to Liz Phair's "Stratford-on-Guy," itself a response song to some Exile on Main Street song. Spoon's knowingness (phony Beatlemania) paid off big on Girls Can Tell. That same aspect of their aesthetic might be what makes them boring otherwise. Too conservative, reliant on "taste," whatever, to make them much fun. But not Girls Can Tell.

― Druganaut, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

Saw them briefly yesterday at Arthurfest, was underwhelmed. They seemed aggressively pleasant and entirely committed to doing something fairly eh.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 7 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i don't hear the human switchboard or human sexual response that you hear in spoon though, xhuxk. or myabe this was the wrong album.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 14:47 (twenty years ago)

american music club are going on tour with spoon this spring as an OPENER. this is so criminally wrong in so many ways. but whatever makes amc some money is alright, I suppose.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

i never liked amc. too dreary even for me. and i don't like his voice either. so that was the new spoon, huh? britpop + matador is a good formula. now maria is playing downloaded new pornographers. i had never heard them either.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

i am so old i remember homestead. spoon when they are good (i.e. not the shitty new album) sound as much like a homestead band as a matador one. (warning, though: lotsa homestead bands kinda sucked.) (and again, even spoon's best stuff isn't all *that* good.)

scott otm about amc's uselesseness.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

i probably exagerrated about both human bands, scott. i probably even exagerrated about squeeze, to be honest. but there is *something* in them that reminds me of those bands (and homestead bands). at least more than most indie twerps of their ilk do. which is not saying much, i admit. i am cutting them slack left and right here. but still.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i think i started a thread on trying to like salem 66 when i was a teen.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

psah! Gimme Fiction is great. even if I did kind of get tired of it and rarely listen to it, I still think it's great.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

i stand by my squirrel bait love though. even if sun god did create grunge and there is no excuse for creating grunge. and i only bought squirrel bait cuz they were supposed to sound like husker du and there is no excuse for the last couple of husker du albums.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

if you are into dreary you should check out this reissue of the first explosions in the sky album i got in the mail. oof, it's like pulling teeth to get a song out of those guys.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

there is no excuse for any husker du album starting with *candy ass grey* (or any later album prominently featuring any husker dude for that matter). i stopped paying attention to squirrel bait after *skag heaven,* was that the name of their first full-length? they totally peaked with their first EP though. they were teenagers in louisville when i was stationed at fort knox, yep i'm old, so what--so are they now! and soon n/a will be too, he can't escape his fate! i think i also liked their "kid dynamite" single at the time, whenever it was.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

I will be old, but that doesn't mean I will have to like old people music, like fucking GIRLS CAN TELL.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

squirrel bait invented post-rock AND grunge. There is NO excuse for those people at all.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

but yeah, the ep was best. i liked the phil ochs cover on skag heaven though. and i liked the cover. and i liked grant hart's album about werner von braun and pompeii.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

grunge is conveniently easy to encapsulate though. listen to mudhoney's touch me i'm sick single and their first ep and you are done! you are now an expert.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cientifica.com/archives/grump.jpg

― a, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

>listen to mudhoney's touch me i'm sick single<

I did! A couple weeks ago! On the way up to Montreal! Actually, while driving through Albany! It's on the *Gimme Indie Rock* compilation, on K-Tel! And I still don't get what's supposed to be so great about it! (Didn't grunge pretty much end when Green River broke up anyway?) (Only to be reborn by Local H and Collective Sould many years later?)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

http://www.movieforum.com/people/actors/jacklemmon/images/grumpyoldmen.jpg

― a, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

for some reason i refuse to blame greg sage for his part in creating grunge, but i really should. i just can't. i think i'll just blame bob mould. he was responsible for squirrel bait and soul asylum and a helluva lot of boredom over the years. i blame the pixies too. and the raincoats. and leadbelly. and the melvins.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

yeah, the melvins deserve a TON of the blame. i remember when i first heard them i assumed they were a joke band, they were so fucking slow. made me laugh, too. but then they kept repeating the same joke!

bizarrely, though, i don't blame flipper. or killdozer, even.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

i've never heard beat happening, but i blame them for something too. and yo la tengo. they have a lot to answer for.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:57 (twenty years ago)

i've never heard melvins, but that new altamont album pissed me off for some reason. they try to do a fake metal song on it - like, hahaha, metal - except they can't PLAY metal, so they have to do a joke metal song really really slowly and badly which just makes them look like idiots.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

Well, in that case, Scott, you basically have heard the Melvins.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

And Girls Can Tell is their worst album, for the record.

Oh Nick. I haven't heard anything before GCT, but it's my favorite of the last three.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

I am sad about this Melvins hate. (I am pleased however to see this mention of Flipper -- Chuck, you should hear this cover of "The Way of the World" by Unto Ashes that's about to come out. It is rather different from the original.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

I rank the Spoon albums:
1. Series of Sneaks
2. Gimme Fiction
3. Telephono
4. Kill the Moonlight
5. Girls Can Tell

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

I think over all the latest album is the best and most consistent but Everything Hits At Once on Girls Can Tell is the best thing they ever done.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

How old are you dog?!?!?!

(BTW, n/a's irrational hate for GCT is, um, irrational?)

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

GCT only has one great song, "Fitted Shirt." The rest is very meh.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

Everything Hits At Once on Girls Can Tell is the best thing they ever done.

dog latin OTM!!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

"Fitted Shirt" is annoying. It reminds me of Ben Folds Five or something.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Series of Sneaks and Soft Effects are impeccably awesome, excellent use of negative space, relentlessly tuneful, and rhythmically convincing in a way that very few indie rock bands could manage. Telephono & GCT have a few moments, and while I'm not crazy about the new one at least it's better than the piano pop snoozeathon that came before it. "Fitted Shit" = no thank you.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

"Fitted Shirt" sounds like Everclear.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

I would like to posit a theory, that you can disprove or prove for me:
People who like Girls Can Tell a lot, or best, are generally people who weren't actively listening to Spoon before GCT came out. Or maybe weren't Spoon fans before GCT came out.
Because as someone who was a huge fan of the first two albums, I thought GCT sounded really wimpy and lame when it first came out. Which is probably why I dislike it so much.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I certainly had never heard them before.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

And you like wimpy stuff anyways.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

xp
I had. But GCT grew on me a bit. But then, I'm old.

Still like the first two the best....

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd900/d969/d96973i2x22.jpg

― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

And you like wimpy stuff anyways.

Hooray!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

I would like to posit a theory, that you can disprove or prove for me:
People who like things might not like the same things someone else likes. Or maybe they like things that someone else likes and doesn't like.
Also, being a contrary dick on the internet is a superfun way to kill time.
Not that n/a is necessarily being a dick, but I sure am.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

For the record, anyone on this thread would give their left arm to write something as awesome as "Fitted Shirt".

But anyway, Britt Daniels gave an incredible solo performance at Dante's in Portland a few weeks ago. He announced that he's moved here, which made me happy.

― darin (darin), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

I think I'm doing a pretty good job of restraining my dickishness!

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

I do sort of wish my shirts were custom made.

― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

You should sign to MERGE, you'll be rolling in the dough. And WATERFALLS OF PUSSY.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

I long for the days people would say ma'am and yes sir, but I don't give a shit really about my shirts.

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

maria woke me up the other morning playing the new spoon album on an ILLEGAL DUTCH DOWNLOAD SITE and it took four hours of death metal to wipe it out of my brain. i would have preferred it if she had just poured a bucket of cold water on me.

they definitely put a new spin on boring music though. gotta give them that.

― scott seward, Monday, 16 July 2007 19:40 (eighteen years ago)

:-)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 16 July 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

five years pass...

http://i.imgur.com/SV5BN.png

― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 3 January 2013 02:47 (twelve years ago)

i honestly don't know which is more hilarious the thread or the revive

― some dude, Thursday, 3 January 2013 02:52 (twelve years ago)

Are Spoon the most interesting boring band or the most boring interesting band?

― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 3 January 2013 14:42 (twelve years ago)

― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 3 January 2013 18:34 (twelve years ago)

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