WRITTEN IN REVERSE

TIME FOR YOU GUYS TO HEAR THE FIRST SINGLE FROM SPOON'S TRANSFERENCE.


WRITTEN IN REVERSE. it takes some NPR spelunking to find it, but i'm sure you'll be able to. that piano intro.... dear god in heaven. if my roommates were not in my room i probably would've screamed out loud. something about that piano is sooooo sexy. i don't even know what it is.
i'm sure you REMEMBER THIS POST... well, my feelings have not changed.

BONUS FLASHBAQ TIME: SPOON LIVE SOMEWHERE IN KNOXVILLE IN JUNE OF 1996. i was FIVE YEARS OLD when this show was recorded and it's full of some of my favorite spoon songs. take a walk doesn't even have real lyrics yet BUT IT'S SO SICK.

archive.org has a ton of spoon bootlegs you should check out. i'm making my way through all the pre-2000 ones! i can't believe i've only seen this band once --- and when i saw them i only knew gimme fiction stuff. NOW THAT I AM AWARE OF THEIR ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY...

IDIOT DRIVER IDIOT DRIVE

reading decade-end lists really just makes me sad that people do not understand the pure unadulterated genius which is this band, spoon. their evolution as a band / sound absolutely blows my mind.

IDIOT DRIVER --- SPOON from telephono, released when i was five years old.

INSTANT KARMA

lennon's instant karma covered by the inimitable white rabbits with the inimitable mr. britt daniel (can i marry your voice please). i am only blogging about three bands now, have you noticed?

I LIED

there are days when i try to deny that my heart beats to the tune of merchants of soul. those are days when i lie to myself.



MYSTERY ZONE --- SPOON. here is a song from transference.
MONKEY FEELINGS --- SPOON. here is an old and fantastic b-side.

because i am required to mention white rabbits in this post:

percussion gun on TV with britt daniel on piano (don't tell me you didn't recognize him in the lower left with his distinctive nose and all). i died a little bit when i went to watch this and jimmy kimmel said "with a little help from britt daniel from spoon." oh god, universe! you're trying to kill me!

TRANSFERENCE

is spoon's seventh album, january 26 2010.



tracklisting:

01 Before Destruction
02 Is Love Forever?
03 The Mystery Zone
04 Who Makes Your Money
05 Written in Reverse
06 I Saw the Light
07 Trouble Comes Running
08 Goodnight Laura
09 Out Go the Lights
10 Got Nuffin
11 Nobody Gets Me But You

this is shaping up to be the best january ever!
WRITTEN IN REVERSE --- SPOON. how sick will this be on the album?

FEEL LIKE I'M GONNA IGNITE

IS I TURN MY CAMERA ON THE SONG OF THE DECADE?

speaking as we were with grizzly bear about how incredible simplicity can be the most affecting of all --- ladies and gentlemen, i turn my camera on. the more you listen to spoon the more you realize that they are all simplicity - down to the name of the band, even. what is i turn my camera on? simple drums, the undertone of that sexy funk bass riff, cuts of guitar, that voice. c'est tout. and when you're listening to this song - it works. this is one of the sexiest songs i can think of. "i saw the stars go off, i saw the stars go off at night and they're looking alright."



IS GIMME FICTION THE ALBUM OF THE DECADE?

gimme fiction is one of my favorite albums of all time (if not my favorite album of all time) and it came out this decade - in 2005 - so it is safe to say this is also a strong contender for number one. if you don't have this album or if you are not familiar with it please familiarize yourself with it ASAP. THIS BOOTLEG OF MY MATHEMATICAL MIND might help you realize it better than anything else. every song on this album is good. every song on this album rips your heart out and every song sews it back in. the point i'm getting to - spoon have been consistently good for six albums and almost two decades, and gimme fiction is GREAT.

GOT NOTHING

really sorry for the lack of posts. i am so busy with work and writing for pma and college tuition business that i have no time anymore!


spoon's "got nuffin" kind of spoke to me the other night. sometimes you have to be reminded that, especially when you are as young as i am, you really have nothing to lose.
GOT NUFFIN --- SPOON
new album being recorded right now, apparently, so we're looking at winter / spring '10. remember how sick "writing to you in reverse" is?

bonus: you ain't no picasso is one of my favorite blogs and they now have a SPOON COVERS ARCHIVE. HERE.

also, i wrote about my second-favorite album of the year thus far, discovery's LP, for PMA. if you review it in the comments you can win it on vinyl. HERE.

KILL THE MOONLIGHT

here is an album i would STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO PURCHASE ASAP:



BUY IT
or LISTEN TO "PAPER TIGER"

THIS POST HAS NO POINT

i saw twilight today. what a ridiculous film. then i stumbled across THIS ARTICLE and nearly died. then, to add insult to injury, i stumbled across THIS ARTICLE. all i have to say is "wat." twilight hints: all the sepia-toned parts are terrible. robert pattinson's eyebrows are second to few. vampire weekend hints: tonight at 12:35 on conan o'brien, and they start a short tour on dec. 1, and they will start recording a second album in january.

tomorrow's my eighteenth birthday and i'm going to see we are scientists, so i'll let you know how that pans out. i'm going to start giving you my BEST OF THA YEAR lists in the middle of december... they're gonna be sweet. don't even try to deny it.

i am posting though because finally i found on the internet one of my favorite spoon songs, and i don't think i've posted it here before. it's hilarious. it's verifiably hilarious.
ALL THE NEGATIVES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED --- SPOON
here's a very clean and somewhat less badass version of the first track on my favorite album of all time...
THE BEAST AND DRAGON ADORED --- SPOON

UPTIGHT

well, i just applied to do this. let's see how it goes. i wrote a nice email about how i went to a billion concerts in the pouring rain last summer (you guys remember that? good times!)

but i thought i would do an actual post though, so i realized this today:
up⋅tight
   /ˈʌpˈtaɪt/ [uhp-tahyt]
adjective Slang.
1. tense, nervous, or jittery.
2. annoyed or angry.
3. stiffly conventional in manner or attitudes.

let's talk about this word and its appearances in music. i think it's important that we talk about spoon first because britt daniel uses the word UPTIGHT in two songs i can think of right off the top of my head, and for some reason i think there are more, or i might have it confused with "ignite" which he also uses at least five times.
i can't find an mp3, but WANTED TO BE YOUR is worth listening to at some point in your young life, partially because it's ridiculous and makes little sense. it is good though. "i wanted. to be your friend. i thought. when you danced it looked alright. BUT THAT DIDN'T MEAN I WASN'T.... UPTIGHT!!!" what?
also SMALL STAKES. this is live; the original's on kill the moonlight (buy this if you haven't). i think that small stakes is one of spoon's better songs. "small stakes bring you where you're caught in a rut. you feel so uptight you just want to throw it all up."
i also think that the VIBES (i don't know why i'm using this word) of a lot of spoon songs convey that energy - uptight. tense. nervous. "i'm tense and nervous and i can't relax." (these are talking heads lyrics but the vibes translate!!) i think the best example of this is I TURN MY CAMERA ON. really tense, really shaky. but then when we get into songs like THE UNDERDOG you can't say that at all - there's this total swap. that's really appealing. there's a lot of talent in that.

the most well-known use of the word UPTIGHT in a song in 'modern' (this song is ten years old, though!) music would be radiohead's SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK ALIEN... "they'd shut me away, but i'd be alright. i'm alright. i'm just uptight." what does this mean, really? surely if you were uptight and they locked you away you'd get worse. what a gorgeous song, though! i always thought this song really sounded like what it was about. that guitar / synth thing was so extraterrestrial --- all that about alien abduction --- but the chorus is just gorgeous, soaring, which really goes along with "show me the world as i'd love to see it..." what a great song that is.

PLEASE BE SMART TOMORROW

THE GHOST OF YOU LINGERS (DEMO) --- SPOON
& if you were here would you calm me down or settle the score? on the northeast corridor i first heard this song, on amtrack on the coast of rhode island, it was midsummer and the train moving very fast, this blur of sunset and ocean. at the time i had the ap bio text on my lap and i was supposed to be outlining things, defining things, understanding things but i didn't care because i had this, this song with all that power --- so devastating in that smooth echo, that thud of sound, exhausting --- and i had to my left the ocean spread out, the beach. once five or six kids sitting on top of a railroad bridge, skinny legs dangling. i didn't know if they would jump off or if they would just sit there and watch the sun go, but you never know what people will do when you see them only so quick, that division of a second before the train goes back into the forest.

NEW SPOON THING

IN THE RIGHT PLACE THE RIGHT TIME --- SPOON

never heard this before. it might be new, or very old. really simple --- like who backs your money! it's got that groove to it, though, you know. what really separated spoon's don't you evah from the original version by the natural history was, while both songs were equally good, spoon's version had this ridiculous, undeniable energy to it, this pulsating thing like a distant galaxy, pushing and shoving with light, here and there and all over.

GIFTS

1) THIS SPOON BOOTLEG I FOUND. you want to download "64kbps mp3" under "audio files" corresponding to whatever you want to listen to. i am pleasantly surprised by their inclusion of they never got you and quincy punk episode! the recordings of don't you evah and my mathematical mind are reasonably spectacular as well. britt daniel's voice is so good live. i particularly like how everything is a little bit sped up.

2) RA RA RIOT'S SECOND DAYTROTTER SESSION. it boggles me still why they didn't put a manner to act on their album, however amazing the rhumb line is. the version of it here is very well done. i didn't know the "two stitches in my eye" part was a true story. if you haven't listened to their FIRST, it's equally good albeit a bit more rough-edged, and it's where i first heard them do suspended in gaffa.

3) i'm seeing andrew bird on thursday so get ready and get psyched for a nice big discussion on how awesome he is.

4) i need to get my hands on some more sam buck rosen before i die. seriously you have to download those songs from a few posts ago. they are devastatingly good although my dad compared his voice to that of chris isaac. don't even front dad ok.

AN OPEN LETTER TO TRUST FUNDERS, FROM BRITT DANIEL

WHO BACKS YOUR MONEY? --- SPOON
technically this is just britt daniel with sleater-kinney's janet weiss on drums, rather than spoon, the band, as a whole. it's disastrously good though - it's really hollow, minimalistic. the drums, the guitar, that voice and the echo. it doesn't have that pounding, head-shaking beat of writing to you in reverse, but it's almost as good. this really reminds me of reasonably old stuff, series of sneaks / girls can tell type stuff - just in how simple it is. so well done.

added:
MY MATHEMATICAL MIND (DEMO) --- SPOON. when i saw spoon i was dancing to this song in the way that i dance, which looks kind of like frosting a cake. britt daniel looked right at me and started dancing like frosting a cake. this is one of the proudest moments of my life. that said, this demo reminds me of who backs your money in its incredible simplicity! there's just that piano riff, the really rough voice echo.

WRITING TO YOU IN REVERSE

dear lord in heaven, this song. i have been rendered awestruck by this song. it has the sexy thirst of i turn my camera on, the badassery of back to the life, the dizzy discordant piano of the ghost of you lingers, the careless yelp of all the negatives have been destroyed. britt daniel's scream around 2:06 sounds like my mathematical mind live.

but it has that kind of thirst overall: please tell me i don't want you anymore! scorned or abandoned. "someone better call a hearse."

WRITING TO YOU IN REVERSE --- SPOON

SPOON.

oooh, i'm going to do a new thing! i'm going to call it 'lazy discography.' what i am going to do is give you a list of every studio album (and maybe if there's a really good ep) by a good band, and recommend TWO that's right TWO tracks to download off of it (with mp3s or youtube videos if i can find them... if i can't try the band's website or ask me to send them to you). now, this should be easy for some bands (ra ra riot) and hard for other bands (radiohead). so i'm going to start with a medium-sized / just-right band... SPOON.


TELEPHONO / SOFT EFFECTS
this is a combination of two eps.
IDIOT DRIVER
NOT TURNING OFF


SERIES OF SNEAKS
this is their first studio album.
UTILITARIAN (live)
METAL DETEKTOR (live)


GIRLS CAN TELL
i couldn't find any mp3s from this album.
TAKE A WALK
BELIEVING IS ART


KILL THE MOONLIGHT.
when i call my friend melissa the image that pops up is me kissing this album.
SMALL STAKES (live)
ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS GO TO THE CITY


GIMME FICTION.
this is my favorite album of all time.
MY MATHEMATICAL MIND (live)
THE BEAST & DRAGON, ADORED (live)


GA GA GA GA GA
THE GHOST OF YOU LINGERS
YOU GOT YR CHERRY BOMB


i would love for you to download all those songs. if you would like more please drop me a line. and just buy gimme fiction okay, just buy it. DO IT.

COLLECTION OF NEWZ

1) IF I DIE TONIGHT --- NOAH AND THE WHALE
july 29, "peaceful, the world lays me down," their debut album, is released in the US!
they did a great set for la blogotheque a while back.

2) architecture in helsinki, the greatest live band in the world, are "working at a leisurely pace on new album," apparently.

3) apparently, i have been a good girl, and the universe has rewarded me:
MERCHANTS OF SOUL (DEMO) --- SPOON

M12 IS REAL,
genevieve

on the genius of a series of sneaks

this is to be the first of what will probably be 89034823894 discussions on this blog about a band called spoon.


buying this album: best decision of my life, except maybe buying kill the moonlight. do it now. just close your eyes and do it. THIS IS THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU.

LAFFITTE, DON'T FAIL ME NOW --- SPOON.
this song is about hating a guy for screwing you over. i have this on right now turned up so loudly that i can hear static in the background like someone on itunes ripped this baby off vinyl, which is awesome. i miss my dad's old record player. he's probably reading this so: dad, please fix the record player.