I’m listening to the online stream of Spoon‘s new album, Transference. It’s not bad music, but I have no desire to listen to most of it again. In theory, I should like this band: They sound like a cross between Revolver, Bowie/Eno, Prince, and Jon Brion. But something’s missing. Their music always sounds so flat to me. It’s not lo-fi, but it sounds like a well-made album then dubbed onto a bad Maxell or TDK cassette. Reminds me of my dubbed copy of The Joshua Tree, which was a copy of a copy of a copy. No wonder I never could hear the supposed grandeur of that album.
There’s something else, though. Something unfinished about this music in an unappealing way. It’s like they have hooks, but no melodies.
Anyway, they’re not evil and I don’t hate their fans. I’m just happy with them passing me by. I do wonder if I’ve heard too much music, too much alt/indie/punk-type sounds, so this just sounds old-hat to me.
Feel free to let me know if I’m missing something, if I’m full of crap.
We reach, Oats! I haven’t heard the new one, but I’ve given Spoon a chance a couple of times in the past, always without success. I put them in same category as Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie — I don’t hate them, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about, and I can’t fathom how they got so popular.
i thought i was alone you guys!
i feel the same way!
about Spoon that is.
Modest Mouse i HATE
and that other band I won’t even listen to because of their awful name structure.
want to like spoon.
great name!
cool album covers!
all the right musical elements…
but no soul.
I have Gimme Fiction by them. Most of that sounds cool enough but I never really seem to cue it up, except for the second song, “The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine”, which I sometimes listen to over and over again.
Thanks guys. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Kilroy’s comment keys in on something I wanted to add.
I think Spoon are the ultimate in prock/lab coat rock. They don’t do anything intangible. Nothing is left to chance. No spontaneity, not even a hint or imitation of it. Everything seems precise, orderly and dull. I’m all for clear, unfussy production, but there can still be a little mystery. Certainly Eno, Prince and Brion have made music with moments I love where I’m all, “What is that sound?! How is he doing that!?” That never seems to happen on a Spoon album.
Oh, and while I’m shitting on indie-rock big wigs. I wanted to say something else. I never could flesh this out into a thread in its own right, but I think Yo La Tengo have been phoning it in for the last decade. They get 8.5s from Pitchfork or whatever, but I think that’s the direct equivalent of Rolling Stone giving Voodoo Lounge four stars.
Oats, you’re on FIRE! That YLT comment was both hilarious and dead-on RIGHT.
I agree with you COMPLETELY re: Spoon. I took the liberty of linking from your piece to a comment I made on one of their earlier albums, so I’ll save the effort of reposting it here. I own 3 albums by these guys, and anymore the thought of trying them again sickens me.
Yo La Tengo…I need to get my head around them someday and weed out my deep-seated personal issues with Ira Kaplan:) For another day…
I guess I disagree with everyone here then…I count Spoon as one of my favorite bands these days. Modest Mouse too….
You’re not alone, Dean. I didn’t like the last Modest Mouse album at all, but I like the previous albums to one degree or another (and I know you do, too, Oats; just curious how you felt about that last one).
As for Spoon, they’re one of those bands where I only play one album by them (in their case, Girls Can Tell) as nothing else I’ve ever heard by them matches that record.
As for YLT, I’m still trying to digest the newest album, but I like the 3 that came before that quite a lot. I actually think they’ve gotten better over the years and honestly, they’re one of the few bands I feel that way about.
Yeah, I liked the Modest Mouse stuff from the early ’00s, especially The Moon and the Antarctica. Haven’t played them in years though. The album with Johnny Marr was terrible, I thought. I only listened twice, but that was because there was nothing going on that compelled me to play again.
I like ’90s YLT, but the recent stuff just sounds like they’ve been mining that sound further and further with diminishing returns. Kaplan’s vocals have gotten shittier (I think he should let Georgia and James handle all the singing.) The jams sound like Sonic Youth without all that inconvenient rocking the fuck out. Didn’t some reviews gave the new album good notices because they added a string section on some songs? SO FUCKING WHAT? That has not been an innovation in rock in about 40 years.
I recognize that they are good eggs; that they have good taste, and support WFMU, and are friends with cool comedians, and helped Ray Davies get some indie cred. And I liked that Chris Stamey album where they were the backing band. But none of this really means anything.
The Mod says: “Yo La Tengo…I need to get my head around them someday and weed out my deep-seated personal issues with Ira Kaplan:)”
I was trying to get a band mate to give YLT a listen and his objection was (I’m paraphrasing): “I don’t want to listen to someone who’s a bigger geek than me. That’s why I like Springsteen so much, I’ll never be that cool.”
I have “And the World Turned Itself Inside out” and “I Can Hear The Heart Beating” and I like the vibe on both of them. I can hear how the band begins to repeat themselves a bit even over the course of those two albums but I also think that they came up with a sound of their own and about half the tracks on each album make those albums worth the price of admission.
I love Spoon! Having said that, personally I find their albums uneven, but they’ve got more than a handful of really great tunes, I think.
I have never investigated YLT for some reason even though I have pretty much liked everything I’ve heard from them (granted, that’s not too much). I can say one of the most interesting shows I ever witnessed was when the Milkmen were on tour in Austria in the early 90’s and played three shows with them. One night was in an old theater. The venue had a copy of the film “Koyaanisqatsi”. Somehow YLT convinced the theater to show the film (without the Philip Glass score) while YLT played and it was great. I know Ira did sound for us at Maxwells at least once too. Oh, and I also love the album title “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass”
mrclean, I’ve never bothered much with YLT, either. I don’t know why. They’ve been around forever and people I know like them a lot, but I just never seem to get around to them.
I’ve got one Spoon album, Kill the Moonlight. I’d have thought a band from Austin would bring a little more to the table. There’s a few Indie bands I feel that way about. My Morning Jacket is another band people tell me I’ll love that leaves me cold. I don’t hate them, but I don’t care one way or another about them, either. Maybe that’s worse than hating them.
i really love Yo La Tengo, and i haven’t heard anything newer than “and then the nothing…” I listen to fakebook every other month. Joe Tagg made me a mix tape of YLT in 1995 and it was sooooooo good!
They covered Ant Music one time at the Troc.
I don’t care how fuckin dorky they are.
my hatred for Modest Mouse is about how annoying the guy’s voice(s) is/are, coupled with everybody in the late 90’s telling me how great they are/were.
like i was SUPPOSED to like them.
If I haven’t done so before, I’ll come clean on my beef with Ira Kaplan. It’s a three-act story.
I saw YLT at Maxwell’s when their first album came out. They had a fourth member, I think a guy who played electric banjo. They were an excellent, fun, energetic, song-based band.
Shortly thereafter our band played Maxwell’s and Ira was the soundman. He wasn’t the world’s friendliest guy when I tried to chat him up, but I’m always amazed when any soundman is capable of moving past the likely misery of that job and being able to muster a cheery front. No problem. Anyhow, as we did soundcheck (and later the show) he kept grimacing and literally putting his fingers in his ears, telling us we needed to turn down. In retrospect it’s likely we did, but man, don’t give a young band trying to prove itself a series of disdainful faces that equate to a kid holding his nose and recoiling from a hunk of blue cheese. Find a way to have a little tact. Anyhow, that bugged me – like I said – whether his advice had any merit or not.
A year or so later I went to see YLT at Philadelphia’s JC Dobbs, then a small, narrow club. Now they were a trio. They opened with some poor man’s take on a “Down By the River”-style Neil Young song. Kaplan was playing at ear-splitting volumes and writhing around as he played his dimestore Young-style solos. The song went on for about 10 minutes. Then they played another song in that style, with Kaplan again overgesticulating on a 5-minute solo following the opening verse. He looked like a bigger dick than the guy who was holding his ears as we ran through our soundcheck a year or two earlier. My wife and I left the show as the band began its third consecutive minor-key jam with Kaplan’s tinny guitar turned up to 11. I’m sure he’s a fantastic human being and all that – and I would buy one more album by that band as well as a couple of individual songs, but screw him!
That, my friends, is my beef with Yo La Tengo.
Matt,
I totally agree with you. For Spoon, it’s been all downhill since Girls Can Tell. And YLT keep putting out strong records.
I think when Spoon is good they are very good. But I agree with the statement they are uneven.
Mod your seeing YLT live reminds me of my one time catching them live many years ago. A friend and I saw them at 7th St. Entry sometime after the release of “Fakebook”. You know, Fakebook had this quieter vibe to it and both of us were geeked out to hear the female singer (can’t recall her name) sing a few numbers (really, a lovely voice). Anyway, instead we got an manic Ira jam show. Nothing but long jams and Ira wailing. Seemed self indulgent, annoying and bored us both to tears. I’ve never invested that much time in the band, for no good reason perhaps beyond that show…