New Noise :: Spoon :: Rhthm and Soul

I’ll go ahead and out myself here on the blogosphere. I haven’t always been a Spoon fan. I know, I know. Stupid, right? Well, have no fear. Over the past couple years, I’ve turned my opinion of the Austin band right around and am now a huge fan. Funny story - in one of my less impressive moments, I saw Spoon play local venue Headliners and kept drunkenly yelling out ‘VERONICA!’ in between songs because I had seen singer Britt Daniel in a cameo appearance on Veronica Mars where he sang the Elvis Costello classic in the karaoke coffee bar where the titular character worked. Daniels finally acknowledged my annoying cries after a while. ‘Are you saying “Metallica?”’ he asked. ‘No! “Veronica!”’ I yelled back. ‘Oh, the band doesn’t know that song,’ he explained nicely. Thankfully, a much more sober me ran into him at another bar later in the evening and apologized profusely for being such a dope.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I got this live recording of a new Spoon track that will appear on their new album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and I’ve probably listened to it close to forty times since then. First of all, for a bootleg, it’s a really great recording, and my hat goes off to whomever did it. Secondly, it has quickly become one of my favorite Spoon songs ever. It captures Daniel’s unforgettable voice perfectly as he goes from slightly nasally crooning to rock howl The guitars groove and hook, and the keyboards provide a head-bobbing melody, hearkening back to Spoon’s earlier work which was much more Elvis Costello-influenced than some of their recent material. (See? I knew I could work that story into the post somehow. Huzzah!) Everything about the song dares you not to dance, even down to Daniel’s incredible lyrics - ‘Come get there./Come be there./Come dance your socks right down to your shoes.' I’m just going to shut up now, and let you listen for yourself.

Spoon Rhthm and Soul

Buy Spoon music here.

Bonus! The Britt Daniel scene from Veronica Mars.