Skip to main content

A Series of Sneaks

Well, thanks to the wonderful world of iTunes, the Internet and Jason having all of their records on CD, I have a lot of Spoon to listen to. Here's the tracklisting:

Disc 1
from Telephono
1. “All the Negatives Have Been Destroyed”
2. “Cvantez”
3. “Nefarious”
4. “Dismember”
5. “Primary”
6. “The Government Darling”
7. “Plastic Mylar”

from Soft Effects EP
8. "I Could See the Dude"

from A Series of Sneaks
9. “The Guest List/the Execution”
10. “Metal Detektor”
11. “Reservations”
12. “Car Radio”
13. “Metal School”
14. “No You’re Not”
15. “Quincy Punk Episode”
16. “Advance Cassette”
17. “The Agony of Laffitte”
18. “Laffitte Don’t Fail Me Now”

from Girls Can Tell
19. “Everything Hits at Once”
20. “Believing Is Art”
21. “Me and the Bean”
22. “Lines in the Suit”
23. “The Fitted Shirt”
24. “Anything You Want”
25. “Take a Walk”
26. “Take the Fifth”
27. “Chicago at Night”

Disc 2
from Kill the Moonlight
1. “Small Stakes”
2. “The Way We Get By”
3. “Stay Don’t Go”
4. “Jonathon Fisk”
5. “Someone Something”
6. “All the Pretty Girls Go to the City”
7. “You Gotta Feel It”
8. “Vittorio E”

from Gimme Fiction
9. “The Beast and the Dragon, Adored”
10. “The Two Side of Monsieur Valentine”
11. “I Turn My Camera On”
12. “Sister Jack”
13. “I Summon You”
14. “Was It You”
15. “Merchants of Soul”

from Gimme Fiction bonus CD
16. “Carryout Kids”
17. “You Was It”
18. “Sister Jack” (piano demo)

from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
19. “Don’t Make Me a Target”
20. “The Ghost of You Lingers”
21. “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”
22. “Rhythm & Soul”
23. “The Underdog”
24. “Black Like Me”

Listening to more from this band, I realize what's eluded me for so long about them. Their music doesn't immediately suck me in with big hooks. There are hooks, tasteful playing and smart lyrics embedded here, but they are much more toned down compared to all the other stuff I listen to. I blame my occasional impatience for this.

Once again, here's a band that I've been hearing about for years, but have never dug that far with. I remember David Sadof playing a track from A Series of Sneaks on Lunar Rotation, but I don't remember which one. Ever since then, after hearing "Me and the Bean" and "Sister Jack" through various places (our first anti-flip flop party, Sound Opinions), I've always been curious. When the opportunity to see the band for free came up this week, I couldn't resist. Getting to hang out with a few friends I hadn't seen in months was also nice.

So yes, there are ways to break through my hard-headed ways of listening to music. I still resist the "you've got to hear this now!" recommendation for plenty of reasons. And I still have limited hard drive space for MP3s. And I still have no patience for crappy-sounding MP3s. So, the walls aren't coming down anytime soon.

Comments

swirly girl said…
"Me and the Bean" is my favorite Spoon song, followed very closely by “The Way We Get By”.
Sandcastle said…
The song you're thinking of, that I used to play on Lunar Rotation, is "The Minor Tough". It may not be one of the more popular songs, but it's the one that stood out to me the most from that album. I also used to play "Car Radio" from the 30 Gallon Tank ep which, I think, is a different version than the one on the album. I've never compared the two, it's just that the ep was released before the album came out and "Car Radio" was the song I liked best on the ep.

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J