How, exactly, am I supposed to feel about the Spinto Band?
Their music was once special to me and some folks I knew. Mersey (the first disc of their double disc opus Mersey and Reno) will always possess a magic and nostalgia for me; so will the mp3.com opus Roosevelt, and even Digital Summer. These were the albums they made in the basement, and I didn't take them too seriously when they told me, more or less, that they were not really going to continue making music like this. Even their first Nashville recordings were reworkings of such classics as "My Special Car" and "Puff Daddy Blowjob Movement." The summertime week I spent with them in Pennsylvania-- it didn't even seem like I was in a state, or a place, other than the house in the countryside by the silo-- was really unique, and though I was in my most immature emotional state, a lot of great things took place nonetheless.
Now they're featured in the SF Weekly and the Bay Guardian, touring the world, playing on BBC Radio, opening for the Arctic Monkeys, being compared to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (...Jesus...), in Sears commercials... and they'll be at Amoeba in SF on Sunday at 2 PM, before their headlining Cafe du Nord performance. I made up my mind a while ago not to show up. Why? Because they don't really make music I like anymore? That's absurd. It's true, I don't really care for Nice and Nicely Done, but they're all great people, and we actually had a bond back when... It's just so surreal. I think I can't really handle people I know getting famous.
I think, then, that I am going to go, at the very least, to see their free show at Amoeba.
Here is an album with a title I've never liked, and with mostly very silly and not very good music, but on which I play a good deal of the instruments, and can actually be found rapping for a few seconds (on "Just Bliss," which I produced). It's far enough into the past, and the memories are positive enough, that I can unearth it. Take it with a grain of salt, but there it is.
EDIT: So I didn't make it to the show. Rats. They'll be back in town.
Now they're featured in the SF Weekly and the Bay Guardian, touring the world, playing on BBC Radio, opening for the Arctic Monkeys, being compared to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (...Jesus...), in Sears commercials... and they'll be at Amoeba in SF on Sunday at 2 PM, before their headlining Cafe du Nord performance. I made up my mind a while ago not to show up. Why? Because they don't really make music I like anymore? That's absurd. It's true, I don't really care for Nice and Nicely Done, but they're all great people, and we actually had a bond back when... It's just so surreal. I think I can't really handle people I know getting famous.
I think, then, that I am going to go, at the very least, to see their free show at Amoeba.
Here is an album with a title I've never liked, and with mostly very silly and not very good music, but on which I play a good deal of the instruments, and can actually be found rapping for a few seconds (on "Just Bliss," which I produced). It's far enough into the past, and the memories are positive enough, that I can unearth it. Take it with a grain of salt, but there it is.
EDIT: So I didn't make it to the show. Rats. They'll be back in town.
posted by Spencer Owen at 9:28 PM
4 Comments:
Yeah, I do find it a little bizarre and arbitrary the Spintos - who, in my mind, are still 'Crackerbox people' - are suddenly famous (in the pop music sense). Part of me is really happy for them and their success, but I can't deny that some little piece of my brain whispers "Man, these people are getting fooled! It's just the Spinto Band!"
It's kind of like they were always famous in my mind, and now seeing their name in places doesn't really shock me. I think, "Yeah, the Spinto Band. What, you haven't heard of them? Weird." I can't wait until they open for the Arctic Monkeys at Webster Hall and totally show up those lazy fools by putting on a better, more exciting show than them.
okay so i never knew any of these people. but i think the idea of old friends becoming famous is pretty strange. i recently uploaded (onto my work computer) the mix cd you made me back in december of 2000 called Out of Sync, including a spinto band rap "molly on the shore do you fear me, or possibly you can not go anywhere near me? because your daddy owns the place where my daddy works" -- anyway that's one of the best mix cds anyone has given me. :D
I have to agree with Ryan. I always thought it was inevitable that they would be famous. I mean, there was just always something special about them and their charm that, despite the juvenile "Ween-ish" musical hijinks, begged for a larger audience.
And I think that's what Spencer is saying he misses. They have definitely changed. To me, the music is still the same, but just the production is different. It's more..."professional" and, in a way, less charming? It's not 6, or 7, high school buddies getting together in the basement to make sublimely goofy indie-pop noise. It's 6 semi-pro indie rockers trying to "make it".
And while I do regret the fact that there will never be a Digital Summer part 2, I for one welcome the change. We all have to grow up sometime.
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