Right now I know no other time, Right now I know no other poll - SPOON (ILM artist poll #67) --- Voting extended until Sunday July 26, 2015

i never heard telamon bridge before, it's good

voted!

they want my soul 5
transference 4
ga ga ga ga ga 8
gimme fiction 3
kill the moonlight 3
girls can tell 1
a series of sneaks 1
telephono 0

I tried to get into a series of sneaks, maybe if I'd caught it 17 (!) years ago it would have stuck but sadly my appetite for noisy(ish) lo-fi(ish) alt rock seems to have diminished considerably over the years; also like telephono it doesn't conform to my (late to the party) idea of what spoon should sound like.

that's not when the party starts, you can't be late then

There are definitely parts of A Series of Sneaks that I think of as having the signature 'Spoon sound' songwriting-wise (The Minor Tough, Reservations) but the distinctive production style isn't quite there yet.

Girls Can Tell/Everything Hits at Once is obviously when the party really kicks off but I didn't arrive till gax5 (very late into the night but still gathering strength).

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t137/rosestar77/Batsignal2.jpg

Asking for some help

I just got an intern supervisor sort of promotion at work, so what this means is I don't have all the time I wanted to put into this poll. So I'm asking for help, just like with my New Order (Millsner) and the Steely Dan (pplains) polls I need someone who would be willing to help out with the pictures for this poll. I really didn't know what I wanted to do with pictures anyways, so someone else vision sounds great to me. So If anyone has the time and wants to help me with the pictures for this poll, email the spoon link above.

Thanks!

btw, this is going very well. we are into double digits already.

been staying away from this thread, even though I'm listening to a fuckton of Spoon this summer, for an absurdly nerdly/completist reason: I can't make a list without relistening to Kill the Moonlight, because that was the first one I heard and I wanna do right by it; but that was 13 years ago, & it's been a long time since I could even play the CD, let alone remember where it is :/

Man, I'm feeling totally old in this thread (I do in all Spoon conversations, but it's especially concentrated here). As someone who was there in the beginning when the earliest Spoon material dropped on Matador in the mid-90s, and remembers what a tight unit they were and how no-frills and quick and dirty all their songs were, seeing people discount those years as a band still in search of an identity is absolutely maddening. From my perch, Spoon squandered many of their best traits when they started to get more mellowed out and self-indulgent. Not that Britt can't still write a good song if he tries, but he seems to overthink it most of the time (and that's been the case since Girls Can Tell). They turned into one of the precious bands I hate so much (Death Cab, Decemberists, The Shins, Rilo Kiley, etc) who saw all the energy and vibrancy and spontaneity in some guitar-based indie rock in the 90s and said to themselves "pish to that!" and made the music as harmless and inoffensive as they possibly could (the curse of indie rock which remains to this day). I mean, if Gimme Fiction hit you at just the right time Telephono hit someone else a decade earlier, you can't help when you were born. I just feel a bit of pity for you.

it sucks that you are so old and sad as well

ikr

much love but it's crazy to compare any spoon record to death cab or decemberists; the entirety of the spoon catalog that could be considered precious consists of the underdog

Spoon is basically the indie music version of Metallica. Metallica definitely has a separate base of fans who ONLY care about music they've made from the s/t album through the present and they are a silly group of people.

idk some of those bands were big/cresting in the indie world just when i was listening a lot and doing a college radio show and whatever, and i have basically had 0 interest in listening to any of them ever, then, during the time i was listening to minimal indie, and later when i had started paying a little attention again. i started listening to spoon in the meantime and even though they're obviously… tasteful… and totally get play with that crowd and are in it for the careerist long haul now, none of that has ever made me feel like, gosh, this music is so appropriate and quality, what an excellent reason for listening to ben gibbard or whatever

i wanna say they have their weird self-sufficiency, a little insularity, that does make them akin to a lot of indie rock, but theirs is because they belong in an imaginative world (a la benedict anderson nations as 'imagined communities' ha) that only exists in records, like, some kind of idealized alternative history of rock. whereas some of their peers belong in an imaginative world that exists in… lol college. and lol portland. lol npr. etc.

That reminds me of my favorite post ever to be posted on ilm, from a very long time ago...

Pinefox sez : "Too little interest in songwriting".

To me this is so far wide of the mark that it completely misses what early-Ramones are all about. The analogies with Brill building and early 60's girlpop songcraft has been trotted out so often wrt The Ramones that it's tempting to dismiss it out-of-hand. There is some truth in it though - I can hear the Shangri-La's, say, in I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend or Babysitter. That's not to say that this automatically makes the Ramones good, of course.

But they're better than good - they're masters. Their best songs are great because they are lean and simple - there's nothing that shouldn't be there. Couple this with a simple melodic hook(nothing fancy - 4 chords max. and another 2 for the middle 8) and a propulsive beat, and you have something irresistable. Add some elements of The Ramones 'own world' imagery (pick from : NY street images, retards, 'nam casualties, glue, girls)and you have genius.

Take "Glad to see you Go" from Leave Home - straight into a Beach Boys/Eddie Cochrane morphed melody and just listen to the way that the song shifts gear slightly on lines 3 and 4 of the verse as Tommy closes the high-hat a touch under the chords and melody. The shift into the chorus is sublime and the sheer rush as it comes back to the last verse from the middle 8 ("I need somebody good, I need a miracle") is like a ride in the space shuttle - on the outside.

Take "Rockaway Beach" - another point on the curve linking "Summer in the City", " Dancing in the Street" and "Baby on more Time". Again - great chorus, great lyrics ("Chewin out a rhythm on my bubblegum") and a sense of PLACE. In less than 3 minutes you feel exactly what it's like to be a teenager in baking hot NY - and you feel it every single time you hear it. That's great songwriting, Pinefox.

Rockaway, Glad..., Listen to My Heart, 53rd and 3rd, You Should Never Have Opened That Door are equals of "Please, Please Me", "California Girls", "My Generation" ..... the list goes on....if you can look past the "punk" thing which is really a red herring as far as The Ramones are concerned.

I guess it all depends on what you look for in a song - they're not Burt or Jimmy Webb, but they tell a story, crank up the adrenaline, and make their own world for 3 mins for EVERY SINGLE TRACK on the first 4 albums. That's classic.

― Dr. C, Sunday, July 15, 2001 8:00 PM (14 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Ramones 'own world' imagery

Bonus applicable content: "Their best songs are great because they are lean and simple - there's nothing that shouldn't be there."

That's why the earliest Spoon is the best Spoon.

Speaking of Gimme (Gimme Shock) Fiction, don't forget this one, fellow stragglers, while finalizing yr ballots...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmS7djrOut0

finally caved and dove in. not sure if i'll finish in time to vote, but this is proving a nice way to raise my estimation of Sneaks.

only liked maybe half of it before, but it's a really nice midpoint between their early pixies kick and where they'd wind up on GCT.

Where my song choices come from:

Kill The Moonlight 6
Transference 5
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 4
Other 4
Gimme Fiction 2
They Want My Soul 2
A Series Of Sneaks 1
Girls Can Tell 1

Not the order the albums are in.

Don't sleep on Waiting For The Kid To Come Out, kids.

Johnny Fever if it helps I will probably end up with 4+ from Sneaks on my first ballot -- that album is a total knockout & my appreciation for it only grows by the year (even as I remain uninterested in whatever preceded it)

"paper tiger." still best. ;__;

the drums sound so good in "the way we get by," everything sounds so good in "the beast and dragon adored"

I love Sneaks but I can't pull out individual tracks the way I can from later albums; it feels more of a piece to me, perhaps (although all their records do).

When I listen to Spoon I get a very strong sense of wanting to be in a band that rehearses in a big double garage in an Austin suburb, where they leave the big double garage door open because it's sunny and there's grass outside and you're just with your buddies and you've been in this band forever and you just do it because it's fun and simple and you like doing it, and all your songs are about the dayjobs you've had, and the local paper you used to read, and that guy from a few blocks away who had a ride-on lawnmower even though his yard was tiny, and the malt shop you go to (or take your kids to, as you get older). And I'm from Devon and have never been and will never go to Texas, and I've never wanted to be in a band, but Spoon make me want to be in a band, especially from KTM onwards through GGGGG (and a tiny little bit less since then). But that three album run is just perfect, and everything either side is so damn good too that it might as well be perfect.

And I think that's me trying to say the same as Dr C said about The Ramones 14 years ago.

I had the same problem with A Series of Sneaks, I ended up choosing the songs based on my iTunes playcount.

Voted!

Gimme Fiction (7)
Kill the Moonlight (6)
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (5)
Girls Can Tell (3)
A Series of Sneaks (3)
Transference (1)

tip: if you search for 'spoon shake it off' on youtube you will get a woman playing the taylor swift song on spoons

pretty surrpised how poorly Ga5 has held up. i feel like i'm still a teenager when i put on GCT, but Ga5 makes me feel like either it hasn't aged too well or i haven't.

Transference felt like a kind of cool disappointment at the time, really curious how that one's gonna hit now. half expecting to love it

At least 4 songs on ĢGGGG still sound amazing to me and were high on my ballot

same. but it's hanging above Telephono on the 2nd lowest rung in my albums list thus far (though TWMS will probably bump it up). back in a high school summer i'd have ranked it 2nd highest, beneath GCT, but now i find it just doesn't hold together too well. there's a very long stretch of boredom that sets in early, the production experiments feel low risk/reward, and aside from "the underdog" even the highlights remind me of things they'd done previously and better (well, okay, maybe not "cigarette case," which has the neat distinction of having just three lines of lyrics but demanding at least as many listens to realize it). imo everything about it sounds really 2007, too, whereas the three albums before it sound like great rock records from whenever.

maybe this isn't the thread for it, but i'm curious to hear some thoughts on their live show. i saw them in '07 in Philly, which i remember having been a set that disappointed all of the dozen or so people i knew who went. gave them another shot at radio city on the Transference tour, which was just incredible. the last time was opening for Arcade Fire in Philly again, and it was probably worse than the first go around. both of the off nights gave me the impression that they realized the crowd wasn't really with it early in the set and decided to just phone it in. kinda endearing

seen them live three times. each time they were solid. there was nothing crazy about their shows – but they're a tight band and play very well together. there's nothing mind blowing, but they were always good.

(they were headlining each time, btw)

also, submitted!

album representation below (Johnny Fever is going to think I'm a monster)

Transference 5
Kill The Moonlight 5
Gimme Fiction 4
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 4
They Want My Soul 4
Girls Can Tell 3
A Series Of Sneaks 0
Telephono 0

i think i have a someone who is going to help me out with the images for the countdown part of this poll. they have no idea what they are getting themselves into. haha.

xp No, I'm clearly the weirdo monster here.

i don't know about that, the results have been all over the place. have no idea where this thing is actually going to go.

damn is TWMS dire. even duller than i remembered

it has grown on me but i was there with that album at first...

top to bottom,

GIRLS CAN TELL (5)
KILL THE MOONLIGHT (5)
GIMME FICTION (4)
TRANSFERENCE (7)
A SERIES OF SNEAKS (1)
GA GA GA GA GA (3)
THEY WANT MY SOUL (0)
TELEPHONO (0)

Transference comes in 4th despite its high yield 'cause most of its keepers fall pretty low on the list. if this were a 30-song ranking Sneaks would have tallied up most of the extra picks.

oh! and Sneaks beats Ga5 just 'cause it's way more consistent and curious. my three picks from Ga are nice, but taken with the rest of the album they can't offset all the competent snoozers.

anyway thank you Bee OK, i probably would've never revisited this band so thoroughly if it weren't for the prompt, and it was a lot of fun. summer's their best season, too.

Voted!

Albums in order of preference:

Kill the Moonlight (5)
Transference (4)
Gimme Fiction (4)
Girls Can Tell (3)
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (3)

with the rest of the votes split among Sneaks/TWMS/Soft Effects EP

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was my way in to Spoon, so it'll always have a special place for me, but I think Kill The Moonlight is my absolute favourite, and their masterpiece; it's their most minimal and experimental, and their poppiest at the same time.

Re: live, only saw them once, on the Transference tour, and it was exactly as I'd expected; tight and fun. Not mind-blowing or life-changing, but just a good show that I was very glad to go to.

Listening to all the albums in order (but on shuffle within each album), I'm surprised how I seem to like them better and better as time goes on. I always thought KTM was a highlight, but up to GGGGG at least, I think they hit me harder every time out. Also thought it would be really tough to narrow it down to 25 songs that I really love, but it doesn't look like that'll be an issue. I've never given them a good headphone listen before - always full albums on the stereo - & it strikes me that their records are extremely well sequenced, creating a mood and a flow that doesn't really translate to picking out singles too well. Maybe that's why they've never really broken big, I dunno. I've always thought of them as being consistently strong, but a lot of their catalogue, song for song, is pretty slight. I think their production just gets better and better, too. Aw, c'mon!

Well alright.

Don't forget about this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8SaT5evtuQ