Rockbites: Spoon return to indie status with Girls Can Tell

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February 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Spoon return to indie status with Girls Can Tell
16 February 2001

Austin, Texas post-punk trio Spoon signed with US indie label Merge last year following a brief and disappointing flirtation with Elektra records. Four years ago, Elektra signed the band away from Matador, got them into a studio for the remarkable album A Series Of Sneaks, and then in 1998 unceremoniously dropped them. Front man Britt Daniel told Magnet magazine at the time “Basically, they didn’t even give us a shot. They truly fucked us over.”
    On Girls Can Tell, in stores next week, this preternaturally talented trio prove that creating great music has nothing to do with being signed to a major. Recorded in a home studio and largely self produced, this is one of those extraordinarily rare records in which every cymbal crash, every vocal inflection, every vibes fade-out, and every guitar crunch is, well, perfect.
    The arrangements on Girls Can Tell are radically spare and transparent. Every sound is treated as precious and is propelled in the same musical direction. This must be one of the most impeccably performed and balanced rock records of all time, yet there’s no hint of stiffness or guile. Indeed, on some songs such as Lines In The Suit it sounds like we’re sitting in on a practice that just happened to come off faultlessly—and tape was rolling. The performance disappears, as it should, leaving eleven outstanding, high energy songs, perfectly illuminated.
    Daniel, who writes the songs as well as sings and plays guitar, co-founded Spoon with drummer Jim Eno back in 1993. They recorded and produced the new album in Eno’s home studio with Mike McCarthy (And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, El Flaco, Hotwheels Jr.), with Josh Zarbo on bass. The band start a US tour on Saturday at the Echo Lounge in Atlanta, playing with Superchunk. Girls Can Tell earns an enthusiastic five bites out of five

Rockbites ratings  5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying.

Here are Spoon’s upcoming tour dates

February
17 - Atlanta, GA (Echo Lounge)
19 - Jacksonville, FL (Jack Rabbits)
20 - St. Petersburg, FL (State Theater)
21 - Orlando, FL (Sapphire)
22 - Tallahassee, FL (Club Down Under / FSU)
23 - Athens, GA (40 Watt Club)
24 - Carrboro, NC (Cat's Cradle)
27 - Austin, TX (Mercury)
March
  2 - Los Angeles, CA (Spaceland)
  3 - San Francisco, CA (Great American Music Hall)
  5 - Portland, OR (Meow Meow)
  6 - Seattle, WA (Crocodile)
  7 - Boise, ID (Neurolux)
  9 - Denver, CO (15th St. Tavern)
10 - Lawrence, KS (The Bottleneck)
| Spoon on Merge | | Spoon on Peek-A-Boo | | fan site | | I didn't Come Here To Die (full length MP3) | | discography | | top of page |

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