Don't You Evah

I would be hard-pressed to find someone that couldn't find something to like about the band Spoon. There's something instantly familiar about every song in their catalogue - the first time I hear a new Spoon song, half of me is amazed at how great it is, and the other half is convinced I heard that song on an AM radio twelve years ago in a dark car on Interstate 5. The music is both incredibly fresh, and somehow atemporal. There's something to be said for a band that can release four individual, cohesive albums in a row without succumbing to the tricks that made the record prior successful, yet maintain a signature "sound", for lack of a better word, throughout its variations.

The other side of this dichotomy, however, is that for no actual reason I always assumed Britt Daniel, the lead singer, is a major asshole. I have, it should be noted, absolutely no basis for this mindset. Up until very recently - around the time Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was released - I had not read anything slightly incendiary about him, nor had I heard, read, or seen an interview with him or anyone else that would lead me to think he's a dick. In fact, seeing Spoon live in the Fall of 2005, not only was Daniel not an asshole, he seemed pretty normal on stage. Minimal banter, and all positive. I suppose I just thought he looked too cool, and sang with too much attitude, or some other reason that sounds like a 70-year old grandmother saying, "I don't like the way the kids these days move their hips when they walk!" Maybe I heard there was a lot of band turnover (which I'm not even sure is true), and immediately got this Tweedy vibe of him being a control freak and driving people insane. Regardless, the ultimate feeling I've had is that I dig the band, but not the dude.

I read an interview at the Onion AV Club a while back with Daniel, who had this to say (among other things):

I think we're one of the best bands making records today, and do I think we should be selling more records than Maroon 5? Yeah, because I think we're better.

This statement, simple as it is, turned out to be the Rosetta Stone for unraveling my ambivalence. Spoon is, plainly said, an incredible band, and for some reason I was faulting Daniel for knowing that. Though I had never heard him discuss his music, he maintains an air of, "Yeah, this is really fucking good, innit?" And, goddammit, it is. His attitude is that of someone that knows what is going on is great, and more importantly, fun, and wants other people to share that. Instead of him holding the music and his band over his audience, he's inviting us to get in on it with him. And, let's be honest. If you don't think you're making great music, you probably shouldn't really be in the game anyway. It just so happens Daniel thinks that, and can actually back it up with his records.

Or, maybe I'm just saying that so I can sleep better at night when I drift off thinking about Finer Feelings. Which I do. Seriously. Best song ever.