What a way to begin your first ever Primavera Festival; trailing illness and a voice that gradually becomes more hoarse until it finally disappears somewhere around the middle of Pavement’s slacker-daisical set. Ah, Barcelona, your beaches are beautiful, your women are smoking jewels (literally), and this festival by the beach (really an explosion of concrete by the seaside) is clearly the diamond in the rough for the traveling roadshow of bands that litter the skies with one thing in mind – a paid holiday. With a selection of acts that suited this weary hack like a good pair of tight jeans and a band tee, Primavera was a stage to stage delight. The current crop of new band like The Drums, Surfer Blood and Dum Dum Girls rose up to meet the challenge of the ’90s alternative old guard of Pixies, Pavement and Superchunk.

Day One – Bis, Titus Andronicus, The xx, Superchunk, Pavement

Having been given a nice old runaround whilst securing entry, our ears and eyes soon descended on Scottish kandy-pop-ers Bis who’s twin guitarists, Sci-Fi Steve and John Disco, both seem to have suffered the same plight of  Pavement’s Spiral Stairs’ hair. How the years have treated them unkindly, and to be in your late-30s and singing about sweet shops and secret vampires, which must’ve seemed absurd when you’re 20, is now downright ridiculous. Budding songwriters note — write songs that you won’t potentially be embarrassed to sing twenty years later. The crowd seemed to be strangely familiar with their catalogue, and if there’s one international language Bis and the Spanish both have in common, it’s Eurodisco.

Titus Andronicus set the high mark for the day with their red-blooded anthemic yankee rock (cf: their most recent album The Monitor). At times sounding like they were about to break into “Johnny Comes Marching Home”, Titus Andronicus took no time in lassoing the crowd and quickly amassed an army of enraptured fans and one (at least) impressed journalist. With lyrics that sound like “you’re always a nuisance” and “open up a brewery” (misheard lyrics or not — thumbs up) it was satisfying to hear an as-yet-unhyped band make the loudest impression of all (wait, I take that back – Rolling Stoned named them as part of their top 10 bands of 2010 — my bad). Singer, Patrick Stickles leapt off the stage mid-song to press the flesh and drive the point home, but dude, we were already with you.

Over the course of the weekend, there were a few bands that were received exceptionally (and surprisingly) well and The xx was one of them. The Spaniards ate up their minimalist whispers like a plate full of tasty tapas. It was so quiet in the Ray Ban Stage amphitheatre that you could of heard the chirp of lighters as one huge cloud of cigarette smoke permanently descended over the Parc Del Forum. Five hours from then I would lose my voice. Were these things related? I believe so. From record to stage, The xx recreated their monochrome mood and passionless feel of their self-titled debut perfectly. Like watching a stoned Young Marble Giants, The xx seem to have dug themselves into a hole, where their debut has defined their sound so much that they’ll be asking themselves “where do we go from here”? Perhaps if they add another x they could take things to entirely new level.

Rumours of Superchunk‘s demise seem to have been false. Singer Mac McCaughan told the crowd “We don’t play often, but we’ll always play Spain”. Well, yeah, that’s like saying, “I love to take my guitar on holiday and play it for an hour in front of an appreciative crowd”. Of course you will, Mac. On a bill that features other ‘grunge-era’ luminaries such as Polvo and Pavement, Superchunk, it has to be said, feel right at home. New track “Learned To Surf” was cut from the same super-charged Superchunk blueprint of old, which their career-spanning setlist attests. Fan favourite “Precision Auto” with Les Savy Fav’s Tim Harrington sharing the vocals instantly incinerated the first few rows, which just goes to show that the Superchunk flame still burns like a (slack) motherfucker.

Pavement needed and needs no introduction. What Pixies were in 2004, Pavement have become in 2010 — the darlings of the reunion scene. Ironic that the Pixies (who would appear on the same stage twenty-four hours from then) show no sign of un-reuniting. One wonders that once Malkmus and Co. sear a slice from their cash cow they’ll find the taste addictive too. Absent from our stages since 1999, Stephen Malkmus appeared cagey, coy and ageless, as if the passing years have bothered him none. Waltzing through their back catalogue with the same insouciant fervour of old, “Cut Your Hair” and “Trigger Cut” were dispensed with straight off the bat. As had now become habit at this festival, passing band members backstage were invited on to participate, as did Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, sharing vocal duties with Spiral Stairs on “Kennel District” while Malkmus took the opportunity away from the mic stand to practice golf shots with his guitar. Stairs got his own back by crowd surfing during the final song of the encore, “Stop Breathing”. Breathing? I could barely speak. Exit Pavement at 2:30am. Exit Webcuts right behind them.

Day Two – New Pornographers, Spoon, Beach House, Cold Cave, Pixies

New Pornographers commenced the second day of Primavera with an unsurprising rendition of their “Sing Me Spanish Techno”, after which songwriter/vocalist A.C. Newman offered up some more “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk” by telling the crowd that Barcelona was his “favourite city on earth”. Lip service over, it was back to business with ‘Porno pop classics “Use It” and “The Laws Have Changed”. Having picked up the slack left in the wake of the album-which-shall-not-be-named, these classy Canadians were in the arms of Webcuts’ good graces with Together. The absence of Dan Bejar and Neko Case from the starting line-up detracted none from the occasion, in fact, of all the bands that had played so far, the ‘Pornos were the only ones who didn’t outstay their welcome.

Ah, Spoon, how the mighty have… plateaued. This Austin, Texas quartet have been Webcuts’ perennial champs for the last decade, putting nary a foot wrong since 2001′s Girls Can Tell. It was 2007′s triumphant Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga that would put Spoon on the map and on the iPods of every backward-baseball cap wearing frat-boy and frat-girl in America. It would be mere speculation to consider that the success and recognition heaped upon them has left Spoon no longer the underdog, which clearly showed on the unprocessed folly that is Transference. Their Primavera set was competent but nothing extraordinary, as they cherry picked the more palatable tracks from Transference (the yawnsome “Trouble Comes Running” not included) with the tested and true from Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. If this were a football match, I’d call it a disappointing draw.

We were amazed at the transformation that has turned Victoria Legrand of Beach House into a more subdued version of the siren of song, Stevie Nicks. This Fleetwood Mac-like influence was something we instantly picked up on from the jangled cascade of notes and the breathy introduction to “Norway” from their latest album Teen Dream. But with Legrand’s long curly locks a-flowin’, all that was missing was the picture were gypsy scarves hanging from her mic stand. On the polar, literally, side of Beach House’s opaque operettas were Brooklyn’s Cold Cave who turned the late-afternoon Pitchfork Stage into a low-key smoke-filled electro rave. Having been very hit and miss when witnessed in London a month ago, Cold Cave seem to work best on a large stage where you’re not focusing on their static stage presence and expecting to be entertained, but actually dancing along to the music, which tracks like “Love Comes Close” and “Life Magazine” were clearly made for.

Oh, it’s you again. Witness the Pixies once more on their never-ending “if the price is right” tour. The nostalgia here has to be well and truly over. The obvious animosity between Black Francis and Kim Deal (who were spread so far apart on stage, they’d need binoculars to see each other) slowly drifted into the crowd as we realised that nostalgia is an over-rated commodity these days. They aren’t, and never were, the greatest band ever known. They just happened to be the first band of our generation who split up and then needed to pay off their mortgage. But not to piss on any Spaniard’s parade, the Pixies could never be accused of dialing it in and nobody walked away unhappy. A surprising (and welcome) rendition of Neil Young’s “Winterlong” hit the spot with Deal and Black Francis inching close their estranged distance with this lamenting duet. Kudos to the hardy souls who lingered on and partied Primavera-style with Orbital till four am and beyond but our date card ended here.

Day Three – Atlas Sound, The Slits,  Dum Dum Girls, Pet Shop Boys

The final day was a late one, which meant there was time for dip in the Mediterranean and a mild freak-out at the nude beach we seemed to have stumbled on. Seasoned nudists Webcuts are not. Heading straight to Atlas Sound, the side-project, one-man-show of Deerhunter mainman Bradford Cox was a little like watching Bob Dylan play with a loop/delay pedal for forty-five minutes. When the harmonica came out, well it just about nailed it. The jury is still out on solo Cox. Having seen him fill small living room type gigs in London and Sydney (well-heeled types that we are) is one thing, but a festival stage in Spain is another. It’s not a matter of something being lost in the translation, just not enough presence to hold interest.

Far be it from us to decide when costume changes verge on the ‘for the love of god, stop now’, but Ari Up of The Slits, with her dreads, was not one to be deterred from enjoying herself. Of all the bands that we witnessed, The Slits brought the “punky reggae party/let your dreads swing like old rope and smoke a spliff” vibe that seemed to be lacking elsewhere. Working their way through Cut classics like “Shoplifting”, “Typical Girls” and a dub-laden “Heard It Through The Grapevine”, The Slits were clearly the band for the job.

I overheard somebody throw a “they’re just like ‘Vivian Girls” comparison in the Dum Dum Girls direction, but apart from them being all girls, the Dum Dums don’t come across as so haphazard and tune-seeking (and so New Jersey) as their East Coast counterparts. It’s 1960s girl-pop, it’s vintage guitars and matching outfits, it’s three-part harmonies and broken hearts and sucking lemons, and all that kinda tear-in-my-pillow torch song pap that bands like The Stooges did their level best to demolish at the tail end of the ’60s. There’s more than enough space for the Dum Dum Girls and the Vivian Girls to exist, and well, hey, “Jail La La” still remains one of the best songs we’ve heard this year.

Witnessing the Pet Shop Boys playing on a beach in Spain wasn’t the weirdest of propositions this weekend. In fact, we pretty much played it safe on the ‘weird proposition’ front. The weird part was the choreographed stage show involving a couple hundred cardboard boxes assembled as two huge split video screens and a box-on-head-wearing Neil Tennant walking out to sing  “Heart” with matching box-on-head backing singers in bright full-body jumpsuits and a box-on-head Chris Lowe. It all felt like a staging of New Order’s “True Faith” video. Known to put on an extravagant stage show, it was still a surprise when it wasn’t so much Neil and Chris playing their hits, but a fully staged theatrical spectacle including mock punch-up box-hurling exercise. A dearly departed Dusty Springfield appeared from above via video screen to sing her part on “What Have I Done To Deserve This” while the anthem after anthem was unveiled. A “Being Boring” and “West End Girls” finale, complete with exploding glitter pyrotechnics (that some of us were still find pieces of hiding in the most extraordinary of places) sent us home, utterly, completely, thoroughly, dog tired and burnt out, but we were never being bored. You hear that, Primavera? We were NEVER being bored.

Webcuts recently caught Spoon at the Primavera Festival in Barcelona on the weekend, wowing a crowd of Spaniards with their solid mid-afternoon set. Their latest album, Transference, seemed to show the band finding new ways to tie their own shoelaces, searching out their own “Mystery Zone” or what Britt Daniel will later say in the interview “we gotta try to please ourselves first”. Notable for being our first interview where the band asks us the questions, Spoon have perhaps realised there’s more to making music than just pleasing yourself. You’ve still got to please your Mom too…

Before knocking back the sangria in sunny Spain, Spoon were in Australia knocking back the beers and taking the traveling Transference roadshow to the distant corners of the globe. Ever welcome in our company, Britt Daniel and Jim Eno sat down to talk the art of transferring with Chris Berkley of Static.

Welcome back to Australia, Britt and Jim from Spoon. Bashing down the beers there. It’s a day off in Spoon-land, which means you do interviews. I hate to see what a day on is then.

Britt: You know, they ask us to do it, we say yeah. We’re trying to play ball. The choice was to do all these interviews on the day of the show and that would’ve just been… they wanted us to fly from Brisbane and then do four interviews and a performance and then do the sound check and then do the show, and we said “can we maybe move some of that stuff around a little bit?”.

Ok. You’re seeing a different side of Australia this time around, too, because you’re doing these regional shows. You’re seeing the heartland. How’s it been, Jim?

Jim: It’s been alright, yeah. I mean, festivals themselves are hard. You’re playing a stage and there are five bands. The kids are way up front to see the headliner. It’s during the day. There are a lot of factors.

Britt: It’s just a different experience from playing your own shows in a rock club at night with the sound bouncing around the room. Sometimes those festival shows are good. They’ve got their own advantages. You get to see a bunch of bands you wouldn’t normally get to see. You get to play in front of a bunch of people that wouldn’t normally come see you.

Does it feel sometimes that it’s a hard-won campaign doing that stuff? I’m guessing back when things were blossoming for Spoon, after the release of Girls Can Tell, a lot of that got attributed to you changing record labels but you must’ve spent a lot of time on the road back then as well, winning people over.

Jim: Well, we spent a lot of time on the road before Girls Can Tell came out but there weren’t a lot of people at our shows to win over I guess. It’s just that people hadn’t really heard of us.

Britt: So, what do you think about the new record? Do you like it?

Yeah. Have you been getting some negative feedback, Britt?

Britt: Mmm. Just from my Mom. My Mom says it’s a little ‘metal‘.

A little what??

Britt: Metal. I don’t know. It’s something she just picked up on. She had her radar on. She discovered that we were veering towards metal, in her opinion.

She wasn’t forthcoming on why that was metal?

Britt: Well, she doesn’t really understand what metal is. Would your Mom know what metal is? If she would, maybe she knows more about music than my Mom.

I think her idea of metal would be Kiss.

Britt: Yeah, my Mom’s idea is Kiss. Anything with loud guitars. That’s kinda metal.

Jim: Did she say which song was metal or anything?

Britt: No. She just said to my brother she was worried because we were getting a little ‘metal’.

Jim: I love how you hear stuff through your brother a lot, you know.

Does she not give you direct feedback normally?

Britt: Not really, no. But definitely the feedback is intended for me, but she won’t say it directly to me. You know how that is with parents? You find out about things through your siblings?

There must be a lot more parental pride in what Spoon do these days? It must be nice to go to them and say “Look we debuted at number 4 on the Billboard charts“. Do they recognise things like that?

Britt: Yeah, they think that’s cool.

Jim: (To Britt) Your parents will go to shows.

Britt: Yeah, they go to the shows.

Are they the Moms and Dads that are standing up the back with their fingers in their ears or are they down the front?

Britt: They’re wherever we can get them tickets (laughs). Usually they’re pretty sweet tickets, pretty sweet seats in the VIP area, somewhere where they can sit down.

Have they always gone to Spoon shows? Have you got family that will keep going every time around, Jim?

Jim: My family does, yeah. I grew up in Rhode Island, so in the Boston area I have a lot of family. I mean my family have been going to shows since 1996 or so.

So they’re number 1 ticket holders?

Jim: Yeah, yeah, they’re been doing it for a while.

Are they interested in finding out things like that Metacritic roundup? That was a nice thing to say that you were the most well-reviewed band of the last decade.

Britt: My Mom has a google search out for me, so anytime my name comes up anywhere on the internet in a new setting she gets word of it to her inbox.

Jim: That’s impressive your Mom set that up.

Britt: It’s impressive that she set it up, but it’s not much fun that she has it set up.

Jim: Does she forward you stuff?

Britt: She forwards me stuff and lots of time she knows what we’re doing, she knows what’s going on before I know. She’ll say ‘I heard that you added this show, or this show’. But you don’t want your Mom having that kind of access into your life.

And it also means if you get arrested your Mom’s going to know about it, so you’re going to have to behave yourself on the road.

Britt: Absolutely.

How’s the new record been going over live?

Britt: Oh, people love it.

All the metal fans love it, right.

Britt: Yeah. (laughs)

Is it ever a worry for you guys to translate songs on record into a live setting?

Britt: No, we know what we’re doing. We’re good at it. We’ve been doing this a long time. We’re never worried. We never worry about anything.

For Transference it seems there’s always been a pretty restless spirit about what Spoon do. But this time round especially, did you go out of your way in the studio to keep it not quite well-rounded?  I’ve heard some of the songs literally made it onto the record in their own demo form. Were you trying to keep things a bit more rough and ready?

Britt: Yeah, we like it rough and ready. We’d made a record, the one before, where we’d spent a lot of time in the studio and this time we wanted to do it a different way. Not working with the same producer the whole time, not slogging, we wanted something that sounded a little more spontaneous. A lot of the songs are demos, songs we recorded on cassette in the practice space that we had no idea they were going to end up on the record. It’s that kinda thing where you don’t know. You think you’re just laying the groundwork but you happen upon something that’s kinda magic, for lack of a better word. Those are the types of recordings we wanted to use on this album.

Is it harder the bigger a band gets, the more luxuries that get afforded them. So you could take 12 months in a studio making a record if you wanted to. Is it hard to say no to that stuff?

Britt: Sometimes it helps to have a guideline or some limitations because we could end up spend two years in the studio if we wanted to.

Jim: Do you mean like setting deadlines?

Britt: Deadlines or like we’re only going to do it on 8 tracks or we’re only going to….

Where do you stand on the Brian Eno thing of picking up a different card (Eno’s Oblique Strategies)and having to play a song that way? It’s almost like playing party games in the studio.

Jim: I don’t think we’ve ever used that. “Make it sound more blue”. That’s one of them.

Even when the songs were done and dusted, was it hard convincing people, a track like “Mystery Zone” which cuts off abruptly on the CD version, was it hard telling people that’s the way it was supposed to be?

Britt: That’s never seemed too weird to me. It seems like I’ve heard a lot of songs that cut off abruptly, but for some reason I hear back that’s so weird.

Jim: And everyone points to that one, yeah.

Britt: But we don’t really try to convince people about anything. We just put it on the record and either they buy it or they don’t. They like it or they don’t. Really, we gotta try to please ourselves first. That’s the only way we can know whether what we’re doing is any good.

How is the working relationship that you two have these days?

Britt: We have a lot of sleepovers. (laughs)

You agree on most things, Jim?

Jim: Yeah, we do. Yeah.

Are you the one brain by now?

Britt: No, I think it’s a good thing to not be of one brain. There’s been lots of times that Jim wouldn’t have thought of and vice versa.

Jim: I think it’s the way with the band too, with Eric and Rob. It’s like anyone can sorta bring things up.

Britt: Those situations where everybody is so precious about their ideas being accepted or not accepted. I think that‘s a dangerous little world to live in if you’re trying to make something creative. You gotta be willing to put out ideas and willing for someone to say “I don’t like that one” or “I don’t get it” or whatever.

You recorded a Damned cover around the same time as you did the record. Which you’ve been doing in the live shows. So if Transference is metal, is the goth years of Spoon coming up?

Britt: Yeah. I like that Arp Solina. I wanna use that more and more. That’s the sound of that song, the keyboard sound you hear. That’s the keyboard The Cure would always use, or Joy Division would always use. That’s the sound of goth, I guess.

Is that the excuse then for doing this song? To be able to employ that on a Spoon song?

Britt: No.

Jim: We’ve used that a few times.

Britt: But this is its most prominent use. That is the sound on that one.

And what do your folks think of the Damned cover?

Britt: They haven’t said anything. She’s probably read about, but she hasn’t said anything. I’ll ask my brother…

First broadcast on Static on 13/05/10. Static can be heard on Sydney’s 2SER (107.3 FM) and via the Internet (www.2ser.com) every Thursday evening (AEST).

Fickle first listens can be deceiving and quite unexpected, especially when they’re from a band who’ve finally manoeuvered themselves into the upper reaches of the charts, as Spoon did with 2007′s garbled masterpiece Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. What you don’t want to do is give these new record buyers something lacking immediacy and cohesiveness.

Armed to give Transference a pasting, second and third spins still mystify but perhaps with the barrier of commercial success now broken, Spoon are free to take a chance, to make an album that had to be worn in, rather than welcomed in. Whereas prior Spoon albums began with a statement of intent or an album defining song, “Before Destruction” rattles with the sound of a hammond organ, Daniel’s familiar acoustic strum rising toward a chorus that never comes, giving the feel of a band warming up to the task ahead.

Transference does a good job of distancing itself from the rollicking poptones of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Gimme Fiction, if that were its intention. Recorded piece-meal in various studios up and down the country and produced by the band themselves, many of the tracks rub uncomfortable shoulders with each other. “Before Destruction” warms the speakers before “Is Love Forever?” bursts out with an off-kilter beat, breaking into a sub-standard Spoon rhythm track and dubbed-out vocals. To put such filler as track two is worrying.

There is no “I Turn My Camera On” and “The Underdog” on this record, which on past albums there was no need to go searching for, but there’s a distinct absence of an ear-catching, stride-stopping moment. In its place you have the false finish of “Written In Reverse”, a track recognisably Spoon but which fails to meet expectation. Unhelmed by any definite verse or chorus, Daniel barks out some nonsensical lyrics and the track builds to an empty crescendo, restarting with a pointless verse recap.

“Mystery Zone” shows potential with the interaction of swaying key/bass/drums in perfect syncopation, but it establishes a groove and stays there. It’s like listening to expensive demos borne from undeveloped jam sessions. Daniel’s hushed vocals on synth/beat driven track “Who Makes Your Money” is a nod toward Prince, a slogan for the times, but not quite ‘sign o’ the times’. As a lyricist, Daniel has excelled over the years, but seems to have given up any kind of story-telling songwriting in favour of vague oft-repeated phrases.

At best, there’s enough material on Transference to make a mini album. The Beatle-esque piano ballad “Goodnight Laura”, a track that might’ve found better place on Daniel’s rumoured solo album and “Out Go The Lights” lift the quality level, but the presence of “Got Nuffin”, a track released the previous year is out of place. The album closes with “Nobody Gets Me But You”, a strange attempt to inhibit a weird indie-dub sound, that in Daniel’s hands just sounds sloppy.

Transference is definitely not Spoon’s finest hour, but for a band who’ve nary put a foot wrong since 1994′s Series of Sneaks, you’d be inclined to overlook it.

Disappointing, is the answer, if asked the question “What does Webcuts think of the new Spoon album, Transference. Probably for the first time in this Austin, Texas quartet’s career would we feel obliged to say this. Having gone from incredible strength to incredible strength with each successive release from Series of Sneaks on, it seems even the hardened, unwavering fan knew this day would come. “Written in Reverse” has all the pieces, the clatter and clank of piano keys, Britt Daniel’s hoarse voice riding atop of his see-sawing guitar, yet it feels like a song adrift in the search for a tune. Much of Transference feels like it was built from unfinished demos and studio jams in which “Written in Reverse” was chosen as this year‘s “The Underdog“. Unlikely to win new fans and unsettling to old, it will be interesting to see how Transference rides out the year. Out now on Merge in the States and Anti- in Europe.

I don’t know Paul Dempsey. In fact, I don’t even know that much about him, other than what I can glean from this record and the hardly reliable Wikiverse (which claims he’s married, plays in the band Something for Kate, and has perfect pitch). But, unqualified as I am to make any sort of statement regarding Mr. Dempsey’s character, I would bet a fair sum he’s something of a perfectionist.

Everything about Everything is True, Dempsey’s first album under his own name, is precise. It’s pristinely produced: thought was clearly given to every sound, tone, and timbre. The arrangements are democratic, with no instrument dominating or falling behind the rest. But, remarkably, Dempsey has kept this hi-fi indulgence from producing something mechanical. Like Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Dempsey knows when to keep it tight and when to let a stray sound in (see the last four seconds of “Ramona Was A Waitress”).

The lyrics, too, are intricately constructed. Each line flows elegantly into the next, a poetic spider web. “I’m just a name in a black book attached to a face/At the back of your memory’s window display,” Dempsey sings on “Fast Friends.” I never could have predicted where that line was going, and whatever I’d guessed, it wouldn’t have been half as pretty. Despite the vivid images, it’s generally impossible to know exactly what Dempsey’s talking about, but he’s so earnest it doesn’t really matter. The situation may be hazy, but the feeling is clear, and this makes the vagueness work. Take this line: “I know no quicker way, dear/To the shiny gates of Hell/Than a room full of handsome devils/Comparing everything to everything else.” That sentiment, to me, is perfectly clear, even though the people I’m thinking of probably aren’t the ones Dempsey was writing about. I don’t think it matters. The songs’ thoughts and themes are universal and beautifully stated, which is more than enough.

The record’s mood is painfully specific, but difficult to describe. Perhaps “hesitantly mournful.” It’s powerful, but difficult to take for forty-five minutes, which is the only thing stopping the album from being a great listen start-to-finish. There’s some relief, like the pop-punk jubilance of “The Great Optimist,” but the album gets weighted down in the middle, not by bad songs, but by heavy melancholy. But each taken on its own, there’s not a bad song on here, and that’s some feat.

Unlike the tone, the sound is impressively varied. Dempsey’s default setting is colourful, arty acoustic pop, somewhere between John Vanderslice’s Emerald City and Kevin Drew’s Spirit If…. He dances around the edges of that genre a lot, though: “Out The Airlock” is a looping folk ballad, and “Take Us To Your Leader” sounds remarkably like Ryan Adams circa Heartbreaker.

Paul Dempsey’s music isn’t for everyone, but it’s certainly for a lot of people. Even the harshest critics would be hard-pressed not to find something they liked, some flare of production or sharp turn of phrase. And Dempsey’s voice — world-worn and achingly resilient — is a thing from the roots of rock music, hardly original, but as appealing today as it was decades ago. It’s the kind of album that’s hard to recommend to fans of a certain genre, because it defines itself not by the type of music it is, but the nature of the songs themselves. So, hey, give it a shot.

Released in collaboration with AIDS charity the Red Hot Organization, Dark Was The Night is the latest in a long-standing series of compilation albums put together to raise awareness and money in the fight against AIDS. Some of you will remember the first compilation, Red Hot and Blue released in 1990 with its reinterpretations of Cole Porter songs and in particular that cover of Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry singing “Well Did You Evah?”, while others will have a fond spot for No Alternative, the grunge equivalent of Dark Was The Night featuring the prime movers of the day – Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden, which this compilation could be well looked at as the sequel.

Produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner from The National, Dark Was The Night has been two years in the making, so think of it not as some kind of Alternative Band Aid situation, but a careful assembly of the cream of North America’s alternative acts rallying together for a common cause. Featuring the talents of David Byrne, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket,  Spoon, The Decemberists, Cat Power, The New Pornographers, Yo La Tengo, Feist, Bon Iver and many others, who all donate previously unreleased material across 31 tracks and 2CDs. Just the names involved instantly qualifies Dark Was The Night as the compilation album of the year. As such, based on the charity aspect and the calibre of the acts, it’s practically impossible to say a bad thing about the songs. Each artist “brings it” as you would well expect, in the purest sense of who they are and what they do.

Many of the highlights on Dark Was The Night come from the unexpected collaborations that arose when the Dessner brothers began putting the word out. Red Hot veteran David Byrne with Dirty Projectors on “Knotty Pine” immediately establishes a high water mark for the compilation as too Feist and Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard’s duet on “Train Song”, and the less unexpected with Gillian Welch and Conor Oberst who sweetly duet together on Oberst’s “Lua”. The Kronos Quartet cover the Blind Willie Johnson song that gives this compilation its name, while Iron & Wine, Grizzly Bear and Bon Iver lay further touches to the over-riding feel of earthy Americana spread across the first disc that not even Sufjan Stevens with his bombastic 10 minute epic “You Are The Blood” can alter.

Of the big names saved for disc two, Arcade Fire return with “Lenin”, their first new recording in two years, moving away from the dark, oppressive feel of Neon Bible. My Morning Jacket add a soft touch on the sax-led swoon of “El Caporal”. Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio faithfully covers The Troggs 1966 #1 hit “A Girl Like You”. New Jersey’s Yo La Tengo are all whispers and flickering shadows on “Gentle Hours”, and Cat Power atypically tackles the religious standard “Amazing Grace” accompanied by her Dirty Delta Blues Band. If you’re familiar with Chan Marshall’s reinvention as a smoky soul singer, then you’ll be able to hear this song in your head without even having to play it. Spooky, huh? It’s only Spoon with “Well Alright”, an irritating drum machine/guitar-led stomp that lets the side down, sounding like it was knocked out in a matter of minutes and duly forgotten about.

That last minor grumble notwithstanding, Dark Was The Night is the perfect example of the current state of contemporary independent music in North America. There’s no better offering out there and there’s unlikely to be another that will give you the same good-deed feeling that goes along with it. There’s really no excuse for you not to own this.

Spoon
Centre Stage, Atlanta, GA
14th April 2008

It’s Britt Daniel’s birthday but you wouldn’t know it. There’s no cake and candles, no rambunctious behaviour or jokes. You’d be expecting the band to be soused and swaying, playing covers and celebrating the occasion, using the opportunity to cut loose. In fact Daniel looks embarrassed as the audience participate in a singalong and the affair is swiftly swept under the carpet and the show continues on. Spoon are seasoned professionals now. Having existed on the fringes of wider acceptance and acclaim, it was as probably as much surprise to the band as anyone when the cards stopped being stacked against them. Their most recent album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga only solidifying their position as indie superstars, and the audience in attendance recognise this in spades.

Despite excuses to live it up a little, the band play a safe set, breaking ice with “The Beast and Dragon, Adored”, the opening track from 2005′s Gimme Fiction and then moving into two tracks from 2003′s Kill The Moonlight, which seems strange for a band to wait until the fourth song before playing something from an album they’re currently promoting, pairing up the hip-shaking “Don’t You Evah” with the shuddering ambience of “The Ghost of You Lingers”. They momentarily drift out of the safe confines of fan favourites to play a cover of Paul Simon’s “Peace Like A River” which is unexpected as it is odd, a song that the college-aged crowd would be hard pressed to place and even within Daniel’s influence it’s a curious choice.  The brass-absent “The Underdog” receives the loudest of cheers with Daniel affording himself a wry smile in what is probably the bands largest Atlanta show to date. These days it’s more of a truism than a cliche, but it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll and I think he’s more aware of this than anyone.

Set

The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Someone Something
Stay Don’t Go
Don’t You Evah
The Ghost of You Lingers
I Summon You
Finer Feelings
Peace Like a River
Chips and Dip
Eddie’s Raga
Don’t Make Me a Target
They Never Got You
Everything Hits At Once
I Turn My Camera On
The Underdog
My Mathematical Mind
Black Like Me
——————–
I Could See The Dude
Rhythm & Soul
Fitted Shirt
Small Stakes

Chris: Joining us on the phone on Static this evening it’s a great pleasure to have tracked down Jim from Spoon soaking up the Annandale’s surrounds no less. How are you sir?

Jim: Good sir. How are you doing Chris?

I’m doing alright. I’m glad to have Spoon back again. You must know your way around these parts by now. Do you get around in Sydney Ok?

Yeah, you know I get a map and wander around. It’s not bad.

I think every time Spoon has come here you have played a different venue though so you are probably crossing a few off your list as well.

Yeah, exactly right. It’s good to play the Big Day Out and everything. It is the first time we are actually on that tour, so we’re excited.

All this Australian touring for Spoon comes on the back of what was another pretty busy year in the States for you guys as well, right?

Yeah, we have pretty much been touring since about March. So it’s been a long time.

And you think that sort of relentless tour schedule payed off last year as well? The album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was the biggest success you guys have had. It was like a charting American record, right?

Right. We’re really happy with how everything has been going. But for us it has been a gradual sales increase. Every record since Girls Can Tell has basically doubled in sales so it’s been a sort of gradual thing from our perspective.

Every person that bought the last album tells two friends or something? Do you think that is how it works?

[laughs] That is how it works I guess, yeah.

But it also speaks volumes about the groundwork that you guys have done, doesn’t it? I mean, is it nice to see it paying off in some ways?

Yeah exactly. Especially in the States we get zero radio play so it is basically all from touring and word of mouth… That’s it.

Given you’re this far in to the band’s history now — when you guys turn up to make a new album do you pretty much have an idea what the record will sound like, and what pieces will fit where? Or is it still a lot of tinkering?

Well, I think it is a lot of tinkering. The other thing is the way the record is going to sound is based solely on what Britt’s writing at the time. It depends on what he’s bringing to the table and we figure out how to approach each song.

Is there much trial and error in assembling the versions of each song that is going to be on the record?

Yeah, there is. For instance, I think for “Cherry Bomb” that was version three or something. We recorded it with a couple different people, we tried it a bunch of different ways and that one was the happiest with.

So do you or Britt wake up in the middle of the night and go “I know! It needs horns”?

[laughs] Yeah exactly. Usually Britt does that.

I mean, even a song like “The Ghost of You Lingers” is quite sort of spartan in a lot of ways. Was there ever a rocking version of that?

Actually no. That one we liked just pretty much how the demo was and Britt stumbled upon that chord progression when he was just practising one day. He put a song around it and yeah, I think it is a pretty adventurous song

And is it hard to resist putting more and more layers on a song? It always seemed to have been that the less is more approach seemed to have worked for a lot of Spoon stuff. Do you take stuff off as much as you put on in the studio?

Oh yeah, we take a lot of stuff off. We have flamenco guitar on “Japanese Cigarette Case”. I think we had five or six total tracks of that and we probably used three seconds of it.

So does the flamenco guitarist still get payed the full amount though? This is what I want to know.

Oh yeah, he does, he does.

Another song on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga that you rounded out with some studio chatter was “Don’t You Evah”. Was that the first time you put that much talk on a record?

I think so. There was actually more that I wanted on there but it was getting a little out of control. But one of the things about that is that we record on analogue tape so every time you hear the song you start hearing all the chatter and the banter and the noises and when you start mixing the record and you take those away it feels empty, just because you become accustomed to hearing all those different sounds. So it’s sort of an organic process. We do strip a lot a way but it does become part of the song for us.

Yeah, and I mean that studio chatter sort of leads into a song and gives it a bit more of a room feel. So did you have some huge compilation of all the finest studio jokes that you guys had made over the years to then chop up and put in “Don’t You Evah”? Was it much of a composite?

No, those were all done live pretty much where you hear them. You know, they’re on Britt’s vocal tracks, they’re on percussion tracks, and they just happened to fall where they are. It was not a past compilation or anything. It was all live when we were tracking the song.

I was wondering if there was ever going to be a strictly Spoon banter album somewhere down the line?

Yeah, exactly. I wonder if the record company will allow us to fulfil our obligations with that one. [laughs]

Have you captured a few zingers in the studio? Have there been many jokes that you guys have made that have missed tape then Jim?

Yeah, I don’t think my lawyer wants us to talk about those though.

Well you guys in Spoon also seem to keep a pretty watchful eye on the business side of things. For the last album, Gimme Fiction, you gave Matador a try in terms of releasing it in some territories but then you haven’t gone with those guys again. It is important for you to keep an eye on the ball? I guess Spoon is a band that learnt that early on with the troubles that you had with Elektra.

Yeah right exactly. We’ve always had our hand in everything and we felt that was the way you… no one is going to look out for the band except for the band, you know? We are always looking for different labels and things like that because you just have to see what’s out there.

I’m guessing that a major label would never have let you to name your album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga as well.

Oh yeah, they would have. I don’t think we would ever go to a major if they wouldn’t allow us to do whatever we do.

Was that a hard sell to anyone, calling the album that?

No, not at all. We thought it was pretty cool and ballsy. We didn’t really realise what some people would think the name was. I guess we should have thought a little bit more about it.

Did people think it was some off-the-cuff babble or the fifteenth letter of some outer space language or something, were they?

Right, right. Do you know where the title comes from?

No, do tell.

Ok, well “The Ghost of You Lingers’”, the second song on the record, working title was “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”. Seven Gas.

Because of the way the song goes?

Yeah, the piano. So you spend five months in the studio and little things amuse you and we used to get a kick out of that. And when Britt changed the name we’re like — hey that would be a good album title.

Has it been sort of important for you guys in Spoon to experiment in different ways the last few years as well? Britt did some soundtrack work, he scored the movie Stranger Than Fiction. Was it kind of good to open things up a bit since you guys have working together for so long?

I think so. I mean, Britt’s always been really good at, sound scapes and sounds in general and it was probably good for him to do that.

So you weren’t upset and looking for some Steven Spielberg movie to get your claws into or something like that?

No, no, not at all.

I thought that in most musicians after awhile there is always a frustrated soundtrack composer that thinks he needs to come out.

[laughs] Right. Maybe that’s me. I haven’t tried it yet.

Maybe there are other bits that you could do as well. Because in a minute we’re going to have a listen to something else that I guess Spoon has dabbled with for the first time — which is you guys got the current essential accessory which is the Diplo remix.

Oh yeah, ok.

So has there always been a bit of a hip hop sort of side to you guys waiting to get out as well maybe?

Maybe. We love that stuff. We are looking for people to re-mix “Don’t You Evah” and he wanted to do it which was great.

Are you ever worried about farming those things out to see how they come back? If you have so many versions of your songs when you’re making a record it must put a bigger spin on it to give it to someone else to see how it turns out.

Yeah, totally. But you know, with a remix you can take them with a grain of salt. People understand that it is a different interpretation of the song and it’s not something that is going to go on our record. So we are cool with it.

We’ll let you get on with enjoying the mean streets of Annandale until you have to play later on this evening.

Yeah, yeah well thanks for talking.

That’s alright. Have yourself a great show. I hope you get everybody on stage tonight. You’ve got a horn section and everything. It is a much smaller stage than the Enmore theatre so good luck.

I know, we’ll need it.

Thanks Jim.

Thanks Chris.

First broadcast on Static on 24/01/2008. Static can be heard on Sydney’s 2SER (107.3FM) and via the internet (www.2ser.com) every Thursday evening (AEST).

The only thing wrong with this album is that there is nothing wrong with this album.
[ Full Review ]   1. Jacob Golden – Revenge Songs
(Independent/Sawtooth)        

It has been a long time between drinks, but Jacob Golden’s second album was worth every minute of its five year gestation.
[ Full Review ] 2. Sloan- Never Hear The End Of It
(Yep Roc)              

The albums ironic title reflects the intense musical content of 30 songs squeezed into one cd, and while the thought does come to mind from time to time, when you start to get sick of one song, it’s already out the door and another has started. Amongst these 30 songs are some of the classic Sloan gems you’ve come to expect, with a freshness that belies album number 8 from these pop genius Nova Scotians.   2. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
(Capitol/EMI)              

“Mammoth”, “Pioneer to the Falls”, “Pace is the Trick”, “Wrecking Ball” — the titles on the sleeve were not so subtle hints to the nature of the tracks within. These are huge, epic songs built around the best rhythm section in the business, incredible dual chiming guitar assaults, moody synth and piano coupled with Paul Banks singular voice and obtuse lyrics.       3. Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - Living With The Living
(Touch & Go)              

For heart on the sleeve roots rock reggae with a finger pointing political pounce, Ted Leo never fails to disappoint. Sometimes a little
too earnest for his own good, his intentions can’t be faulted and his enthusiasm is unbounded. Living With The Living is the sound of one man still kicking against the pricks.   3. Tegan and Sara - The Con
(Vapor/Sire)              

Another long awaited disc, the fifth from Sara and Tegan Quinn, was filled with more hooks than a fishing tackle box, juxtaposed by tales of growing pains and dysfunctional relationships. [ Full Review ]      

At first listen, The Stage Names left me unimpressed, and in as much as I was probably wanting Black Sheep Boy Part 2, this was never going to be the case. From sullen strums to dancehall stomps, repeated listenings were to bear fruit, and as Will Sheff sang “what gives this mess some grace unless it kicks, man” it’s a sentiment that holds true from start to glorious sea-shanty finish.  

Yes Shout Our Loud’s sophomore release borrows heavily from the holy trifecta of ’80s UK alternative bands (i.e. those beginning with C, N and S) but it’s also informed by the rich history of Swedish indie music, adding lush orchestration and layered percussion (credit must be given to Björn Yttling’s excellent production), resulting in one of the years finest pop records.      

The experimental approach to songwriting was the key to the success of this album. Where a band could’ve easily recreated the sounds that had brought them to the level of popularity they now enjoyed, The Shins decided to throw all that aside and take a chance, that when viewed from the other side, still sounds undeniably like The Shins, and undeniably a perfect pop record.  

The debut album from the former Jack and Jacques lead singer (with help from friends such as Dot Allison, Vashti Bunyan and Colin Wilson) is a plush affair of sweeping ballads replete with piano, beautiful strings and reverb drenched guitar. Odes to life in rural England, (“Country Girl”, “A Quiet Life”), childhood (“The Disappointed”) and breaking up, (“Song of Leaving”) are among its treasures.       6. Faker - Be The Twilight
(EMI)              

Faker’s LA album was less a distraction and more a distillation of the ground covered and material written since their debut. There’s no filler or wasted moments. Nathan Hudson chooses his words carefully, the self-proclaimed ‘addicted romantic’ now finding himself on the rails, looking for the positive amongst the negative and channelling it into a captivating listen.   6. The Concretes - Hey Trouble
(Licking Fingers)              

I know I’m in the minority but I actually preferred Hey Trouble to Taken by Trees’s Open Field (Victoria Bergsman’s, The Concrete’s ex-lead singer solo project). Lisa Milberg takes over lead vocal duties with aplomb and the shift from twee 60′s folk to a more new wave, rockier direction pays off.       7. PJ Harvey - White Chalk
(Island)              

PJ Harvey has reinvented herself so many times now that you’re never sure what you’re going to get one album to the next. White Chalk is her piano album, and it’s at times a bleak, meditative listen. The simple instrumentation finding an uneasy balance with Polly’s forceful, haunting voice. Lyrically, it’s more dark introspection that you’ve come to expect with a more pastoral, Victorian edge.   7. Feist - The Reminder
(Polydor)              

iPod and eBay ad overexposure aside: “1234″ is still a brilliant pop song. What’s more it’s joined on The Reminder by a dozen others. True they don’t all reach the heights of that bittersweet number, but they do demonstrate how much of a musical chameleon Leslie Feist is. Pop, jazz, folk, country and rock are all handled with adroitness, and sung with her amazing sultry voice.       8. The Scare - Chivalry
(OK! Relax/Below Par)              

One wonders what this album could’ve sounded if the band hadn’t been so laced with whisky, but even if Chivalry was to lose half it soused charm, it still would sound 10 times better than any other punk rock band out there.   8. The Honeys - Star Baby
(Origin/MGM)              

It’s been 19 long years since Perth/Sydney siders The Honey’s 1988 debut Goddess (disregarding the splendid Ultimo compilation) and 16 since they originally called it quits, but it may’ve well have been yesterday for the freshness of the songs here. Star Baby fused folk, rock and country with Andrea Croft’s angelic voice and tales of heartbreak.       9. John Doe - A Year In The Wilderness
(Yep Roc)              

Ex-X frontman, turned alt-country troubadour, John Doe finesses another slice of weary Americana fused with a little spit and spite that you’d come to expect from this well-journeyed songwriter. With help from the likes of Aimee Mann and Jill Sobule, A Year in the Wilderness sounds a more appealing prospect than you initially thought.   9. The National - Boxer
(Beggars Banquet)              

Sitting somewhere between the despondency of Joy Division and the late night melancholy of The Tindersticks, Boxer is the fourth and most accomplished album from Brooklyn’s The National. Matt Berninger’s gravelly baritone and his often inscrutable lyrics provide a mesmerising focal point against a backdrop of opulent orchestral rock.       10. Grinderman - Grinderman
(Mute)              

Taken from the perspective of four guys sitting in a room, trying to make the antithesis of the record they normally would, Grinderman is a success. A shift to a more abrasive sound permeates, but the lapse in character, when the men stop trying to be boys, is where the rewards here lie. It’s a mixed bag, but an enjoyable listen all the same.   10. Damn Arms - The Live Artex
(Unikron)              

Melbourne’s Damn Arms are damn hard to categorise. Rock or dance? Punk or post-punk? New wave or synth-pop? In the end the point is moot because with The Live Artex they released one of the best albums of the year regardless of genre. A bass heavy mix of rock and electronica that’s so sleazy you’ll be heading for the shower by the album’s end.      

The unexpected return of one of the most dynamic bands of the 80s (a reformation only eclipsed by that of the legendary Led Zeppelin), set the scene for one of most amazing live performances this year. Their tour may have generated the most cash for any live artist this year but it was also the one that set aside any doubt they were doing it just for the money. Like proud parents going through old photo albums, The Police tore through their greatest hits while we stood and applauded, the songs sounding as fresh and vibrant as they did in the 80
s.

Sloan
40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
(15.05.2007)
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Brixton Academy, London
(07.09.07)   Faker
The Tivoli, Brisbane
(29.11.07)              

The highlight came near the end of Faker’s firery indie rock set: mid-way through hit “Hurricane”, after nearly an hour of stalking and running around the stage singer Nathan Hudson climbed one of the three metre high speaker stacks before jumping off, much to the behest of the security. That, ladies and gentlemen, is entertainment.

Ben Kweller
The Zoo, Brisbane
(23.10.07)
Shout Out Louds
The Zoo, Brisbane
(29.09.07)       ]]> http://www.webcutsmusic.com/reviews/album-reviews/2008/webcuts-top-20-albums-of-2007/feed/ 0