Spoon stopped by Paris to perform effective versions of “Black Like Me” & “The Ghost Of You Lingers”/”Got Nuffin” for a La Blogatheque Take Away Show. As you can expect, these are great to watch. “Black Like Me” is one of my favorite Spoon songs of all time, and they really do it justice here. Watch both videos below:
Remember Spoons new album Transference? Yes, it did come out this year. It’s early January release seems like ages ago now. There’s just so much music out there, stuff gets forgotten. That’s a damn shame though, cause Transference was a mighty fine record. One that is probably going to get overlooked with the best of 2010 lists. With songs like “Nobody Gets Me But You”, how could you not be swayed to include it?
The band released a new music video for “Nobody Gets Me But You”. The video is footage from the bands intimate performance at Cake Shop a little while back. It’s perfect. Watch it below:
So yeah you need to watch this stunning performance of Spoon playing “Nobody Gets Me But You” on Jimmy Fallon. The Roots very own ?uestlove and Owen Biddle add to the rhythm section, allowing for quite the performance.
Spoon is opening for Arcade Fire at MSG tonight. I hope they sound as on as they did here:
According to Exclaim, Owen Pallett has been added to both Arcade Fire shows at Madison Square Garden in August. Spoon is playing both as well. I paid around 50 bucks for my GA ticket. I’d say it was well worth it with just Spoon as the opener. Now, it’s close to a bargain.
You can also grab a free Lewis Takes Off His Shirt EP from Domino for the price of an e-mail address. It features 5 various remixes, including one by Dan Deacon. “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt” was #17 on my list for best songs of the year so far.
Me and my friend Alex have been desperately trying to see Spoon for years. We stupidly missed out on their Ga Ga tour, but we were smooth enough to grab tickets for their huge show at Radio City Music Hall. It was completely worth every penny (I’m not big enough to get press passes at Radio City, who are you kidding?)
Openers The Strange Boys played exciting country inspired garage rock. They honestly sounded like the old Kings Of Leon (try 4 years before they used somebody) with a young Caleb singing.
Deerhunter followed with a very strong set full of dense reverb rock They mixed their slower ambient stuff with Microcastle hits like “Never Stops”. Bradford dedicated the set to Alex Chilton, the legendary Big Star member who recently passed away.
The crowd was full of a lot of older fans who had no interest in either of the opening acts. So it was easy to tell people were impatiently waiting for Spoon to take the stage. Once they finally did, things settled down and the mood was set right. Spoon’s set started with Britt Daniel performing “Me and The Bean” solo. They followed up with three Transference cuts, The Mystery Zone, Written In Reverse, Got Nuffin, all of which got pretty good responses from the crowd.
The band played their songs true to form on the record with precision and ease. They played many classic cuts from all of their albums as far back as Girls Can Tell. I extremely enjoyed hearing songs that I have spent plenty of time with over the past few years, such as the excellent Ga Ga Ga opener “Don’t Make Me A Target” to “The Beast And Dragon, Adored”. However, the crowd was more enthusiastic about the Ga x5 standouts such as The Underdog, Don’t You Evah, and Cherry Bomb.
Spoon messed up the begging of The Ghost Of You Lingers, but they restarted it and gave it a new life live. Personally the best song of the night was “I Summon You”. It’s probably my favorite Spoon song, and it was just so sincere live. One of the coolest concert moments for me – ever. The cuts from Trasnference were handled with delicate care, but it was the older cuts that really shined tonight and made the night unforgettable.
It was a big show for the band, and they knew it. They had plenty of guest and surprises for us to make the show quite memorable. Eleanor Friedberger from the Fiery Furnances came out to help Spoon cover their song Waiting to Know You, as well as Spoon’s Someone Something. Then later on in the show Wolf Parade’s guitarist/vocalist Dan Boeckner came out to help the band cover Wolf Parade’s song, “Modern Love”. As a big Wolf Parade geek, this was an amazing treat and I was able to record it for you all. What a great moment. Watch the video below:
I would totally go to see Spoon again live, and hoped that they will play The Way We Get By, I Turn My Camera On, Everything Hits At Once, and Sister Jack. All of which were notably omitted from the setlist.
I took notes on the setlist with my phone, here it is:
1. Me and the Bean (Britt Solo)
2. The Mystery Zone
3. Written In Reverse
4. Got Nuffin
5. My Mathematical Mind
6. Don’t Make Me a Target
7. Ghost Of You Lingers
8. Love Song (The Damned Cover)
9. Is Love Forever?
10. Waiting To Know You (Fiery Furnaces Cover w/Eleanor Friedberger of the FF)
11. Someone Something (w/ Eleanor Friedberger of the FF)
12. Beast and Dragon Adored
13. Don’t You Evah
14. I Summon You
15. Nobody Gets Me But You
16. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
17. Rhythm & Soul
18. Jonathon Fisk
19. The Underdog
20. Black Like Me
Encore 1:
21. Trouble Comes Running
22. Modern World (Wolf Parade Cover w/ Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade)
23. I Saw The Light (Dan Boeckner on guitar)
Encore 2:
24. Small Stakes
After the jump check out the photo’s I took, plus a full video of Black Like Me that I captured:
Spoon premired their music video on pitchfork yesterday, and I finally got around to watching it. It is a cool video, actually recorded the live take of the song, and used a big mirror to get a cool effect of the band playing. A really simple idea, done right.
Spoon just radiate cool. I cannot wait to see them live at Radio City!!! :
Check out Spoon’s performance last night on Conan. They performed their first single from Transference, “Written In Reverse”.
They are able to carry the same raw energy from the studio recording to the live stage, which is why I bought tickets to see them at Radio City Music Hall in March!!
“Mean Red Spider” is the b-side for Transference’s lead single, “Written In Reverse”. For me it was slightly more accessible at first than Transference was. With that said, I am still digging my teeth in Transference (which you can stream at NPR right now) and it is sounding better and better with each listen.
This b-side features crunchy guitars, pounding drums (love the bass drum work at 1:45-1:55 by Jim Eno), and Britt Daniels confident vocals. The song is a steady rocker that should please all fans of the band. If you are still taking time to truly appreciate Transference, give Mean Red Spider ago and maybe it will ease you into things. Spoon are a band that just delivers time and time again.
I wanted to take a break from the massive amounts of posts on “new/hot” artists and whatnot and just throw in some cool remixes and stuff that is smoothing to the ears. Blogging has become too nuts for people. Remember it’s about the music! Here are some chill remixes that I highly recommend. I also threw in a recent Kid Cudi freestyle that I thought was pretty rad, as well as song that you would never expect to see from me. Mixmash it up!!
Britt Daniel from Spoon takes the gorgeous Feist song, “I Feel It All”. This is a true re-mix, with Britt adding his own stuff into it making it into an entirely different song. He just adds enough to give it a different vibe. This is pretty old I believe, but it is new to me. Britt has a real ear and musical talent and he shows it off in this remix! It’s delicate and precise, culminating into danceable rocker. (I found that photo from i guess i’m floating, so thanks for that igif!)
I could try to be all pretentious, and add fancy adjectives to describe this song, but that would be a waste. This song is pure soul. Jones remixes “Little Dreamer” into 4 minutes plus of pure listening bliss. Hell, Victoria Legrand is featured, and that is more than enough to make any song undeniable. Gotta check into more Jones & Future Islands later.
Vampire Weekend make danceable music as it is, but Redlight morphs Ottoman into dance floor glory in this remix! Ottoman is a mighty fine VW song, but it lacks the urgent “crunch” of songs like “Mansard Roof” and “A-Punk”. Redlight fixes that. For more on Redlight visit him on myspace.
Cudi raps over Vampire Weekend’s “Ottoman”. I am not a mixtape/freestyle guy but I couldn’t deny a Kid Cudi session over Vampire Weekend! Props to my good friend Rogo for this!
Yes, that is Kelis. Surprised to see her on my blog? I am as well, if I’m being honest with you! I was reading Said The Gramophone’s Best Songs of 2009 list and noticed they posted a song from Kelis. I trust their test very much, and naturally questioned the Kelis inclusion. I mean, this is the same Kelis who made “Milkshake”, so I didn’t quite expect much out of her. However, she shut me up. Her new song “Acapella” is a step in the right direction for sure. It is a bit on the house/dance side, more so than her old style. The chorus is amazing, the beat is bumpin’. This is one of the biggest surprises of 2009, without a doubt. I don’t know if this counts as a guilty pleasure. It is good….very good.
(photo via 
