Austin, TX · indie rock

Spoon

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Austin's most consistent band — two decades of taut, groove-first indie rock with zero wasted notes.

Spoon formed in Austin, Texas, in 1994 when singer and guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno met while both playing in a band called the Alien Beats. The name came from a song by the German group Can, which had served as the theme to the film Jagged Edge.

Their music is built on economy: dry, snapping drums, guitars used in short jabs rather than sustained chords, piano stabs, and arrangements where the space between the parts matters as much as the parts themselves.

The debut album, Telephono, appeared on Matador Records in 1996 and drew comparisons to Pavement, the Pixies and Wire; the following EP, Soft Effects, pared the sound down further. A move to Elektra for A Series of Sneaks in 1998 ended badly: after the band's A&R contact quit, Spoon were dropped and answered with the vindictive single "The Agony of Laffitte" on Saddle Creek.

Signing with Merge Records brought a run of acclaimed albums: Girls Can Tell in 2001, which outsold their two previous records combined, then Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Transference. Later albums moved between labels, including They Want My Soul on Loma Vista and ANTI-, before a return to Matador for Hot Thoughts and Lucifer on the Sofa.

Daniel's rasp and his habit of repeating a phrase until it turns into a hook remain the constants underneath these changes. The current lineup adds keyboardist Alex Fischel and bassist Ben Trokan alongside Daniel and Eno. Spoon are often cited as one of the more critically consistent American rock bands of their generation.

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indie rock