Spinto Band

自九十年代初，一眾美國的Indie-Pop樂團開始建立了一條明顯而成功的方程式，使部份樂迷漸漸接納及確認了一種屬于美國的音樂風味。說到這里，你也應該嘗試從腦中勾起一些美式樂團的歌曲片段，好想象這種風尚的發(fā)展，也更好了解北加州六人樂團The Spinto Band的「音路歷程」?？赡埽瑫r間越久，這種風格越是變得堅實。因此，新的接捧樂隊就更要維持前輩們的功業(yè)，延續(xù)這種美國風格。
 
祖父啟發(fā)
故事，是從一間座落密西西比三角洲的美式大宅中開始。剛完成學業(yè)的Nick Krill在家中閣樓找到祖父Roy Spinto的遺物——零食Cracker Jack的舊盒(生產商曾在這種產品中加入玩具來吸引顧客，可能這是其中的契機)。在盒子背面，寫滿了Spinto作的詞。日子漸去，Nick被身為結他樂手的祖父啟發(fā)，開始作曲。并找同學來組成樂隊。在威明頓城，這個以「會由某地變成某人」為口號的城市，身為主音結他手的Krill找到了Jon Eaton(結他)、Thomas(低音結他/主唱)及Sam(鍵琴)兩位當時未畢業(yè)的Hughes氏兄弟、Jeff(鼓)及Joe(結他)兩位Hobson兄弟及Albert Birney(結他/和唱)組成雙主音七人樂團。
 
在家鄉(xiāng)，他們得不到太多的表演機會。在成立八年以來，他們得以專心致志去錄制歌曲。一隊沒有公司支持的樂隊可以錄到超過七張唱片，其產量實在不少。推出過The Analog Chronicles、Digital Summer (New Wave Techno Pop)、Roosevelt、Mersey & Reno(一張擁有七十六曲般的夸張專輯)幾張專輯后，他們沒有延續(xù)「一年一張專輯」的習慣。2004年的好評EP GoodAnswer后，他們反而靜心、認真地制作2005年新專輯Nice And Nicely Done。七名男生，既然有心去組樂隊，又花了四年光陰去處理一批曲目，可想而知，Nice And Nicely Done會與之前幾張唱片的質素可能大有不同。其實，直至Nice And Nicely Done的出現前，七位美國男生沒有得到傳媒很大的注意。甚至乎，他們也不太愿意提起從前的作品。樂迷們視Nice為他們首張大碟也不為過(連amazon.com也沒有供應他們的舊作，足可想象現在簽下他們的Bar-None Records也不愿使這些作品大肆發(fā)售)。
 
懶隋的流行音樂
雖然，在Nice And Nicely Done推出前，Birney因發(fā)展他的電影事業(yè)而宣報離隊。但The Spinto Band的努力是沒有白費的。首先，接受紐約紐約CMJ音樂節(jié)的邀請，于祖國發(fā)威。及后立即得到英國方面的注意，BBC的兩位DJ Steve Lamacq及Jo Whiley則在電臺節(jié)目中對The Spinto Band的先行單曲Oh Mandy贊賞有嘉，使得他們在樂迷中名傳遐邇。后來，他們自稱所玩的音樂類型為"Lolli-pop"，意即懶隋的流行音樂，我們且看看The Spinto Band如何演繹這種嶄新類型。
 
2006年，熱愛桌球活動的The Spinto Band就以「奧蘇利云第二次在世界桌球錦標賽中一Q清袋」來形容推出「首張大碟」的心情。耹聽Nice And Nicely Done這張專輯時，我們不難發(fā)現他們的確受到The Beach Boys、The Flaming Lips及更重要的，Pavement所影響。由首支歌曲Did I Tell You開始感受美國西岸的Indie-Pop延續(xù)，一來便是古怪多變的Synth選取，主唱Krill以高音方式唱出。另一位作曲者Thomas就想來一種「輕聲唱出」的效果，并在Trust Vs. Mistrust中展現出來，又來一次彰顯美式獨立的氣息，用上各種不同樂器，今次是鐘琴。Crack The Whip則無論如何也要「現代」一次，用上一種舞曲曲式的基調，令人想起一眾現在很吃香的年輕樂隊。述說心中理想的另一張單曲作品Direct To Helmet，則布上一陣悠閑氛圍。So King,Stacy則以數重變化的速度及語調來唱出歌詞。
專輯中，筆者就最愛Oh Mandy及Bonus曲目Japan Is An Island兩曲。前者在曼陀林撥弦樂器，在響亮干脆的伴奏下，電子儀器特雷門發(fā)揮其獨特作用。主音歌手更特別用上「扮聲」的唱腔來展示其北歐氣息。而后者在歡樂感覺下發(fā)放一種搖搖板式的大和唱。
相對于現在一片死寂、沒有新意的歐美樂壇，The Spinto Band的出現，可能會為樂迷們送上一個較為清新爽朗的下午。
 
Biography
While some kids were busy building tree forts or designing the neighborhood sandlot, a few friends from Wilmington, Delaware were hanging out in the family basement figuring out how to make and record music. While some dreamt that wiffle ball bats might someday turn into Louisville sluggers under the big league lights, none of the future members of the Spinto Band thought that music would someday lead to touring the world, performing to crowds of thousands and making records with their recording heroes, let alone the idea of being in a band that would become a source of sustaining themselves.
The seeds of the dream that would ensue came from the band’s many music savvy parents. Steve Hobson, father of Spinto members Jeff and Joe Hobson, one of two sets of brothers in the band’s line-up, played in Sin City Band, a prominent Delaware-area honky-tonk ensemble, along with Spinto members Tom and Sam Hughes's step father, Scott Birney, and Jon Eaton’s uncle, Andy. As the guys were hitting their teen years, they started getting hand-me-down gifts of musical instruments and gear for birthday and Christmas gifts. First Jeff Hobson got a drumkit that used to belong to Sin City member Jimmy Ficca, brother of original Television drummer Billy Ficca. Around the same time they got a 4-track recorder that Scott Birney, father of original Spinto member Albert Birney, taught the band how to use. The guys soon started amassing a small arsenal of music making toys and began plugging their guitars and microphones directly into the recorder, learning how to record.“We just filled up tape after tape, says Jon Eaton, "The studio with that four track is really where the band came alive.” At these early sessions, fellow Wilmingtonian, Nick Krill was coming home from school with Thomas and Sam and filling up some of those tapes too. This group of guys, at the time under the moniker “Free Beer”, would form what became the Spinto Band. Nick remembers thinking, “Free Beer was a funny name when we were 11, but when we were 13 it dawned on us that it was dumb.” The band’s current line-up is the same group of childhood buddies, sans Albert Birney. Albert has been set free unto the world of visual arts though he remains the bands’ primary video director and a creative force behind much of their visual imagery.
In their studio, named “Jamonkey Stiudios”, they had a quote hanging on the wall that read, “if you start in a basement studio, you only have one place to go and that’s up.” In hopes of being able to try some of their songs somewhere other than the school talent show and basement circuit, Jon had been sending some of the 4-track recordings to his Uncle Robin Eaton, who owned a studio in Nashville, TN along with producer/engineer Eli "Lij" Shaw. Robin fell in love with the band's cassette recordings and invited them to come to Nashville to try their luck in a “real studio.” “We got in a plane and recorded the songs we were working on. That’s when we felt like this is the real deal,” Thomas recalls. Over a series of many trips to and from Nashville, during high school and college breaks, they would accumulate enough songs to widdle down to their debut album, Nice and Nicely Done.
Soon after finishing the recordings they began to “mail out a bunch of demos because it seems like the next step for a rock band,” as Jon tells it. Around the same time, the wildest part of the ride began to take shape, as the band’s breakout song, “Oh Mandy” became what many refer to as “an internet sensation.” As momentum began to build, the band was spending time getting music out and participating in early internet-based music communities like MP3.com and songfight.org, the latter of which was the home to weekly songwriter contests that birthed “Brown Boxes”, “Direct To Helmet”, and “So Kind, Stacy”, songs later included on their debut record. Embracing this new virtual world that brought their songs to people worldwide, they even “utilized the internet, myspace specifically, to get haircuts and find houses to sleep on tour.” They were living the D.I.Y. dream. At this time, after sending out that batch of demos, they’d caught the attention of indie record label Bar-none, where they would release the record in North America. As “Oh Mandy” continued to spread virally, they were capturing the attention of more unlikely suitors and ended up licensing the song for a Sears ad campaign. At the time, “we got to see the album in record shops, were holding a real album, toured for pretty much 3 months straight in the US,” as Jon tells it. “It was becoming legitimized... A step up from our fun little basement studio.”
The buzz had also spread to Europe, and the band inked a deal with Virgin imprint, Radiate records, for rights outside of North America. Nice and Nicely Done would go on to be a bona fide hit record with singles climbing the UK charts, major festival gigs, tours all over Europe with bands such as The Mystery Jets, Maxïmo Park, Fields, The Strokes, and The Kooks.
Returning from the whirlwind in Europe, they would trek across the U.S. once again, this time supporting what many were calling the biggest band in the UK at the time, the Arctic Monkeys. Suddenly, they were quite a ways into the record’s cycle. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, without a manager or any other outside supervision, a process the members take great pride in, they contacted a list of the people they dreamt of making a record with. To their own wonderment, two of their recording heroes would agree to sign on to the project. Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Built To Spill) would produce the record in Los Angeles, and Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Los Lobos) would mix the record in London. In their typical dreamy-eyed humble way Nick describes his amazement, “You can just send a letter and a CD to Tchad Blake and he’ll check it out and call you back? His insight really added to the songs, in more than just mixing. He helped take it to the next level sonically.”
Preparing to make an album in a different circumstance than the debut, “Moonwink” was a more carefully calculated process. Nick describes, “this time it was about going in to record 12-13 songs and that’s going to be an album we’ll release. We’ll book studio time, and we’ll have a focused effort on completing a record.” They spent about 6 months rehearsing and working on arrangements, and then went into recording for 5 weeks. The songs on Moonwink, heavy in many different instruments and unique structures, are a source of great pride for the band in terms of their artistic growth as Nick says, “We take a lot of pride in carving out space for all sounds in the arrangements. And we got some nice compliments from Tchad Blake in that respect.”
In 2006 The Spinto Band was the first band who did a session for The Take-Away Shows by Vincent Moon.
Moonwink sees a Fall 2008 release worldwide on Park the Van Records in North America and Fierce Panda in the UK. Connecting with Park the Van was a natural progression, as it was home to some of their closest friends in music and life. “We met Chris (Watson, PTV label founder) a while back and we’ve just sort of been aware of PTV being this cool Philly label getting these cool Philly bands behind them. Most notably when the Teeth signed up with them, we were friends for a long time and really admired their music. And then we read a record review of Dr. Dog’s Easy Beat in Rolling Stone and thought ‘wow we’ve never been in Rolling Stone. These guys really know what they’re doing,’” Thomas gushes. Nick, who also mixed the Teeth’s “You’re My Lover Now” with the band, is thrilled to be officially linked up with so many of the bands he considers kin, “I hope it’s considered a scene.” With a focus on Philly and the surrounding cities, he quips, “there’s gotta be something in the water.” Armed with “Jenkins the Van”, a 15-passenger home on the road with a trailer in tow, The Spinto Band embarks on a U.S. tour headlining clubs nationwide this Fall. Moonwink sees its official North American release on October 7, on the heels of another European tour.