Spoon

Austin is widely known as the live music capital of the world and thus everyone and their grandma are either in a band, manage a band, promote bands or work somewhere within the music industry. Austin is home to a wide range of homegrown (or Austin naturalized) musicians from indie folk to rap metal. Yes, it is true that we have a vibrant music scene but it is also true that there are many crummy bands out there. It seems like any dude with a guitar or chick with a half good voice is trying to “make it”. Simply put, Austin is not L.A. We love the fact that musicians from around the world have come here hoping to inspire the musical world with their talent but considering many of them suck its best to cut the fat. So once we knock off the rockstar wanna-bes and groupie-turned-lead-singers we are left with the good meaty musical center.
I’m of course talking about Austin’s own Spoon. Since 1993, Spoon has released six full albums, five EPS, and has, of course, appeared on PBS’s Austin City Limits. Founders Britt Daniels (singer/guitarist) and Jim Eno (drummer) came out with their first album on local Peek-A-Boo records in 1994 along with the original line-up of Greg Wilson (guitar) and Andy McGuire (bass). They were soon after signed to Matador Records where they produced Telephone in 1996 and then Soft Effects in 1997 which were both relatively successful albums on the indie scale. After garnishing some major label attention the band left Matador and signed with Elektra to release A Series of Sneaks. Unfortunately the album did not sell as well as the media moguls hoped and they were soon dropped from that label in 1998. During this time Andy McGuire and Greg Wilson left the band and soon after Joshua Zarbo (bassist) joined as well as Eric Harvey. After Zarbo left in 2007, Rob Pope picked up the reigns as bassist.
Spoon’s earlier albums are a classic tale of a band coming into their own. At this time, Britt Daniels was still trying to realize his own musical genius as well as trying to form together the right mesh of talent to not only help communicate his own vision but also conscribe inspiration from others who were as equally talented. When the band finally starting getting commercial success it became pretty obvious that they weren’t too concerned with maintaining the same sound that got them fame; if you listen to Kill the Moonlight and then Gimme Fiction you could hardly tell it was the same band except for Britt’s distinctive voice.
Spoon is ever evolving and never disappointing. They blend every aspect of music from horn to eletronic keyboard and beyond into one deeply inspiring genre that they can call their own. Here at Stay Out Of Austin we often get criticism for saying that people shouldn’t move here for the music scene because they think they’re talented but really just create noise pollution. I think that Spoon is a great example of great musicians from different places (Spoon’s line-up comes from Kansas, Denton, Galveston as well as Austin) to meet in a city that can facilitate their talents and create an environment for some really creative collaborations.
So thanks Spoon for helping us keep out faith in Austin!