Austin Sound

Spoon has finally let drop the details of their new album, which will be called Transference and finally see the light of day on Merge come January 26. We’re a bit dubious concerning this tracklist, however, as it seems that they have either hired a copy-editor for their song titles or given up on the tween texting demographic - with the exception of the single “Got Nuffin’” that came out earlier this year, everything appears to grammatically in order! Among the 11 tracks, we are most curious about “Is Love Forever?,” which we really hope is some kind of tribute to David after the dentist. Love is a lot like nitrous, after all. If you want to catch up on your history o’ Spoon, the band also just released deluxe digital re-issues of their first four albums on their website, so you can go download Telephono, A Series Of Sneaks, Girls Can Tell, and Kill The Moonlight, and then in November bitch about how the band’s new stuff doesn’t even compare to the awesomeness of their early albums. Check out the tracklist for Transference below:

So we suppose that following Spoon’s epic three night, sold-out stand at Stubb’s this past weekend, there really isn’t any doubt that they are the biggest band in Austin at the moment. I mean, short of Willie Nelson or the ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughan, what local band could pull off three sold out shows in a weekend at Stubb’s? And boy did Britt Daniel and Company deliver! Not only did they mine most of the Spoon catalog, but they whipped out some new tunes and several awesome closers. Also, kudos for selecting the eclectic opening acts, though the crowd by and large just seemed to waiting for the headliner each night. If, for some reason, you missed any of this weekends Spoon-age, our friends over at Ultra8201 caught some pretty good video of the band delivering a new tune that the internet consensus seems to have determined to be called “Is Love Forever.” Check out the video of the song below, and for some more video of the Thursday night show, as well as some awesome pics, head on over to Ultra8201.

In our latest roundup of local shortstacks, we check in on three new bands who are offering up their debut EP’s, and get a taste of the latest work from on old Austin favorite. Spoon’s surprise announcement last week that they would be dropping a new EP called Got Nuffin’ apparently caught their spell checkers once more by surprise as well, but hey, we know the feeling. The three tunes aren’t much to chew on, but we reckon at least it’s sumpin’. Meanwhile, new group Literature, which features some guitar work by Kevin Adickes of Austin Sound favorites Moth! Fight! (where have those guys gone?), throw out their debut. Though more of a demo than official release, there are some good sparks ignited in the rough production. And just because you can’t have Literature without The Authors (no matter what Barthes says), we take on their eponymous debut, which seems to go high on the production end, but falters on originality. Also on tap in our roundup, new quartet Your Kisses Cause Crashes get caught in the headlights.

It’s strange that no one heard about this, especially given the extreme devotion of Spoon fans. Stereogum just announced that Spoon will be dropping a new EP next Tuesday, June 30, called Got Nuffin’. The band is still clearly on a campaign to seek grammatical revenge against middle school English teachers (they seem to be winning!). The EP consists of three new tunes, the title track, “Tweakers,” and “Stroke Their Brains,” and you can apparently listen to them right now on Amazon, though we couldn’t figure out how, cuz Spoon haz rotted r branez! Better yet, you can undoubtedly catch them performing the song live in a couple of weeks at their big SpoonX3 shows at Stubb’s on July 9, 10, and 11. That lineup is below, if there are still tickets available.

We mentioned on Wednesday that Spoon would be holding down a three night stand at Stubb’s from July 9-11. Now it appears their presenting this as some kind of mini Spoon-fest, and you can buy tickets for all three nights for $75, or $28 for the individual nights. The lineups for every night are pretty spectacular, an eclectic mix of nationals and locals, with an interesting range of styles. Check out the full lineups below and prepare for Austin to be flooded with Spoon-heads come July!

If you weren’t one of the few lucky ones to snag one of the 650 tickets for Spoon’s show at the Scoot Inn last night that sold out almost immediately, or like most of us here at Austin Sound, were having your bones rattled by My Bloody Valentine, Cindy Royal from the blog On That Note captured some video of the show. You can watch Daniel and Co. deliver a new song below (it’s listed as possibly “Is Love Forever”; anyone know for sure?), and check out another video of Spoon doing “Rhthm & Soul” on the website. Word is that the band is taking their time with the new album, but will hopefully have it out by the end of the year.

4/14/08
The official video for Spoon’s “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” has finally hit the ol’ youtubes, and you can check it out below. The song is their latest single from last year’s quite impressive Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and comes on the heels of the release of Spoon’s new EP/single for “Don’t You Evah,” which features 7 versions of the song including Spoon’s and the original Natural History recording, as well as remixes from the likes of Diplo, Ted Leo, and Mathew Dear. It also includes the B-side “All I Got Is Me.”

The band is also posting exclusive mp3s each week on its website (look under “Bonus”). This week it appears to be a demo of Cherry Bomb that you can download for free. Britt Daniel is also interviewed today over at the fork ‘n’ pitch.

We love the internet, being a part of it and all. But one of the things we love it for the most is that anyone with a camera and cool idea can get songs out of about any artist, producing some cool, unique little shows. Take Austin’s own Retread Sessions, for example.

One of our favorites is the Black Cab Sessions, a Brit-based project that throws artists in the back of a cab and gets them to play while trolling around London. That’s it. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. Just a camera, a confiscated car, and an artist. But the results are pretty fantastic, especially given the talent that they’ve been able to coerce into the backseat.

Thanks to Covert Curiosity for alerting us to the new Diplo remix of Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah,” now available for download on Merge Records’ website. The $.99 mp3 was released to benefit the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, which kinda makes us wonder what Britt Daniel’s been up to lately.

You can get a taste of the track over at Covert, but as the song is a benefit for charity, he has rightly faded out the second half to encourage us all to support the cause. Spoon-head Daniel will be playing a solo set this Thursday outside at Emo’s, but the show is sold out, so unless you have tickets, you’ll be left to gawk from the courtyard (and yes, we use the term courtyard lightly).

The ballots for this year’s Plug Independent Music Awards are up and once again a number of Austin Bands are represented. The 2008 winners will be announced at the March 6 show in New York, and internet voting for fans lasts until February - so in the true democratic spirit, vote early and often.

This year’s local nominees include Spoon for best album with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which also gets a nod for best indie album alongside Okkervil River’s The Stage Names. Dallas’ St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) comes up with nominations for both New Artist and Female Artist of the Year, as well as Video of the Year for “Jesus Saves, I Spend,” while new Dripping Springs resident Sam Beam is up for Male Artist of the Year and Americana Album for Iron and Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog.