No Filler Music Podcast - Ep 16: Spoon - Gimme Fiction

Episode Date: July 15, 2018

We finish up our SpoonFest with a look at Spoon fully realized in their 2005 release ​"Gimme Fiction"​.​ With the addition of keyboardist Eric Harvey alongside Britt Daniel's increasing comforta...bility behind those ivory keys, ​"Gimme Fiction"​ brings the piano to the forefront in several songs, yet still finds time to squeeze in those slightly strange & beautiful, electronic-heavy tunes that Spoon does so well. For more info, check out our show notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/ep-16-spoon-gimme-fiction Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:30 And welcome to No Filler. the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. On our favorite records. Uh, man. Look, dude. We removed a segment from one of our episodes way back in the day when I brought up the fact that we used to have trouble pronouncing ours. But I'm leaving this in, dude. This is our favorite wakers.
Starting point is 00:02:58 And my name is Quentin. I've got my brother Travis with me as always. And we are finishing up our spoon-a-thon with their fifth studio album, Gimmie Fiction, that came out in 2005. So this is going to be it for a little while. Well, dude, technically we're going to come back with another spoon track for the side track next week. Yeah, you're right. So spill beans. You're not, spill beans.
Starting point is 00:03:28 You're not done yet with spoon. Yeah. So also, if you're not a fan of spoon, I'm sorry. Well, let's put it this way, dude. If you're not a fan of spoon by now and you've listened to our reviews up to this point, then we haven't delivered the goods. Well, I'd say they've got to start checking a pulse, you know what I'm saying? Checking their pulse or our poles?
Starting point is 00:03:53 Nope, theirs. Okay. It's hard not to like spoon, man. I mean, really. Yeah. And with this record, as we've kind of said in the past, like this is spoon fully spoon. You know what I mean? Fully realized.
Starting point is 00:04:10 Yeah. This is spoon being spoon to their fullest potential. Yeah. But hey, let's not get into it too much yet. Let's dive into our watcher hurts for the week. So this is our segment. that we do on our full-length episodes where we kind of just share a track from an artist,
Starting point is 00:04:31 you know, a band that we've been listening to recently. Just a way to share more music with you every week or every other week. Travis, I guess let's start with you this time. Okay. What you've been listening to, brother? What you heard. And I forgot to go back and like see the context for this, but so there's this podcast or not a podcast there's this YouTube series um this guy he kind of does
Starting point is 00:05:02 a deep dive into different like he picks an artist and does like a understanding uh you know Trent Rezner understanding Kurt Cobain understanding Dave Grohl and he does like a deep dive into like no wait is this another podcast no no no this is a you like I say this is YouTube oh see I wasn't listening at all I'm sorry that's fine. Let me see if I can find what this guy's name is so I can do a shout out. So the guy's name is, well his YouTube channel, his name is lie, likes music.
Starting point is 00:05:42 Lie, as in, don't you lie to me, likes music. I don't really know the significance of that or whatever. But either way, he does deep dives into rock music basically. So, you know, he did an episode on perfect circle. And I've never really given a perfect circle like a fair shake. You know what I mean? Me neither.
Starting point is 00:06:10 So I was like, let me just see what this is about. You know, this will give me like a good sort of intro into them. But one of the records that was mentioned as a influence on. Maynard James Keenan, which is one of the singers. I think he is the singer. Was this record by Suey and the Banshees? Like, you have you heard of them? No, but I like the name.
Starting point is 00:06:38 So this is a punk, new wave punk band from London fronted by, well, she goes by Suey Sue, but Susan Dallion. So she, so the female front front singer. but they're kind of you know came around the same time that sex pistols came around and
Starting point is 00:07:02 and you know all of that all that jazz you know let me hold on dude let me fucking Jesus try all that jazz let me just fucking retake that okay so one of the records that was mentioned as an influence on a perfect circle
Starting point is 00:07:26 is a the 1986 album Tinderbox by Suey and the Banshees, which if you're not familiar with them, they are this sort of new wave post-punk band that came over from England, started in the 70s. And this record, so I went back and kind of listened to, skipped through some of their earlier stuff, to see if they have always sounded like this,
Starting point is 00:07:56 or if this is kind of like a new thing when this came out in 86. And so, to me, at least, from what I can tell, this is their more dark album. That's a darker album. That's probably why I was an influence on Perfect Circle. But it's got this really cool vibe to it. Definitely has that new wave, like sort of some of those new wave signatures, you know, like the guitar specifically. And her vocals are just great, fantastic.
Starting point is 00:08:29 So anyway, let's just let it play. This song is called The Sweetest Chill. And it is, again, on Suey and the Banshee's 1986 album, Tinderbox. Pretty fucking sweet, right? I really liked that, dude. Yeah. I wonder if Quinn Stefani was influenced by this band. This sounded a little bit like Quinn Stefani, like in her note-out days.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Yeah, so a lot of female vocalists from the past few decades have come to mind when I heard that, right? Quincyphine was one of him. But then I've also, I kind of hear a little bit of, now I've got to look up her name because I don't know her name, but you know that band Tennis that came out a few years back and I think they're still making records. Oh yeah. You know, you hear a little bit of influence on her, on the lead singer. her name is Elena Elena Moore
Starting point is 00:10:57 but yeah I mean obviously you know female vocalists from you know 80s female vocalists had a huge influence on especially with with
Starting point is 00:11:11 you know chill wave and all that kind of stuff sort of like doing like the harking back to the twin sister we were talking about her earlier today just the two of us yeah just the two of us yeah so I mean Anyway, so yeah, Suey and the Banshees, I admit the only song I ever really knew or listened to from them.
Starting point is 00:11:34 It's like this, God, what is it called, man? It's like this, it's pretty much like the vapors. What's that song called? I don't know anything by the vapors. You do, though, dude. Okay. Turning Japanese. Or, you know, walk like an Egyptian.
Starting point is 00:11:58 This song was called Hong Kong Garden, and it was on their first record back in 78. And it just, you know, it started with like, Q, I'm just going to play. We're going to play it, okay? Here we go. Let's do it. Hear this?
Starting point is 00:12:14 Yes. In the United Way. The gimmicky side. Right. Okay, so this is the same band? Yes. But this is the first record. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:25 So I never really delve into them. But this record, Tinderbox, has a whole different vibe. It's, you know, came out 10 years later. Yeah, definitely. Well, it came out. Worth a closer listen. Yeah, definitely worth a closer listen. But that kind of almost like it's, you know, it's like I said, it's dark.
Starting point is 00:12:43 It's, you know, her vocals are kind of, I love the passion in her vocals, you know. I love sort of the, almost like the, the guitar is almost like it's got this kind of haunted vibe to it. Anyway, great stuff. Definitely check out that album. And that song again was called The Sweetest Chill. So anyway, Q, what have you been listening to this week? Well, you're probably going to be excited, dude. Because I know you're familiar with the band Dungen.
Starting point is 00:13:15 Dude, why did I know just by looking at the song name that that was going to be from Dune? Because they're the Swedish rock, you know, psychedelic rock band that everyone thinks of. of. Dude, I promise you not everybody thinks of them. Okay. Yeah. All right. So Dungen is a band that I've been in love with, really, since their album that came out in 2008 called four.
Starting point is 00:13:44 Not their fourth album, actually their fifth one. But this one, I feel like it must have been around 2008 when I heard them first. And it was songs from that album. album. Again, they're this Swedish psych rock band. There's something about their, so what I like about Dungen, they have really heavy moments, kind of like that band that I shared a couple weeks back, wolf people, remember them? Where, you know, they, you know, they. They're like equal parts, heavy, I wouldn't say metal, but, you know, the heavier side of psychedelic rock. But at the same time, you'll hear songs on the same album that are very pretty, you know, with really pretty strings and piano lines.
Starting point is 00:14:46 And Dungen is great because they'll have a handful of songs on each record that are purely instrumental. You know, so there's there's a lot that they offer up with each album. I honestly hadn't been keeping up with them since 2008. Again, like, that was really the last album of theirs that I paid attention to. I listened to a few of the albums that came out before that, but I kind of stopped paying attention to them. And they just released an album. It's actually a collaboration. between them and this band out of New York called Woods.
Starting point is 00:15:28 Have you ever heard of that band? Well, I was looking at their discography just now because I saw that they collaborated with Doongan on this record. I recognize one of the album covers from our New Dust Hayday. Okay. I think we may have covered something from an album, Binned Beyond in 2012. Okay. I've seen that record cover before, so I have some familiarity with them.
Starting point is 00:15:55 I don't know the... Yeah, I don't know too much about Woods, but they're classified as folk rock. Okay. Maybe not so much on the psychedelic side. But there's a record label called Mexican Summer that has been releasing collaboration albums with artists for this summer. And they've released collab albums with Ariel Pink. I'm sure you've heard of them, right? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:24 Ariel Pink and Weighs Blood. I've never heard of that one. Their first collaboration release was with two artists by the name of Devante Hines and Conan Mocasson. Anyways, really cool idea, you know, to kind of bring two bands together and release a full album. They're all titled Myths. and this is the third installment. So this is Myths Zero, Three, with Dungen and Woods. And the song that I'm sharing with you today is track five off of that release.
Starting point is 00:17:04 And I'm going to butcher it because I don't speak Sweden. I don't speak Swedish. It's called Jag Vile Va Kevar. You're welcome for that. And yeah, let's play it. That's not what I was expecting. How so? Well, from what I remember from Dungen,
Starting point is 00:19:17 they were much more psychedelic. You're probably remembering Dungen from 2008, right? Yeah, because that's when I stopped listening to them. Same. Okay. I have a confession to make. And this might, you know, in the times that we live in, this might not be a popular thing for me to say.
Starting point is 00:19:35 But. Okay. I can't get into Dungan because I, I don't know what they're saying. What? If I'm watching... I like to be able to sing the words to the songs that I'm... Man, I'll sing along as best I can to a lot of music songs.
Starting point is 00:19:54 Well, I don't know. I can't tell what they're saying. Who cares, bro? I don't know, man. I'm just telling you, I can't... I can't get into it. That's a shame, man. I told me.
Starting point is 00:20:07 I said, I prefaced it by saying, hey, it's my... not be a popular thing to say. Well, keep in mind as well, this is a collaboration, you know? That's fine. So I'm not sure what part of that was, was Woods, you know, what they brought to the table. Obviously, it's the dude from Dungen that's singing. Sure. Because you can't mistake his voice, not just because they're singing in a different language,
Starting point is 00:20:31 but you just can't mistake that guy's voice. Anyways, if you are a little bit curious about Dungen, I would start with their album four, just the number four came out in 2008. If you like that one, jump back one album prior to that one called Tio Bitar that came out in 2007. Those are my two favorites from them. One of my favorite bands, man. They're in the top 20 for sure. I love doing it.
Starting point is 00:21:04 All right, so let's dive into Gimmie Fiction. So again, we're diving back into some spoonage. And so actually, let me quote someone real quick here. I liked this quote a lot. So this is from a journalist, I guess, for drowned in sound. His name's Joe Goggins. And this is something he had to say. back in 2015.
Starting point is 00:21:34 So they had a reissue of Gimmee fiction and it's actually up on Spotify. I don't know if you've given it to ListenTrave. There's a lot of demos on this reissue. So this is the 10-year anniversary reissue for Gemi Fiction. You know, so this is now looking back on it, you know, listening to it again after 10 years. He says,
Starting point is 00:21:59 if ever there was a fork in the road for the group, this album was probably it. Knowing as we do with the benefit of hindsight that they picked the right route, gimmie fiction sounds even more invigorating on reflection. So I like kind of what he says, and I would agree that this may be a fork in the road for them. And that's kind of like what we're saying.
Starting point is 00:22:27 This is now spoon. fully realized, you know, this sound, this approach to the way they make albums, Gimmie fiction is Spoon. You're right. This is, um, the songs that you hear on this album sound like the songs you'll hear on, uh, on their last album that they just put out. Hot thoughts. Hot thoughts.
Starting point is 00:22:51 As far as like the approach, the sort of the variedness of it, his, I feel like he becomes more and more comfortable with his voice as time progresses. He also becomes more comfortable behind the piano too. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. You probably read the same thing I read about that, right? Yeah, I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:23:13 Yeah. So there's a really cool website that we came across when we were researching for this episode called gimmeefax.com. It's a website put together by this guy named Sean O'None. Neil. He is a writer and he's a guy that used to live in Austin. He's now living in Chicago. He's been quote unquote hanging around the margins of spoon since 1996. 1996, dude. And a lot of what information that we're pulling today comes from this guy. And it's all interviews that he has with Britt, with Jim
Starting point is 00:23:54 Eno, with producers and other people that had something to do with this album. So this guy knows
Starting point is 00:24:06 this guy knows Spoon. And there's a lot of really cool. There's a lot of great pictures you know, from like the studio and other other Yeah, like tour photos and stuff like.
Starting point is 00:24:20 Yeah, tour photos. Pictures of you know, um, notepad writings with lyrics and, and, you know, court ideas and stuff.
Starting point is 00:24:29 A lot of cool stuff on this website. Um, so, but like we're saying and kind of like, you know, Joe Goggins is saying, hey, this is a fork in the road for the group. Uh,
Starting point is 00:24:40 you know, a little bit different approach, um, in the way that they, that they're writing these songs and everything. But at the same time, you still have that experimental side. you know, with quite a few of these songs.
Starting point is 00:24:56 You still have those drum pad electronic moments, you know. But I feel like what we're trying to say and what they're saying here in that this is now spoon fully realized, I feel like they are using each member of the band more so now and moving forward than just Britt and Jim. Well, this is the first album, from what I understand, that they brought on an actual keyboard player. Instead of just having them kind of coming and going for a tours and stuff, like this is when a keyboardist became a member of the band.
Starting point is 00:25:38 Yeah. And that was Eric Harvey, I believe his name is. So, yeah, and if you listen to the album that came out, what was it, 2002, that Killed the Moonlight came out? Yes. You listen to that album or, you know, you go back and listen, listen to our episode on Killed the Moonlight.
Starting point is 00:25:58 One thing that was, that bummed us out is the realization that Spoon does not play songs from Killed the Moonlight anymore. Right. But when you listen to Gemi Fiction and then you listen to Gagga, Gaga, Gag, Gag, Transference,
Starting point is 00:26:14 they want my soul and hot thoughts. It becomes clear that, that most likely the reason they're not playing songs from Kill the Moonlight anymore is because they are utilizing each member of the band now. You know? And Kill the Moonlight is still one of those albums where, you know, most of the songs could be played with just Britt and Jim, you know? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:41 This album's great, man. I remember really loving it when it came out. And I enjoy it. even more now. So for us, this was the first like new spoon out as far as like
Starting point is 00:26:53 we get into Kill the Moonlight Killamilight's already out. We probably go on C-SPUN for their Killed-A-moonlight tour or around that same time. And then Gimmie Fiction is the first brand new spoon material
Starting point is 00:27:06 that we got to enjoy. You know what I mean? Right. Yep. And yeah, I do remember I remember being in love with this album when it came out. I remember being as excited as I was when AHA Shake Heartbreak came out by Kings of Leon.
Starting point is 00:27:22 You know, it's that thing where you discover this band and you fall in love with him and then you find out that they have a new album coming out. Yeah, you have that anticipation of like... And then you listen to it and it exceeds your expectations. Right. Well, these both came out, this is around the same time. AHA Shake Heartbreak came out in 2004. Yeah, dude.
Starting point is 00:27:44 Yep. Those are exciting times for us. as music lovers. Yeah, for sure. So where to begin? Really, there's not too much we need to unpack. You know, this is our last episode for a while, except for our soundtrack that's coming out next week.
Starting point is 00:28:05 Yeah, this is our last spoon episode for a while. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like we've talked enough about their history and all that. by this point. So, you know, they're just continuing to get more and more recognition, yet still somehow staying in that kind of undiscovered indie rock realm, you know, like they were getting more and more mainstream success. So you know what?
Starting point is 00:28:35 They were compared a lot in articles I read that came out around the time of this release to Wilco for many reasons, actually. Apparently, Wilco had a similar situation with their first release on a major record label. Apparently, they got dropped as well, you know, and it still continued to have success. And they still kind of skirt the lines between, you know, indie rock and mainstream as far as like their recognition as, you know, as a band. and Spoon at this point I feel like we're starting to turn some heads finally With their single
Starting point is 00:29:20 Off of this one I turned my camera on That one is still one of the band's biggest hits to date Did you know that? No which is that's interesting to me Because it's you know it's spoons or it's Brits Like his it's his false vocal voice Yeah it's his vocal all alter ego, you know.
Starting point is 00:29:41 Yeah, his entire, the entire track. Which we haven't, we haven't played. Yeah, we haven't played one of those tracks yet where he sings in his higher pitch. And that's only because those songs are singles. Well, is this the first work? No, he does that on, he did go on Kill the Moonlight too. He does it in Kill the Moonlight. Yeah, and that song also has his really cool little beatbox loop that he makes.
Starting point is 00:30:06 That was a single. We're talking, yeah, dude, that's the only reason I didn't play that one. on our called the Moonlight episode. We're talking about stay don't go. Yeah. Which is honestly one of my favorite spoon songs. Yeah, he sings in falsetto and I turn my camera on, which is again, was one of the singles on this album along with Sister Jack.
Starting point is 00:30:32 Those are the two singles off of this one. Sister Jack's a great song. I love that one. Yeah, definitely. So our first pick is going to. be quite a ways down on the track list it's track seven it's called i summon you and this is one of my favorite spoon songs mainly because of the lyrics um let's let's give it a listen and we've just got one clip from this song and then we'll we'll talk about it remember the way to the world
Starting point is 00:31:09 it's a sound that we used to buy but a pretty song i love the lyrics so is this the first acoustic spoon song that we've played I feel like it might be I think so yeah if you've ever seen Spoon live he has always played this song by himself
Starting point is 00:33:09 I don't know if that's to say that in every instance all the other band members leave the stage when I saw them earlier this year or I may have been late last year this was kind of like a like a pre-oncore kind of thing where everyone left for a little bit.
Starting point is 00:33:29 He came back, played this song by himself. The rest of the band members came back. They played a little bit more and then they had another encore. Ever since they toured for this album, he's played this song by himself. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the few spoon songs that probably could be played just with one person, you know? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:49 This is apparently Jim Eno's favorite song on the record. Really? Yeah. This, according to Britt Daniel, This is lyrics that he says, I had a girlfriend and we had fallen for each other really fast. But the whole time we were meeting each other, we knew she was moving away. So within a couple months of us meeting, she moved to Kansas. I summon you was something I'd write to her.
Starting point is 00:34:16 I missed her a lot. So if you read the lyrics. Now this little girl, she says, will we make it at all? 800 miles is a drive. Where are you tonight? how do we get here it's too late to break it off I need a release the signal's a cough I summon you to appear my love
Starting point is 00:34:35 I got the weight of the world I summon you here my love so you know you can just imagine him like saying these words to her like I wish I could just summon you here to me yeah exactly like I wish you were here
Starting point is 00:34:50 yeah I get it yeah it's really pretty yeah it's just a great great, you know, tragic love song if you think about it that way. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, who, yeah. I think I've always associated,
Starting point is 00:35:05 I didn't, I didn't know the story behind that, the lyrics. But, you know, I feel like that's kind of what, what you think of when you hear the song. Like, it's, it's obviously a love song, you know. Yeah. But, but. So, yeah. One thing we had mentioned earlier, I guess with girls can tell.
Starting point is 00:35:24 which came out in 2001. That was the first album of theirs where they started using piano in their albums where he just realized, let's not limit ourselves. One thing that he mentions about this album, specifically he's kind of talking about the first track on the album called The Beast and Dragon Adored.
Starting point is 00:35:48 He says around this time, you know, starting to write a lot of songs on piano for the first song. time. He says, you know, before girls can tell, for some reason, we were stuck on this notion that piano was uncool. Over time, I started being able to play it a little bit, and then it got to where I could actually write a song on piano. He says, you know, I could write these songs. They'd still be very rudimentary. But when you don't know how to play an instrument and you're writing a song, you go to all kinds of different chords that you wouldn't if you knew what you were doing.
Starting point is 00:36:24 He says, certainly different stuff that I would have done on the guitar. And he says, it was all based on what I could actually play. And if it was a chord progression that stayed away from the black keys, that made it a little bit easier. So, you know, we're talking, I'm talking about all this and we're not going to play Beast and Dragon a Door it for you today. But just listen to this album. There's a lot of great piano on this. One thing I found out that was really cool. He says, you know, we had more of a budget now for this album,
Starting point is 00:36:58 but we still didn't have access to a grand piano. And he's saying that this song, The Beast and Dragon Adored, definitely needed a grand piano. So we did one thing that we did a few years back for Girls Can Tell, where I snuck into the piano lab at the University of Texas. They have a music building that has all of these soundproof rooms with pianos for music students, to come and practice on and nobody were guard
Starting point is 00:37:27 nobody guarded these rooms so me and mike he's talking about their producer took some mics in mic stands and snuck into one of these rooms with the grand piano so dude i just love that man
Starting point is 00:37:43 right so they recorded the grand piano parts for the beast and dragon adored uh basically they broke in to the university of Texas and did this. That's great. That's great.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Nobody knowing. Yeah, that's awesome. Especially, you know, as we've talked about, Spoon is from Austin. Yeah. You know, so being from Texas, like, you couldn't have lived in Austin. Like hearing those little stories about how they recorded the piano parts for Beast and Dragon I Dord in the UT, like music halls. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:38:16 It's just great. It's really cool. Yeah. So Mike, so his name's Mike McCarthy. And he is, he's mostly known. for his work with Spoon. He's worked on five of their albums from Girls Can Tell all the way to Gaga, Ga, Ga, Ga, Ga.
Starting point is 00:38:31 So he's been with him since Girls Can Tell. Anyways, want to move on to the next one? Let's do it. All right, cool. So what are your thoughts on this song? So we're going to play Was It You, which is Track 9. Do you like this song? I love this song.
Starting point is 00:38:52 So I've always been a fan of track 9 and track 10 on this record, which is, was it you and they never got you? Because sort of along the same lines as Back to the Life, which is one of our picks for Kill the Moonlight, it's got the more sort of electronic synthesized spoon vibes. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's what I like about it too. Yeah. I like it when they do that.
Starting point is 00:39:18 And that's one of the other things that makes spoon so great is it. that you'll hear a song like, I summon you, which is just your straight, simple acoustic song, and then you'll hear a song like, was it you? And you just get this entirely different sound,
Starting point is 00:39:35 this entirely different vibe. Yeah. And yeah, I like it for the same reasons that I like back of the life musically. But it's just got a really cool vibe to it, man. Like the lyrics are kind of minimal, you know? Yeah, there's nothing much to the lyrics.
Starting point is 00:39:51 Mike McCarthy, he actually says that that this, he didn't really like this one. He says, you know, it's kind of long and drawn out. Not that interesting to me
Starting point is 00:40:05 is what he says about this one. So, hey, let's, so we got a couple clips to play. Let's play clip number one. And, and then we'll talk about it.
Starting point is 00:41:41 Yeah, so I just love the baseline. I love, I actually like how drawn out it is. Like, you know, it takes a little bit before you, before you start singing,
Starting point is 00:41:50 you know. It's just that drumbeat. Yeah. And I like it too. Yeah, I like it too. Yeah, I just love it, dude. Yeah, so Britt Daniels says that this is a song that he wrote on an acoustic guitar. He says in roughly 60 seconds he wrote this song.
Starting point is 00:42:06 Dude, I believe it. Two or three years before they even started recording. So this is a, what he considers, he said it was a bit of a throwaway song. But then he made a drum machine demo of it when he was. he was working up songs for Gime Fiction, and he really liked it. So I know looking at the liner notes, it is Jim Eno that provides drums on this track. So that drum machine loop that you hear was written by Jim Eno. But yeah, I love the bass too.
Starting point is 00:42:41 Yeah, just those simple kind of guitar riffs kind of thrown in. Yeah. Here and there that you hear pop up. I mean, yeah, it's just. It's just got this almost like a dream vibe to it a little bit. Yeah, dude. It makes me think of sleepwalking. So I wanted to do two clips and really the second clip is just trying to,
Starting point is 00:43:08 I want to try to share, you know, what we're saying with, it does kind of drag on, not in a negative way. That's what I like about it. yeah it just it continues on with this beat like spoon has always been really great at they'll kind of throw in really cool sounds and you know just kind of mix it up a little bit as it goes on same with the baseline uh even the drumming changes up a little bit the longer it plays out so the second clip is going to be the the last bit of the song i did fade it out myself at the end because it does actually play straight into the next track,
Starting point is 00:43:57 which is they never got you. But I faded it out so it's not just an abrupt stop. So yeah, let's play clip two. Yeah, so that's how the song ends. Yep. It's basically, I think he sings a verse maybe once or twice, and then it's just that. Yeah, I don't agree with Mike McCarthy.
Starting point is 00:45:52 but I'm not a producer you know like so he's saying he thinks it's too drawn out right that's all he's saying it's kind of boring I mean but that's again it's one of the reasons that I like spin they're not afraid to throw to put to put what what
Starting point is 00:46:08 what Brit even himself said was a throwaway song until he added the drum track to it and to me that's what I like about it it is worth listening to this reissue that came out in 2015 for this album because they do have the was it you demo on it and it is quite different i could see how with with what mike is saying you know he listened to the demo obviously um you know when brit daniel brought all this stuff to him uh you know and he's he's kind of saying that
Starting point is 00:46:40 he likes he liked the demo version more so it's it's worth giving a listen but this is a song that has always stuck with me from this album is this one. Because it's different, you know. Because it's different. And we talk about how they, you know, how they, they're not afraid to take a risk, you know. Not that this is like, ooh, how risky of them. But it's just like, you know, not at all. It's a very like, it's got like a hypnotic.
Starting point is 00:47:07 Yeah. Right. Yeah. Maybe that's our affinity for down tempo that makes us like this song. I think so. You know, because it's got a little bit of that vibe to it. But hey, you know what? It's worth sharing on this podcast because that's what we're all about, man.
Starting point is 00:47:24 Right. Those deep dives. You know, a song that you probably have never heard from Spoon, you know, hopefully. Yeah. Was it you? Track 9 on the record. And we're going to finish up this episode with the last track on the album. This is one of my favorite Spoon songs to date.
Starting point is 00:47:46 it is this one is called Merchants of Soul That's how you've End a record There's just so much going on man And this is what I've always loved about Spoon It's what dude
Starting point is 00:50:49 There's always something I know man But there's just something Yeah Every track There's something that you're going to hear That you're not expecting Or they're going to add
Starting point is 00:50:59 They're going to throw in some, like at the very end, you know, on the last verse, when he switches up and adds the tambourine shake to it. Yeah. Hey, let me just read this real quick, dude. I've got, this is liner notes here. Britt Daniel is credited. I'm going to read all the stuff that's going on on track 11, Merchants of Soul, that aren't obvious, right? So, Britt Daniel contributes with slaps.
Starting point is 00:51:24 So what? What's he, something that he's slapping? Okay. There's a Moog that pops up in there You know the synthesizer Sure yeah Shaker Yeah the Shaker
Starting point is 00:51:36 And then you've got I said tambourine Yeah you've got Ames Asbell Plays viola Sarah Nelson plays the cello And that's it for Notable Instruments on this
Starting point is 00:51:52 On this song I think the Moog is that kind of like but um but dun dun da-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-l-d-l-d-l-d-l-d-l- Right. But yeah, that's what's what's saying, like, you know, all that went into it, but it's not, it's not jumping out of you. I really like the lyrics, too. The lyrics are fucking great, as always. Yes.
Starting point is 00:52:10 One notable figure that pops up in this song is a guy by the name of Ralph Reed. Dude, I'm glad you brought that up because I've used Ralph Reed as like a screen name. like as my like gamer screen tag and stuff like that on certain things so like really yeah and same with jonathan fisk i've used i've used like jfisk and stuff sometimes for us names and stuff i'd do that all the time yeah bert general says um i managed to get ralph reed's name into this song and that was the highlight for me i was into this i was into this idea of ralph reed taking me on a journey to the danger side this is ralph reed's night out
Starting point is 00:52:55 Ralph Reed is a conservative American political activist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian coalition during the early 90s. He says, mixed up and lonely on the dangerous side, Ralph Reed was driving, said he wants to go all night. I made him wait, took my time to decide to get wise. The fiends are fiend and outside. merchants of soul so unkind you know that's funny because when he talks about
Starting point is 00:53:33 Jonathan Fisk let's remind everyone who Jonathan Fisk was the bully that would beat him up when he was walking home from school or at least that's the name that he gave this I don't think that's his actual name but you know Jonathan Fis shows up
Starting point is 00:53:48 on Kill the Moonlight on the song Jonathan Fisk but then he comes back later in They Want My Soul On They Want My Soul, yeah, on that title track. And he talks about Jonathan Fiske being a soul sucker. He said that when he wrote, They Want My Soul, it's a song about religious pretenders, manipulators,
Starting point is 00:54:11 educated folk singers, people that bring me down, soul suckers, etc. So I feel like merchants of soul could it be about the same thing. Like this is just kind of maybe a theme that he goes back to, people who are afterwards. Ralph Reed being one of those manipulating soul suckers. Yeah, a soul sucker, right. Jonathan Fisk being someone that just brings them down. Yeah, and no doubt, no doubt, a religious pretender, right?
Starting point is 00:54:35 Right. I just got to quote the first line in this song because it is one of my favorite lines in Any Spoon song. I was a heartbeat on the danger side, just had to see what it all was like. Put your nose in that. Yeah. I don't know if what he's, you know, the line put your nose in that.
Starting point is 00:54:58 I think of, you know, your family pet, your dog, you know, takes a shit on the, on the carpet, you know, on the rug or on the rug or something. And you fucking rub your rub its nose in it. Yeah. You know, to show it what it did and why that was a terrible thing for it to do. Right. Try to teach it a lesson. Yeah. Um, that just comes to mind.
Starting point is 00:55:22 Um, God, I, dude, I just love the lyrics. Yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's, I just love Brit Daniel, man. He's, he's probably my favorite lyricist, um, maybe of all time, man. I'll say he is one of the only songwriters that I really pay attention to the lyrics, you know, and, and, and, and actually try to take the time to dissect and figure out what he might be singing about. Like, you know, a lot of song. I know the words, but I don't really care what it could mean because, you know, and that's the thing. Like with Britt Daniels' lyrics, they are very obscure, but they're so provocative.
Starting point is 00:56:02 Yeah, I agree with that, man. Yeah. Especially, you know, especially when you find out what he's singing about a lot of times, too, you know. Oh, dude, hey, speaking of that, we found out something a few days ago that goes back to one of the songs we covered for our Kill the Moonlight episode. Oh, that's right, dude. Hey, let's set the record straight, dude, which I think is what we should call this segment from now on.
Starting point is 00:56:29 This is a throwback to... Episode two. Well, episode two, we call ourselves out for making a mistake in our first episode on Allison Chains. Yeah, I said that Stone Tipal pilots were from Seattle, which they weren't. And so I corrected myself. And I thought I was going to be, you know, like... like a new segment where we say,
Starting point is 00:56:50 hey, we said something wrong. I'm sure we've said plenty of incorrect things, dude, since then, but we just haven't brought that segment back. Well, and you know what,
Starting point is 00:56:59 dude? Podcasters get called out by the people that listen to their podcast. And we just don't have enough people listening. Or the people that are listening aren't sending us emails and telling us where we're saying dumb shit. Or they don't know that we said something dumb.
Starting point is 00:57:16 Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, Let's set the record straight here on a song that we covered on our Kill the Moonlight episode. This song is called Something to Look Forward to. One of the lines in that in that song is, Your Chicago Manual of Style. Right, your Chicago Manual of Style.
Starting point is 00:57:40 He's singing about this girl named Carol. And we were just like, what the fuck is Chicago Manual of Style? What the hell does that mean? and you were like, hmm, you know what? Maybe it's just a cool way of saying that she dresses like she lives in Chicago. Right, exactly. Well, guess what the Chicago Manual of Style is, dude? Well, I know because you showed it to me the other day.
Starting point is 00:58:03 That is a style guide for American English. First published in 1906. It has 17 editions now. Basically, it just, it's just a grammar, you know, and like, document prep guide. You know, it goes through like citation styles and stuff like that. Basically, if you're an English major, you know what the Chicago Manual of Style is. Well, what's funny is, I mean, you know, I was in the newspaper.
Starting point is 00:58:39 I wrote for the high school newspaper. I thought about being a journalist. I knew what the elements of style is, which is this book by Strunk, June. and E.B. White, like, everybody knows that book. But I've never heard of the Chicago manual. Well, there you go. But I've never heard of the Chicago manual style. Which sounds like a very similar thing,
Starting point is 00:58:58 where it's just literally a book about, like, grammar, best practices, basically. Yeah. But, yeah, that's funny, dude. Yeah, it's, you know, you know why it's funny? And this is what we've talked, what we've said about Bert Daniels since our first episode, our first Boon-A-thon episode. I mean, his lyrics can be so,
Starting point is 00:59:18 simple and just you know straightforward he's singing about stuff that he's that he's noticing in his environment but it's still he does it in a way like you know his songwriting is just provocative
Starting point is 00:59:34 and it it just makes you think yeah his his lyrics are are unlike anybody else really I mean really I think I can safely say that yeah there's nobody else that there's nobody else that writes music lyrics that are
Starting point is 00:59:48 as like as interesting as his. I mean, come on, hold on. Let me, let me back. That's, that's, that's a, that's a stretch. But what I'm saying is like, there's no, there's nobody else that I can think of that writes. He has a very unique voice, both lyrically and definitely his actual singing voice. Like, Spoon is unmistakable, dude.
Starting point is 01:00:07 His sound is unmistakable. That goes for his guitar, his guitar style. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, his voice in particular. And the way that he chooses to. emphasize syllables, you know, or stress syllables. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. A lot of times you don't know what he's saying.
Starting point is 01:00:26 So now, dude, I think that's, we're definitely, maybe we're trying to get it all out here at the last second. Yeah. Our love fest for Britt and Spoon, because since this is our last full episode talking about our favorite band, so. Yeah, so if you're joining us for the first time on this episode, Just jump back and listen to our other three full-length episodes on Spoon.
Starting point is 01:00:54 We start with their second studio album, a series of sneaks, and we cover Girls Can Tell after that and Kill the Moonlight. We're finishing up here with Gimmie Fiction. Our sidetrack next week is going to be covering Britt Daniels' involvement with the soundtrack for the movie Stranger Than Fiction. which I don't know off the top of my head when that came out, but it was actually not that long after Gamey Fiction came out. That's that movie with Will Ferrell, where he's not just being Will Ferrell for once. It's actually a really good movie.
Starting point is 01:01:30 Yeah, it's a great movie. And Spoon is just all over that movie. And Bridgenil even does a few original songs for, you know, specific scenes for the movie. Yeah, a lot of times I tell, you know, if I'm talking about Spoon with somebody and they're not familiar with band. I'll say, have you seen Stranger Than Fiction? And if they say yes, I say then, then you've heard a spoon song. You've heard Spoon song.
Starting point is 01:01:55 You just didn't know it. Because like you said, I do the same thing, man. Yeah. It's, yeah. What's our next full-length episode, dude? Okay. So I'm super pumped about our next full-length episode because we are returning back to metal. And this would be our first true metal band. an album. Yeah, the only one that comes anywhere close to that would be our first episode on Alice and Chains. Right, exactly. So this is sort of our first, this is our first return to the realm of metal and me being the huge metal fan compared to you at least. I always get really excited about, I've been planning putting metal back into no filler and just trying to figure out
Starting point is 01:02:44 what to do next, you know, and I thought it would be a few. fitting to talk about the godfathers of metal, Black Sabbath. And this is going to be kind of a first for us as far as the way I'm going to approach this. But I wanted to cover three albums without devoting an episode to each album, because basically I want to play a song, one song from each of their first three albums. That being said, we're going to cover briefly, briefly talk about early Black Sabbath, And then we're going to just dive into the songs, you know. Black Sabbath is one of those bands that I feel like they don't,
Starting point is 01:03:22 we don't need to go into the history of them. We don't need to talk about, you know, we just can, we can scratch the surface basically. But yeah, early Sabbath is some of my favorite metal, hands down. And as I've talked about before, like early, early metal, it branches off of blues just like rock music does, right? Yeah. And, um, like Zeppelin and.
Starting point is 01:03:45 Yes, exactly. Rolling stones. You've got, yeah, if you think about like blues and then you think about rock and you think about metal, rock, the rock branch is Zeppelin. The metal branch is Sabbath, but they both branched off of blues, right? So anyway. So, as always, you want to know a little bit more? You want to dive a little bit deeper? Check out our website, no-filler podcast.com.
Starting point is 01:04:10 We've got our show notes on there. If you want to, you know, just dive a little bit deeper. we've got more information on our website for you. You can stream our episodes straight from the website with our SoundCloud players. You can also subscribe to us on any podcast app. We're on iTunes. We're on SoundCloud.
Starting point is 01:04:29 We're on Stitcher. Pretty much any podcast app you can think of. We should be on there. Let us know what you think. Please comment, you know, subscribe, send us an email. Let us know how we're doing. Let us know where we can improve. we'd love to hear from you.
Starting point is 01:04:45 Give us suggestions for albums to cover. Help us out here. We're trying to keep this thing going as long as we can. We could use some help. So, again, that's going to do it for us this week. Next week, we're going to cover the soundtrack for the movie Stranger Than Fiction, which is just loaded with all things, Spoon. And, yeah, my name is Quentin.
Starting point is 01:05:10 Well, Q, I got to tee up the outro song here. Oh shit, dude. My bad. Sorry, I was jumping the gun. That's fine. What do you got for us? We mentioned that website, give me facts.com. One of the artists that, this artist kind of find, you know, somebody brought a compilation
Starting point is 01:05:28 CD of this artist onto the tour bus or something like that. And it's this guy who goes by the name of King Tubby. It is a Debb, a reggae Deb artist from the 60s and 70s. Wait a second. Are you saying Deb? Hold on a minute. No, I said King Tubby. No, I know, dude, but you said reggae Deb.
Starting point is 01:05:53 No, I said dub. Oh, it sure sounded like Deb, dude. Well, whatever. You said it twice too, and I heard Deb both times. That's possible. So anyway, somebody brought a King Tubby compilation CD onto the tour bus. And Brett Daniels is very much influenced by this guy. He even mentioned him in several interviews around the Gaga,
Starting point is 01:06:17 ga, ga, ga, ga, ga era. And he even said, like, you know, you're going to hear some of that come through in the record. And anyway, so. Hang on, dude. There's a, there's a song on, on that record that's called, like, something reggae, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:35 Eddie's reggae. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, yeah. So, anyway, I, just, this is just a, a, from him, King Tubby. And I think if you listen to
Starting point is 01:06:47 Gag, Gag, Gag, Gag, Gag. I also don't like saying that record name here. I know, man. You're forced to say it five times. I know. But I think you will hear some of that influence for sure. Cool. And that's their album that came out
Starting point is 01:07:01 right after Gimmee fiction. Yes. So basically, Britt was introduced to dub, you know, through King Tubby while they were touring for Gimmy fiction and then you sort of hear that influence. And while he was, I'm sure, writing for the next album. Exactly. And then you can kind of hear that from then on. So anyway, this song is called
Starting point is 01:07:23 Keep on Dubbin. Yes. That's going to do it for us this week. Come back next week for our sidetrack episode on the soundtrack for Stranger Than Fiction, which will be the last time we talk about Spoon for the foreseeable future. But anyway, I've enjoyed it. I've had fun talking about. Yeah, man, me too.
Starting point is 01:07:48 I feel like the minute that we decided that we were going to start this music podcast, that this was inevitable, dude. Yeah, we had talked about doing this early, early on that we're going to do a spoon-a-thon and we're going to cover their first four albums or their first five, I guess, and then we're going to cover their next four maybe later. And by the time, that's the thing, about time we get around to covering the next four, They might have another album out by then. Oh, dude, I sure hope so, man.
Starting point is 01:08:18 I mean, they're pretty consistent. Oh, I hope so. Yeah. Every two to three years, it seems like. Yep. All right. Enough yabberin. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:08:29 All right. Let's listen to this. What's the name of the song? Keep on dubbing. Keep on dubbing. All right. My name's Quentin. My name is Travis.
Starting point is 01:08:40 Y'all take care now. You hear? Thank you.

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