Nightlife / Music

Word of mouth helps Spoon get 'discovered'

By Stephanie DePasquale | Thursday, April 03, 2008 | () comments

(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) The indie rock band Spoon will play at 7 p.m. April 3 at the Capitol Theatre in Davenport.

Success has been gradual for the indie rock band Spoon, or at least it has been for the past seven years.

“We barely had people going to our shows from ’94 to 2001. Britt (Daniel) calls them the locust years,” said Jim Eno, Spoon’s drummer. “So after that, every time we would go out, we would have steadily more and more people coming to see us. It doesn’t feel like this sort of overnight success.”

Spoon got its start in Austin, Texas, in 1994 when band members picked a name out of a hat the night before their first performance at a battle of the bands contest.

“I think if we would have known we were going to have that name 13 years later, we probably would have thought a little bit harder,” Eno said.

Spoon ended up losing the contest to a band called Mr. Happy. At the time, Eno said he would have been happy to record an album or get booked on a Saturday night in an Austin club.

“Your thinking gets adjusted once you get that show on a Saturday night at an Austin club, and then you think, ‘Oh, wow, maybe it would be great to play Houston and Dallas next,’ ” Eno added. “Your goals are constantly growing.”

Today, the band made up of Eno, Daniel on vocals and guitar, Eric Harvey on keyboard, guitar and percussion, and Rob Pope on bass, is finishing a tour of the United States, Japan and Australia to promote its latest album, “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.”

The odd title, which Eno said must be said quickly, was originally the working name for the album’s second song, “The Ghost of You Lingers,” and mimics the sound of the staccato piano played throughout the song.

“We just got a big kick out of saying it,” Eno said. “You’re cooped up in the studio for six months and little things amuse you, so we got a kick out of it. When Britt changed the title for the song, we missed it, so we threw it in the pot for the album title.”

Besides rebuilding his studio before Spoon recorded “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” and using varied instruments such as a Japanese koto in the song “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case” to make the album sound more experimental, the band didn’t really do anything different on its most recent and most successful album.

“Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” is a mix of haunting riffs and dancable tunes, always employing strong beats, melodies and the occasional brass and stringed instrument.

“It feels like we go about making the music that we think is good, and more and more people are finding it and getting into it and really liking it,” Eno said. “We’ve never really had songs on the radio, yet our sales have doubled each record since “Girls Can Tell” in 2001.

“That’s basically word of mouth, just people feeling like they discovered us, which makes it very rewarding because those fans are with you for the long haul. They’re not just waiting for the single.”

Spoon will play at 7 p.m. April 3 at the Capitol Theatre in Davenport. After April, Eno said, the band has just a few scattered shows planned throughout the rest of the year so Daniels will have time to write the songs for a new album.

“I think we represent the record really well as far as pulling off everything live. We work really hard to try to do that,” he said. “If we find a song that does not work live, we tend to redo the arrangement and redo something to make it go over live.

“On this ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,’ we haven’t really had to do that. We’re doing everything pretty much as we recorded it. I would say it’s definitely a rock show.”

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

ifyougo

What: Spoon

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 3

Where: Capitol Theatre, 311 Ripley St., Davenport

How much: $20

Information: (563) 326-8820 or thecapdavenport.com on the Web

Also on the Web: spoontheband.com, myspace.com/spoon