Autumn De Wilde
Spoon
Issue #32
Britt Daniel and Jim Eno hope to trigger your animal response with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
By Andrea Hart
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
From Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s first gritty guitar lick to its mellowed piano outro and all the musical experimentation in between, I can’t stop listening. At only 36:33, Spoon’s sixth full-length covers more musical ground than most artists do in a career.
Standard musical overachievers can be in your face, pulling the most obvious genre elements together. Not Spoon. On “You Got Yr Cherry Bomb,” the quartet extracts Belle and Sebastian piano-tambourine interplay and “Eddie’s Ragga” has Clash guitar-drum appeal.
The band adds Japanese instruments and new sonic elements to their sound, but the presence of the band’s two chief players — lead singer Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno — isn’t compromised. Daniel’s husky rasp hits you with such authenticity on “Don’t Make Me a Target” that you realize no matter how dapper your demeanor, you’ll never be as cool. And Eno’s precise song directing is unforgettable.
For Eno, recording Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was an experience of firsts: his first time without a traditional day job and the first time using Public Hi-Fi, his recording studio, post-renovation. Eno lost his job as an electrical engineer when his company closed its Austin office in July 2006. After 10 years of almost quitting the day gig, Eno feels liberated. “It’s amazing to be able to do what you love for a living and eat and pay your bills,” he says.
More than a year and a half ago, Daniel left the band’s longtime home of Austin for Portland. Adjusting to the limitations of Daniel’s flight schedule coincided with the band’s decision to quicken the recording process. “We want to release a record every year and a half or every two years,” Eno says.
However, less recording time didn’t translate into cutting pre- and post-production philosophizing. Crafting the album’s chronology is an intense process for Daniel. He tries conjuring listeners, hoping to evoke their “animal response” and allowing the music to “hit them in the gut, rather than the brain.” Picking the album title, a band’s biggest musical statement, is especially meticulous. “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was the loudest title for me,” he says. Eno recalls the selection process, laughing about the debate to add two more “Ga’s.”
The schedule of working 12 hours a day for four months to produce Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was worth it. Both founding members are confident in its fit. “This is the best writing Britt’s ever done,” Eno says.
Spoon deserves to reap the rewards of good craftsmanship —especially since the band has worked hard since its 1994 conception. After the release of its third album, A Series of Sneaks, in 1998, Spoon was dropped from major label Elektra. The band jumped ship to the indie label Merge and released 2001’s critically acclaimed Girls Can Tell, which helped to lay the groundwork for their growth in popularity. “I didn’t see this pattern coming,” Daniel says. “When 1,200 copies of Girls Can Tell sold in its first week, I remember crying.”
In a way, as kings of the independent scene — but barely known in the mainstream — Spoon is in music limbo. But their position is atypical in the underground scene. Spoon’s pre-blogger craze entry into the independent music scene saved them from a wave of fleeting fanatics-turned-crucifiers — even with the hype of 2004’s O.C. exposure and Gimme Fiction’s Billboard debut in 2005.
After more than a dozen years together as Spoon, I figure I should ask the experts what they feel the band is on the verge of. Eno chuckles, unsure how to answer the question. “We’re on the verge of a U.S. tour,” he says. Daniel answers the question with a fierce sense of self. “Graduation into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he says somewhat apprehensively. Without thinking, I push his reasoning and ask why. “Because we’re that good,” he says. On the phone, with 18 states between us — he in Oregon and I in Chicago — and it’s as if he’s looking me dead in the eye.
After the interview, I hit repeat on the CD player. Yes, Mr. Daniel, you are that good.
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