SPOON The Nefarious EP 1994

 

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Spoon Biography

by Heather Phares

One of indie rock's most critically acclaimed acts, Spoon have earned a reputation for being consistently inventive and inventively consistent. They arrived as brash post-punkers in the post-grunge lull of the mid-'90s, but in the decade that followed, Spoon truly came into their own. On 2001's Girls Can Tell and 2002's Kill the Moonlight, they stripped rock down to its most essential elements, then used the empty space that remained to play with shifting rhythms, taut guitars and literate lyrics in ways that sounded innovative and timeless. This heady blend of precision punk and serpentine classic rock (the band has drawn comparisons to everyone from the Pixies and Sonic Youth to Elvis Costello and Tom Petty) eventually earned Spoon commercial success as well as glowing reviews: Their 2007 album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, was a top 10 hit in the U.S.. Over the years, the band continued to evolve while remaining true to their minimalist roots.They opened up their sound on 2017's dance-tinged Hot Thoughts, then went back to basics with the raw rock of 2022's Lucifer on the Sofa, both of which exemplified how Spoon found new ways of doing what they've always done.

Spoon was formed in Austin, TX in 1993 by singer/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno, who met during their time in the band Alien Beats. Taking their name from a Can song,

Spoon's debut EP Nefarious appeared on the small Texas imprint Fluffer Records in May 1994. The band signed to Matador the following year, and issued their first full-length Telephono in April 1996. Produced by the Reivers' John Croslin and recorded in his garage studio for $3,000, the album reached number 35 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart, while its noisy, hooky take on post-punk drew favorable comparisons to Pixies and Wire. Daniel and Eno added bassist Josh Zarbo (formerly of the local band Maxine's Radiator) to the fold in 1997, and honed in on the tight, minimalist pop that became Spoon's forte with that year's Soft Effects EP. In 1998, the band began a brief and tumultuous stint on Elektra Records, who released Spoon's second album A Series of Sneaks that May. Once again, the album earned favorable reviews, but its sales were disappointing to Elektra, which was in the midst of an internal company shake-up at the time. Four months after the album's release, the label dropped Spoon (in 2002, Merge reissued A Series of Sneaks with two bonus tracks that chronicled the group's disappointment with major-label politics). Daniel moved to New York City, working temp jobs and writing songs, while Eno remained in Austin and designed semiconductor chips.
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Tracklist

A1		The Government Darling	2:54
A2		This Damn Nation
2:28
B1		Nefarious	2:46
B2		Not Turning Off	3:01