Dishing Out Some Spoon

This is part of why I really dig me some Gheorghe.
Personal thoughts on music, as on any form of art, are to be taken with salt grains.  So goes the crude adage on opinions.  I read rock and roll reviews all too often, and more often than not they're onanistic drivel. (Adding a huge caveasterisk to this entire post.)

And then there's Gheorghe.  (And then there's Maude.)  By now I have come to know those among you scribes with musical tastes that approximate my own.  And even the Gheorghies with different leanings make me at least want to sample your recs.

TR's selections are usually within my area code of favorites, if not my ZIP code.  Although we don't always jibe about our jive (he was luke on KoL's Because of the Times excepting "Fans," whereas I liked it quite a bit and would rank "On Call," "Knocked Up," and especially "Ragoo" above "Fans"), most of what he tells me to hear, I enjoy.

Which is why I raised an eyebrow when he gave a vigorous shout-out to Spoon's 2014 effort, They Want My Soul.  I had somewhat passed it by after a handful of listens last year.  "Inside Out" I dismissed, "Do You" I liked fairly well until SiriusXM drove it into the ground last summer, and "Rainy Taxi" was a finalist for 20 for 2014 (x 2) inclusion but fell short.  Eh.

It may have stemmed from a disappointing show I took in at the amazingly great Outside Lands Festival in August.  They had the short straw of an early-in-the-day, drizzly weather, not crowded, largest stage time slot.  And let's face it, I had a wicked hangover, so I wasn't in fine fan form.  The set was absent a few of my favorites, and it just wasn't what I had hoped it would be. 

Subsequently, and maybe because of that, I didn't wriggle out of an obligation in September, thereby missing their show in my town.  Big mistake, I now think.  Overall, my penchant for all things Spoon (except for Spoonerisms and spooning) was on the wane.  But now, thanks to TR's praise, I'm revisiting TWMS.  (Acronym!) I haven't vaulted it to the top of the list, but I'm workin' on it.

Here's why I have such lofty expectations for new Spoon releases.  I've assembled a list of my Top 20 Spoon tunes (Spunes?), counting down to my most liked even though the numbering goes up.  (I don't know.)

I first heard the band in 2000 when a fellow W&M alum and DC neighbor (former cheerleader) told me to give it a spin.  And the first Spoon song I ever heard is still my favorite one.

A few quick facts about the band as you listen:

• They were formed in Austin in the early 1990's -- before the town became a hip, hip place like Seatthens.
• They named themselves after the song "Spoon" by the German band Can.  Which I don't love.
• Their tunes comprise much of the soundtrack to the 2006 Will Ferrell/Maggie Gyllenhaal film Stranger Than Fiction.  Which I do love.  Especially her.
• Lead singer Britt Daniel also fronts the band Divine Fits.

Okay, good people.  Enjoy some Spoon. Especially you, TR.