Spoon - Rare Tracks, Vol. 1

With the new Spoon album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga due on July 10 and baby-stepping around the internet over the past few weeks, I thought I’d reflect on some Spoon songs that may not be in your collection. Spoon has always been a band with plenty of b-sides, compilation songs, outtakes, soundtrack contributions, etc. floating around, and many of those songs are quite strong. I’m going to run down my 10 favorites, 5 today and 5 more coming in a few days. Here’s 10 - 6:

(NOTE: The Soft Effects EP is not included due to it having just been reissued and packaged with Telephono last year via Merge Records. Besides, those songs would basically be 5-1 anyway, so it really wouldn't even be fair.)

10. "Let The Distance Keep Us Together"

I have an iTunes version of this song (bastards!), so unfortunately I can’t share it with you. This is from a split EP with Bright Eyes called Home, Vol. 4, and is one of Britt Daniel’s most straightforward, earnest, and beautiful ballads - go check it out.

9. MP3 :: I Am The Key (live)

Taken from the The Way We Get By EP, which features the title track (originally on Kill The Moonlight) backed by live versions of several Spoon songs, as well as this cover of a song written by Lee Mavers of The La’s. Although this song didn’t appear on The La’s one studio album, it captures what that band was all about - deceptively simple, catchy pop songs presented as ragged folk-rock.

8. MP3 :: Decora

“Decora” is a Yo La Tengo cover, having first appeared on their 1995 album Electr-O-Pura. Like much of their early material, the Spoon version is melodic and repetitive, sounding like it could have easily fit on Soft Effects. It appeared on Old Enough To Know Better - 15 Years of Merge Records.

7. MP3 :: Sunday Morning, Wednesday Night

This overlooked gem appeared on the “Sister Jack” single after Gimme Fiction. It is a percussion-less and, again, repetitive, song that rides some hypnotic electric-acoustic guitar interplay. It would have fit nicely on Gimme Fiction, perhaps as the closer.

6. MP3 :: The Book I Write

In 2006 Britt Daniel composed the score (read: 3 instrumental pieces, a few old Spoon songs, a few old songs by other folks, and this 1 new Spoon song) to the underrated Will Ferrell movie Stranger Than Fiction. The song is brief at just over 2 minutes, but quite simply is Spoon at their most straight-faced pop, sounding catchier than almost anything on Gimme Fiction.

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Check back soon for Vol. 2 of the feature with my 5 favorite Spoon rarities!

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