THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.47 - SPOON

Episode Date: June 16, 2017

Britt Daniel, Jim Eno and Alex Fischel from Spoon join Adam for rambly conversation and specially recorded performances of 3 Spoon songs, plus a previously unheard Bowie cover. See Adam support Spoon at Manchester Gorilla, 27th June and Glasgow Art School on 28th June. Spoon play Kentish Town Forum (minus Buckles!) on Friday 30th June. Details on my blog: adam-buxton.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening. I took my microphone and found some human folk. Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke. My name is Adam Buxton. I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan. Hey, how you doing listeners? Adam Buxton here. We're going to get straight into it today. This is podcast number 47, which features some conversational rambling and specially recorded music from one of my favourite bands, Spoon, from America.

Spoon will be playing in Manchester on Tuesday the 27th of June 2017 at the Gorilla Club, and I will be supporting them. Wow! I'll be delivering about 25 minutes of important comedy before Spoon come on stage. May or may not be making my Donald Trump joke, as described in episode 36 of the podcast with Claudia O'Doherty. I will also be supporting Spoon the following night, Wednesday the 28th of June, when they play at the art school in Glasgow. And two nights later, on Friday the 30th, the band play in London at the Forum Kentish Town. I'm not going to be there for that show. I'll be away. Oh, I know. Londoners. Very disappointed at that news, but there you go. If you can't make any of those shows and you still want to see spoon they'll be back in the uk in early november of 2017 playing in brighton liverpool and cambridge maybe i'll get to support them then i don't know i guess it depends how it goes in manchester and

glasgow so if you're at those shows please act as if my set was the most incredible thing you've ever seen in your life. Thank you. So this conversation with Spoon lead singer Brit Daniel, which features occasional interjections from band members Jim Eno and Alex Vachelle, bass player Rob Pope was not around that day, was recorded in East London back in April of this year. was recorded in East London back in April of this year. And as well as some stories from me and some music chat with Brit and the band,

you will be hearing three Spoon songs. Two from their new album, Hot Thoughts, and one from their previous, also excellent album, They Want My Soul. All three great stripped down versions recorded for this podcast with Alex Hayes, producer, engineer, sometime Professor Green collaborator and owner of the studio that we were sat in for our conversation. Now people sometimes ask me what's a good spoon album to start with Buckles and I would say Hot Thoughts is one of their best and it's a good place to start but I got into them at the end of the 90s when I heard their album A Series of Sneaks playing in Sister Ray Records in Berwick Street and it sounded to me a bit like a lot of the music

that I like Pixies and Minutemen, Fugazi. But over the years, Spoon have developed a far more distinctive sound that combines tuneful pop melodies with more of an experimental art rock approach. And you can also hear on some of their more recent stuff, the influence of, well, Prince, who brit talks about a little bit and some motown and r&b i can hear in there too i might mention a few more favorite spoon records at the end of the podcast and for bowie fans there's a special treat in the form of brit and Alex Fischel playing a version of I Can't Give Everything Away, the last song on Bowie's last album, Black Star. And it's just a little demo they made

while they were rehearsing for some shows they played as a duo. But Brit sent it to me after we talked about it and I really, really loved it, so I thought I would share it with you too. You're welcome. But for now, here we Adam. Thanks. We're go, go, go. Yeah, we're here with Adam. We're here with Jim Eno, the drummer for Spoon.

This is Alex Fischel, keyboards and guitar. We're also here with Alex. Alex, I don't know your last name. Hayes. Alex Hayes, who's running the studio. Sweet sounds. And what's the name of the studio? Rooftop.

Off Hackney Road. I just bumped into the whole of Metronomy standing on the pavement as I came in here. I saw they were here. Yeah. It was very good. It was like being in a rock and roll movie. Just bands lying around here and there. So last night, you were doing Later With Jewels. How did that go? that's a fun show yeah

there's nothing else like it first time our first time it's first first time to ever be on tv in the uk we've done it thousands of times in the us yeah and recently in france but never the uk but yeah i loved it it was it's a great show and uh where do they do it now in manchester so so unique maidstone yeah and kent and he's fun isn't he did he come and say hello he did hello the mighty Where do they do it now? In Manchester. So unique. Maidstone. Yeah, Maidstone. In Kent. And he's fun, isn't he? Did he come and say hello? He did. Hello, the mighty spoon. Yes, right.

Who else was on? Kasabian. Thundercat. Thundercat. Anderson.Paak and the Free Nationals. So good. I'd never heard him before. Some of these guys in the band knew him, but I didn't know of him.

He's amazing. Phenomenal. And then what? Goldfrab. Goldfrab. Right. And so what happens then? You get there and do you rehearse in the afternoon you're there for two days so we rehearsed on monday came back for camera blocking on tuesday morning shoot tuesday night so by the time you do it it's kind of the only thing i've ever done anything like it was saturday night live oh really because it's you

you're there for such a long time over several days by the time you actually start doing the live show you're very warmed up and yes and then it is genuinely live isn't it yeah yeah it's one of the very few shows like that that that we have in this country i think that is actually live it's exciting or all the other bands there for the two days as well yeah but there you have different call times so we didn't run into all of them we were there when anderson pack was rehearsing and then it's cool like as the other bands are playing you're just sort of standing on your stage and watching them and i don't know it's just really loose you know totally unique situation yeah it's pretty pretty fun oh it is a good show i mean it's been around for a long time now. This is the 25th year. Christ, we're old.

I'm the oldest person here, I guess. How old are you? Do you mind me asking? 45. I dream of being 45 again. Party time. The good old days. Do you feel your age?

So I'm supposed to at this point. Well, I was making old man noises as soon as I hit my 40s. You know, like every time you get up off the sofa. And then every time you sit down. All this stuff. Old man noises. I was feeling my age when I was carrying that keyboard amp up the stairs over here. Yeah.

Yeah. I was feeling my age then. Plus you're rock and rollers. You don't really take the proper precautions and look after yourself. Sometimes, no. We had a pretty brutal schedule the last two months and yeah and right when we had our first week off of two months i got sick right like a day or two before oh it was perfectly timed for my management your body gets through on adrenaline for a certain amount of time yeah maybe so and then you crash as soon

as you've got a window the body go i see i see you've got a week off next week i'm gonna shut everything down so i don't plan on exactly what having any fun i wrote you a fan letter i remember about 2004 or 5 okay i think it's maybe the only fan letter i've ever written and you did respond although it was very i mean it was like one line it was very non-final did i email you you emailed me yeah which i was surprised because you wrote me an actual letter i wrote you a letter typed it yeah there's so much going on when someone writes you a letter like that. They've got their own agenda. They're trying hard to impress you or not say the wrong thing,

but not make it too obvious that they're thinking about all this stuff. You know what I mean? Right. Trying to be cool. I remember I said something about your first album, Telefono, sounding a bit like the Pixies. And I was like,

is he going to appreciate that? Maybe he's had criticism for it sounding like the pixies and i was like is he gonna appreciate that maybe he's had criticism for it sounding like the pixies maybe he's pissed off with people saying it sounds like the pixies and then i said it sounded to me like you'd referenced a song by the damned anti-pope uh-huh yeah on a track called jonathan fisk totally true and uh i really loved that song and it was such a an, surprising reference. Yeah. And then we got in touch again, or you got in touch again a couple years later. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I did a fan video for Don't Make Me a Target. Right. And then... Then you recorded me backstage at the borderline. Yes, that's right. That's where we first met. That's right.

So you played at the borderline. It must have been 2007 or something. And that was a really good recording, actually. It was one of the top watched videos of spoon on youtube for a long time might still be you played it very well we played a couple of songs beast and dragon adored and um black like me was the one black like me it's so good and that was yeah backstage at the borderline which i think still is my favorite gig i've ever been to i went with a friend of mine called dougie who's in the band Travis. Oh, that's how we met Dougie. Yeah. Okay.

It's a really small venue, the Borderline, for those not familiar with it. Sweaty little club, you know. And so we were about four people back from the stage. The sound was really good. It was pretty much all the songs that I, I mean, I really liked that album anyway. Ga, ga, ga, ga, ga. And so you were playing a lot of those tracks. But wow, it was so good.

It was one of those gigs where I was stood there and you played about four or five songs before I looked round at Dougie, you know. And we were like, this is great. This is really good. Why don't you introduce the first song? Yeah, this first one is Hot Thoughts. It's the title track.

And you've got a reference to Shibuya in here. Yeah, yeah. Is that somewhere you've spent a lot of time in Japan? No, but I was there recently, but my girlfriend was there last year and she couldn't sleep, was out walking around on a busy street late at night, like at two in the morning, apparently there are a lot of people out. And some Japanese guy stopped her on the street and told her what beautiful shining teeth she had. I thought that was an interesting way of hitting on my girlfriend. Look at your beautiful teeth. Your teeth are so shiny.

Usually when someone says that to me, yeah. What? What's usually happening? No, it never happens. Oh, okay. It's never. I'm British. Okay, so here is a specially recorded version of Hot Thoughts. Kissing with mine, you got me uptight, twisting inside

Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, babe Hot thoughts all in my mind, all of the time, babe Hot thoughts all in, all in my my mind all of the time Your teeth shining so white like the business side street And she'll pull you tonight Hot thoughts melt in my cool Is it your motion, signal and cues? Hot thoughts all in my mind And all of the time you must be a trouble for sure

Hot thoughts all in my mind All of the time you must be a trouble for sure Hot dogs all in my mind all of the time I tell it to you slow and I want you to know Hot dogs all in my mind all of the time Took time off from my kingdom Took a break from the war Took time off from my kingdom Raise up my creatures Diamonds from space Pure facets and features Last track cut from your lips

Making you think I could've washed a left baby kiss And my nose, hot thoughts Belting my cool Is it your motion The signal and cues you got? Hot thoughts all in your mind All of the time, yeah All that do my rhyme Make it your mind time yeah all of the same name good artwork by the way who's that christine messerschmidt just a friend of mine i didn't know she was an artist but she i was

looking at her instagram uh-huh summer and she started putting up these watercolors and i saw that when i said that looks like a record cover yeah it's been going down very well the new record hasn't it has it yeah good well i can't really tell do you not feel well i'm in the middle of it you know does it feel to you like this is the one this is going to be the one that pushes us over the top not that you need pushing over the top because you're doing very well but do you crave like being pushed into some mysterious mainstream super zone? It'd be cool to have a hit. What would you do, though, if you were a band that was suddenly in the top ten around the world? Right.

Obviously, you'd be making more money. That would make things easier in lots of ways. But apart from that, if your profile was raised to that degree, you must surely consider all the drawbacks and all the things that wouldn't be so fun about that i don't put a lot of time to considering that you know not really i remember this one time when we first were um offered a record deal by geffen you know right when we first started and i started thinking about artists on geffen and i was like do i really want to have courtney love's lifestyle But I was really getting

ahead of myself, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I don't really, I'm not that worried about it. We've been in the top 10 in the US for albums. Yes. Yeah, but you mean

like a single? Having a sort of Coldplay level of success and acceptance and recognition around the world. I probably get to fly private for the first time.

What, in a private jet? Yeah. Have you never been in a private jet? No, have you? I have. Okay, yeah, I've never done it. I hadn't earned it yeah it was because i had a rich friend oh yeah school and on the way to the airport we were riding in convoy with various members of his family

i was riding in the car with his dad and he was riding in the car behind us and this was pre internet just pretty basic mobile phone technology. As we were leaving the house, because I was staying with them, I saw that my friend had left his passport on the table on the side in the corridor. And I thought, what's he doing? He better not leave us. I thought, I'll take it, but I won't say that i've got it until we get to the airport and he's going oh my god i've left my pass and i'll be able to go it's okay i've got it i'm a

genius and everyone will be patting me on the back and they would be like hey thank goodness we've got buckles on holiday with us oh hooray what would we have done without him buckles so then we're in the car going to the airport. And my friend's dad was looking behind. He was like, where the hell's the other car gone? I told him to stay right behind us. Now we're going to be late. And he starts shouting at the driver. He's like, I told you to keep them right behind us.

What are you doing, you idiot? And I was like, I was thinking, oh, I'm glad I'm not the driver. This is bad. And then the driver gets a call. The other car's just called called they've had to go back because um your son left his passport right so i'm sitting there my blood's turning to ice i think oh no i said oh uh i saw it was on the side i've got it actually well you bloody idiot what are you doing why didn't you say anything for christ's sake why would you

pick up his passport and put it in your pocket what a ridiculous thing to do i'm sorry and why are you riding with him instead of your friend i don't know because it was all you know everyone was leaving in a fluster and it was like well just you go ahead and right it was bad so the flight in the private jet was considerably less celebratory than it would have been otherwise. I was just sat there trying to look small, like, oh, this is embarrassing. But it was still pretty fun. Anyway, so if you do get to go in a private jet, don't do any hilarious passport practical jokes. Got it.

Top tip. One of the things I like about your lyrics, Britt, is that you work in lots of little references to things here and there, and it's fun trying to sort of decode them and imagine what they refer to sometimes you're quite overt and very specific in a way that few bands i can think of are the obvious example being agony of lafitte short version of the story you were dropped from electro records right after your second lp came out series of sneaks first one with them and he quit the label and and then we got fired that week and this is a guy called ron lafitte an anr man yeah you felt as if he had gone back on a promise that he had yeah what did you

feel that he reneged on well he tried to sign us for a very long time, and we went through all of the issues of what our concerns were for signing to a major label. He was like, I got it. I'm going to help you through this. And then once we signed the deal, we just didn't hear from him, really. And I think after the record came out, I couldn't even get him on the phone. And then he quit the label.

And then we were dropped the week that he quit. So I felt like, yeah, he had gone wall and uh left us out in the cold and and it really fucked us over you know i'm over it now but it helped to put out those two songs you know right so when was that like a year later or something that you did the song yeah less than a year later you got straight on it yeah we did it was motivating once we had the titles we it was motivating you know well exactly he his name was uh lafitte and so you had fun with the song titles lafitte don't fail me now and the agony of lafitte both really good songs though that's the thing that surprised me was that you could sympathize with the impulse of just wanting to bitch about someone but usually

that's not the best impulse to write like an actual enduring piece of music. It is a hard thing to do. Yeah. Was there a consensus among the band that that was a good thing? Or did you not think like, maybe we're going to be burning bridges here, especially as you're naming the guy specifically. You're even talking about in the chorus,

name-checking Sylvia Roan, who was the boss of Elektra at the time. The lyrics are really quite vitriolic. It's like I'm new to your mouth The one before I laughed at We shook hands Take all the calls But I'll never forget what's been said All I ever asked of you is a copy of Garage Days.

What is that? The album? By Metallica. Metallica album. Which was a hard... It was out of print at that point and was that one of the things that ron lafitte had promised you yeah it was that one i wasn't as worried about but but but he yeah he didn't come through on that either all i ever asked of you is a copy of garage days and to tell me the truth ain't no one watching you exit ventura highway it's like i knew two of you man the one before

and after we shook hands taking the calls but in all forgetting what's been said and it carries on in a similarly bitter vein right right right was no one saying to you maybe you don't want to there was there were a couple people we we still had a manager at that point and he he and didn't maybe even our lawyer too were both like i don't know about this right yeah um it's not about burning bridges but about there being some kind of lawsuit or something right and i said i don't think there's going to be a lawsuit we got to do it and was there ever any comeback from them uh no and have you have you ever not really yeah Have you ever? Not really. Did they ever reach out and say, hey, that wasn't very nice?

Did Lafitte? Yeah. No, no, no, no. But he's been interviewed about the band many times. And honestly, every time that his name comes up in a piece where he's joining a management company or switching jobs, it's always like it always references that song. Does that make you delighted? I mean, i really am over it at this point and all the quotes that he's given in the press have always been right on he's like you know i did let them down maybe he has to say that i mean it's definitely we we got to where we needed to be sure it was a great thing to do it gave a

because we were we were bummed and a little bit embarrassed, you know, and also felt like, well, we'd blown it. We'd been on this great independent label. The record didn't do well. We were on this big major label. Which was the independent label you started? Matador. Right.

We were on this big major label. It didn't do well. And then I kind of felt like, I'm probably out of the record making club. I'm not sure if we're going to get to do this anymore. But putting out the single, it just kind of gave us a kick. And in giving us a kick, it kind of gave us this story that sort of turned things around for us. And there was a piece in The Village Voice about the band and being dropped and in relation to the single and how great the single was. And it was like the first story that anybody could ever latch on to about us.

Right. It is a break, it's a break, it's a break in the podcast. It is a bit between two other bits. It's a break, it's a break, it's a break in the podcast. It's like an necklace between two tits. It's a musical break, it's a pause in the podcast. Stopping one bit from merging with another bit. Break, break, break, break, break in the podcast.

Kind of like a bum crack track. You were a sound designer for video games. That's right. When was that? Right after college. My first job out of University of Texas. What were you studying? Audio production.

Right, okay. Yeah, so it was a real good bit of luck because I didn't have any experience with digital. I was just working with tape before then, and then all of a sudden i got thrown in got this job got paid to learn how to do digital audio and that was good um it was the best job i ever had for sure really very chill yeah nice work environment were you just working with a small group of people then and it was a pretty big company maybe 100 people there and they're all just focused on making video games every day and playing video games every day and it was cool are you still a gamer not really and so you were

just coming up with sound effects and stuff yeah just sound effects i didn't even make music for them there were other people there that didn't it was this amazing company yeah an amazing job to just make sound effects was the bigger picture always to make music or not yeah it was for sure so while i was doing that amazing job i was taking advantage by spending you know half the day making flyers and printing them up on the paper from the company you know it was designing them and then and was that the alien beats then uh at the beginning it was Alien Beats and then it was Spoon, yeah. Okay. Spoon, is that the Can track?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a good song, isn't it? It is a good song. And what were you doing when you first started a band then? Were you just trying to be as original as possible or were you just getting into a sort of finding your feet by imitating your heroes?

What, this band? Yeah, well, your band, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was by imitating your heroes. What, this band? Yeah. Well, your band, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was definitely imitating my heroes. And who were they? The Pixies. Right. And the Beatles and Prince, although I don't really think that that...

It came out... We actually covered Prince back in that time. Which Prince song? We covered Party Up. Aha. Which is an amazing song. Don't listen to our version, though. It's a little obnoxious.

Was it the sort of falsetto that you were going for? I loved that, yeah. Yeah. That was always like an ingredient that I knew I should use at some point. And finally, once I turned my camera on, it finally happened. It didn't feel like a lightning bolt or anything. It was like, oh, I'm finally going to do this thing I've been meaning to do. Sing a song all in falsetto.

It's a formula for a single, really. It's just such a great element. And then you've got your sort of growl, your barky, shouty voice as well. Right. Does that not strip out your throat sometimes it makes me raspy yeah yeah at the by the end of a show do you have to do special exercises i don't really do any exercises unless i'm going to go on tv then i'll specifically try to warm up right i'm pretty lucky my voice is pretty strong and i can do show after show and not lose it yeah the only time i lose it

is when i'm sick you know and there's like you know sinus stuff going on then i then i lose it let's introduce the next track yeah you're gonna play the next one is i ain't the one i ain't the one and this is also from the new record right what can you tell me about this either of you this is the first song i worked on with you yeah for for hot thoughts i wrote the. Alec came up with the vibe. Yeah, it was acoustic guitar and then we... Yeah, changed it. Ditched that.

Late one night after a South by Southwest show. Yeah. It was a fun night. It was. We had a few of those where we would get coffeed up, keep drinking,

and... Stay up late. Yeah. Just try out different versions. that's a good time for working an optimal time is it it's a good time for certain parts of working it's not a good time for me for coming up with words or maybe the original ideas but it's good for getting those ideas and turning them into something that's uh got a feel to it you know what about early mornings what happens then early mornings is um it can be good for uh starting off fresh and starting out without any

you know kind of be in that sort of hazy state where you're not fully awake and not fully into that very mindful state yet and that's good yeah Sometimes I try to take advantage of that. I've always been fascinated by how people can write lyrics and just get out of themselves to that degree. Yeah, it's hard. And not just be embarrassed by, it's a bit like what I was saying about writing fan letters. You don't want the listener to be able to decode all the thoughts that are going into the lyrics too easily. I try not to worry about that do you know yeah so you're just going for the sound of the words are you no the meaning matters too but there's so many times when i've been stuck on a specific lyric trying to come up with this meaning for

this you know this next line should mean this because it relates to that and i'll try it and try it for days and days and then and then at some point I'll just go, this isn't where I, you know, like, okay, I'm just going to play the song and then record myself just singing some syllables and then that will turn into something that's so much better than what I've been trying to come up with. It might even make more sense, you know. It really does work like that.

It's hard to let go sometimes. Yeah. So, yeah, just noises and blue blouse. Did you listen to the reissue of Remain in Light where David Byrne and Brian Eno were on the left and right? No. They had an instrumental track and they were both just doing that, just making sounds like...

And they had one little phrase, which was, It was really interesting to hear their different approaches making sounds like, and they had one little phrase, which was dancing for money. It was really interesting to hear their different approaches to how they covered. And this was, this was, these were vocal takes from back then that they hadn't used. And now they're showing it to us.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Were they doing them together or did they do separate? They did them one at a time and they panned the passes left and right. Oh, yeah, I got to hear that. It's very interesting.

I mean, it's not a piece of music you'd want to listen to over and over again. Right. It's very interesting with that record how actually the outtakes are really not that great. They got all the good stuff and they put it on the record. Right, yeah.

But I guess the way that that record was made, perhaps with them just jamming, meant that... They were very selective about what they ended up working on. Cause the danger was obviously that they would be very indulgent and you get these tedious jams that go on forever and ever. And actually no, they'd honed it and really worked on it. It's fascinating.

Anyway, here's I ain't the one. Sorry about that long detour. When the moon is rising and looking on me When the night comes, the night get really lucky lonely I say, I ain't the one I say, I ain't the one I ain't the one that you're looking for now When the man come Asking

And looking for me When the Lord come And knocking And knocking on me I ain't the one No, I ain't the one, I ain't the one I ain't the one that you're looking for now I ain't the one, I ain't the one

So now I'm leaving you all behind me Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, When the world come Crashing and crumbling on me When the day come A knocking and it on me I ain't the one I ain't the one Yeah, oh, oh Yeah, oh, oh

I ain't the one I ain't the one I ain't the one So now I'm leaving you all behind me Oh Oh Oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye There we go. That was I Ain't The One from Spoon's new record. Well, that version is not. That's a special exclusive version, specially recorded for this podcast. Yeah, just did it. I'd just like to say at this point

that I'm very grateful to Natalie Judge. She's at Matador, right? And she's been so helpful setting up this podcast and booking a studio and getting you guys. And so thank you to her as well as to all of you. It was her idea. I mean, we've known each other for a long time, but we just never put it together. I'm delighted.

Now, you guys, maybe I've benefited a little bit from the fact that I feel like you're Anglophiles, especially you, to some degree, Brit, right? Sure. like you're anglophiles, especially you to some degree, Brit, right? Sure. You seem to like a lot of weird British stuff, which I think most Americans probably wouldn't be aware of. Things like The Young Ones? Yeah, well, The Young Ones for sure.

Yeah, when I was growing up, like in the 80s, that was everything that I was super into was, it seemed like was British. I don't know, they kind of owned rock and roll for a long time, the Brits. There were only 12 episodes of The Young Ones but somehow it was a major movement amongst my friends in high school. Where were you watching it? It was on MTV.

Oh. On Sunday nights. There's only 12 episodes? There's only 12 episodes. Because I remember watching that too. Six per season, two seasons. Wow. And you know, I think I have pretty much all of them memorized. You know, I would put it recorded on VHS and I would just watch it over and over again. Yeah.

And, you know, pick up on little bits of the culture that first time I actually heard of Jules Holland was on The Young Ones. Right. Because he did a subterranean homesick blues with some band that he was the band leader for. Yes. Who would that have been? It was like Jules Holland and the something. Stuart Copeland he was the band leader for. Yes. Who would that have been? It was like Jules Holland and the something. Stuart Copeland was in the band. And they were one of the bands that played on the Young Ones?

Yeah. I don't remember. I remember Nine Below Zero playing. Yeah, they're the first ones, right? Yeah. And The Damned. The Damned. Motorhead.

Yeah, that's right. Madness Twice, I think. Dexys, they were on there, weren't they? Yeah, yeah. They even played Come On Eileen, didn't they? No, they played the Van Morrison song. Oh, yeah. Jackie Wilson said.

Yeah, yeah. What's your favorite episode? What's the line that rings around your head when you think of the young one? There's someone at the door, Rick. There's someone at the door, Neil. Yeah, that's pretty good. I just loved how they were calling each other bastard all the time. Yeah.

I never heard that on TV. Yeah, bastard. Yeah. Relaxing with a group of people Sitting round the cool and jazzy sofa Everybody's eating cake and pies and crisps And sipping fizzy pop from cups Relaxing with a group of people Kicking pies and crisps and sipping fizzy pop from cups.

Relaxing with a group of people. Sitting round a cool and jazzy sofa. Everybody here is eating kicking pies and crisps and sipping fizzy pop from cups. There's a question for all of you chaps. So I'm interested to know what kind of music you're into. Who are the artists that you keep coming back to? Alex, we'll start with you. David Bowie.

Are you all Bowie fans? Oh, yeah. What's not to love? I heard that you were even doing a cover of I Can't Give Everything Away. Yeah. You've done that live, have you? Yeah, we did it in Mexico. At a duo show. Spoon hasn't played it, but Alex and I have played it.

And we've done it a couple times, like radio stations, I think, as well. And that's the... For non-Bowie heads, that's the last track on his last LP. And it's such a lovely song. Yeah, it's beautiful. It seems to be him sort of tying up loose ends in so many ways. The melody is so great. Yeah.

It's just heart-wrenching you know yeah some amazing chords really unexpected chords it's such a good record as well isn't it black star like in the 90s every single album that came out everyone would say oh it's back to his brilliant best right his best since scary monsters and it never was right and the same thing with the rolling stones right right yeah but then black star really was good yeah it really is it was like properly good so were you had were you gutted when he passed away yeah i i've never been affected by like somebody somebody like celebrity figure like that you know like they're they're passing it's it's upsetting but this one was affecting me emotionally and that was surprising i've tried to think about since then who because sometimes you know celebrities pass and you know i love bo diddly but bo diddly passed and

i you know i was like okay i think when iggy pop passes yeah yeah just especially having seen that show we saw it yeah that is just just like the his energy and he's a treasure. To see him do what he does and see him run around the stage is just this force of good, you know? Yeah. To see that and then to have that leave Earth will be a sad day. It's amazing that Iggy Pop just made it, didn't he? I mean, he's one of the most self-destructive people ever in music. All the ingredients were there for him to just completely implode. Yeah, and he's still going. He's still yeah and still and going strong yeah bringing a lot of energy yeah he's

just got a bit of spare skin that's the only difference you can just use it as pockets but other than that it's the same guy um what are your i heard you were listening to lodger a lot was that recording this record yeah we're sleeping in the same building as the studio yes farmhouse out in the middle of the woods but uh there's a in the common area there's a cd player there and that's the only way you can listen to music so we were burned cds but we didn't burn too many of them one of them was lodger and so we kept listening to lodger over and over again there's like a kinks comp the oc's comp john coltrane miles davis james brown uh was it yeah there was a talking heads yeah and that's about it yeah our producer did not like hearing bowie as he walked through yeah why not he didn't he was fed up so very surprisingly

dave fridman is not that into bowie he's like he's a weird you know he has eclectic taste um who else has dave fridman worked for he's done does he do the flaming lips yeah all the flaming lips records and he's your producer on hot thoughts and the one before, yeah. MGMT as well. Yeah, MGMT. What else? Some big ones. He did a Tame Apollo record. Low. Yeah. But yeah, he would just relentlessly make fun of it. I think, yeah, he says like two musical theater. Is that what he said?

Yeah, two musical theater. I'm always amazed when people use that criticism about Bowie because I just think that is, you've missed the point. The great thing about him was that he had it all. He was silly and camp and over the top and musical theater, but there was so much substance there in the music. It stood up completely on its own. It would have been good even if he was a totally boring guy.

Right. But the fact that he wasn't a totally boring guy just made it even more enjoyable. Yeah, yeah. To be in that unit. A lot of different levels going on. How about you, Britt? What are the bits of music that you keep coming back to all the artists who never let you down? Prince a lot.

Prince is a big one. You know, obviously the Beatles are timeless. The Cure. The first four albums are amazing. The sixth album is amazing. I don't really like the fifth one for some reason. Which is the fifth one? The top. Oh, yeah. It's pretty pretty good the top's got some good stuff but i'm just saying head on

the door is just absolutely stunning and that's the sixth one but the and the first four are just all have such an incredible vibe um it's a real inspiration you're a van morrison fan as well right we've covered van morrison but um which van morrison have you covered jackie wilson oh okay yeah which i learned from the young ones ah yes because there's a definitely a sort of van morrison feel to the underdog at least yeah yeah that's true yeah totally true i and i thought about i realized that as i was doing it yeah van morrison and i the other thing i thought was like um simon and garfunkel keep the customer satisfied kind of feeling yeah how about you jim what are the records that you keep coming back to

i don't know we recently had this tour manager that we really loved who tour managed morrissey so i've been listening to a lot of smiths yeah we heard a lot of morrissey stories yeah a lot of morrissey stuff he's amazing guy and alex kept playing this charming man on guitar over and over and over so now they're kind of covering it it's lost its luster a little bit to be honest how's your morrissey impression brit uh what was that thing what was that line um punctured bicycle punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate will nature make a man of me i love the smiths you know who else i've been listening to is uh the the oh yeah because i found out that didn't jules holland play this solo on like uncertain smile or something that crazy you know so i went back and listened to that when i found out we were playing Didn't Jules Holland play the solo on Uncertain Smile or something? Yes, that's right. That crazy... Yeah, that's amazing.

So I went back and listened to that when I found out we were playing Jules Holland. Good solo? Amazing. What album is that on? It's not Dusk. Soul Mining. Yeah, Soul Mining, yeah. It's very good.

Really, really good. Yeah. Dogs of Lust, I like that song. I think that's an amazing song. That's a good title. Are they well-respected over here? Oh, yeah. Definitely. Matt Johnson, he's great. He was always well-respected, I think. Was an amazing song. That's a good title. Are they well-respected over here? Oh, yeah, definitely.

Matt Johnson, he's great. He was always well-respected, I think. Was he? Yeah. Always doing interesting stuff. A lot better known here, I think. Yeah. Oh, is he not that well-known? Mind Bomb, that did pretty well.

But it was always sort of like a, you might hear him on 120 Minutes. Yeah, fringe kind of thing. Never had a real hit. 120 Minutes was this video show on Sedona. I remember. Yeah, yeah. With Matt Penfield. Right, right, right. Later on, yeah. kind of yeah never never had a real 120 minutes was this video show on i remember yeah with matt penfield right right yeah later on yeah living in temple texas that was how you found out about new music was 120 minutes every now and then there'd be a an enemy at the bookstore you know

but that was it tell us about your final track that you've played for us played for you this last one is rainy taxi it's a rainy taxi it's a different arrangement of this song from uh the last record they want your soul they want my soul my soul they want my soul okay here we go this is rainy taxi specially recorded for the adam buxton podcast by spoon or at least three members thereof thanks buck Buckles. You're welcome. You catch everything I never could You believe when I gave up for good And when you stand beside me I can tell I'm stronger than I've ever been But if you're gone, No, you don't come back

I came home last night I had no good news I came home last night I had no good news And you can see me through the brightest flash Of apocalyptic run And if you leave, I'll never sing another tune Oh, put on your red shoes Sing sing it to me lover girl

When you do my love, I forget the world I did feel sad, I may rub with you I got nowhere else I got no one else As the sun goes fading in the west There's an army east, it's rising still And when you stand beside me I feel something stronger than I ever could But if you leave, you'll never run away

For good, good, good Wait, this is an advert for Squarespace. Every time I visit your website, I see success. Yes, success. This is an advert for Squarespace. your videos and pics and I don't want to stop. And I'd like to access your members area and spend in your shop. These are the kinds of comments people will say about your website if you build it with Squarespace. Just visit

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Thank you very much to Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, and Alex Fischel of Spoon. Hope you enjoyed that. Thank you also to Alex Hayes at Rooftop Studios over in East London for engineering that session. And thank you especially to Natalie Judge once again from Matador for getting the whole thing together. Thank you, Natalie. I really appreciate it. I was thinking maybe what I should do is get it together to do a Spotify playlist of some of my favourite tracks as a primer,

a spoon primer. And I will put that on my website, adam-buxton.co.uk, if I can figure out how to make the Spotify playlist. You would think that a muso bore like myself would be all over that kind of thing, but no, I haven't done one so far. Anyway, I'll try to do that, so far. Anyway, I'll try to do that. And I'll also put a link there to the videos that I shot of Brit back in 2007, the first time we met backstage at the borderline.

Anyway, as I said at the beginning of the podcast, here is a previously unheard demo of Brit and Alex Fischel from the band rehearsing David Bowie's I Can't Give Everything Away. And they were doing this because they played a few shows just as a duo. And this is one of the tracks they covered after Bowie died. But I think this is a really lovely version. I hope you agree. Thank you very much for listening and downloading. The podcast will return on a regular weekly basis. Towards the end of September. Early October I think.

But. There may well be another kind of one off. Slightly different podcast. Coming your way in the next few weeks so till next time we share the same outer space please take exceptionally good care i love you bye I know something's very wrong The pulse returns for prodding the suns The blackout hearts, the flowered news The skull designs upon my shoe I can't give everything

I can't give everything away I can't give everything away. See you tomorrow. Feeling less saying no no but meaning yes This is all I ever meant That's the message that I sent I can't give everything I can't give everything I can't give everything away I know something's very wrong The pulse returns the prodigal sons

The blackout hearts the flowered news The skull designs upon my shoes I can't give everything I can't give everything I can't get everything Oh yeah I can't kill everything

I am I'm you. Bye. Give me like a smile and a thumbs up. Nice like a plant with a thumbs up. Give me like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Give me like a smile and a thumbs up. Nice like a plant with a thumbs up. Give me like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. ស្រូវាប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ Thank you.