Bill Brown: drums, vocals; Peter Hayes: vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica; Joel Kaufman: guitar, vocals; Phil Satlof: bass.
Influences
They found out how to rub fire together to make sticks, so they built a slightly unstable practice space out of hot sticks. When the wolf knocks at the door he burns his knuckles, but they wear oven mitts to get in and out. On stage, they pretend to be beams of light holding the ceiling up. You see? They smell like little plastic dolls. Their words get mixed up with the chords and sometimes lodge in their pockets, which is why they stand on their heads to be understood.
The Spoils of NW accept the idea that every heart is haunted; that there’s nothing any one of us can do about it. They know that hope, happiness, melancholy and despair are equally poisonous when undiluted by truth. They see the stage as a secular altar intended for the resurrection of dead souls (Charlie Patton, Hank Williams, Eric Dolphy, Pop Staples, The Carter Family, Memphis Minnie) and the worship of souls living. They are as far removed from Marvin Gaye and Link Wray as everyone else in the District of Columbia and the pop universe--but those are shadows whose outlines should be felt rather than traced outright, shouldn’t they?
Spoils music is a reassurance to the cold, the sick and the ill-at-ease; a comforting mania to the listless. It’s a kind of forward-looking forgetfulness (From track 6: "I remember things that haven’t happened yet"). The listener is given a long, thin reed for breathing and an amphibian’s inability to drown. Below the swamp’s surface, he or she can flail or luxuriate and feel entirely at home in the cool, muddy choogle.
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Hear a review of the Spoils of NW’s debut "Seeing Things" on DC’s NPR station, WAMU: go to http://www.wamu.org/programs/mc/ -scroll to the bottom, where it’s available as an audio stream.
Purchase "Seeing Things" on iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/), CDbaby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/spoilsofnw) and at Amazon.com.
"the cool muddy choogle...." the mere mention of which makes me wants to wrap my arms around the top cloud and rise up in the air like that really cute cartoon dog in Quick Draw McGraw....songs as floatation devices....I kinda like that.
Phil Satlof! I remember you from Tuscadero! Glad to see you are still rocking... what about Margaret and Melissa? What are they up to?? Come play up here, Hoboken, NJ/NY I'll go check you guys out!!
Okay, which one of you accidently clicked on a link that automatically sent out spam to everyone about ringtones! Nice one! :) Also, how come you can't get on the Ft. Reno schedule??? hmmmm...
Hi Guys!
This is the first performance of my solo project (though it will be Curt and me performing).
Hope you can come!
-Dani
Thanks for the add.
The Red and the Black, May 30
