INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Spinto Band preview
Spinto BandRadio Radio, 1119 E. Prospect St.
Friday, May 30, 8:30 p.m., $8 presale, $10 door, 21+
Radio Radio hosts a new-rock grab-bag of sorts this weekend, with appearances by Wilmington, Del.’s The Spinto Band, Nashville, Tenn.’s De Novo Dahl and Ann Arbor, Mich.’s Tally Hall. It’s all about well-crafted pop for these groups — and hook-laden singles — with varying levels of success in the marketplace and criticism industry.
The Spinto Band’s extremely catchy single “Oh Mandy” has been around since it was released on a 2005 full-length, but it took a 2007 re-release on a U.K. label to thrust the song into the ears of the teeming masses (hence the co.uk Web address for a Maryland band). With picked mandolin, insistent synths, tuneful falsetto, an oft-repeated chorus and well-played gestures towards hip-hop, how could it not be catchy?
Meanwhile, De Novo Dahl’s “Shout” should be a hit single and club anthem in an alternate universe (or maybe this one), with propulsive acoustic guitar underpinning an affirmative group chorus urging the listener to “Shout!” and “Scream” alternately. Think Flaming Lips or Polyphonic Spree, but a little less clever musically and lyrically than the Lips and less cloying than the Spree. There’s a goofy Speed Racer cover by De Novo Dahl — apparently requested by the Wachowski Brothers but unused — that’s making the rounds on the Web.
Tally Hall is working with late-’60s and ’70s pastiche, bringing to mind Queen, the Zombies and Zappa on “Good Day,” the opening track to their full-length Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum: Queen for the bright group vocals and major-key rock balladry, the Zombies for the upbeat piano parts and Zappa for the disjointed collage of different styles. But the record seems a bit square, lacking the grace of non-academic musicologists like Zappa or Beck — as if it were an actual trip to a dusty museum — and slipping into more insipid alt-rock on other tracks.