Whoever’s responsible for my not having encountered the band Spoon before now has some serious explaining to do. No, really, now: These guys have been around for ages. Their first 7″ was out almost a decade ago now, and their first full album dates from ’96. And with the exception of Interpol, about whom I’m kind of lukewarm, I dig all the bands on their “if you like X you might also like Y” list at Amazon. So I can only assume that I’ve been unaware of this combination of (1) tight mechanics, (2) interesting arrangements, and (2) genuinely fun hooks… as the result of some kind of vast conspiracy. Last time I was this excited about a band on a first listen was… geez, probably Built to Spill or Soul Coughing… which remain my two favorite bands. Expect the little java gadget in the left sidebar to be reading “Spoon” the vast majority of the time for a week or two at least.