The Black Spoons

The Black Spoons tackle obscure topics of scientists, radiation and relationships

Craigslist is a wonderful thing. After all, it brought the members of one of Brooklyn's hippest power trios together.

The Black Spoons have been together since 2003 and have played their catchy, syncopated pop bluster of intelligent lyrics and competent musicianship to good portion of the US (thanks to a tour in honor of the aforementioned Craigslist). Oft described as "poetry rock", you might think it would be hard for a band like The Black Spoons to find an audience, what with the prevailing wind of anti-intellectualism running high in our culture thanks to reality TV and the like. Thankfully that has never been a problem.

"We get really crazy and physical when we play" says singer/guitarist Tom Sean "so I don't think people are paying attention to the lyrics or intellectual content, they are just watching three guys going crazy playing pop songs. But it's great when people come up to us and tell us they enjoy the lyrics."

"We sometimes have people kind of look at us funny when they do read the lyrics, continues Tom, "like we are strange. Kind of like when you bring your own bags to the grocery store to cut down on waste. People give you looks like 'Why would you do that?'".

Besides the occasional odd look, however, audiences must really enjoy watching these guys go nuts on stage. They've sold out some of New York's hottest clubs including Pianos, Knitting Factory and Mercury Lounge, but are humble when referred to as "local legends".

"I don't know if I'd call us that," says bass player David Horton, with a slight chuckle.

And Tom has this story to tell about playing Pianos. "We talked to Jasper [the resident booking agent] into letting us play. At the time, we were pulling in about 30-40 people to our shows. He asked me how many people I thought we could bring in. I said 150. I met with the guys in the band after that and we decided to go for it. We worked our asses off and got the 150. Later I found out that Pianos only holds about 100 people."

It's obvious the band as built up a solid fan base, but what about playing to audiences who aren't familiar with the Black Spoons sound? "I love playing to new audiences," says Tom. You never know what you're going to get. We played a club once and it turned out to be a place where a lot of old people ate dinner. So we played an acoustic set and it went great."

Of course the live show wouldn't matter, and people young and old wouldn't respond as they do, if the songs weren't good. So how does the band write those pop gems? "We each bring in different things. Sometimes we email song fragments to each other or work it out in practice," explains drummer Ruben Mercado.

"Lyrics are almost always written after," chimes in Tom. "Sometimes words are used as place holders until something better comes along."

Placeholders or not the lyrics are always significant, if obscure. Take the song Marie Curie for instance. "People used to tell me that Marie Curie was a total rip off of the Pixies' "Alec Eiffel", rants Tom. "I'd never even heard the damn song, but because they are both about obscure scientists, people assumed we ripped them off."

Ms. Curie's presence can also be seen in the band's album title. "Marie Curie referred to radium, which she discovered, as 'my dear radium'. And that title stuck," explains Tom. "Relationships are like radiation sickness. You can't smell or feel or see radiation at first, but then you fall apart. When a person leaves you might think you are ok, but then the pain hits".

Tom also explains the story behind "Aristotle", one of the ballads on the album. "I was lying in bed with a woman when I got a call from my ex. I kept thinking 'of all the possible times, why would you call me now?'" Scientists, radiation, relationships…The Black Spoons are a band with charm, heart, brains and musical chops. Too bad there aren't more bands around like them. If there were, we might be able to expect more from our popular culture.

Brad Filicky