The other day I got one of those Myspace bulletins that asked me to name the 5 albums which most impacted my life. It only took me a few seconds to come up with the answers. They were obvious to me because each one of those albums were the soundtrack to one of my most important stages.
Around this time last year, I was dead broke, working miserable jobs, and screwing up my relationship. Life after college was kicking my ass, and the “real world” was breaking my idealistic heart.
This year things are different. Im still broke, but I have a better job, and with my growing acceptance of maturity and responsibility, all in all, things seem to be opening up. I can see the light. My energy is being reflected by my current heavily rotated album, Nice and Nicely Done by the Spinto band. The album combines insightful lyrics with dance floor gems to form the most well-rounded indie-pop album to be released this year. It also contains one of the most blazing singles in the world right now, Oh Mandy, a beautiful tune that is single-handedly growing the leaves back on our winter frosted trees.
That bulletin made me think for a minute about what makes a good record and why certain ones seem to define an entire place, time, or emotion in your brain, becoming more or less the actual music to play along with your life. As far as I can tell, it’s just timing, where someone else’s musical interpretation links directly to your life path and helps you to maybe inch a bit further, or possibly understand the spot you’re standing on much better.
By now, the story of the Spintos is the stuff of underground legend. Lead singer Nick Krill finding lyrics by his late grandfather, guitar player Roy Spinto, scribbled on the back of Cracker Jack boxes in his basement, seven-self released albums in eight years, a recent tour opening for media darlings The Arctic Monkeys, the list goes on. They’ve been especially intimate with the radio, too, between their World Café interview with David Dye and their NPR live concert broadcast.
When listening, it’s hard to believe music this engaging and textured is being played by dudes in their late teens and early twenties. But then again, maybe it’s not so hard. Music defies time and age, and gets to something deeper and more meaningful in the human spectrum. It leads us, it guides us, and it defines us.
In the same way that Nick Krill was led to his grandfather’s lyrics, we are led to The Spinto band, in hopes that their soundtrack may help push us forward into yet another chapter of our own existence.
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