Spoon-fluences

My favorite characteristic of Spoon's music is their integration of myriad styles of music into their own, without ever sounding derivative. They're able to do this (largely through the symbiotic relationship between singer/songwriter Britt Daniel and drummer/sometimes engineer Jim Eno) by incorporating the best rhythmic elements of songs, then working them over to make them something new and interesting. The first time I noticed this (well, after the near-blatant Pixies/Modern Lovers cops on the now disowned (?) Telephono) was on Kill the Moonlight's "Back to the Life," which immediately made me yank Physical Graffiti from my rack and skip forward to "Boogie With Stu." And, yep, there it was, in all of it's glory--rather obvious, but with that Bonham riff, how could one resist? Then, on this year's Gimme Fiction, I couldn't quite place the bass/drum part from "They Never Got You." It took me a while, but I eventually came up with, yes, Hall & Oates' "Maneater."

I'm no music theorist, and have a very loose grasp on what it takes to truly mix songs together--I guess they're not really "mixes," but more "comparisons." What I want to highlight, though, is Spoon's entirely unique appropriation of elements from the most disparate of sources. I even added cheesy "rain" effects to the "Maneater" open (sped up 7%) in an attempt to make it match. The Zeppelin one worked better, only because the two songs are so similar.

"Boogie with Spoon" (1:15) ("Back to the Life"/"Boogie With Stu") (mp3)
"They Never Got Eaten" (1:16) ("They Never Got You"/"Maneater") (mp3)