Spooner (band)
Encyclopedia
Spooner was a Midwestern rock band formed in 1974 in Madison, WI, by vocalist and songwriter Doug Erikson
, songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Bob Olsen, and guitarist/vocalist Dave Benton originally as an acoustic/electric trio. between 1975 and 1978, the group had undergone several line-up changes, including adding Butch Vig
as a drummer. Extremely popular in Madison, and able to draw in crowds in other Midwestern cities, Spooner released two well-received albums, Every Corner Dance and The Wildest Dreams and toured intensively throughout the Midwest to promote them.
Spooner disbanded in the mid-80s, with Erikson and Vig moving on to form Fire Town
, who recorded two albums before splitting. Spooner reformed shortly after, and released a final album, The Fugitive Dance before splitting for a final time. During the early nineties, Erikson and Vig's production career took off, with Vig producing for major label artists such as Nirvana
and Smashing Pumpkins before they formed the multi-platinum selling alternative rock
group Garbage
.
-ish". In 1975 Olsen left the band, and they brought in Butch Vig on drums and Bill Roberts on guitar. Vig had performed drums in Eclipse, a Madison garage-pop band. By 1978, Spooner consisted of Erikson, Benton, Vig, keyboardist Jeff Walker and bassist Joel Tappero. The third line-up of Spooner evolved their sound into one considered by their fans to be "New Wave
," even if the band didn't quite agree with the tag.
The following year, Spooner recorded a four-track extended play
, titled Cruel School, with The Shoes
' Gary Klebe. Founded by Spooner Boat Records to release Cruel School themselves, the E.P. was pressed in a run of 3,000 copies. Boat would eventually release titles from around twenty other local acts. The band's following rocketed afterwards, picking up enough momentum to break into Chicago
, and enabling Spooner to make inroads into ten nearby states as well as performing as far away as the Peppermint Lounge in New York City
. Spooner supported a number of notable artists, including Cheap Trick
, Pat Benatar
, Split Enz
, The Police and Tom Robinson
; a number of major labels, including Elektra
and Arista
, began to show interest in signing the group.
As soon as they felt that their line-up had solidified, Spooner recorded their first album, Every Corner Dance, with Klebe. Vig spent a lot of time learning the craft of music production with Klebe, who encouraged him to take it further: Vig, alongside his fellow University of Wisconsin graduate, Steve Marker
, founded his own eight-track
recording studio
, Smart Studios
, in late 1982. Every Corner Dance was released by Mountain Railroad, a local folk music
label. The album picked up good reviews from local media and even received a 3/5 review in Rolling Stone.
By 1984, Spooner were confident enough in their craft that they self-produced their second album, Wildest Dreams, in Smart, as well as releasing it on Boat. Even though a number of copies were exported to the United Kingdom
, the band's momentum had begun to wane. Vig was working on the side as a cab driver, while Erikson and Benton were working for delivery firms. Vig formed a second band called First Person with Marker, Phil Davis and Tom LaVarda on bass. Erikson contributed some songwriting to a First Person side-project named Fire Town
, which eventually overtook First Person. Fire Town recorded two studio albums, including one for Atlantic
, before being wound down by 1989.
Spooner reformed at the end of the eighties, recording a darker third album, The Fugitive Dance. Erikson had been writing songs in a minor key, while the band incorporated some electronic drums into some tracks. Some house
remix
es of the title track were commissioned but went unreleased.“” Spooner signed a deal with Dali/Chameleon
to release The Fugitive Dance, but after a shake-up at the label, the album was allowed to die a death. Spooner disbanded for the final time in 1993, as Erikson and Vig's production career gained strength.
Singles:
Duke Erikson
Douglas Elwin Erickson , better known as Duke Erikson, is a founding member of the band Garbage. At 16 years old he formed his first band, The British. Erickson studied art history, and financed his studies with numerous jobs such as carpenter or truck driver...
, songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Bob Olsen, and guitarist/vocalist Dave Benton originally as an acoustic/electric trio. between 1975 and 1978, the group had undergone several line-up changes, including adding Butch Vig
Butch Vig
Butch Vig is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana....
as a drummer. Extremely popular in Madison, and able to draw in crowds in other Midwestern cities, Spooner released two well-received albums, Every Corner Dance and The Wildest Dreams and toured intensively throughout the Midwest to promote them.
Spooner disbanded in the mid-80s, with Erikson and Vig moving on to form Fire Town
Fire Town
Fire Town was a garage-rock band formed in the mid-1980s in Madison, Wisconsin, from the remnants of an earlier popular local group, Spooner. Fire Town were signed to a major label and published two albums, In the Heart of the Heart Country and The Good Life...
, who recorded two albums before splitting. Spooner reformed shortly after, and released a final album, The Fugitive Dance before splitting for a final time. During the early nineties, Erikson and Vig's production career took off, with Vig producing for major label artists such as Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
and Smashing Pumpkins before they formed the multi-platinum selling alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
group Garbage
Garbage (band)
Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...
.
History
After originally meeting at college in Wayne, Nebraska in the early 70's, and performing under the name "Nickelplate Road", Spooner formed in 1974, after a move to Madison, Wisconsin. Spooner's original incarnation was a three-piece outfit, with Bob Olsen-guitar vocals, Doug Erikson-keyboards, vocals, and Dave Benton-guitar/bass/vocals, and performed a mix of acoustic and electric material without drums: "We did all original stuff, and it was pretty spacey...sort of Jackson BrowneJackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
-ish". In 1975 Olsen left the band, and they brought in Butch Vig on drums and Bill Roberts on guitar. Vig had performed drums in Eclipse, a Madison garage-pop band. By 1978, Spooner consisted of Erikson, Benton, Vig, keyboardist Jeff Walker and bassist Joel Tappero. The third line-up of Spooner evolved their sound into one considered by their fans to be "New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
," even if the band didn't quite agree with the tag.
The following year, Spooner recorded a four-track extended play
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, titled Cruel School, with The Shoes
The Shoes
The Shoes is the fifty-sixth episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 16th episode for the fourth season, and first aired on February 4, 1993.-Plot:...
' Gary Klebe. Founded by Spooner Boat Records to release Cruel School themselves, the E.P. was pressed in a run of 3,000 copies. Boat would eventually release titles from around twenty other local acts. The band's following rocketed afterwards, picking up enough momentum to break into Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and enabling Spooner to make inroads into ten nearby states as well as performing as far away as the Peppermint Lounge in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Spooner supported a number of notable artists, including Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
, Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...
, Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
, The Police and Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
; a number of major labels, including Elektra
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
and Arista
Arista Records
Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
, began to show interest in signing the group.
As soon as they felt that their line-up had solidified, Spooner recorded their first album, Every Corner Dance, with Klebe. Vig spent a lot of time learning the craft of music production with Klebe, who encouraged him to take it further: Vig, alongside his fellow University of Wisconsin graduate, Steve Marker
Steve Marker
Steve Marker is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the guitarist of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage.-Early life:...
, founded his own eight-track
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
, Smart Studios
Smart Studios
Smart Studios was a recording studio located at 1254 E Washington Ave in Madison, Wisconsin. It was set up in 1983 by Butch Vig and Steve Marker to produce local bands....
, in late 1982. Every Corner Dance was released by Mountain Railroad, a local folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
label. The album picked up good reviews from local media and even received a 3/5 review in Rolling Stone.
By 1984, Spooner were confident enough in their craft that they self-produced their second album, Wildest Dreams, in Smart, as well as releasing it on Boat. Even though a number of copies were exported to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the band's momentum had begun to wane. Vig was working on the side as a cab driver, while Erikson and Benton were working for delivery firms. Vig formed a second band called First Person with Marker, Phil Davis and Tom LaVarda on bass. Erikson contributed some songwriting to a First Person side-project named Fire Town
Fire Town
Fire Town was a garage-rock band formed in the mid-1980s in Madison, Wisconsin, from the remnants of an earlier popular local group, Spooner. Fire Town were signed to a major label and published two albums, In the Heart of the Heart Country and The Good Life...
, which eventually overtook First Person. Fire Town recorded two studio albums, including one for Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, before being wound down by 1989.
Spooner reformed at the end of the eighties, recording a darker third album, The Fugitive Dance. Erikson had been writing songs in a minor key, while the band incorporated some electronic drums into some tracks. Some house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es of the title track were commissioned but went unreleased.“” Spooner signed a deal with Dali/Chameleon
Chameleon (label)
Chameleon was a record label formed by industry veterans Andy Frances and Steve Powers, and was funded by Dan Protzker.Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz was an employee and Chameleon had distributed some early Epitaph releases, such as L7's self-titled debut.In the first years of the label's...
to release The Fugitive Dance, but after a shake-up at the label, the album was allowed to die a death. Spooner disbanded for the final time in 1993, as Erikson and Vig's production career gained strength.
Discography
Studio albums:- Every Corner Dance (1982)
- Wildest Dreams (1984)
- The Fugitive Dance (1990)
Singles:
- Cruel School (1979)(EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
) featuring "Dancing Dolls", "Working Girl", "Member of the Family" and "From My Head to My Toes" - "Where You Gonna Run"/"You're The Lucky One" (1980)
- "Mean Old World"/"Walking with an Angel" (1986)
External links
- Spooner web-site
- Spooner profile at FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Spooner discography