Customer Reviews

Nice and Nicely Done

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Buy this album before all your friends do.
Spinto band shows incredible promise as a band with a knack for catchy rhythm and beautiful compositions that will leave you humming later. It is simply a matter of time and radio play until they go big.

Ok, the album is not perfect but it's close, close enough to warrent 5 stars.

i saw these guys open up for arctic monkeys last night after only hearing one of their songs (Oh Mandy) on my local indie station. Anyway, I recently got the album and every single song is completely solid and has incredibly catchy melodies. definitely awesome.

My first taste of these guys was also an arctic monkeys show. These kids can play and play WELL. Reminded me a lot of a poppy wolf parade on speed. with more guitars. and a shy kid. yeah. Good band. Album sounds better than they sound live.

The Spinto Band essentially take every style of pop rock from the last 10 years and compact it into a fun, exuberant package. Early- and Mid-Nineties-style alterna-rock, neo garage, and, everyone's current favorite, neo 80's dance rock, all have their place within the Spinto sound. Nick Krill and Thomas Hughes, the principal songwriters in the group, each have an incredible knack for hooks and melodies; it is futile to try and resist singing along with their music.

These six young men are clearly having a fun time being in a band together, and this fun radiates out from them, especially in live concert setting. You can't help but have a good time along with them.

Most of the comparisons to bands with a similar sound are valid, particularly to groups like Pavement, Grandaddy, and Yo La Tengo. As another reviwer pointed out, "Crack the Whip" is immediately reminiscent of the danceable rock purveyed by groups like Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, and the rest. If there is any one band I would compare the Spintos to, though, it would be Blue Album-era Weezer; many of their songs might sound simple if you weren't paying attention, but once you focus in, you're captivated by just how catchy and well-written they are, as well as just how flat-out fun the music is. It's a subtle kind of specialness that few bands can actually achieve.

Finally, check out "Oh Mandy." Whenever this song breaks through to the big modern rock radio stations, it will probably be huge. Nick Krill's mandolin (which is as immediately enticing and recognizable as the instrument is in R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion") will draw people in, and Sam Hughes's spooky, pretty 50's sci-fi sounding keyboard will be the clincher, floating in the background but making the song stamp directly into your brain. Of course there's Krill's vocals and the chorus, which are undeniable. Easily one of the best singles to come out in recent memory, "Oh Mandy" deserves to be a monster hit, and the Spinto Band deserves to be carried into acclaim with it.

The only thing better than listening to this band's recorded material is seeing them live. Saw them for the second time last night and I'm hooked!

I saw these guys live at the 9:30 club, and while they're not great live, they sound amazing on this album. They just don't copy all of the alternative and rock forumlas that are out there, and have created a pretty unique sound. Give it a listen if you're not locked into the mainstream.

I heard the spintos on the radio and knew right away i needed this record. It's not out in the uk yet, so i had to import for the first time, and it was so worth it. Coming on like the offspring of pavement and the beach boys this album is a glorious pop gem. musically inventive and lyrically witty, these boys will go far.

The Spinto Band could best be compared to The Unicorns, Franz Ferdinand, The Flaming Lips, The Walkmen, Hot Hot Heat, and The Strokes. What characterizes The Spinto Band is its sense of fun, the way its members revel and bask in the joyful pop of the music. Some bands take themselves too seriously; The Spinto Band is more certainly not one of them. If you pick up this album, you will feel like dancing, and you will not be able to get these incredibly catchy songs out of your head. Their live act also more than lives up to the album. The Spinto Band deserves recognition on a national level, and I only hope that it comes.

Though this is their first major label album, The Spinto Band have been prolifically self-releasing material for almost 10 years. Their earlier releases were generally sprawling and eclectic (ranging from rock and Ween-esque sound experimentation to ska and hip-hop), but on Nice And Nicely Done they tighten things down to a short and sweet 35 minutes of indie pop. Fortunately, this happens to be some quality indie-pop. Nick Krill (who I guess has gradually become the group "leader", writing and singing 8 of these 11 tunes) shows quite a knack for a great vocal hook: in particular the chorus of "Oh Mandy" (definitely one of the best singles to come out so far this year in my book) and the "suuupppeersonic!" bit of "Late" tend to nest in my head and never leave. The remaining 3 songs, sung and written by Thomas Hughes, are perhaps slightly less instantly accessible, but his combination of almost dizzing melodic inventiveness and clever wordplay like "Your work looks good/ your look works great" tends to grow like a fungus. You definitely will find echoes of other bands throughout: the tendencies towards vintage keyboard sounds can alternately bring to mind Weezer, The Rentals, or Grandaddy, while Nick Krill shows some distinctly Malkmus-inspired vocal ticks throughout, and you just might hear the intro to "Direct To Helmet" and think "hey, the Flaming Lips!". Still the only time a song sounds a little too derivative is the clear Strokes/Franz Ferdinand homage "Crack The Whip", and for the most part despite some clear influences the Spintos manage to craft something with originality and personality. This is the kind of album that should be blaring in the car stereos of hip teenagers all summer, and I mean that in the best way.

Nice and Nicely done is that perfect mid ninties indie album you never heard because it came out ten years later. Catchy hooks, smart choruses and a marching rhythm section lead you through a world of backyard gnomes, WB reruns, and of course, Atari. Utilizing two main singers, Nick Krill and Thomas Hiughes (who play guitar and bass respectivly), and led by Krill's Stephen Malkumus style vocals, the Spinto Band deftly manuever the indie rock totem pole without ever getting stuck in the same place. Oh Mandy, a beautiful mandolin driven tribute perfectly captures the bands irresitably poppy sound, while current single "Direct to Helmet" jitters its way into your brain thanks to Jeff Hobsons impecable marching drum beat, Hughes' matching bassline, and group harmonies that would make even Brian Wilson crack a smile..
Forget Pavement reissues, catch it before the hype and see a band that is right now making music to live by. Nice and Nicely done does not disappoint.