There"s so much portent in the works of The Spinto Band that it makes a person feel like he"s been trying to count all of the hot stars in the night sky, reached 1,247 and then been distracted so severely that he has to start back at zero to get there again and beyond. It goes on and on like that as if calendars and memories didn"t exist because the process is willfully undertaken again and again, as many times as it takes. Oh yeah, that"s where the money is, right in the center of gravitational pull, right where you can"t get to it conveniently without the express written consent of every direction in every dimension.
The Daytrotter interview:
*Does it ever strike you as funny that you guys and Barry Manilow have something in common -- a song with the name Mandy in the title?*
Jonathan Eaton: Ya -- we really want to make a song called "Copacabana," but then it may not strike anyone as funny or coincidence anymore.
Sam Hughes: It's very possible that we have even more in common than just a song title, but I'll tell you the truth here -- I've never met the man.
Nick Krill: Yeah, it is kind of funny how those associations get started. I would love to get some association with Desi Arnaz.
*Which female name lends itself least favorably to song?*
JE: I was going to say Topanga, but a few years ago in the old basement recording days of The Spinto Band, Tom wrote a rap song about Topanga from "Boy Meets World," so I suppose it is not that unfavorable... Instead, we will go with the name Meredith Vieira.
Thomas Hughes: You can always make something out of the worst of names. Take the Four Tops' "Bernadette," for example. And look out for our next iTunes exclusive single, "Meredith Vieira," in the upcoming month.
*Do you, as policy, let sleeping dogs lie?*
JE: As policy, we not only let them lie, we sit down next to them, check them for ticks and then whisper to them in cutesy voices.
SH: Pretty much what Jon said, but sometimes I'm bored so I'll kind of push them and say, "Hey doggy, hey doggy," to incite some kind of reaction, but then they just go back to sleep and I just feel like a jerk.
NK: Yesterday, I witnessed a pack of domesticated dogs howling together, and I think it changed my personal dog policy to, "Try to provoke group howl."
*What doesn't Delaware's department of tourism tell us about the state that it should?*
JE: That Judge Reinhold is from Wilmington. Or maybe that it has the highest cancer rate of any state. I'm not sure if that's true, but if I were a department of tourism, I would certainly leave that out.
TH: Remember when it was really trendy for big cities to have a signature mascot or animal that local artists created different renditions of? Chicago had cows, Seattle had pigs, Wilmington, Delaware had dinosaurs. But they weren't even realistic looking dinosaurs. They looked like Barney. Although one artist made a Judge Reinhold dinosaur which was pretty cool.
SH: I've always been under the impression that everything about Delaware could be told in a 4-page tourism pamphlet. Everything.
NK: I'd like to add that Judge Reinhold and I share the same Wilmington barber. When in Wilmington, get a chop at Larry's.
*What's the best/most ferocious wild animal that you've actually seen in the wild?*
JE: In Arizona, we came across a wild scorpion. Jeff took a picture with his phone. Besides the scorp, I'd have to say the deer tick. They're everywhere around here right now -- all filled with Lyme disease and waiting to bite you.
SH: Now the ferocity of this animal could be argued, but a couple of weeks ago I hit a deer in the middle of an interstate and it totally fucked up my car. If it had been a scorp, I'd have killed the sucker 20 times over.
*What are the plans for the next record? When we last talked, they sounded up in the air.*
JE: Oh funny you ask. Just this week, we finalized some plans to hop over to the west coast and spend a few weeks with Dave Trumfio at his studio in LA. Most of the record is written and we are all super anxious to put it to tape. It should be recorded by the end of August and on record shelves sometime in 2008. We put together an EP as well, hopefully that will see the light of day in the coming months, but who knows. Also, we need to wait for our manager to get out of a Mexican prison.
*Have you ever put any D's on any bitches? How did that new bridge in "Oh Mandy" come to be? Where can that original be heard?*
JE: I thought about putting some D's on my bitch, but my credit limit is already maxed out.
TH: Our initial collaboration with emerging hip hop artist Rich Boy came about when some DJ placed the vocals of "Throw Some D's" overtop of the music of "Oh Mandy" and put it on the internet -- http://www.myspace.com/djthemjeans. We were so impressed with the result we just had to emulate it.
*Who's the biggest gamer in the band?*
JE: A close call between Jeff, Joe and Sam -- but I'd say we are all pretty big gamers. I won the Go For Pro Video Game tournament along with Albert Birney (the 7th Spinto) in Rochester this year, so I figure I get some love there too. Each year all our friends try to get together and play all sorts of old Nintendo games and listen to hip-hop records. We call it the Go For Pro tourney.
SH: I'd give the nod to Joe on this one. He actually has 3D modeling programs to make games now. He is a pro for sure.
*What's the best thing you've ever won?*
JE: I won $200 playing Keno in Kalamazoo once on tour, it was nice because it made me think I was even steven on all the times I had lost in various gambling adventures.
TH: When my brother Sam and I were young, our parents enrolled us in a "tennis camp" over the summer because they didn't want us to spend our days indoors with our television and video games. We were pretty lousy tennis players, so in an act of pity, the coaches partnered us up with the best players at camp for the doubles tournament. We ended up in the finals competing against each other, and I ended up winning first prize and Sam got second. Both prizes were decorative plates.
SH: By the way, during the finals of that epic tennis match I'm pretty sure I double-faulted every single time I served. Not just once per game, but like 20 double-faults in a row. I couldn't serve worth shit when I was 7.
NK: I won the third grade stilt-walking race. It was amazing, and a great comeback after my last place finish in the second grade hoop rolling race.
*What's made you think the most this week?*
JE: Well, the last 24 hours I have had that whole Six Flags foot accident in my head non-stop. I was thinking about taking some time to go to Six Flags this summer, but after a girl lost both her feet, it's time to rethink.
SH: I just saw that Barack Obama Girl thing on the news where the scantily clad girl sings about having a crush about Barack Obama. I thought a lot about how this video was worth talking about on CNN for 15 minutes while news anchors said creepy things about how cute the girl is.
NK: I recently found an archive of BBC Research and Development While Papers on acoustics, this, along with my recent curiosity in German built diesel engines, and my many trips to hardware stores this week has sort of made me think a lot about the whole idea of finding the simplest, most efficient solution to a given problem vs. the approach of finding a rock solid over-engineered resolution. So that and the safe work load of everyday building materials, have been on my mind.