|
|
SPIV
Bio |
Contact
|
Home
|
Music
|
Photos
|
Reviews
|
Spiv Tips
|
Tour
|
Website
CRITIC'S CHOICE in
WESTWORD
BY CATALINA SOLTERO
 |
|
From the Week of Thursday, April 1, 2004 |
In entertainment,
absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder; it makes the mind go
blank. Spiv likes to go away just long enough to be
forgotten, then hop back into the lives of Denverites like a
long-lost lover, hoping you'll spend the night with the act.
Like those in a good tryst, Spiv's always pulling out new
tricks, usually in its lineup; the most recent change is the
addition of Bob Rupp on drums. Sure, everyone seems to have
rolled in the musical hay with Rupp at one time or another, but
that doesn't mean this time around won't be just as satisfying.
A taste of the familiar with a joyful bounce, Spiv is fun and
sugary pop rock. Chris Barber is the band's constant
conquistador, bringing his wares to venues near and far, playing
Playboy parties as well as local showcases, with
ever-changing accompaniment. But Barber manages to keep the
hooks solid despite the tumultuous cast: His melodies rock
and roll. Spiv song snippets stick in your head and tumble
off your tongue for weeks after a single listen. Get your fix
before Barber and his roving band disappear again: Spiv plays
Herman's Hideaway on Friday, April 2, and Cricket on the Hill on
Saturday, April 3.
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From Glass Eye (Toledo, OH):
Power pop disciple Chris Barber is back
with his second full-length effort as Spiv (British slang for
somebody who uses his wits to avoid a real job). Here, he sings
and bashes his guitar around for ten swell tracks, including the
four he originally teased listeners with on a 2001 EP.
A son of the Pacific Northwest, Barber and pals, like
brother/guitarist Jeremy and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies (on
a number of instruments), have a skewed sense of humor that
flits between dead-on earnestness and outright mockery,
sometimes within a single verse. Barber also has an unshakable
ear for melody that would have the crew of the Titanic humming
as the ship went down.
Tracks like "Everybody’s a Rock Star Tonight" and "Seedy
Release" from 2001 are joined by equally choice newer cuts like
"Not for Years" - a lover-spurning worthy of prime-era Kinks -
and the rousingly bitter "Songs to Sway To."
Fortune smiles on listeners again as Barber also recruits "VIPs
of the Street" from 2001, a track that’s more or less the Pet
Shop Boys trying to be hip and relevant if they had spent a lot
of time in Utah and Washington state. Let’s hope Barber, Spiv’s
most accomplished spiv, keeps fighting the good fight.
Frank Esposito
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From All Music Guide:
Crunchy power pop is the name of the
game on Spiv's Don'tcha Know?. And despite terrible cover
art, Spiv puts together one of the most raucous and downright
insidiously grooving records of the genre. Sure there's the
right amount of Big Star here, but unlike bands who just
follow in the footsteps of the great Chilton and Bell, Spiv
seems to share the same influences, and then piles a few more on
top. Spiv calls it “Brit-pop voodoo" - with the spirit of the
Who (“Not For Years"), the Beatles, the Jam
and the Clash all making appearances. There are a few
weak tracks, like the slightly goofy “Everybody's a Rock Star
Tonight", but they are so overshadowed by otherwise tight,
propulsive songwriting - the self-explanatory “Beatley", the
Momus meets Pulp “VIPs of the Street", the
Elliott Smith-esque “Seedy Release" - that Don'tcha Know?
should be a welcome addition to any record collection. -
Charles Spano
CHOICE
CUTS FEBRUARY 2003 The
Latest & Greatest in Indie Music & Beyond
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Album:
Don’tcha Know
Suite101.com: Adam McKibbin
The Scoop:
For my money, Ken Stringfellow has just about as
consistent a Midas touch as anybody in the biz. The erstwhile
member of The Posies--who also has a fine solo career
underway-wears a number of virtuoso hats (producer, bassist,
backup vocalist) on this irresistible batch of power pop. The
real motor that runs the Spiv machine, however, is Chris Barber,
who fuses the sunshine-y melodies of pop’s golden era with the
cheeky, hipster modernity of indie-pop. The album has a great
arc, beginning with some peppy guitar mini-blitzkriegs,
including the early fan favorite “Everybody’s a Rock Star
Tonight,” then venturing through some mid-tempo late-night
singalongs (“Songs To Sway To”) before finally sliding into a
pair of reflective, stroll-through-the-town-square closers (the
appetizingly titled “Seedy Release” and “Because I’m In Love”).
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Spiv, Dont'cha Know? (Pop Sweatshop 2003)
Don'tcha Know
is a slick power-pop production that just might end up on my Top
20 Albums of 2003 list. I am not sure if it will make Ginger
Baker's list, but that is not the point. The album instantly
caught my attention with "Don'tcha Know" (an all-out rocker)
followed by the Billy Bragg-ish "Not for Years". Personally, I
feel that "Everybody's a Rock Star Tonight" is the best track on
Don'tcha Know. The rest of the album is impressive except
for the Euro-trash-techno-rap tune "VIPs of the Street."
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From: PAST AND PRESENT: (website
in DENMARK)
Don’tcha Know
The guy on the cover of this album, who
I assume is the guy referred to as Spiv in this context, really
looks a whole lot like Elvis Presley. Yeah, he does, with the
hair-style and everything. On the other side of the cover, he
even does a real Elvis move while holding an electric guitar,
while the whole atmosphere drips of the 60’s. This guy seems to
know and love his Elvis, and it even shows a little in his
music. I mean, this is not totally 50’s rock n’ roll, but it
definitely has a 50/60’s vibe to it, though. We’re talking
really entertaining and catchy rock music here with memorable
sing-a-long choruses and the whole package... Don’t believe me?
Check out the fabulous “Everybody’s A Rock Star Tonight”. That
song on its’ own is worth getting the whole CD for, even if you
think the rest of it sucks. Yeah, it’s that good. Truth is
though, that the rest of the CD doesn’t suck, and even though
none of the other tracks may hit you as hard as “Everybody’s A
Rock Star Tonight”, there are still quite a few enjoyable pop
songs to get into here. (JJJJJJ)
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From: INTERNETEXPLOITER.COM
The opening cut of this album,
Don'cha Know comes out blasting from the speakers. High
energy. Loud. Plenty of tambourine. The chorus fleshes out the
tune nicely. Some excellent writing and a great lead off for
what could be a great album. But first, let's talk about this
cover art. I don' t know if many people (or anyone at all) is
familiar with NGen.Its currently this prototype software that
randomly generates "art work" for albums, posters, web sites and
anything else where you need something to look "artsy" or
futuristic or some level of what we think is sophistication.
I've used it many times actually. I think they used something
like that to make the album art. On the back is the guy
(pictured left) rocking out in his bowling shirt and guitar
while some Applebee's waitress talks to Dr. Who's tardis.
The Brits haven't used those booths in years and years and
years btw. Anyway, the opening cut didn't fit at all with the
art so if you see this disc, don't be fooled.
The guy rocking with the stratocaster
is in fact Chris Barber, a veteran to the NW music scene
and essentially the magic behind Spiv.
What do you get with this disc? Well,
other than the opening piece of pop rock perfection, there is a
lot of Paul McCartney style songwriting going on. The 2nd
track Not For Years and Beatley [duh] both
have that Fixing a Hole feel. Overall, the album has a
strong British flavor to it. If you like that kind of thing,
you'll be in hog heaven. Even the name Spiv, is British in
origin but what isn't now a days now that we've decided to bomb
England as possible haven for terrorists.
There's a lot of humor in the lyrics
and it comes across in Everybody's a Rock Star Tonight. I
think my favorite track on the disc was When We Woke Up.
The organ sound they blend in right before the guitar break is
bad ass. I think credit is do for Ken Stringfellow
who produced the album. According to the liner notes he played
keys so I guess that's him banging away. The stacked vocals are
great on this song. I wish they would have put that really high
voice on top of it ala Sting and The Police ca
1982.
Track 8, VIPs of the Streets is
more of that humor mentioned above. This may be Spiv's
psychedelic period of the album as they heavily reverberate the
drums to make it sound like a drum machine. Oh and then Spiv
raps over it . Urrggh. Bad Kitty. And it's 5 minutes long.
If they were making fun of white rappers, cool but not 5 minutes
cool. The monotone white, Beck, rap days are over.
OK, here's the crazy thing about this
tune. Listen to the sample and tell me I shouldn't be in charge
of signing acts to Sony. If they replaced the voice with a
English sounding female, then slap a little bit of the C&C
Music Factory big black gospel singer in the background,
you'd have an underground rave sensation. Everybody dance now!!!
Overall, not a bad disc from the guys
at PopSweatshop. They deliver as the name suggests. 9 out
of 10 tracks are passable. At least 3 cuts are really really
good. This could be your new favorite album. - El Mako
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From: Glorious Noise:
I know you shouldn't judge a book by
its cover. Or a cd. But after you realize that you're listening
to more bad promo cds than music you actually like, you start to
look for ways to weed out the absolute crap. Spiv's Don'tcha
Know boasts what is quite possibly the worst album artwork
in the history of recorded music. The picture on the cover sort
of looks like Pat La Penna though, so I decided to give it a
listen (as opposed to writing a review without actually
listening to the record, a trick I learned from Richard Meltzer,
and first attempted in my recent Foo Fighters review as somewhat
of an homage to Meltzer).
The funny thing is that when I first
put on the album, I was shocked that the first song, "Don'tcha
Know," was actually good. It sounds like a mid-seventies
Kiss-style rocker. But then each song got less and less good
until finally there was some kind of looped sample and "rapping"
that was so lame and so bad that I had to rip the cd out of my
walkman and hurl it off the El platform like it was a frisbee
covered in anthrax.
I held onto the jewel case though
because it's so damn funny.
By Jake Brown, January 02, 2003.
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
Don'tcha Know
RATING: (5 logos is max
rating)
From the outside looking in, I was pretty weary of Spiv’s
Don’tcha Know. The cover shows the face of an Elvis/Ken-lookin’
dude. That would have to be Chris Barber, the man who started
Spiv back in 1997. That, coupled with the colors, spirals, paid
models, and London phone booths…I didn’t know if I should even
push play. But I did, I had to make sure.
After 1999’s By Definition and 2000’s Junior,
Barber earned the respect of Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) who
lends not only production help but also performs here (bass,
keyboards, harmony vocals). It’s definitely not a bad
thing for Spiv to get help from Stringfellow. It’s also not
demoralizing to know that Stringfellow has a guilty pleasure
like Spiv goin’ on. That isn’t to say that Don’tcha Know
doesn’t have some of the elements that make a pop masterpiece.
When I finally pushed play I was thankful. Most of the album is
quite catchy, laced with tambourines, prominent vocals and
fuzzed-out crunch guitars. The themes on Don’tcha Know
come complete with a tongue-in-the-cheek and a shake-of-the-hip.
The funniest or most fun (or both, depending on your tastes) is
“Everybody’s a Rock Star Tonight,” boasting lines such as,
“There’s nobody out in the audience because everybody’s on the
stage.”
Unfortunately, I don’t know if much else is going on with
Don’tcha Know. The pace definitely slows for awhile. Drum
duties on Don’tcha Know are split between Toad “Too Tuff”
Tobin and Sean Sippel, with Dehja Clayton giving a hand on
backup vocals with “VIPs of the Street.” Barber definitely tries
some interesting avenues on “VIPs of the Street” and “Because
I’m in Love,” making his record more diverse that originally
thought possible. Maybe more diverse than I can handle.
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From Distortion.us:
When I got this CD, I didn't even know
how to go about saying "Spiv." Say it just as it looks, “Spiv.”
Spiv is British slang for someone who uses their wit to avoid
getting a real job. But what exactly is a real job? A job
involves anything that deals with work, and trying to avoid
something could technically be called a job...but not a real
one. Wait, now I'm confused. If you don't get all technical like
I just did, it makes sense. The attitude of Spiv is pretty much,
screw the real jobs, get a fun one where you get to play rock
music all day and use it as an excuse as to why you don't have a
real job, whatever that is. Or just listen to Spiv and act like
all that matters in life is rock and roll, cause it's just more
fun that way.
Like most bands, Spiv's come a long way
in the last few years and the line up has changed quite a few
times. Chris Barber became Spiv in 1997. At first he played near
the West coast and Rocky Mountain regions, recording a few EPs
in Colorado, then signing with Pop Sweatshop in the Spring of
'99. The first full length album, By Definition, featured
his brother Jeremy Barber on bass, and Sean Sippel on drums, and
was released in October of 1999. The next EP to follow was
Junior, recorded in December of 1999 by Steve Wold at Moon
studios in Olympia, WA. Junior features Dustin Ingram on the
drums, and Edwin Peters on bass. This lineup didn't last, so
Sean Sippel returned on drums, and Kevin Stringfellow (The
Posies, Big Star, REM) was called to play keyboards, bass and
guitar for the 2001 release Everybody's a Rock Star Tonight,
recorded at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, WA. The latest Spiv
creation is Don'tcha Know, scheduled for release February
25, 2003. Stringfellow stayed with Chris Barber on this one, and
added Toad "Too Tuff" Tobin, from fellow Pop Sweatshop artists
Soylint Green, on drums.
Spiv's music is a blend of
sometimes-humorous lyrics, and an original rock and roll sound
that's not that hardcore, but not pop. It's definitely not
easily defined, but it's catchy. I'd call it a combination of
sometimes a hard rock with punk-like lyrics that you can really
rock out to. Think variety, because there's not one defining
word to describe Spiv.
Junior,
the second EP released by Spiv, is a 6-track album filled with
the rockish mind-set of Spiv and the attention-grabbing lyrics.
Track one uses a clever play on words that still confuses me but
makes me laugh. "Why did you try to fix it/When you know that it
was broken/And now the thing is broken cause you tried to fix
it." This one will have you playing your air guitar in no time
for sure, the guitar parts are super catchy. Track three, "Day
Glo Miniskirt," has the variety I speak of. It starts slower
than the rest and sounds like a country western song. Track four
has a "Video Killed The Radio Star"-reminiscent tune. The lyrics are
amusing but they aren't so out there that you're lost. "He left
home to be an astronaut/Life on earth just isn't what he
thought." Then later on, "All of his life as an astronaut/Life
on earth is better than I thought/At least I can take off this
suit and breathe the air." That one's my favorite. Chris Barber
is a witty man, and it makes for an interesting album.
Spiv is defiantly a band to check out
if you like catchy rock songs...who doesn't? Watch out for the
next album, Don'tcha Know, on February 25, 2003.
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From: Cent.com
Spiv
Don'tcha Know?
(Pop Sweatshop)
Spiv is mostly Chris Barber, with some
serious help from producer Ken Stringfellow (he once of the
Posies, etc.) and some friends. Barber prefers jaunty pop tunes,
the kind that sound like old-timey rock and roll. Cleaned-up
garage fare, I suppose.
And man, does he write some catchy
tunes. Each of these songs is bound up in a rock-solid hook, and
they're just as toe-tappingly refreshing as they are hummable.
Purty nice.
Stringfellow keeps a light hand on the
knobs, allowing plenty of space in the sound. There's not much
fuzz, but rather plenty of room for the songs to make a good
impression. I get the feeling that I can really hear inside
Barber's mind. That's a nice job from the booth, folks.
But the star is Barber's writing. He's
got a real knack for writing fluffy stuff, and he has a right to
flaunt it. This disc is an effervescent piece of candy, but boy
it sure goes down nice.
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From: www.bettawreckonzie.com:
Spiv suffers from an identity crisis.
It's as though he was sitting in Ken Stringfellow's studio, and
they were listening to their respective record collections, and
decided to write a song in the style of their 10 favorite pop
artists. And these are GOOD songs. Unfortunately, the record is
plagued with inconsistency. Spiv is obviously a versatile
artist, but he seems to be trying too hard to showcase his
versatility. If he could reign it in and pick ONE musical
direction to focus on, such as the
Elliott-Smith-in-his-Beatles-period-esque "Songs to Sway to," he
could return a catchy, interesting, and excellent pop record. As
it stands, Don'tcha Know just doesn't come together as a
whole. Gratuitous non-music-related aside: The graphic design on
this record is unforgivably atrocious. Please fix with future
releases. - Chris Worth
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
From
Longhousepoetry.com:
I'm writing this on New
Year's Day, ten in the morning, and am listening to a Denver
band called Spiv, who originates from Chris Barber's interesting
voice. Everybody on this list would probably dig them, they got
this peculiar knack. They arrived in the mail a few weeks ago
and have found their one disc, Don'tcha Know?, a rare breed
divided between messy garage-band rock and George Harrison-like
acoustic songs. They aren't afraid to make cringing mistakes
with styles as they push their way to a musical rum, which to
me, shows when they drop the pop-alternative hoolahoop, leaving
Barber to strum his guitar beneath a virtual soundscape in
"Because I'm In Love". The spirit of true song is here, they
just need someone to tell 'em. Onward...
|
|
