(and it is)

http://www.spinner.ca/2009/12/09/spiral-beach-take-their-music-to-the-streets/

Bollywood-Inspired Spiral Beach Take Their Music to the Streets
Posted on Dec 9th 2009 2:30PM by Drew Berner

Some bands seclude themselves while they’re writing music, carefully guarding their creative process from the outside world. Spiral Beach are not like those bands.

The quartet, known for their exceptional approach to performance, regularly workshopped the songs they were writing for their recent album, the awkwardly titled ‘The Only Really Thing,’ on the streets of Toronto’s hippie conclave, Kensington Market.

“We wrote a lot of the songs over last summer and we were just trying them out in front of people to see if they worked,” drummer and co-songwriter Daniel Woodhead tells Spinner. “That’s always a test — if it’s a good song, it’ll get a good reaction regardless of whether you’re on a stage 20-feet high or if you’re right in front of them in a park.”
The barely-out-of-high school group is renowned for their unique live shows — they regularly build their own stage setups with traffic cones, Christmas lights and cardboard-cutouts and go to great lengths to involve the crowd. The CD-release party for their previous album, ‘Ball,’ involved face-painting, tricycles, a tire swing and grilled cheese sandwiches for their fans. But it’s not as if they’re putting on eccentricities for the crowd — these kids are about having fun even if no one is watching.

Woodhead recalls playing many shows to sparse attendance, but most memorable was a gig in Dallas, Tex. that happened to fall on Thanksgiving. “There were literally zero people at this show,” Woodhead recalls. “It was a very ‘American’ city on the biggest American holiday — everybody’s at dinner. I guess being a Canadian band we didn’t realize it, so we ended up just playing whatever [we felt like]. Joel [Gibb] from [tourmates] the Hidden Cameras came and played on a song of ours, the sound guy came and did a guitar solo on one of the songs. Then we played the first song that we ever wrote together — it’s seven minutes, the longest song we ever wrote.

“When it comes down to it, we’d rather play in a room where people are interested in music, whether it’s full or empty doesn’t even matter,” Woodhead insists. “We played in Minneapolis to maybe eight people, but they were so ridiculously into it — we got the them all onstage so it was like a total dance freak-out. The only 12 people in the room are onstage and the bartender and sound guy were so confused.”

This carnival atmosphere crosses over into their music, which Woodhead insists was more heavily influenced by Indian films than the freak-folk of blogger-sweethearts like Animal Collective.

“The main influence that we were trying to make an obvious connection to is the Bollywood sound from the ’60s and ’70s — all these ridiculous, crazy songs that are unknown on this side of the world,” Woodhead explains. But they weren’t just trying to be different by infusing their music with obscure references.

“It has a sound to it that I think we connected with anyway, I felt like it was close to what we were doing in some weird way, even though we’re not trying to sing in Hindi or anything.”

WATCH us play “Domino” live at the festival
http://www.on3-radio.de/#/_videos/606/spiral-beach-domino-live-at-on3-festival-2009

WATCH us play “7 Girls” live in the studio
http://www.on3-radio.de/#/_videos/622/spiral-beach-7-girls-live-at-on3-radio

WATCH us play “Raising The Snake” live in the studio
http://www.on3-radio.de/#/_videos/621/spiral-beach-raising-a-snake-live-at-on3-radio

WATCH us play “Vagueries” live in the studio
http://www.on3-radio.de/#/_videos/620/spiral-beach-vagueries-live-at-on3-radio

LISTEN to us play “Orange” live on On3Radio
http://www.on3-radio.de/#/_music/894/spiral-beach-orange-live-at-on3-radio

WATCH an interview with a german TV host
http://www.on3-radio.de/#/_videos/586/interview-spiral-beach-super-mario-auf-dem-mars

more live videos from the main festival set coming soon!

-Daniel

On3Radio is legendary in germany, best known for helping bring punk rock and krautrock to the masses 30-some years ago… now they have an annual indoor festival AKA the best party ever!!

we got to Munich a day early and spent the afternoon doing radio and TV performances and interviews (online soon!), then played a show at the Feierwerk club downtown with our Toronto friends Dance Yourself To Death and My Little Pony from Olso. Packed show, amazing crowd, love both of these bands and partied till 5:30am!

the actual festival had sold out in 5 days, even though none of the bands had been in Munich before… playing for a crowd of over 500 people who are guaranteed NOT to have heard your music could go either way, but despite some tech problems they wouldn’t let us leave without an encore! plus we sold out of our CD’s after the show – not bad for our first time in germany…

we also watched Ebony Bones put on one of the best live shows I have ever seen… as well as Pete Doherty playing the worst set in the history of music (plus he tried to steal Airick’s hat!! asshole.)

now, I must pause and mention the food… fast food is pretty much the only option on tour (and that’s totally ok, we aren’t picky when it comes to eats)… but this festival had just about every kind of meat, cheese, fruit, dips, bread, pudding, yoghurt, pasta, rice, soup and chocolate EVERYTHING, and tried to pass it off like it was no big deal. Ha.

afterwards there was a mega- afterparty at the hotel(!) with our new friends My Little Pony, Chris Garneau’s band and Royal Bangs from Tennessee (who were also incredible by the way), blasting some weird future-motown shit and dancing till about 6am when the cops finally came… even the hotel owners came down to party!!!

video and audio from the festival coming soon! here’s some photos to get by till then.

-Daniel

Monday November 23 – Warm-up gig in London, UK at 12 Bar
26 Denmark Pl / 10pm / £5

Friday November 27 – Private party in Munich, DE (email spiralbeach@spiralbeach.com for details)

-Daniel

December 14 – Toronto, ON / MTV Live / 888 Yonge St / FREE / all ages

December 17 – Peterborough, ON / The Red Dog / 189 Hunter St W / 19+ with La Casa Muerte

December 18 – Kingston, ON / The Mansion / 506 Princess St / 19+ with Donlands & Mortimer and Pelt

December 19 – Toronto, ON / The Garrison / 1197 Dundas St W / 19+ with Boys Who Say No, Romo Roto and Heartbeat Hotel

the facebook event for the Toronto show is HERE

also we have more exciting news… just before we left for europe we shot a video for “May Go Round”, keep your eyes peeled!

-Daniel

NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT – follow @snakes_ladders

http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/spiralbeach/?action=view&current=16659_610021297300_202902033_364865.jpg

-Daniel

KAPOW!!

Daniel

also AM NY (one of New York’s daily newspapers) ran a feature on us the day of our CMJ showcase last week… sweet!!

we heart NY… be back soon!

Daniel

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 – Donlands & Mortimer have asked us to join them for one of their weekly shows at C’est What (67 Front St E) – come early, we’re on first! 19+, PWYC

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6 – our longtime tour manager, friend and “fifth member” Ryan Tonkin has opened an artists’ consignment shop called Repsycho – this is THE COOLEST SPOT in Toronto, anyone who is interested in art, zines, music, and DIY culture in general NEEDS to check it out. (676 College St, between Grace and Crawford) We’re playing around midnight. all ages, $5

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7 – The Only Cafe (972 Danforth Ave) Dorian runs shit here. He will flip your pancake, pour your drink, and brighten your darkest hour any time of the day… except today cause we’re playing around 11pm. 19+, PWYC, with The People Of Canada

We’ll have all-new merch for sale at all these shows!

//////TOUR POSTER – $2
///////FIRST ISSUE OF MADDY’S COMIC “STRICTLY HYENA” – $8
////////COPY OF DANIEL’S HANDWRITTEN LYRIC BOOK – $8
/////////”THE ONLY REALLY THING” PHOTO BOOK – $8
//////////”BALL” and “THE ONLY REALLY THING” CD’s – $15
///////////”THE ONLY REALLY THING” 12″ LP – $20
////////////PYLON or “THE ONLY REALLY THING” T-SHIRTS – $20

-Daniel