Spoon - "The Underdog (Demo)" 7"

Spoon – “The Underdog (Demo)” 7”

Merge, 2007

Acquired: Included with GaGaGaGaGa, New, 2007

Price: $0

This is a very weird promo 7”, but hey, who does promo 7”s any more? I’ll take it. It’ll do. What you get here is an acoustic version of “The Underdog” (which, of all of Spoons incredible singles, seems to be the one most championed by bro-dudes everywhere please kill me) and an experimental b-side entitled "It Took Me a Rumor to Wonder, Now I’m Convinced I’m Going Under.” “The Underdog” demo is fine because it shows that Britt Daniel knows what the fuck he is doing. He knows any great pop song can hold its own in the sparest of arrangements, and while some of Spoon’s weirder cuts aren’t built for dude-and-guitar arrangements, Daniel could release an album of the Spoon singles in this fashion and I’d give it so many spins. The thing about Spoon is that they’re basically a classic rock band in the making. Classic rock for 2035. And when we look back at Spoon 20 years from now, we will see a trail of absolutely devastating singles. You could argue about which is their best album, but the fact that you’d argue means they’re all just goddamn great. GaGaGaGaGa is their high watermark in my book. The three singles—“The Underdog,” “You Got Yr Cherry Bomb,” and “Don’t You Evah”—could be the finest hour for three separate one-hit wonders. The lead-off track “Don’t Make Me a Target” is as gripping a track one as you’d expect from a group that can probably attribute 25% of their fanbase to gripping track ones. “The Ghost of You Lingers” is one of those aforementioned experimental leaning tracks that sounds exactly like its title. The one-two punch at the end with “Finer Feelings” and “Black Like Me” practically forces you to become born again in the church of rock n’ roll. “Black Like Me” especially. That’s one I’d like to hear on that dream, Britt Daniel – Spoon, Acoustic record. That’s the closer. That’s another single for a one-hit wonder and it’s not even a damn single! But yeah, this is a weird 7”, but Spoon is a pretty weird band. I mean, sure they’re violently accessible, but these guys get up to weird shit all the time and it’s the juxtaposition of that envelope pushing and the fist-to-the-face rock n’ roll that makes them so compelling.