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Morning Spy in Performer

Performer Magazine:
"It's pretty tough to explain that uber-inclusive catchphrase known as indie rock. But for Morning Spy's Jon Rooney, the concept is a whole lot easier to pin down. "Like thousands of other bands, we're truly descendants of the third Velvet Underground record," says Rooney, who sings and plays guitar for the San Francisco-based band. "That's all indie rock is to me a reaction to that record and a dedication to comfortable clothing."

Traces of the Velvet Underground - strike that, indelible footprints - are all over Morning Spy's music. That third album, the Velvets' eponymous 1969 release, didn't leave rock 'n roll behind, but turned it into music for lying on your bed in the morning, eyes closed, blissed out and half dreaming. Morning Spy make similarly wistful pop music: the kind that doesn't claim to be iconoclastic, but, when done right, finds freedom of movement and leaves footprints of its own on audiences. "One of the best aspects of our band is that we can drastically change our sound from one song to the next, without sounding too cheesy," says guitarist James Spadaro. "I'd like to think that our music is semi-psychedelic indie rock for hipsters and bookworms."

Before we get too bogged down in genres, know the following: it all starts with a distinct knack for the basic cornerstones of good pop music satisfying vocal hooks, boy/girl harmonizing, elements of romantic folk, guitar breaks, and sweet bass lines, like the opening notes of the exemplary song, "Slow Flood" (from their 2004 debut album Subsequent Light), which echo in your brain for days. Morning Spy can also get fuzzy, employing spacey distortion in the vein of My Bloody Valentine or Yo La Tengo. Like any good music, its intricacies might provide a close listen, or supply the blurry soundtrack to a beautiful dream where details matter not, but the afterglow is radiant and addictive.

Comparisons to such indie rock luminaries at this infant stage of Morning Spy's career make Rooney simultaneously (and perhaps predictably) thrilled and humble. "Yo La Tengo, Luna, Pavement, the Velvet Underground. Those are the giants of the canon for us," he says. "If anything, the comparisons might be unfair to those bands." Morning Spy formed in the summer of 2001 when Rooney and drummer Mark Loftin got together and started what was originally intended as a recording project. It gave Rooney the opportunity to hone his songwriting and singing chops, and he asked a college friend from back in Philadelphia, Allison Goffman, to hang out and do some vocals. Goffman was learning guitar at the time, and the trio decided to give it a go as a band. Last summer, they felt something was missing and recruited an additional guitarist to round out the group. Enter Spadaro, whose guitar prowess and equipment knowledge fit the need serendipitously. Coincidentally, Spadaro was also from Philadelphia and had lived on the same street as Rooney years earlier.

Rooney came up with the name Morning Spy, which certainly seems appropriate for the band's sound. "At one point I made up a long list of potential band names that hadn't already been taken and were, in my opinion, oddly evocative," he recalls. "When Mark and I started the recording project, we wisely picked Morning Spy over Treble Cat and First Monster."

Rooney continues to be the main songwriter at the baseline level, though the whole band contributes to the songs' evolution during practice. He is constantly writing and demo-ing new material at home, and many of his songs never make it past that initial stage. Others are agreed upon by the other members and added to their live sets.

The biggest distinction between the various Morning Spy songs is the division of vocal duties. There are clear Jon songs, where Rooney stamps a sort of warm drone on the tunes, modeled after Dan Bejar of the New Pornographers and Destroyer. Goffman's vocals are sweeter and more playful (a la Juliana Hatfield or Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis). The two styles are incredibly complementary, however, and leave room for a ton of versatility in the creative process.

"Sometimes when writing a song I'll hear it in Allison's voice rather than mine," Rooney explains. "In one or two cases, we've switched vocalists to try to get a different sound and that's worked. Occasionally, the bass part is too complicated for me to sing and play at the same time or vice versa, so that'll determine who sings it."

"It's usually pretty clear which songs Jon should sing and which ones I should sing," adds Goffman. "His falsetto is scary."

When the two come together and harmonize, a sweet romantic undertone emerges, laying ground for the dreamiest of soundscapes. The pair repeat the phrase "I want to sleep the day away" on the touching "Sweet Taste of Joy" over a pretty little slide guitar riff, and you instantly know it's a sleep borne of pure satisfaction.

For a young and upcoming band, Morning Spy remains in its honeymoon phase that wonderful early stage of a relationship when firsts are happening all around you and every milestone is cause for celebration. The band has been playing around the San Francisco scene and developing a loyal following, while songs from Subsequent Light have been heard on college radio and, most impressively, NPR's "All Things Considered." Their newest record, The Silver Age, comes out on the first of the month.

In the vast SF scene, however, really getting noticed can be a bona fide challenge. "It's been really hard, especially for a band made up largely of transplants who don't necessarily have hook-ups at local labels or radio stations. We've gotten much more attention outside the city from online zines than from anything local. Plus, we've really had nothing to do musically with either the '80s electro-clash complicated haircut scene here or the garage rock revival. We don't even sound British."

Spadaro has a slightly different take. "It seems like a lot of the bands in the city are doing the same thing, going way out of their way to sound different," he says. "I think that makes it possible to stand out as a band that is writing palatable songs."

In June of '04, Morning Spy released a 6-song EP called Two Horses on Tucson-based label KEEP Recordings. KEEP also dropped the band's recent follow-up LP The Silver Age, in cooperation with Rooney's newly formed label Abandoned Love Records. The newer stuff features more solid songwriting and is a bit more experimental, including a 9-minute instrumental track on Two Horses called "The Demise of an African Businessman." The EP's title track, arguably its best and definitely its most catchy, doesn't stray far from the band's Subsequent Light formula and is a foundation of the new album.

All the studio work looks like it will soon pay off, as the band plans their first West Coast tour, to support The Silver Age, this May. "Artistically, we're gelling more as a band now more than ever and we're feeling like we're starting to come into our own," says Goffman. At this rate, Rooney will have plenty more opportunities to espouse his commitments to Lou Reed and comfy clothes."

Jeremy Sampson - February 2005