Of course, the classic example is Gabrielles Wish. If you've been on this blog before, you probably know the story: simply the best band of the last 15 years, get signed by New Order's manager, but then Rob Gretton dies and the world becomes deaf all of a sudden. Can't you hear when music is really special? The scene is classic as well: a post-punk band in Manchester.
But in a parallel universe, on the other face of earth, there's a similar story: Spymob, a sophisticated pop band from Minnesota. They release their debut album, Townhouse Stereo, in 1996, which is now unfortunately unavailable.
Then they slowly build a strong fanbase and get signed by Epic, but then dropped without any release.
Still, at the start of this decade they get noticed by The Neptunes, which make them the backing band of their project N.E.R.D.. Everything seems to finally take the right direction, with an album recorded and scheduled for a release on Arista's subsidiary, Star Trak, owned by The Neptunes.
Something goes probably wrong again, Spymob seem to disappear but the album misteriously emerges on Ruthless Records, distributed by Sony's Red (though I higly suspect the distribution and availability is strongly limited). That's all we know about Spymob since the release.
We also know that Sitting Around Keeping Scores is an absolute masterpiece which would deserve to shine all over the charts. It was released two years ago and only now I review it, but all can I say is that two years later I never get tired of this album, I've heard these songs hundreds of times and they even grow on me. There's not a train trip without a Spymob tune on my MP3 player and each time it sounds great.
Basically, here we have Steely Dan coming from the future.
I've loved Steely Dan, but since them nobody has made such a music, nobody dared to explore so deeply the possibilities of sophisticated pop harmony and arrangements. Prefab Sprout did a similar thing, but from a totally different perspective, much more British. In fact here we have a band sounding like Steely Dan with vintage instruments but also through a totally contemporary attitude, which is the most special thing about Spymob.
It doesn't sound like listening to a retro band, this music stands out so much from all the other derivative music being made today. Yeah, everyone is being inspired from the past today, you have bands inspired by punk, new wave, electro, but we missed a band inspired by the most creative pop ever seen in music history. But Spymob go much further and you often feel like listening to something innovative, as their instrumental and melodic approach is so fresh... and I haven't mentioned the lyrics, a work of genius.
The band is a perfect mix of a strong rhythm section and a sharp guitar combined with John Ostby's talent for emotional piano, beautiful vocals (really reminiscent of Donald Fagen) and imaginative lyrics.
It's difficult to single out tracks from this flawless album. It could be the powerful beginning of 2040, the song from the point of view of a dog It Gets Me Going, the splendidly orchestrated I Still Live At Home ('I guess we're supposed to meet, it said so on a printout sheet'), the soul-funk delight of the title track, the almost glam positivity of Stand Up And Win, the wonderful On Pilot Mountain, National Holidays which talks about divorced parents, the fantastic harmony of Walking Under Green Leaves... or you should hear Thinking Of Someone Else to understand why Ostby can spend an excellent chorus to sing 'Hold me mother, cuddle me closely. Hold me mother, talk to me softly'. The closing German Test Drive really makes you feel like being in the passenger seat, the music does express motion, especially the keyboard pattern and the rollercoasting chorus. But maybe the best track of the album is the astonishing Fly Fly Fishing Poles, a chorus as huge as Jupiter, Steely Dan meet the Beach Boys on the best vocal harmony arrangement heard in this century on 'paddle boats pull up close to the band shell on the shoreline'.
There's still the Spymob official site. It's not been updated since the album release, but you can hear the streaming samples of all the songs.
While you still can buy the album you better check its page on Amazon, from which the album cover is taken.
Check the misteryous page of the band on My Space - Spymob, where you can hear four streaming tracks, the most interesting of which is certainly Give Us A Chance To Call from the lost debut album, Townhouse Stereo.
Eric Fawcett, Spymob's drummer, is also on My Space, with the streaming tracks of his work with N.E.R.D., Kubla Kahn, Mike Doughty and of course Spymob (the title track, Sitting Around Keeping Scores, is even available for download).
There's still a Spymob Yahoo! Group where fans are wondering what happened since the album. I'll try to find out, because we'd really like to hear more from such a talented band. And unique, nobody else is doing music like this while they're away, so they better get back.
