This is the third part in a continuing series on music at AU. Next Monday: On a Sensual Note.
The Spinto Band calls to mind everything from the Beatles to Ween, but have a style -- and substance -- all their own. Nick Krill, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the Wilmington, Del., band that began recording in 1996, when the members were still in middle school.
"Most of our weekends of our youth were spent at slumber parties in our basement studio, inhaling our share of mold and trying to make some interesting music while we're at it," Krill said.
Even in these formative years, the Spinto Band sounded anything but elementary. But if their style sounds rich today, with a remarkable ripeness that seems almost inherited, it's because in the beginning, it was.
The Spinto Band got its start when Krill discovered some unrecorded music in the attic, written by his late grandfather, Roy Spinto.
Krill thought it would be interesting to hear these unrecorded songs, so when he and his friends all received instruments for Christmas, they got to work. They inherited his grandfather's name and music. The Spinto Band was born.
"We all just got these instruments and playing my granddad's songs was the path of least resistance for us," Krill said. "So we started playing that, and then we figured out it would be more fun to write our own songs."
Soon after, the band began recording original material written by Krill and bandmate Thomas Hughes in their basement studio. With bass, drums, synthesizers and four guitars, the Spinto Band carved out a sound that was at once refreshingly daring and at ease with itself. Krill said the band members' musical tastes have been refined over time and the band's style has adapted to mirror this change, but some lasting influences have predominated.
"Our musical tastes are just a revolving door basically," Krill said. "There's no constant with us. We just draw inspiration from anything that's interesting, whether it be from a Flaming Lips album or Talking Heads album or Electric Light Orchestra."
The band has released seven albums on their own label, Spintonic Productions, and produced the "Good Answer" EP with Alex the Great Recordings.
"When you're in ninth grade and you've got a shoebox full of 90-minute cassette tapes full of music, the next logical step is to release an album," Krill said. "And after we did that three or four times ... we might as well put our friends' albums out too. It's a symbiotic relationship with other bands. We'll put out their albums, sell their records on tour with us, and spread the gospel. From there it just blossomed into incorporating film and video to books and magazines."
The Spinto Band has also gained an enthusiastic following with live performances, playing such hotspots as the Knitting Factory in New York City and C'est What in Toronto. This past summer, the band enlisted the help of a friend with "a station wagon and nothing to do," and embarked on a tour of the East Coast and Midwest, playing shows from Vermont to D.C. to Wisconsin. As a result, they would receive rave reviews from weekly newspapers all over the country, including the Philadelphia Weekly and the New York Metro.
When college is in session, the band members are scattered along the East Coast, with Krill the only member at AU, but they still manage to get together to make music. On Oct. 13, the Spinto Band performed at the Acme Underground in New York City as part of the CMJ Music Marathon.
"CMJ was fun because as soon as we were done with the show, we walked around New York and found Chuck D ranting about music and politics," Krill said.
The Spinto Band's musical inheritance turned a bunch of friends into a basement rock band - but their inventiveness, creativity and style will grant this rock band a legacy that exceeds lo-fi basement rock.
On Nov. 12 the Spinto Band will play D.C.'s Warehouse Next Door in Chinatown. To hear MP3s of the Spinto Band, check out their Web site at www.spintoband.com.
