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Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction

The Return of The Blue Moods of Spain

March 11, 2010 by Scott Timberg

How often you arrive at a club and kick yourself for having missed the opening band? Not bloody often I’ll bet. But when I got to Spaceland on Saturday to find I’d arrived too late to see a rare (and barely announced) show by LA indie kings Spain, my heart sunk into the kind of melancholy the group conjures so well in song.

Spain, which is led by Josh Haden (son of legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden, bro of Haden triplets) made two of the most ethereal, melodic, and — here’s a word I try not to overuse — haunting LPs ever in the 1990s. Their second record, She Haunts My Dreams, may be my favorite breakup record (a genre in which I specialize.) Johnny Cash covered Haden “Spiritual” on Unchained, one of his American records.

But after one more LP and a best-of record, the band broke up, sort of, and has been dormant for a while. While I missed their spot opening for the Clientele, I was able to briefly meet Josh and the band’s keyboardist, and to buy a two-song single — “I’m Still Free” and “Hang Your Head Down Low” — which is damned fine. The first song is especially affecting, and the second a bit too slow for me but packs one of their best-ever understated guitar solos.

I guess what I like most about the band, besides the genius of the songwriting, and the strong playing, the combination of tension and intimacy that led to their being described as a “slowcore” band back in the day, is its use of the Haden family’s Missouri hill-country roots. That is, this is indie music with a twang that doesn’t sound much like alt-country. (Ghost of a twang?) It’s abstracted and oddly folky at the same time. (In this way, it resembles the early Ornette Coleman records Charlie played on, though it sounds nothing like them.)

Here is Josh Haden’s blog, which includes Spain news as well as his thoughts on music, politics, and so on.

And here is the new Spain website. Keep your eyes on these if you don’t want to make the same mistake I did. And watch The Misread City for more news on this heavenly band.

Filed Under: country, hadens, indie, jazz, Johnny Cash, Los Angeles, Spaceland, Spain (band)

Comments

  1. Matt says

    March 13, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    Hi Scott-

    Loved this post! I’m Matt Mayhall, drummer from the band Spain. Just wanted to let you know we’re playing at the Satellite (formerly Spaceland) this coming Wednesday, March 16.

Scott Timberg

I'm a longtime culture writer and editor based in Los Angeles; my book "CULTURE CRASH: The Killing of the Creative Class" came out in 2015. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon and Los Angeles magazine, and I was an LA Times staff writer for six years. I'm also an enthusiastic if middling jazz and indie-rock guitarist. (Photo by Sara Scribner) Read More…

Culture Crash, the Book

My book came out in 2015, and won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. The New Yorker called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life"

I urge you to buy it at your favorite independent bookstore or order it from Portland's Powell's.

Culture Crash

Here is some information on my book, which Yale University Press published in 2015. (Buy it from Powell's, here.) Some advance praise: With coolness and equanimity, Scott Timberg tells what in less-skilled hands could have been an overwrought horror story: the end of culture as we have known … [Read More...]

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