Divan Orange
March 9, 2008
Montreal
M. Fingers

I’d been lamenting the breakup of Montreal’s Royal Mountain Band and choking on my words when back in September I declared their longevity and staying power, but from a stern fall and the mother of all winters Spoon River has emerged from the wreckage of the Mountain.

Comprised of former Mountaineers Jeff Louch and Tavis Eachan Triance, Spoon River essentially represent the ghosts of 70’s rock and its war on slick pop, drum machines and loops devices with an arsenal of wrist slitting four-part harmonies. They’re a back to basics band with a high powered big-stage sound with vocals evoking the wail of captain missing leg against the perils of a sailor’s revenge. The songwriting is nostalgic and sombre, something like waking up drunk next to the dead body of the woman of your dreams as the answering machine turns on and your mother tearfully tells you as she drives off a cliff that the father you always believed to be dead is alive and living somewhere in Mystic, Georgia.