Lost In Tyme Blog

The Singing Spoons sound a little like what Violent Femmes might have sounded like if they'd tried to be Husker Du.
This is not to say that Singing Spoons always reach heights so lofty, but they do manage to forge a distinctive sound or two amid the swirling, fuzzy guitars that dominate their music. (Audio Bits, March 1990)

Well, Singing Spoons could never be a big name. Not because the music they made wasn't good, but because they never took themselves seriously. Judging by their live shows and their recording sessions to their million cassette releases, I'm sure that the first they had in mind was to to have a great time and then came everything else.

The music in 1989's Resin Cabin, their only "proper" (almost private pressing) release, is no joke at all: loud guitars, confident playing and singing and strong songwriting are the ingredients of a good record.

Here is their bio: The Singing Spoons began in 1985 as a duo comprised of Mike Coleman and Chris Gissendanner, both sophomores in high school in Tallahassee, FL. The decision to create this band came from, as Mike said, "the inability of our latest cover band to decide on what Rush song to cover." Until graduation, the two produced a series of very strange tapes, recorded on 4-track with both members playing various instruments, including kitchen utensils, telephone and atonal saxophone. They sold these productions at a local record store, packaged in crudely drawn photocopied covers. The music was primitive, yet highly original, and the lyrics were immature, but very surreal. The tapes had a small following among local disenfranchised youth, spread from word of mouth and bootlegged copies of the tapes.
In 1986, Pat Barousse, a talented multi-instrumentalist, joined the group, and the tapes kept coming. "We started to get lame after a while," said Coleman. "Pat joined because we were doing far out stuff, but Chris and I wanted to do more sappy pop songs. Pat quit, and we went away to college."

The two returned to Tallahassee and formed a new version of the Spoons in 1987, a more traditional rock band. The line-up had Chris playing guitar and singing, Mike on drums and vocals, with John Barlow, guitar and vocals, and John Hintz, on bass, rounding out the quartet. Barlow also brought some great song-writing to this group's only release, Chedr, before leaving the Spoons.

Josh Clemons was brought in to fill second guitar position, and the classic Singing Spoons line-up congealed. Live, they were as interested in their on-stage drinking as they were playing, and they ravaged their instruments and throats until the audience thought they would collapse. The Spoons were LOUD, incredibly loud, and the noise from their guitars created bizarre psycho-acoustics that sounded more like 10 than 2 guys pummeling their axes. Mike sang most the leads in a mournful high falsetto while beating the drums as if to exorcise demons from the skins. Their songs were emotional, intense, strange, funny and sometimes touching, spewed out of a Husker Du/Crazy Horse inspired ruckus.

After the release of the classic Resin Cabin LP and the "Buzz" single, the group played their only tour, of the East coast, before disbanding in 1992. They had recorded over two hours of music to use for their next album, American Buckle, but it was never released. A song from these sessions appeared on The Nervous System compilation.

In 1993, Chris and Mike formed Ultraboy.

A-Side
Gardens/Note/Priority/Gift Horse/Hold Me Down/Kinda Hard/Memory

B-Side
No. 5/No. 2/Spaceman/Queen Helmet/Chest Rabbit/With a Kiss/Your Brilliant Return to Form/Resin Cabin

You can find a lot of their recordings (like the unreleased American Buckle) in Michael Coleman's site (don't forget to take a look at his Exploding Madonna page)