Pitchfork

The extra-extra EP that comes with Spoon's new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, is tricky. I mean it's hard to find. When I bought the album in Union Square moments after seeing the group stave off rain at a free concert farther downtown, I thought there was a mistake. "Where's this bonus EP I read about online?" I thought, frustrated. Turns out the disc is tightly nestled into the back cover. It's a bit difficult to pull out. But it's awkward position makes sense in a way that transcends last-minute packaging decisions. With its half-songs, redos and barely-there's, it's a shadow EP-- if it wasn't called Get Nice! it would be called Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga with the grunts growing increasingly distant, i.e., GA Ga ga (ga) ([ga])...or thereabouts. Sound it out.

On the album, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" is the other one with the horns, the better one with the horns. On the EP, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" doesn't feature horns. It's a shell. A demo. The rhythm is ripped from step team practice, all floor-to-foot percussion. Bass shows up, disappears. Brit Daniel still knows he's "lost it" and he still doesn't want anyone else to have it: "Oh so there you go again out in your dressing gown/ Get yourself to bed, blow out that cherry bomb." Actually, there is a horn on the EP's "Cherry Bomb." After the piano stops, a busker is heard blowing against traffic-- it's as if he's soundtracking the soundtrack to Brit's let-go in real time. "It was the longest day that I've ever known/ I watched you start that drive alone." The casual fade out is an inspiration and a eulogy all in one. A shadow's shadow. Drop a quarter. "Let it go on and on."