The fresh-faced Spinto Band are the underdogs on this bill dwarfed by the mountains of hype surrounding Art Brut's snide self-awareness and We Are Scientists' geek chic. Get there plenty early because you'll be kicking yourself for months if you miss the band that penned “Oh Mandy,” a humble tune that landed in a Sears commercial and spurred European and U.S. tours with the Arctic Monkeys.
A blog favorite for ages now, “Oh Mandy” still delivers the shivers every time. Secretly a love song about the mandolin we hear throughout, on the surface, it's a happy-sad account of desperation, heartache and, of course, catching your favorite show on the WB (RIP).
Just two years ago, the Spinto Band was a minor name from Wilmington, Delaware, playing tiny shows around the Philadelphia area. Then the right people heard their long-gestating recordings—they've been playing together since middle school—and soon Bar/None Records was ushering Nice and Nicely Done into the world.
It's easy to clutch “Oh Mandy” close to your chest from the beginning, but the band's other songs are just as sharp and disarming. Their jittery, hook-happy guitar pop is littered with sly lyrical twists (“Your work looks good/Your look works great”) and odes to moving on (“Did I tell you I don't think this will work out?/That I love you but I wanted something else?”). Plus, it's quirky enough to have sparked repeated comparisons to Pavement and the Flaming Lips.
Since the album's release, the boys have been touring the world nonstop, their outsized charisma earning them friends at every step along the way—drummer Jeff Hobson got to join Franz Ferdinand onstage in Japan, and the band has been making episodes of a web-intended “caper movie” featuring such new pals as Jenny Lewis and We Are Scientists.
The only stroke of bad luck came when the titular instrument of “Oh Mandy” was swiped from a show in England. But don't worry: it was eventually recovered. Thank goodness for our sakes.
The Spinto Band, Art Brut and We Are Scientists perform at the Glass House, 200 W. Second St., Pomona, (909) 865-3802; www.theglasshouse.us. Sun., 7 p.m. $15.
