Spin Zero
Air & Opportunity
© 2007 Jason Sheppard, Mike Devins, Shane Singleton, James Parsons (614346035789)
CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.
SPECIAL: 20% discount if you buy more than one copy of it today!
sounds like making love to someone you hate.
tracks
try this
albums you will love
genres you will love
By Location
Recommended if you like ...
notes
By HANNAH WIEST
Star-Tribune staff writer
Friday, November 9, 2007 8:43 AM MST
Writing about bands is terrifying.
How do you do drum beats and guitar riffs, vocals and the songwriting process any kind of justice with words on paper?
So I sit down to write this morning a nervous wreck.
I put Spin Zero's new CD, "Air and Opportunity," into my player and ask it to play muse. I sit up straight and put my fingers on the keys.
Nothing.
Then I realize my fingers are tapping the beat. My eyes are closed and I'm lost in a melody driven along by dissonant but soothing chords. Pow! My eyes fly open. I do some cubicle-appropriate head banging to the hard-driving choruses reminiscent of Nirvana.
This is good. If people give it a chance when it releases on Saturday, I think they'll dig it.
"Treason" jumpstarts the heart and keeps it pumping as Jason Sheppard stays just below a gravelly scream.
"Aphasia" feels like you've sucked in your last breath and will never let it out. It's a fitting title since the word means a loss of the power to use or comprehend words. The acoustic guitar is backed by lead guitarist James Parsons on cello and bassist Shane Singleton on violin.
"Priority", the band's self-described beer song, makes you want to jump onto the table and sway like a drunken sailor.
I crank the volume.
The night before, I was standing in front of a house speaker at a band jam session. Spin Zero rehearses in an office-sized room at show volume -- somewhere around 110 decibels.
"When you write the article, please don't mention our influences," says Mike Devins from behind his drum set. A past article did so and gave the impression they were a cover band. They are not. Every song is original, built from the ground by all the members.
Sheppard brings in a guitar riff and some lyrics. Then Devins, Singleton and Parsons add drums, bass and lead guitar. They tweak. They perfect.
"When we first get it, it's like a little, tiny skeleton," Sheppard says. "Well, not a skeleton -- like a leg bone."
Spin Zero says its most important element is dynamics. It likes them full and swinging all over the place. It captures listeners with driving lead riffs, slides into contemplative guitar solos and blasts into more pounding rhythms. (Devins broke three drum sticks in 15 minutes of rehearsal).
"It's like speaking softly to make them lean in -- and then punching them in the face," Sheppard says on the band's MySpace page.
Spin Zero rents a space for their studio and practices several nights a week. But they weren't always so professional in their approach, Sheppard says. The band is proudly evolving.
It began in spring 2003 when Sheppard returned to Casper from California and started making music with Devins. Singleton brought his bass in winter 2004. Parsons replaced the first guitar player in spring 2006. In their early 20s when their first CD came out in 2004, the band sang about "immature" things like girls, angst and broken hearts, throwing in as many swear words as possible.
"Now Jason (Sheppard) is the king of imagery," Devins says. He wants people to make their own meanings from the songs, to say, "That song is my life."
The band has evolved musically, too. It has new instruments, new equipment, a new guitarist and newfound maturity from growing closer to 30.
Work on "Air and Opportunity" began a year ago. They recorded everything live. Then they tweaked song order and flow to give the entire album swelling and receding dynamics, perfecting individual sounds and solos along the way. In late April 2007, they made the real recording. When they struggled with the mixing, they turned to local company Juicefly Music, which produced a master mix worth paying for, Sheppard says.
"The market for music has never been fuller than it is now," Singleton says. "It's oversaturated, yes, but that also means there's people out there just looking for music. There's a lot of opportunities for the underdog to get through."
Now, let's get one thing straight: I'm not a music critic. I have no authority to offer this review.
But I will say I'm still headbanging.
Spin Zero played along side the likes of LA Guns, George Lynch, Goodbye Tomorrow, Days Away, The Working Title, The Front, Hypnogaja, Boss Martians, and many others.