The First Grift- caught on camera

here are some J-Mo shots from the first spinto/bikini carwash grift of the now completed tour. Look at how ecstatic Scott is that we have a trash bag full of bagels.

I forgot

also- here is more stuff about the Rothkos Stolen Transmission show: Steal this entry

and, I wanted to mention that thanks to the hard work of Sarah Lewetinn, Albert Birney, and Rachel Bone we have Oh Mandy singles that we will now be selling at shows. There aren't many, so get them while they're hot.

Photography

Here are some photos that a fella from spin magazine took at the stolen transmissions showcase the other night. I especially like that the sin city band and martha dumptruck massacre get shout outs on our t shirts as these photos are up on spin.com's photo gallery











and a great croon from 5 oclock heroes



and our dear friend and traveler Joe Moore has posted some spinto band shots taken at our PianosNYC show in June. Check 'em out!

ultragrrrrrrrrrrrr

So we played at Rothkos last night in the big NY. Thanks to all who came out and supported. Noticed a lot of new heads in the audience that I had never seen at spinto shows before, as well as a lot of old friends like my favorite Ithicanian, Dan Lane.

Sarah Lewetinn pulled out all the plugs to promote for this show, and it worked.

The Nightmare of You guys were super nice as we found out at a pre-show BBQ that Sarah vegetariacized into my belly. She made a charcoal pyramid. They also had some pretty great songs which were performed at the show. Don't think that because their hair is perfectly tattered that they are hooligans. They are not, they are talented and energetic songwriters who most definitaly smoke it true.

Nick confused his gizmodgery on stage again last night confusing the latest cellular device, the Sidekick, with Gob's favorite form of transport, the Segway. I got a real kick out of it.

We also had an Oh Mandy single that was birthed last night. It has an Oh Mandy remix on it and a Thomas Hughes classic, Misogyny is Cool. Im not sure where you can get it, but try Sarah's site or come out to a spinto show soon. Maybe saturday night at the Knitting Factory with the Bikini Carwash Company and Bullet Parade.

Finally, please tell me this isn't Beast Wars in action: 30,000 honey bees v. 30 hornets

Per Request: Sam Hughes Reviews

Beverage Review: Coca-Cola Zero

I actually first bought and had this soda a day before the tour started, but since mr/mrs. anonymous wanted my opinion, then you shall have it. The diet soda craze has a lot of upward momentum and this soda fits right in line with that trend. When I orginally heard about Coke Zero I heard bold claims that it would "taste exactly like Coke, but contain no calories because that's what young adults want." While I can't argue with the sentiment, I knew this was too true to begin with and my taste buds agreed. There is no doubt that that this is a better diet soda than Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, but it really has no business identifying itself with regular Coke Classic. If Coke couldn't make C2 taste like Coke Classic, then they definitely couldn't pull off a miracle and make Coke Zero taste normal. The "diet coke" after taste isn't as offensive in this soda, but I would reccomend drinking it somewhat quickly as I found the carbonation to wear off abnormally quickly for whatever reason. I don't like the packaging all that much either as I'm missing some of the red which I look to for Coke products, but it makes sense to stick with a whiter package as to not confuse the diet soda drinkers. Over all, this is an overall average product, but it is probably the most satisfying mainstream diet beverage out right now (possibly only rivaled by Pepsi One) and I prefer it over diet Coke. Then again, I kind of hate diet sodas in general, so suck it.

4.5/10

Play with mini-trust

Don't Let the Cranford crew find out about this

Steel City

So we played this most excellent club in Pittsburgh on the eve of Saturday the 9th with astounding results! This renovated fire hall has magically turned into a kick ass martini bar called The Firehouse Lounge. If I were permitted to I would have slept on the furniture in this place as it could be the most comfortable venue the spinto band has played in yet. It seems pretty hip to as they have underground hip hop nights and urban poetry slams to mix together in thin-stemmed martini glasses with chocolate syrup on top.

To thank the spinto band and bikini carwash company for playing at their bar (an act not commonly done by club owners) the firehouse manager poured us all their specialty shot. This mystery shot was then downed by all of us only to discover that it was a drink of vodka that had been sitting in a bottle filled with habanero peppers for who know how long. I am pretty sure one of the habanero seeds was in my shot glass. This firehouse special sure lit a fire on all of our tongues. After slamming my fist on the bar for a while, we gave the managers and bartenders pound outs and went to our friend Ashley's house where some of the most pathetic team sorry matches of all time took place. Team Hughes Brother continued their win streak, and their Team Sorry over-confidence by humiliating our most gracious hostess while Jon was taken aback by Ashley's impressive mp3/record collection. In combination with the VanFoss roustabout in PSU the night before, where a certain spinto member celebrated turning the big 2-4, this was a great weekend in the tour.

America! Lets do it!

So after seeing this video sent to me by my friend Nick G I realized the spinto band needs to further expand our American tour!

so we added some shows that will soon be confirmed and hyper-beamed into your date books in cities such as Des Moines, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Portland Oregon, Seattle, San Fran, LA, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, and Nashville.

Once you watch the video, you will understand why the spinto band had to do this- we stand as one!

Zack Denfeld doesn't know crap about art

So our dear friend Zackery does something similar to us. He grifts, but not for survival- he grifts for art. Check out his documentation of perhaps the greatest dumpster dive in history: Trader Joe's dumpster. Does it stop there? NOPE! they had an Iron Dumpster cookoff! you must check it out. http://aaswarmart.org/ after the explenation of all his other artistic meanderings when he rented a gallery space for a month. Ann Arbor is for lovers.

A Minor Grift Worth Noting

Today we were further baffled by the upper-North-West's petrol pricing. We cruised routes 90 and 94 West, eyes peeled for gasoline under the two dollar and thirty cents gallon mark. Approximately 23 miles outside of Kallamazoo Michigan we spotted a Flying J station with a towering sign stating "unleaded:$2.17"

wowza

We pulled in and waited in line, others were bargain hunting as well. We pumped, and I bought a Dew and a double decker oatmeal creme pie. On the way out, a grift presented itself to us.

I saw one of those silly looking Red Bull trucks with the giant bottle sticking out of it. Such promotional ridiculousness set off a signal in my head. I thought, "Free samples MUST be happening!" I approached the truck from behind*. I noticed there was a gentleman and a lady within its doors. I positioned myself so I would avoid the dude and talk to the madame of the operation. She was more than willing to give us about 20 Red Bulls in exchange for a spinto-sampler (which is a cd, not a variety of spinto tastes.) Thats about it. The guy with her was a moron and it was clear she was happy to talk to someone besides him. Maybe they were siblings... or feuding lovers... either way, we made out with about 40 dollars worth of Red Bull which, as far as I'm concerned, made up for the pricey gasolina.

NOTE: I am the only spinto band member that likes red bull (I think)

Grift On!

ps- special thanks to Ken Drinkwater from Madison WI for letting us borrow the grift-heavy educational writings of Iceberg Slim titled Trick Baby

More to come of 4th of July in Madison, Chicago with Bartenders who play Sorry, and Ann Arbor with a loony grad-student/hustler.

------

*- insert perverted remark here

Sam Hughes Reviews a fresh six-pack + 1

Dr Brown's Celery Soda:

While being treated to a fine turkey submarine sandwich at Katz's deli in NYC, I stumbled upon quite the soda goldmine. Only this soda goldmine was filled with stalks upon stalks of refreshing celery, all in the form of a carbonated beverage. In many ways I knew that I would enjoy this soda as soon as I saw it on the menu, but the extent to which I enjoyed it was a surprise. In terms of packaging, Dr. Brown gets a solid rating. The can is appropriately green, and the logo is classic in that I feel that I just trust the Dr. Brown name before I even pop the cap. After the first sip it was clear; this definitely tastes like celery. But it was the further sips that made this more than just some novelty vegetable beverage. The beverage is as refreshing as biting into a fresh celery stick, but its subtle sweetness is really what puts it on top. Again, this is isn't your every day kind of soda, possibly reserved for just a can once in a blue moon, but I can safely say that I'm anxiously awaiting that next blue moon.


Dr. Brown's Celery Soda:



8.5 Grifts out of 10

Soho Natural Lemon-Lime Soda:

Considering this soda's name, I was a bit taken aback when I found this soda in Boots convenience store/deli in State College, PA. The packaging is great on this beverage. I bought a 24 oz. tall can of it (a rarity in itself), whcih featured a sprawling cityscape of what I assume to be the Soho area of NYC. Also appearing on the can are the bold claims that the soda is natural because it contains "pure cane sugar." While that may be true, poking his head through right behind Mr. Pure Cane on the ingredients label was our old friend HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup.) Not having experienced many sodas that only use, or even use some can sugar, I can't say that I was impressed with this soda at all. It still left a nasty film on the top of my mouth like most mainstream sodas do, and the taste was nothing extraordinary which was a great dissapointment. At best, this is Sierra Mist dressed up in prettier packaging.



5 Rese's varieties out of 10

Cheerwine:

This beverage is known to me as a southern staple. While I've heard that the people at Cheerwine are trying to expand their market farther up the east coast, as far as I know you can still only find it in the south and I found it in a Chapel Hill, NC pharmacy. The packaging isn't terribly impressive, and the name of the soda still confuses me, but I guess it all has something to do with cherries because that is what it kinda tastes like. I'd say that that the soda has a Dr. Pepper like feel at its base but a much stronger cherry flavoring, however artificial, it is a nice change of pace. Normally I wouldn't give this soda above a six, but I was eating a good slice of pizza and pining over a really hot asian girl at the time, so...

7 hot asians out of 10



Honest Tea with Peach:

I was pleasently surprised when I stumbled upon this tea at the Savanna health food store in Atlanta, Georgia. I had heard good things about the Honest Tea brand and I'd say that these good things were well warranted. The packaging was very nice on this product. There is good informative information about the specific formulation of the tea and this packaging happened to feature the delightfil Opus from Berkely Breathed's Outland comics. As for the drink itself, this is the tea that Joes wishes he made (boom goes the dynamite.) The subtle sweetness of the cane sugar and peach puree go merely perfectly with the natural mixture of green and black teas. Not sweet by any means, but I'm being honest here, this is good tea.

8.5/10



China Cola:

Another nice beverage to come out of the Savanna health food store was China Cola. The apparent use of "imported Chinese herbs" made this a mysterious and exciting cola. The packaging didn't contain many thrills, but its yellow label and bold red font reminded me enough of the Chinese flag for me to be satisfied. The taste was what truly won me over as this is definitely the best cola I've ever had (which isn't saying much being only exposed to Coke, Pepsi, and generic brands.) The use of canse sugar helps relieve the sticky film that rests on the roof of my mouth when drinking normal cola and the use of mystical elements like "malaysian vanilla" and "tree bark" give this cola a darker and better taste even if I couldn't distinguish those specific flavors. Me Chinese, me play joke, me make much better cola than coke.



9/10

NEHI Peach Soda:

I plucked this peach from the state line gast station bewteen Georgia and Alabama. I was intrigued by the neon red/pink looks and by the fact that U had not seen it before. It had a nice label and font which was also what attracted me to it. I was tather offended by this soda's taste, however. It certaintly tasted like a peach, but unfortunately this peach was injected with 51 grams of high fructose corn syrup sweetened sugar which made it fairly difficult to swallow down this 12 oz. bottle. My colleague Joey proabably best described it as a freezy pop melted into a bottle and then carbonated. Just not a very enjoyable beverage.

2/10



Vault:

So here it is; Coke's long awaited answert to Pepsi's very successful Mountain Dew citrus soda. I'm not sure exactly when this soda appeared on the market, but I saw it for the very first time today at the state line gas stattion between GA and AL. The packaging sticks out, but not ina good way. The font for the drink is some kind of bastardised mix of Peavy's and Vectorman's (Sega Genesis), and it comes off as rather cheesy. The package's claim that Vault "drinks like a soda and kicks like an energy drink is also rather dubious as the ingredients listed don't provide any more energy than any other highly carbonated soda. As for the taste, it isn't so bad. My colleague Jon probably best described it as "Mountain Dew mixed with Sprite. though I'd also throw the "Surge" brand name in there as a similar taste. While this is decent in its own way, this beverage doesn't distinguish itself the way that Dew does. I expect Vault to take some market share, but Dew drinkers will continue to do the Dew, and this mediocre beverage will not Vault over the competition as Coca-Cola wants.

4.5/10

Beast Wars-esque (not really)

Trevor Martin J sent us this in an email that just said "73 year old man vs Leopard... holy shit!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8317484/?GT1=6657

WOXY

So we are hanging out at the WOXY studio and it is great. Nick is reading a rolling stone magazine, Thomas is reading the November 2004 issue of UnCut with Bono on the cover, Sam says that this is not very exciting. Sam hit Tom in hopes of more excitement. Following is the transcript between T and S at 3:41 pm July 1st 2005:

Jeff: Where's the trashcan?
Sam*: in your mouth

-end-

*after 11 beers

Nick is looking at a picture of a man jumping with an electric guitar--- "whoopdeedoo," says nick.

So we played a little radio show on this hip lil online radio station WOXY. Its pretty cool here, and they gave us a vegetable platter. You can listen to it on itunes in the alt/modern rock category. I recommend it, they play Oingo Boingo.

So Tom wrote a lil bit about Hot Springs Arkansas the other day and we had to leave it with a "to be continued." Here is the continuation:

After the show we drove overnight to Nashville, during the drive we ate 2 Subway footlong hoagies.

HOLD EVERYTHING NICK HAS SOMETHING TO SAY: Too see a Picture of David Cross that kind of looks like Isaac Hayes turn to page 77 of DIW issue #18 in which later issues are edited by Andrew "Metroid" Parks.

Before the drive we woke ourselves up by swimming in a hotel pool. It was great and the pool was both indoor and outdoor. It reminded me of the shark tank at the aquarium, which then reminded me of this: !!

interrupting our Hot Springs tales, Jeff just reminded us of this: !!!

back to hot springs: Before the swim, we had a great grift. Grifting is not to be ranked, as a primary rule of grifting is that all grifts are created equal. However, if we were to rank our favorite grifts, this one may rank up there. Could anything be better than trash bagels? Sam says, "No," Tom says "trash pastries are even better than trash bagels," but I think the Hot Springs Subway Hoagie grift 2005 was clutch. Nick and Jon entered a Hot Springs subway (on the Federal side of town) and asked what they do with their bread at the end of the night, as grifters tend to do. The young lady who was waiting to get off work told us that they don't throw away their bread. She also thought that we were on a "free spirit tour" when Nick told her we were touring. However, after not getting any bread and a seemingly failed grift, we left and faxed a fax. On the way back to the club we past the subway and waved to our friendly subway employee. She saw us, and quickly waved for us to come inside. Once inside, she said that someone never picked up their order, and then gave us 2 foot long hoags. It was glorious.

With this story in mind, we just remembered a great Mike Grimes quote: "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to grift, he will eat for the rest of his life."

The Comet tonite then more travels, grifts, and adventures.

Scott Weiner gets the final word: "bologna (salami) and cream cheese."

Tonite in Nashville

The Spinto Band will play 'Nicely'

Fans of the kind of nerd-pop that Weezer and Pavement perfected should head toward The Basement tonight, where the young Wilmington, Del.-based gentlemen in The Spinto Band will be playing tracks off their new Nice and Nicely Done album.

The disc, recorded here in Nashville with producers Robin Eaton and Lij Shaw, matches catchy, spazzy pop-rock hooks with the brainy, unpolished aesthetic that owned college radio in the '90s. It's fun, smart stuff, buzzing with precocious energy.




Pop act The Bikini Carwash Company opens the 9 p.m., $5 show.Early birds can catch the Spintos at Grimey's (1604 8th Ave. S., 254-4801) at 6 p.m. for free, too.

— NICOLE KEIPER, STAFF WRITER from the Tenessean Online