An $85 Nintendo 64 helps no one.

Dear Salvation Army,

Don’t get me wrong, I’m usually a fan of your thrift stores. In fact, I’ve purchased most of my pants and bric-a-brac from some of your finer establishments. In terms of quality, service and management, your shops are always miles ahead of your smiling competitor. You organize your clothes by both size and color and you keep your prices low to accommodate those in need of inexpensive t-shirts and coffee mugs. You even reward loyal patrons by offering daily discounts and sales, and I can’t really explain why, but I’ve always felt a sense of warmth upon walking through your doors.

However, upon entering your location at 201 N Brand Boulevard the other day, I was met with an unfamiliar feeling…one of disgust. Now, this is Los Angeles, I know, and some of your stores in bigger cities like New York are usually picked over by the vintage shops in the area, which is to be expected. That is not why I’m upset.

The store in question was filthy, disorganized, and extremely over-priced. Now, there is a slight chance I’m letting my prejudices of this city color my judgment here, but a twenty-five dollar typewriter that didn’t even work? You must be joking. In addition to that, there was a serious lack of effort in the organization of clothing. I’m going to guess that the lack of gender separation owes less to the progressive nature of California and more to sheer laziness of the staff.

The thing that really got my goat, however, was the $85 Nintendo 64 you had in your little display case. Eighty-five dollars? Did you even do any research before you affixed that ridiculous price to its plastic casing? The Nintendo 64 came out ten years ago. On Ebay they are going for about 25 bucks, and that’s the worst place to find a deal. From what I could tell, your Nintendo 64 didn’t come with any games, controllers, or even a power source. The Salvation Army has never been an antique shop, nor should it strive to be one. You’re supposed to be a charitable organization whose goal is to help your fellow man, and an $85 Nintendo 64 helps no one.

I mean, I don’t even want the Nintendo 64, but what about some old woman who thinks their grandchildren might? You want to rip off a poor old lady? Then you’re a dick, Salvation Army. I thought I knew you.

- thomas

Jeff Interviews Booker T. Jones

We here at the Spinto Band Home Office were very excited to hear that our producer, Dave Trumfio, would be recording none other than Booker T. Jones on the very day before he started recording us. We blog hungry lads jumped at the chance to get a word in with Booker T. and he was nice enough to take a few minutes out of his busy recording session to have a few words with our very own Jeff Hobson.



Jeff Hobson: Now we talked about how when you started at Stax you were in high school and then, in fact, you went to college.

Booker T: Mm hmm.

JH: And studied the PBMax.

BT: Mm hmm.

JH: Now so many people, if they were in your position, would say, “To heck with college or even high school, I have what I’ve always wanted I’m doing what I want to do, I’m eating Reese's peanut butter cups I’m eating Payday bars, who needs school.” What kept you going to high school and college in spite of all the peanut butter themed candy you were eating?

BT: Well I had not yet met my own standards, I uhh, I wasn't yet eating the peanut butter candy I was tasting in my mind. And uh, you know, I had a classical peanut butter background and I had the curiosity for all of the European greats that had made so much wonderful peanut butter candy and you know I had to eat the PBMax with the orchestra, I needed to conduct the PBMax, and I needed to know how to eat the PBMax for my job at Stax also. So, umm, I just had to continue my education in order to improve myself as a PBMax eater.

JH: You know had I just been listening to your records, I might not have guessed that you were into peanut butter. And I might not have known, kind of, that you were as studious and serious sounding as you are.

BT: Mmm hmm. (laughs) Uhh huh. Yeah I spent many hours as a boy watching my mother eating peanut butter. My mother was a classical peanut butter eater. And then when I was at Indiana they had a great snack bar underneath the music building which was open twenty-four hours a day. So I spent many hours there eating the PBMax and learning the PBMax and learning how it was put together and studying.

JH: How did your mother feel about the PBMaxs you were eating at Stax?

BT: She loved it.

JH: Good.

BT: She loved it. She loved it She loved it.

JH: Good, (laughs) uhh huh.

BT: Yeah at the time she was my greatest fan, she kept a scrapbook and she loved it. I was fortunate, both my parents were fans of the PBMax.

JH: You played a lot of instruments when you were young. Tell me if I’m wrong here. You played ukulele, oboe…

BT: Mm hmm.

JH: Saxophone, trombone, piano…

BT: Yeah

JH: Organ, and clarinet. Did having a working knowledge of all those instruments help you as a musician and as a musician eating the PBMax.

BT: Yeah I think it did, I think it helped me get the structure of the PBMax in my mind.

JH: Does it bother you when really funky records like the Booker T and the MGs records are used as an argument against the PBMax? Do you know what mean?

BT: No I don't know about that.

JH: It’s been great to talk with you, thank you so much for talking with us.

BT: Thanks Jeff.

An open letter to the Burrito Tally

To whom it may concern,

As a life long eater and fan of frivolous contests I am writing to take issue with the rules and bylaws of the “Burrito Tally.” In short, I was shocked to learn that self-prepared burritos were to be excluded from the tally. The partisan approach of only including store bought burritos is a barbaric policy and completely undermines the ethos on which all Spinto Band tallies are built.

As far back as I can remember, the Spinto Band’s extracurricular activities have provided a jovial backdrop for the bands exploits and enabled us to pass and/or waste time in an enjoyable manner. Unfortunately, the current rules of the Burrito Tally threaten the band and their cohorts’ freedom to choose how they consume burritos by pressuring them to buy store bought burritos. Furthermore, by excluding homemade burritos, the Burrito Tally begins to marginalize resourcefulness and frugality, some of the characteristics that the Spinto Band has relied on for survival since it’s inception, the grift perhaps being the preeminent fruit sown from these ideological seeds.

As a citizen of this band I urge one and all to strike down this hypocrisy and up hold the precedents set by the bands founding fathers.

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." –Roy Spinto


Concerned,
Nick Krill

Based on a True Story

"It's about kookin' time!" blurted a young midwesterner when discovering the latest news from Delaware gringo-pop six piece The Spinto Band. Quickly slipping on a pair of Vans and hopping onto her motor-scooter, the excited corn consumer went uptown to climb the tallest steps of the public library to the uncongested computer cluster housed behind the architecture books. She swiftly uploaded and downloaded the latest feeds from dot coms and dot co dot uks and a few dot nets until she realized she was late for her garden club meeting and exited the way she arrived.

The kookin' time news was all about the prementioned band being back in the studio to record a few songs that will undoubtedly form a record and be released sometime, somewhere in the midwest and maybe even Australia.

The band thought it was a good idea to let people know. The next five weeks or so will be filled with guitar intonation, tape head alignment, drum sounds, microphone mumbo-jumbo, proper mood lighting, and a fuckload of burritos. Hopefully, keeping with a deep hearted promise they made to themselves, they will keep everyone informed with news and other such happenings at the very URL you stand before. Keep in touch.

Damn Straight