Once every ten years a band emerges, which pushes the boundries of rock ‘n roll a bit further than the already are. A band that frightens audiences, but awes at the same time. A band every clubpromotor hesitates to book. A band some clubpromotors regret to have booked. A band with many stories, but always to few witnesses.
In 1999, all of a sudden, there’s this band. They’re called THE SPADES and within a few months they become the terror of every rock joint in the Netherlands. Stories about drugs, booze, fights and combinations of all the former surround the band. Something was bound to happen, and fronman Denvis and his band anticipated. Stories about hit-and-run visits of radio DJ’s, fake blood and fights over bottles of whiskey are hyped in the national media. The band is in the centre of everyones attention.
Oh so often, bands have big mouths but scream empty words on lukewarm stretches of boring music. The Spades however, screamed with great vengeance, furious anger, and backed it up with the most solid pieces of rock ‘n roll one has heard in years. The German label People Like You, the American label Go Kart and Dutch label Suburban all released Spades albums in those years. This resulted in numerous shows, with highlights such as Lowlands, 2 shows at the famous SXSW festival in Austin, and a tour in France. Also, The Spades recorded their famous The Seattle Sessions with Jack Endino (Nirvana) behind the desk, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney in the background choir. Sadly, after 5 years of constant peaking and numerous line-up changes, the band breaks up. Lead singer Denvis travels the world for a while, and starts a solo career.
In 2005 however, things are starting to get itchy in Eindhoven again. Denvis gathers a new group of musicians around him, and the band gets invited to the SXSW festival in Austin for the second time. During the American tour around the festival, the band records new songs with Jim Diamond (White Stripes, Dirtbombs) in his Getto Recorders studio in Detroit. This recording sessions defines the bands new sound: more Detroit soul, less New York punk.
The result of these recordings is put out on a split 7” with Canadian friends Maximum RnR, on the infamous Relapse Records, home of bands like Mastodon and Zeke. The split 7” shows a mature band that puts content over context. Songs are arranged better, there’s more swing, less straight ahead punk rock and a more consistent overall sound. The release of the 7” is backed with a 2,5 week Canadian tour and a 1 week US east coast tour, including a show at the CMJ festival.
At this very moment, almost 3 years into the second Spades era, the second full length album, Above The Law, Below The Belt is ready to be released. Songtitles as “Everybody is on Drugs”, “Mean Mother Fucker” and “Teenage Nudy Beach” may imply Denvis’ return to his rebellious punkrock roots, but don’t let the titles fool you. The Spades have incoorporated a full 3-piece horn section, hammond organ and even backgrounds singers in their sound.
For the first time in many years, the Spades have a steady line-up as well, which could be seen as a news item on itself. The Spades consist of a number of experienced musicians, and sounds tighter than ever. Greasy, over the top garage rock ‘n soul is what The Spades bring you nowadays. And you better recognise, because those brass knuckles are still lying around somewhere….
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