Spiv

A Spiv is a British slang for one who uses their wits to avoid a real job; a person without employment who makes money by various schemes, goes about smartly dressed and having a good time. It is also the name of a band from Denver, Colorado, that has rocked it like a hurricane since 1998.

The goal of all spivs is to be gainfully unemployed. This sounds logical when Spiv's mom actually took banjo lessons from Jerry Garcia at a Menlo Park music store before he formed the Grateful Dead (she was far from a hippie and didn't even know who he was). Ironically, you end up working twice as hard at being self employed than punching a clock!

The first to join up with Spiv was lifelong friend, Sean Sippel, on drums, who was living in Portland, Oregon, at the time. Having had multiple drummers turn into green globules on me, Spiv resolutely made the trek to the Northwest and had all of Sean's stuff packed in under an hour. Then we sat for a drink at a local pub, and heard on the radio that Frank Sinatra was pronounced dead an hour earlier, so we had one more for Frank, said farewell to Portland, and headed to the Rocky Mountains. We joined up with my brother, Jeremy, back in Denver, living not far from many of Jack Kerouac's favorite haunts, and started writing and rehearsing the Spiv sound.

Spiv is excited to have been a part of Denver's flourishing music scene as it gained more national recognition. SPIV rocked a show with Denver's breakout band, The Fray, in 2004, and we remain very excited for them and their success, and the others that are sure to follow from the Mile High City!