I Am Spoonbender

• Genre: Experimental
• Hometown: San Francisco
• I Am Spoonbender Website

About

Much like many of their influences, I Am Spoonbender are visionaries. The group best describes their sound as "telekinetic" and their live shows as overflowing with "deconstructed new wave rhythms, texture, op-pop, jump cuts, dissolves, dream sequences, and vocals through telephones." The recorded music of I Am Spoonbender jumps around like a movie edited in an Atlantis film house, with underwater mechanics, dreamy vocals over kinetic beats, otherworldly sounds and whirlpooled machine static. Perhaps their sonic confidence actually stems from extra sensory perception, or simply from a host of palpable influences -- the members have worked with groups as varied as Krautrock innovators Can, Berkeley queercore heroes Pansy Division, guitar legend Link Wray, Twee Pop group Cub, and tape-loop psychedelia collective Olivia Tremor Control. But this group is more than name-dropping artistes; amidst the mechanical instrumentation, I Am Spoonbender's semi-paranoid and haunted sound is still warm and even comforting. (A Listen.com employee is a member of this band.)

- Eric Shea