Spiral Stairs (Pavement’s Scott Kannberg) has announced the release of his new album, We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized, on March 22nd via Nine Mile Records. Consequence of Sound says the “rip-roaring first single “Hyp-No-Tized” embodies feel good vibes with some bouncy brass and slick riffs”
For his feelgood third solo album We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized, Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg – best known to the musical world as Spiral Stairs – concocted some of the most fun and accessible music of his storied career by expanding his musical repertoire, in the process embracing some sounds and artists which for some reason or other slipped through the cracks as he took alternative rock to the world during his action-packed youth.
“To me We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized feels like the records I’ve been listening to and the records I’ve been digging and aspire to sound like,” Spiral offers. “In my early-twenties I felt like I knew everything – I always knew about new bands before everyone else – but that kind of closed off a lot of bands that I didn’t give much credence to, and now I’m a bit older and it’s, like, ‘Wow, how did I miss that?’
“I’m talking things like the first two Nick Lowe records – I’m fucking obsessed by that shit, they’re beautiful, beautiful songs on those records. Then he led me to this guy Jim Ford who’s like a weird country-soul singer, he’s so good. And I’ve really got into Van Morrison way deeper than I’ve ever got into Van Morrison before.
“YouTube is the greatest thing ever because you can find everything that you want – I can read about a Van Morrison bootleg from 1982 or something that’s supposed to be the greatest thing ever and you can find it on YouTube! So I got into that 1973 album Veedon Fleece, and then of course Roxy Music stuff and Brian Ferry.
“But I think the influences on this are definitely Nick Lowe and Van Morrison – I even tried to sing like Van Morrison on a lot of the songs, like how he repeats himself a lot. Those are the kind of bands I would never have liked in 1984… or 1994… or 2004 really.”
Naturally these new flavors and inclinations are filtered through the core Spiral Stairs aesthetic that served him so well over five Pavement albums, two long-players with his subsequent outfit Preston School Of Industry and eventually throughout his slowly-blossoming solo canon. We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized may mark a musical evolution of sorts but there’s no denying its source.
Reuniting the bulk of the dream team who assisted him on his previous album, Doris & The Daggers (2017) – bassist Matthew Harris (Oranger, The Posies), multi-instrumentalist Tim Regan (Snowglobe, Oh No Oh My) and good friend Kelley Stoltz, as well as former touring Preston School Of Industry drummer Jim Lindsay.
We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized is fun, infectious and musically compelling, while still managing to cover some hefty topics like the current rambunctious political climate and the devastating loss of loved ones, augmented by some tales inspired by various pop culture sources. It’s the best of all that’s come before combined with a newfound wisdom and appreciation of the classics, aided by some beautiful embellishments courtesy the skilled musicians at his disposal.
More than 25 years into his incredible musical journey We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized represents perhaps the archetypal representation to date of Spiral Stairs’ beloved canon – in these tumultuous times we’re living in that’s surely inspiration in itself.
