The Spill Canvas - Honestly, I'm Doing Okay

Genre power pop Publisher Sire External Links The Spill Canvas Website The Spill Canvas MySpace

I did a little research on The Spill Canvas, since I have no idea who they are so I started at that wonderful site AllMusic.com. Apparently, The Spill Canvas is like Bright Eyes, as the band started as a singer/songwriter act and blossomed into a full fledged band. Bright Eyes. Great.

The Spill Canvas’ new release, an internet-only EP entitled Honestly, I’m Doing OK, is a five song download. And on the web site they have a pinball game you can play! Pinball, just like you had on Windows 3.1 back in the early 90s. After I got past the thrill of playing The Spill Canvas themed pinball, I decided I should probably actually listen to the EP.

The first track, “Lay It On Me,” sounded almost exactly like every other band that’s playing on the radio currently. It is generically bouncy enough to bob your head to, non-threatening enough that a parent can hear it on the radio and not fear a bad influence blasting into their kids ears. The vocals have a slightly edgy quality, the music is somewhat punkish, it could honestly have been made by any group of kids with four instruments and ProTools.

Having originated as a singer/songwriter act for Nick Thomas, I was expecting at least decent lyrics. Unfortunately, the first line of the first track sounds very much like “I have never wished to be so douched/But that never seemed to stop you.” Honestly, I think that’s wrong, but I listened to that line at least a half a dozen times in hope that I really was wrong. I was looking around for the lyrics to correct my mind, but alas, I couldn’t find them.

The EP comes complete with two acoustic tracks. Acoustic nowadays apparently means overproduced vocals and a piano. I remember when it just meant “we don’t use electric instruments,” but I’m apparently really old. It’s surprisingly hard to tell which tracks are the acoustic ones if you put it on shuffle, though. I tried as kind of a blind taste test, but to no avail.

I strive in everything I review to find positive aspects of the music. Someone somewhere had to write the songs and go “This is good. I’m proud of this.” I try to respect that as much as possible. If I don’t like something, what does that matter? I’m just some asshole with a keyboard and some headphones. This is all just opinion. In my opinion, someone heard a Bright Eyes CD and said “I think we can make some money if we try to copy this.” That makes me sad. As generic as stuff like this is, it also has roots in a music scene somewhere. In that scene, wherever it may be (Sioux Falls, SD, in this case), someone is crying. And not in that “This song is so good it brings tears to my eyes” way, but in that “Oh man, I can’t get this out of my head” way. Back to finding something positive, in their press photos online, their hair is really well done. But I’m not sure if they did it themselves.