Spiral Stairs - The Real Feel

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4...according to our Business Lady on Thu 15 Oct, 2009.

As we all know Spiral Stairs (real name Scott Kannberg) was a founding member of Pavement and Preston Scool of Industry. 'The Real Feel' is his first official solo album and it's sounds suprisingly professional for S.S. After his work fronting Preston School of Industry i assumed that S.S was only capable of knocking out lo-fi reworkings of his best moments with Pavement yet it would seem that his palette has evolved somewhat since those days and he has become quite a suave songwriter and arranger. I'm hearing a big R.E.M influence in this collection of songs and coupled with S.S's obvious love of country tinged indie rock 'The Real Feel' sounds suprisingly refreshing to my ears. His voice has grown in confidence and the playing is also pretty amazing. S.S is joined by Jon Auer (of The Posies, Big Star) as well as fellow Preston School of Industry bandmates Matt Harris and Darius Minwalla who add tasteful instrumentation and atmosphere to these tracks. There's an obvious shift in emphasis going on here, tracks are mature, slick, well arranged and as far removed from the early Preston stuff as can be. A bit of shock at first but it's nice to hear Spiral rise to the challenge and step things up a little.

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· Former front-man of Preston School Of Industry, and
guitarist, singer and founding member with Pavement, Scott
Kannberg returns to our turntables with his first solo album,
‘The Real Feel’, credited to his long-running nom-du-rock,
Spiral Stairs.
· Written in Seattle and Australia, the songs have a loose, latenight
vibe, soulful ache and charmingly vulnerable optimism.
Tracks were recorded with some of his former bandmates in
Preston School of Industry, including bassist Matt Harris and
drummer Darius Minwalla, as well as Jon Auer (The Posies,
Big Star) and friends in Australia.
· The album is preceded by the single ‘Stolen Pills’ which has been
supported by 6music and XFM.
· Spiral Stairs will be heading over to the UK to play in late
January, early February.
· This album is for fans of REM, Wilco, Modest Mouse, Go-
Betweens, The Cribs and The Posies.
· The LP version will come with a 7” featuring two
exclusive songs not available anywhere else.

True Love * Call The Ceasefire * Cold Change *
Subiaco Shuffle * Wharf-Hand Blues * Maltese T *
A Mighty Mighty Fall * Stolen Pills * The Real Feel *
Blood Money
7” (WIGLP251 Only)
Hey Folks Singa * The Moodist