By: Paul Lessane

Having never heard of The Spinto Band, it’s easy to assume that, just by looking at thier peers, they’re just another cereal-eating paradox that spends their days watching Monty Python on the tour bus and their nights surfing YouTube for clips of Paris Hilton. Although you can surf the idea of the grandiose all you like, the fact of the matter is that this is the figure eight of the atypical indie band. The Delaware six-piece Spinto Band has been churning out the tunes for ten years now — a collective composed of mostly college-educated hippies from the coast.

It’s easy to tell, by listening to thier music, that they’ve been listening to Interpol, The Strokes, and every other tiny-drummed band on the New York scene. The seeds of thier latest offering, Moonwink, you can tell, were planted under a mountain of Skittles. The Spinto Band has a very sunny, jangly pop sound, complete with stacatto keyboards and choirs of drugged-out beatniks. The tracks are varied, fun, and colorful most of the time. It’s one of those records you can listen to all the way through without turning up your nose and hitting the search button, wondering why the song you’re skipping sounds like a Grateful Dead cover.

Lead singer Alex Krill’s voice may be a little off-balance, but it manages to follow the music confidently. It’s got a personality and class that is not unlike the stylings of Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas. Bandmate Thomas Hughes shares vocal duties on a few of the album’s tracks as well, though not quite as apt as Krills, who wears a melancholy that swims in its own alcohol.

The most notable songs on the 11-track opus are the climbing keyboard retrospect, “Vivian Don’t,” the schozophrenic conviction of the when-animals-attack “Needlepoint,” and the narcissistic love letter of “They All Laughed.” Most of the songs here are about failed relationships and drunken hypothetical napscks of faith. It’s a good way to spend a half an hour, but if you’re really looking for a longer fix, catch them live. At six albums in, with The Spintos Band’s color palette, you’re bound to pacify that rainbow jones that you have somehow. Even if it’s ten years old. Get to it then.