Spiral Stairs
Doris & the Daggers
Release Date: Mar 24, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Nine Mile Records
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Album Review: Doris & the Daggers by Spiral Stairs
Very Good, Based on 8 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Scott Kannberg -- aka Spiral Stairs -- took an extensive break after the release of 2009's The Real Feel and the Pavement reunion that followed in 2010. He moved to Australia, settled down, and had a kid, eventually uprooting to Los Angeles when his in-laws moved to Mexico (his family would later join them). While in Los Angeles, Kannberg started writing music again, developing the compositions that began Doris & the Daggers.
Based on rating 7.5/10
After the Pavement tour, Kannberg and his family moved to Brisbane, then Los Angeles, and they now reside in Merida, Mexico. Major changes of scenery were one factor in the creation of Doris and the Daggers. Mortality was another. The birth of his daughter is recounted endearingly in the horn-rimmed "The Unconditional" ("She came out sideways / Her head tilted just so / And when the nurse found out what I was to call her / I knew it was time to go").
Based on rating 7/10
In Pavement, Scott Kannberg played the straight man to Stephen Malkmus' warped vision of indie rock. That may be why his post-Pavement material (including his early '00s band, Preston School of Industry) has always come off so stiff and torpid. But on his second solo LP under the name Spiral Stairs, Kannberg has finally embraced his relative squareness, putting out his best work in close to two decades. Released a whopping eight years since The Real Feel, his last album, Doris and the Daggers finds Kannberg using his role as indie rock forefather to enlist the National's Matt Berninger, Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew and Shudder to Think's Adam Wade to help across these ten cogent and poised anthems.
Based on rating 6.5/10
Doris and the Daggers is ex-Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg's sophomore release as Spiral Stairs, eight years after the spectacular debut The Real Feel. While it may not be quite as spectacular, it does have a lot of the same endearing qualities. The smooth songwriting fleshes out timeless rock textures we all like, and have heard before, but with a unique voice and in a unique style.
Based on rating 6.4/10
Former Pavement guitarist/vocalist Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg's solo career has doubled as an ongoing battle for self-definition--a quest to find space for himself in the firmament of American indie rock. Results have varied. There were guest spots on Kevin Drew and Broken Social Scene LPs. There was his label Amazing Grease Records, home to San Francisco's late, great Oranger.
Based on rating 3/5
Pavement/Preston School Of Industry's Scott Kannberg has had a life change or two over the past seven years, and his approach to music making has changed, he admits. His last album under his Spiral Stairs alias, 2009's The Real Feel, feels a lifetime ago - which is pretty much was. Since then, Kannberg has moved to Australia, then back to LA, had a family and, most significantly perhaps, tragically lost his long-term drummer, Darius Minwalla.
Based on rating 3/5
Lesser-spotted? The term doesn't quite do justice to Scott Kannberg, who here emerges from hibernation for his first record in eight years. Last seen during the Pavement reunion shows in 2010, the man they call Spiral Stairs picks up from where the previous year's The Real Feel left off, only with a fuller sound and greater sense of purpose - at least partly thanks to collaborators Kelley Stoltz, The National's Matt Berninger and Broken Social Scene's Justin Peroff. In terms of arrangements, this means mournful swells of brass, as on Trams (Stole My Love), and a more pronounced swagger to his well-established Fall worship (No Comparison bears more than a passing resemblance to Mark E.
Opinion: Fairly Good
There's hardly any doubting it: Scott Kannberg enjoys being in the spotlight, and for good reason. After a decade of playing second fiddle to Pavement supreme leader Stephen Malkmus, Kannberg eventually decided to go it alone, releasing three largely anonymous records as Preston School of Industry in the early 2000s before coming out with 'The Real Feel' under his Spiral Stairs moniker in 2009. Now, eight years later, and nearly two decades on from the bitter dissolution of Pavement, and it sounds like Kannberg's desire to prove himself is as strong as ever.
'Doris & the Daggers'
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