The Triangle

Issue date: 5/21/10 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Anna Clay The Spill Canvas played to a sold-out crowd at World Cafe Live May 17. Their diverse set list pulled together beautifully, proving that the band belongs on tour.

While there are a million love songs playing on the radio about a boy finding his perfect girl, there are not so many about a boy whose mind subconsciously invents an imaginary girl that he falls in love with. The latter subject describes "Natalie Marie and 1cc," a song written by South Dakota rockers The Spill Canvas, a band well known for taking song topics and lyrically transforming them into something more complex and interesting.

"I … am [always] trying to think of the new and unique ways, as far as content, to take that simple idea … and make it a little more in-depth," lead singer and lyricist Nick Thomas explained.

Thomas started his band as an acoustic side project, releasing two albums before The Spill Canvas developed into the full-fledged rock band it is today. Since their first couple albums, the band has created three full-lengths as well as numerous EPs, all of which have their own unique musical style, morphed from something touched in their previous releases. This diversity gives the band a discography devised of albums that sound considerably different, but still tie together flawlessly. Their most recent releases are the EPs "Abnormalities" and "Realities," which Thomas describes as the next musical departure for the band.

"Each release that we've put out has been substantially … different from almost everything prior to it. But, I think the new EPs are definitely a new kind of glimpse into some kind of pop thing that we [are moving towards], you know?" Thomas said.

Drummer Joe Beck added, "These songs are a good transition into whatever will come out next. If you look at the course of our history, everything has kind of perfectly transitioned into the next thing."

Both of The Spill Canvas' new EPs came out after the band took a break from touring. They returned to life on the road this year, and are currently performing with opening acts Tyler Hilton, AM Taxi and New Politics.

"We didn't intend on taking a break. We did need some time off from the road. We had toured the last record pretty hard for a year plus, and it came to a point where we needed the time off. At some point after our downtime we needed to begin writing. But we never really had a predetermined thing. It was just how long it took for us to get the label and management and us to come together to figure out what we wanted to release."

Continued...

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