"Public Image Ltd. meets George Michael with a smattering of Superfly-era Curtis Mayfield . . . Or Marc Bolan as seen through the eyes of Robbie Williams."
– The Phoenix
"A juggling act of inhaling smoke and fogging up mirrors if I've ever seen one. When asked about his sound, Spanish stares at me blankly and proceeds to enthuse the G.I.S.M Unlawful Hardcore VHS for 30 minutes and discuss how "The crowd outside that Venom show at Studio 54 looked more like Magnetic Fields fans". Ok. For all my money's worth Spanish Dancer sounds like an italo disco freak out if Timbaland were at the production wheel wearing rhinestone studded gloves emulating the Material Girl. His mammoth HUSTLER 12" single sounds like a hailstorm of non-plutonic needles poking its way out of the American Underground into the blinding lights of the universe's surface. I can't tell if it sounds like Sean Paul or Suicide or both or neither. Forget reinventing the wheel, Spanish Dancer is reinventing the fucking hook."
That's what Eddie Caputo had to say just about 6 months ago, and well, I was asked to clear up some of the smoke. Born February of 1983 to immigrants - an Italian mother and a Dominican father - Spanish spent most of his life divided between his current location of Providence and Miami playing music with childhood friend Shawn Gallagher (who would later go on to do Bad Animal, The Plastic Mastery, and Sweet Pickles among about a hundred others) until finally staying put in Providence to set up camp for good. It was here Spanish birthed bizarro new wave act A TRILLION BARNACLES LAPSE, who would go on to receive many kudos from everyone from Pitchfork to Spin before even graduating high school. Then there was the post-pop shoegazed stomp of HONEYHANDER, a band which existed just two years before imploding last year due to internal conflict before their much hyped full-length could even drop, although Spanish claimed at a CMJ performance just weeks later during a Dancer set it was "Due to the rest of the band being killed in a freak gasoline fight accident". Fair enough.
Although already existing as a solo artist, Spanish did not become fully self aware until the band dissolved and spent a seemingly non stop 2006 in NYC randomly appearing at seemingly every nook and cranny in the city - leveling off crowds consisting of everyone from hodgepodge art kids who thought they had already seen it all to uber snoot bag celebs and everyone in between. Bass fuzzed out, jackolantern disco lights spitting out from under the keyboards, and lots of the crowd stealing his egg shakers and tambourines to freak along, Spanish was playing chaotic pop songs, covering R. Kelly hooks, and passing out brown bagged liquor to the Doogie Howser theme song during performances and seemed to love every second of it.
Existing in some kind of netherworld where Madonna embraces Throbbing Gristle's aesthetics, Spanish returned to Providence with executive producer Tio Abbot to mash out a self released unofficial bootleg EP "Break Bread, Move Grams, Keep It Basic" on his own Bermuda Triangle imprint and quickly left for tour opening up for Omaha madman THE SHOW IS THE RAINBOW. Upon returning back from tour Spanish had an offer from Luminal sitting in his mailbox for a 12" single, resulting in the futro juggernaut crunk jam HUSTLER; one gem from the vat of genre blender groovers he is currently constructing for the 2008 full-length Burned Up, Bred High.
HUSTLER will be released this spring on Luminal and will be followed up by another U.S tour.
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