There he was: Britt Daniel, carrying his camera around Times Square. It was the fall of 2003, maybe 2004. I was a scrubby Midwestern undergrad visiting New York City for the CMJ Music Marathon, a sort of “SXSW in NYC” situation where buzz bands played umpteen times in venues around town. Spoon were not on the lineup, and setlist.fm does not indicate they had a show in the area at those times. He seemed a bit surprised when I recognized him and said hi. I was surprised to spot him there, too. It was not unthinkable to run into a rock star in Times Square during the TRL era, but Spoon were the province of MTV2, having scored a low-key hit with “The Way We Get By.” He was too cool to be there, but there he was, stalking the city’s gaudiest tourist trap, snapping photos.
