Day After Day #163: Would That Not Be Nice

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Would That Not Be Nice (2012) 

Side projects aren't always a lock to be good. A lot of artists branch out with side projects and solo albums, but some can be duds. Fortunately, when Spoon's Britt Daniel teamed up with Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), Sam Brown (New Bomb Turks) and keyboardist Alex Fischel, it was a winner. 

Daniel and Boeckner started the group in late 2011 and they released their only album, A Thing Called Divine Fits, in August 2012 on Merge Records. It makes sense that it was a great album with the pedigrees of the band members: Spoon is one of the most consistently excellent indie rock bands of the last 25 years, while Boeckner is Canadian indie rock royalty and Brown was the drummer for one of the best garage rock bands going in New Bomb Turks. 

They managed to create something that sounded different from their other bands, fresh and vital but also reminiscent of their roots, combining guitar-driven indie rock with synth pop. The album has several standout tracks, but my favorite is "Would That Not Be Nice." Daniel sings lead on this one with his familiar rasp as he plays jagged chords.

"At night I wonder, how do I swing this?/I'm gonna be up for a long while/Cause I gotta know it/Know it tonight/Cause if I did, would that not be nice?/I wish that I was/In Minneapolis/Like Barbarita and Cleopatra/Up on her throne/Come Cleopatra/Come come back home/I'll be waiting here with basmati rice/And can you tell me now, would that not be nice?"

Boeckner's bass line propels the song along in a steady shuffle as Daniel wishes he was elsewhere.

"You're so destructive/Alien and deranged/Sometimes I wish that you were just strange/I must admit, that sounds alright/And if you were, would that not be nice?/You got a gothic candelabra/From California/And if you lit it/You set the room up with flickering light/And if you did, would that not be nice?"

The album performed fairly well, hitting #54 on the Billboard 200 and top 15 on three other Billboard album charts. Divine Fits toured through 2012 and into 2013. Afterwards, Daniel went back to Spoon and Fischel joined as an official member, while Boeckner returned to Wolf Parade and also formed the band Operators with Brown.

A decade later, there has been no more Divine Fits music, although earlier this week, Daniel and Brown joined Boeckner at the latter's solo show in Williamsburg to play three Divine Fits songs (including "Would That Not Be Nice"). And yeah, it was pretty nice.