It’s often surprising to see how many huge bands from the nineties, who then faded critically and commercially, are still a going concern in 2014, but I’m not entirely sure why; after all, Oasis continued to dine out on Definitely Maybe and What’s the Story Morning Glory for the best part of two decades. Spin Doctors are another such band, having released a debut album in 1991, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, that went five times platinum in the U.S. and spawned huge radio hits in the form of ‘Two Princes’ and ‘Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong’. They followed it up solidly, too, with sophomore effort Turn It Upside Down going platinum, too, but since then, they’ve retained only a core cult fanbase as their sound dated. Even so, it hasn’t stopped them from continuing to write and record, with their latest LP, If the River Was Whiskey, released last year, taking them back to a rootsier blues sound than they’d previously flirted with. They still play live frequently, too, with their current U.S. tour seeing them dedicate equal prominence on the setlist to each of their six albums, with a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain?’ thrown in for good measure. They played an intimate tour of the UK as recently as May of 2011, too, proving that they still have transatlantic appeal; whether they’re simply a nostalgia band or still have something left in the tank creatively, though, is still for them to prove.
Sylvan Esso
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