Shoplifting with Spiritual Cramp

Ahead of their iNDIESUMMER performance, Spiritual Cramp lead singer Mike Bingham came in to talk graphic design, supporting the homies, and a close call with Sharon Van Etten.

Photos by Nathan Hutsenpiller

Citing sources from early Dub influenced Clash, Blitz and The Modern Lovers - Spiritual Cramp exist in a strange vacuum somewhere between David Byrne's oversized suit and a bar fight between a bunch of drunk goons on Polk Street in SF. Hate for the police, the government and the status quo are recurring themes in Bingham's lyrics. The sounds borrow from the past, echoes of late 70's / early 80's working class rock and punk, which function on the upbeat, showcasing very bright guitars yet generating darker vocal rhythms and darker patterning.

We caught up with Mike Bingham of Spiritual Cramp at our NYC store for our newest session of Shoplifting. An invitation to roam the racks in pursuit of the recorded material which has most inspired and shaped their sound today. Be sure to check out their self-titled album on Blue Grape Music.

I listen with the ears of someone who wants someone else to win, if that makes sense. Like, even if it was bad, I would tell you that it was good. Because being a musician myself, I have experienced that feeling of just like, extreme self doubt, extreme fear that people are not going to receive things.

My first pick is Reversing Into the Future. It's a graphic design book with a lot of music stuff. Our old manager actually just sent me a copy of this as a gift. I got into music and design at the same time and you know, you play in punk bands and you kind of start to pay attention to stuff like this and I did a lot of our designs for a long time. So I actually reference this book a lot of times when I'm trying to come up with source material for Spiritual Cramp. There's one ad in here for Sire Records that I completely ripped off to create an ad map for a split we did with Chubby and The Gang and it is definitely still on the Internet. No one called me on it, but that's the thing about music and graphic design, people don't care about it as long as it's like a throwback to the 70s or something like that.   

Next I picked the new DIIV record, Frog in Boiling Water. This record is really great. It's produced by Chris Cody. I became friends with the band while they were making this record so I really got a backstage glimpse into them making this record and how painstaking and arduous it was for them to make this album. They must have worked for like a year and a half on this and I would just check in with Ben, their drummer, on how things were going and it was just such a roller coaster hearing him talk about making this record, this was a lot of work. They didn't have a label while they were making this record and it was really uncertain and kind of shaky. I mean, they knew what they were doing, you know, but just getting to hear about the struggle of a band making a record for so long without a label and not knowing what their future would look like then to watch them put it out recently and see the amazing reception it's gotten, it's an amazing record. Chris Cody did I think the Beach House records and a lot of other really cool records, so I have a really personal connection to this album. So when I listen to it, I listen with the ears of someone who wants someone else to win, if that makes sense. Like, even if it was bad, I would tell you that it was good. Because being a musician myself, I have experienced that feeling of just like, extreme self doubt, extreme fear that people are not going to receive things. It's so scary to be an artist and to watch this band create this and how hard it was for them and then to watch them just hit a Grand Slam. It makes me want to hit play on it again.

My next pick is Sharon Van Etten We've Been Going About This All Wrong. Here's another record that I have an immense personal connection to. So my wife and I moved to LA about three years ago and right about that time, my wife started doing Sharon's hair. I believe her first job doing Sharon's hair was for this record cover. So my wife came home and she said Sharon is so cool and her husband is so cool who also played in the band and now manages Sharon. She said we need to hang out with them, but my wife says that about everyone. So like sometimes, especially with another musician, you never know what someone's going to be like, especially in the indie rock world. It's like, you know, you can meet some people who you don't click with immediately or whatever. I started listening to this record as it came out and I'd met Sharon a couple of times. What happened was, I did a little Instagram reel for Cream Magazine where I was making fun of bands, people would submit and this was right before I met Sharon, but Barb was doing her hair at the time and someone submitted Sharon Van Etten for this article I said, “This is music for people who own houses and have expensive house plants and drink natural wine…” And it was a hit like the reel that I'd made, you know, it got like 100,000 views.   Out of nowhere, Sharon texted Barb and sent the reel and said, “Is this your Mike?” And and then Barb said, yeah, he was just trying to be funny, like, you know, blah, blah, blah and she didn't respond. I thought that I had just ruined my wife's relationship with her then that night, Barb and I went out to dinner at a restaurant called Puccetti in Echo Park and we're sitting outside and Sharon and her husband, Zeke, get out of a car and walk into the restaurant and I'm like, “Hey, it's me, the comedian, the guy who was just making fun of you.” She was so sweet about it and since then, we've become really good friends. They're just the best people in the world and this record is just so intense and emotional and really just serious and it strikes this emotional core to me that not a lot of records do.

My next pick is Road to Ruin by The Ramones. This is their 4th record produced by the drummer Tommy, and I think Marky played on this. The first song on this record “I Just Want To Have Something To Do” is the first Ramones song I ever heard. My first interaction with the Ramones was watching Rock'n'roll High School, and I believe it is the first Ramones song on Rock'n'roll High School when they're showing up in the convertible and he's eating the chicken and he throws the chicken. This record has all the songs that I'm in love with. “I Just Want To Have Something To Do” I think is one of the best Ramones songs ever made. This is right before they went really crazy with the Phil Spector record End of a Century, which I'm going to say on record, Rough Trade, I don't like End of a Century. I was listening to it a couple of days ago and it's just a little crazy for me. I also want to relate this record to my band, when you see Spiritual Cramp play, we play down strokes and that is something that these guys, they architected the idea of playing down strokes and opening your legs while you're playing and having a stance and a look. We do that and we do it because of this band.

My final pick is Flatworms and I believe it's their new LP, Witness Marks. I walked into Rough Trade today and this is what they were playing, and I was listening for a while and I was like, man, this is really good. I thought that eventually a song would come on that I would know and I would be like, oh, it's this band but it never happened so I walked up to the counter and I was like, what record is this? They showed me this album. I realized I've seen this band a bunch in LA. They roll with the likes of OSEES and I believe I even played a show with Flatworms when I was playing in the band Smirk. But this record is really great, I think with all of the bands that are kind of popping off right now, like Fontaines DC, Shame, bands that are inspired by The Fall, this would fit really nicely in that whole world. I was really happy to walk in and discover this because it is incredible and the production is really cool. I thought this was like a big band when I was listening to it, I was like, oh, this must be like a huge popular band because it's so catchy and the production is so awesome. So I wanted to grab it and talk about it and I'm going to listen to this record the rest of this tour.