Release of Love Ways EP

Spoon signed with Merge Records and released the Love Ways EP in 2000. The decision was made to do this without bassist Joshua Zarbo, who had briefly left the band. In 2001, Spoon released its third LP entitled Girls Can Tell . The new record was a success, selling more copies than both of their previous LP releases combined. The band’s next release in 2002, Kill the Moonlight had similar success. That album’s single ” The Way We Get By ” was popularized by its placement in the movie Stranger than Fiction (released later, in 2006), in an episode of the teen drama The O.C. , and on the first episode of the American version of the series Shameless . Their next album, Gimme Fiction , was released in May 2005, and debuted at number 44 on the Billboard 200 , selling more than 160,000 copies.