Spoon’s bonus download for July is a demo (aren’t they all?) of Merchants of Soul, off 2005’s Gimme Fiction.

The demo strips away pretty much all of the drums, save for some minimal time-keeping that sounds like hand claps or leg slaps or something. I like to hear demos because you can hear how the layers came together in the finished product and this demo most definitely makes me miss Jim Eno’s catchy rhythms of the album version.

• Spoon | Merchants of Soul (demo)

IN SPORTS: How about that All-Star Game? As much as I hate that the All-Star outcome decides home-field advantage for the World Series, there is no better all-star competition in professional sports than that of baseball. (And I’m not just saying that because I happen to be employed by MLB.com.) At least read this and you may feel the same.