Spacemen 3 - classic or unutterably shite?

Loop added the extra psychosis, it has to be said. And well done for that.

Ned - your statement is the most infuriatingly smug, superior bullshit I have read in a long, long time. You obviously consider yourself on a higher aesthetic plane than our friends over the atlantic. Which is presumably why you are wanking over your keyboard on an obscure mailing list rather than recording joyful music in Chicago. Good that nobody is allowed to make Jazz in your fetid, ignorant world except dead people from the 50s. Carry on keeping it real, mate, one day you'll be writing for Q.

my favourite songs are walking with jesus (single version), take me to the other side, mary anne, revolution......

That said, a good friend of mine went through a phase of doing hard downers, getting ripped off his head and doing the rounds of the local supermarket at 3 in the morning with stuff like the Spacemen on his headphones. Then he had a heart attack.

Beautiful stuff as Ned put it. The thrill jockey crowd can go fuck themselves and Roger can stuff his led zep where the sun don't shine beacuse this is the stuff.

search: perfect perscription (great blast of psychedelia), playing w/fire (the tunes in here tend to be pretty 'weird' from kember but there's some fantastic tunes from Jason to complement it: it all goes well even though as the writing credits show, they are on the way to splitting up, the lyrics i love too) and also a 'comtemporary evening of sitar music'. This isn't 'self-indulgent'. It shows these ppl believe in their own ideas and are prepared to take 'em to their (logcal) conclusion (yes, droning on and on OBESSESIVELY).

I mean, if I knew what you were on about, I might not be so quick to splash with the first inane comment that entered my head since they seem to go down about as well as a pork scratching as Bar Mitzvah.

You are firing my enthusiasm for Spacemen though, so it's not all doom and gloom.

That story about the heart attack is true by the way.

I ask because it seems to upset you on the ocassions I have mentioned music in relation to external stimuli, which I and everyone I know has always taken as pretty much a normal combination - be it getting crazy or driving a car, or just fucking dancing.

+ Are you gonna tell me what a troll is or wot?

And anyway there's no one answer to "what do you listen to music for" besides "because I enjoy it". After that it's all down to what the individual song/album does for me, if you want to check out some reviews I can mail you a portfolio with some lovely reasons.

i thought it was marcello as well.

"wasting your time giving a shit what rockstars do in their spare time or in particular picking one activity (drug taking)"

No-one's wasting their time here except you typing out that crap (and you know it to be crap too kid) and me typing out a response to it.

. . .

"becoming so preoccupied with it's effects on music when in reality there's absolutely no way of ever proving it's been involved."

Who is preoccupied with rock stars and drugs? I think perhaps it might be your good self, since you seem to be in such denial about the role drugs play in creative processes, particularly music. I'm not trying to 'prove' anything nor do I have any interest in doing so. I don't care one iota who does what but when something becomes an aspect to a subject of interest, whther you like it or not, you or anyone would be foolish and ignorant to ignore or disregard such an aspect.

. . .

"I think this point is still lost on you though since you persist with other red herrings like the above."

What red herring are you referring too old chap? The story I supplied - I think it was just for the purposes of being amused, not as a profound explanation of the interpretive necessity when listening to Spacemen.

Perhaps you should post your portfolio of reviews to clarify the point for me.

Similarly classic is Ned's first post on this old thread, which just had me laughing my breakfast out of my nose in a most inelegant fashion. Old threads just keep on giving.

I don't really agree with Ned's comment but I do agree it's awesome and it STANDS THE TEST OF TIME and stuff! Yes.

As for the comments above about American post-rock and jazz--Sorry, but Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis were way bigger British influences than Spacemen 3. Which isn't to say they were primary influences. I'll take Slint over Spacemen 3 any hour of the day, and so would many Thrill Jockey people, I bet.

To me, your post doesn't do their songwriting justice. They were also really into sound and had a lot of cool things going on on their records, tone-wise. I don't know if I like the post-Perfect Prescription records so much.

I was going to say that they had more of a sense of humor than the Killers, too, but actually the Killers are quite amusing (intentionally so, I think).

Y'all might want to reread the comment a bit, which while hyperbolic is not claiming S3 influenced *all* bands vaguely or clearly labeled post-rock, and does not automatically deny the potential influence of those two (very fine) bands at all.

And another thing--they sucked away attention from Sundial, who deserved it more.

I think the tribute songs were a part of the intentionally stoopid humor in their music along with the drug stuff and the God stuff. They weren't really serious about how their music was intended "for all the fucked up children of the world."

Great, great great band. And certainly a bit ridiculous on some level, but its not as if their referents weren't also.

One night when I was pretty drunk and living in a large loft space I played the Sound of Confusion very loud and it all just clicked. I think they are the band that took me the longest to "get" and probably the biggest 180 degree shift in opinion I've ever had.

I was in the same class as Jason Pierce at school and I can assure you it wasn't a public one!

Jason is usually quite humble in interviews, you're probably thinking of Sonic, who used to regularly glamourize drugs in interviews (to the point that 85% of the dialogue was centred around drugs).

playing with fire is pretty remarkable when you consider how heavily the earlier stuff hung off everyone they were ripping off. it actually does transcend all that. how do they possibly get 'i believe it' to sound so... i dunno, how do you get that much rushing momentum out of two organ notes?

it's all classic though, really. i used to put that 18-minute long version of 'rollercoaster' on repeat and stare at the wall for hours.

the vox conti is one of my favourite sounding organs. these clever bastards had some pretty sweet gear

how do you get that much rushing momentum out of two organ notes?

The brilliance of Spacemen 3, in a nutshell.

and of course don't get me wrong, i don't think it's just the gear by any means. but it don't hurt

jim we should form 'the australian spacemen 3 show'.

haha

i'll have to get a bowl cut wig

getting bad haircuts to make music to get bad haircuts to

Can I be your tribute fan?

to answer that question i must pose my own: how do you feel about bowl-cuts??

so tell me, how do you feel about them?

Might have been posted elsewhere on ILX already but if not -- the first in a series of exhibitions dedicated to the art of Natty Brooker, who performed in the band early on, did artwork for them as well as early Spz and generally is a big part of the legacy of it all. Very sadly, he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer; the upcoming exhibitions are meant to celebrate his work and life. He won't be attending due to his health, but the LA opening this Saturday will feature the very cool Will Carruthers as host; prints are available for sale. Further openings in the future will be in New York, London, Berlin and Amsterdam. You can find more information here:

http://willcarruthers.blogspot.com/

http://losangeles.going.com/event-666993;Spacemen_3s_Natty_Brooker_Print_Show_Opening

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=236361510161

Ugly link there for the second one -- just go here instead

i tried getting into this band a few years ago, but just didn't feel it. and Loop is one of my all time favorite bands.

Hmm. Try again.

If you dig Loop, pick up a copy of The Sound of Confusion and play it really, REALLY fucking loud. 2:35, Mary Anne, O.D. Catastrophe. Blast the hell out of that shit. In a car if you can't do it at home. Should do the trick.

I'll try that. I think I may have only tried Perfect Prescription, Playing with Fire, and Dreamweapon.

I want to go to that, but I'll wait for Berlin or London. At least now we have a fun new way to play "where in the world is Will Carruthers?"

It's Spacemen 3 day today according to Dan P. of Abunai (in that Mr. Kember and Mr. Pierce were both born today back in 1965).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg5D-CqDoI8

Shoot. Happy Bday, guys.

wow, I never they were born on the same day!

Happy Bday, guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0j21IIXpA0

Any day that gives me an excuse to listen to more Spacemen 3 than I already do is a very, very good day in my book.

listening to magic lantern, so that sort of almost counts

not really. happy b-day tho

Magic Lantern doesn't count :)

dunno that it will be of interest to anyone but me, but i just picked up a 2LP "fan club" reissue of taking drugs to make music to take drugs to, a classic S3 boot from way back. originally released in 1990 on father yod records. said by the band and many fans to be one of their best recordings, perhaps the best period. a faithful reproduction of the original packaging & pressing, plus an extra LP's worth of contemporaneous tracks tacked onto subsequent CD editions. nice to have and quite affordable.

hey, should I get Recurring? love everything else and passed on it at the time

it has some great moments

Recurring is great!! albeit a pretty big anomaly in their catalog. it doesn't really sound too much like anything before or since by either Kember or Pierce.

there are loads of drum machines and synthesizers on it

didn't really get it at the time, but it's pretty great in retrospect. it's fragmentary and covers a lot of ground, with a few tracks echoing playing with fire, several pointing toward lazer guided melodies and others suggesting avenues i wish they'd stuck around long enough to explore more fully (synth-pop!). def worth picking up, esp if you've heard & love everything else.

groovy, sounds like I really would've hated it in '91 but will totally dig it now.

i'll also get behind Recurring, awesome awesome album

the only spacemen 3 record i've got is sound of confusion & tho i like it quite a lot i find they're a bit too tightly wound for their own good? feel like the restraint is a bit much & potential rock n roll energy is wasted, esp lead guitar parts & vocals. wondering if any of the other records are a bit looser or something

Well, that Taking Drugs reissue is a lot of the same songs from Sound of Confusion in demo form.
Looser, rawer...I prefer those versions for sure. You should check out the live stuff. Performance was a life changer. "Suicide" could be their single greatest contribution.

"it doesn't really sound too much like anything before or since by either Kember or Pierce."

Pierce okay sure, but Spectrum is basically Kember re-making the first half of the record over and over (to great effect mind you, but still!)

feel like the restraint is a bit much & potential rock n roll energy is wasted, esp lead guitar parts & vocals. wondering if any of the other records are a bit looser or something

― flopson, Thursday, January 13, 2011 6:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

well, what trip maker says is true, the taking drugs demos are a bit looser and wilder, but the difference isn't radical, and there isn't anything as heavy as "o.d. catastrophe" on taking drugs. so the rock & roll energy level is comparable, imo. performance is similar: amped up, but not a different band or anything. to my mind, their restraint is their greatest strength, and they never rocked much harder than what you hear on sound of confusion, stray tracks like "revolution" and "suicide" excepted.

Is it OK to like this both this band and at least one Tortoise record?

it's not as much rocking out as just like idk, swagger. i'm really into this sound and obv they're a classic band but this is one thing keeping me from rly falling hard. i'll check out the demos

Did folks see this news?

http://www.factmag.com/2011/01/11/spacemen-3s-classic-12s-reissued/

the only spacemen 3 record i've got is sound of confusion & tho i like it quite a lot i find they're a bit too tightly wound for their own good? feel like the restraint is a bit much & potential rock n roll energy is wasted, esp lead guitar parts & vocals. wondering if any of the other records are a bit looser or something

― flopson, Thursday, January 13, 2011 8:42 PM (Yesterday)

honest question -- have you ever smoked marijuana?

srsly tho, this is such a weird revive in so many ways -- been moving shit around in my apt ... found a box of old CD's. Like, total 90s CDs.

apparently things that I had stored away to one day rediscover. Ok so first up was actually Darkness, 'Melomania' -- LOVED it on relisten, but boy was Pete Bassman going for that SP3 sound ... but he hits it real good, at least on that 1st Darkness albmum

Recurring is great!!

'Why Couldn't I See?' is the jam.

this chord........is for you DA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

buncha other stuff ... Thee Hypnotics .. couldn't quite believe how much i liked their American label CD .. pretty dang OK .. Jesus and Mary Chain 'Stoned and Dethroned' .. on American

all these albums seemed like total shit to me .. at the time

was that just a product of some sorta mid-90s style shift, why do I think these things sound decent now (incl. like I say, the Bassman stuff as Spacemen 3 aping Darkside) ?

now I need to listen to that American-label Love and Rockets CD again. If I can find it.

Ok so first up was actually Darkness, 'Melomania' -- LOVED it on relisten, but boy was Pete Bassman going for that SP3 sound

I didn't like this album outside of about two tracks ... I should listen again though, it's been ages.

Pierce okay sure, but Spectrum is basically Kember re-making the first half of the record over and over (to great effect mind you, but still!)

I agree, but the remakes were usually a lot better than the stuff on "Recurring". The roots of what would become SPZ are obvious on Jason's half, but I've never been able to get into any of it. I seriously would have never guessed that SPZ would become so good based on Jason's contributions to "Recurring".

So since the two halves are basically poor facsimiles of the much better music they'd make later on, I almost never feel the need to hear this album.

Recurring is great!! albeit a pretty big anomaly in their catalog. it doesn't really sound too much like anything before or since by either Kember or Pierce.

― assorted curses (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, January 13, 2011 11:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

well, apart from 'feel so sad' which became a spiritualized release iirc

and then there's the huge troggs rip anticipating spz's first single

there was also a huge troggs rip on Milli Vanilli's second single .. i swear

"I agree, but the remakes were usually a lot better than the stuff on "Recurring". "

I like all of Kember's stuff so I still pull out Recurring to listen to his half.

"I seriously would have never guessed that SPZ would become so good based on Jason's contributions to "Recurring"."

I'm not sure anyone would have! Consensus at the time was that he was the far less talented bandmember!

I dunno of Pierce's half "Hypnotized" and "Feel So Sad" are both breathtaking imho

those Darkside records do NOT hold up. the vibe is there but the songwriting definitely isn't

I'm not sure anyone would have! Consensus at the time was that he was the far less talented bandmember!

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, January 14, 2011 5:14 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

was this so? if so, i didn't notice. seemed to me that there was a great deal of anticipation about and positive response to that first spirtualized 12". or maybe that was just in my living room, i dunno. was floored by the great leap forward on lazer guided melodies tho.

iirc at the time Playing With Fire was seen as the high point and Pierce's involvement on that album is like, what, two songs? Kember definitely seemed like the dominant force around the time.

"Feeling Just Fine (Head Full of Shit)" sounds reeeeeally good under the right circumstances.

Plus Kember had released the first Spectrum album by that point and the Angel 12". He looked like the together/productive member of the group lol!

the LP sleeve for those first couple Spectrum albums are some of my all-time favorite psychedelic gimmick-style designs

They are great records too!

"Big City" is my favorite S3 song ever and "Why Couldn't I See" is always the song I send to ppl who have never heard/heard of S3 before. Recurring is amazing.

but yeah, 1st sonic boom LP and those early spectrum 12"s looked great

http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51esl5TFMXL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

^^ underrated

Thomas Koner is underrated!

might be heresy, but i like that e.a.r. album more than actual thomas koner stuff i've heard

Out.

;_;

so these lyrics are all about drugs.

also Jesus

you are sensitive to details

also bubblegum and rollercoasters

and politics (revolution)

band that seems awesome in theory but is actually pretty boring. dud.

Opened me up to the world of underground psych. Classic.

90% classic, 10% boring

best rock band of all time

rock and roll

My favorite band.

That's it. No more to add.

No surprise re: people who are very wrong itt

easily one of the best rock bands of the 80's.

oh my god, it's made of drugs

elvis great sleeve otm

what about me?

i guess i'm 90% otm, 10% wrong

Recurring, probaby their most accessible record, is also very underrated

Recurring, probaby their most accessible record, is also very underrated

Especially the super-long UK CD version!

I'm all about forged prescriptions

those are the best kind

forged prescriptions 2XCD is amazing

Playing With Fire >> Recurring. Could never be arsed with the rest. These always sounded fantastic on the walkman while still e'd or phetted up from the night before and some of Pierce's best ever songs on these.

bubblegum and rollercoasters and jesus lyrics are secretly about drugs too. this is my theory, and mine alone. you may disagree, but it is true i tell you.

music itself is a drug because it is a thing that has a chemical effect on your brain that causes you to feel things. drugs, my high school english teacher told me, just unlock the doors -- the doors of PERCEPTION -- that have always been there, only they've been locked. all lyrics are about drugs, because EVERYTHING is drugs.

drugs.

no that is a bad theory. most things are not drugs. the things spacemen 3 sing about, on the other hand, are drugs. this is how u can tell the difference.

i mean, i learned this in school though there were grades

the answer to the thread though is classic i don't understand why people wouldn't like droney psychadelic lazily-sung music like this. it's like drugs.

there is nothing lazy about this music.

"lazily sung" was just descriptive, not a value judgement, i just meant that the singer sounds chill and not worked up for the most part on perfect prescription.

xp well, it feels lazy, esp c perfect script. or it always has to me.

Do you like drugs?
Have you ever felt alone?
Do you still believe in love?

well me too

I love drugs so much i married drugs

drugs have been a harsh mistress for me. but then again, that's what i like about her.

sorry, that was a stupid joke.

I decided to get stoned and listen to Forged Prescrips and "Walking with Jesus" is playing and I am having *such a moment* and it's making me giggle

there is nothing lazy about this music.

A point that's often lost when talking about them. As easy as it is to dismiss them as hazy druggie fucks, the intensity to the sound is tremendous. "Dreamweapon" doesn't put me to sleep at all - it's too intense and I get caught up in it. The only other art that's induced a similar reaction is going to La Monte Young's Dream House or watching Sistiaga's experimental films.

just picked up "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to" despite years of misgivings about sound quality. hey they're demos right?

i'm an idiot! this is amazing!

Always been my favorite.

better than sound of comfusion, imo

yes, it is!

Yeah, it's excellent. Glad you finally got it!

Yes it is!

one of their best (controversial opinion)

I hope everyone has heard this bcz it is their best track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMqpxHY2nFs

Xgau's great one-liner: Stooges for Airports

I like em all the same

fxxxgau

actually if that's a sly eno reference i like it

That's a pretty good line.

i'm an idiot! this is amazing!

This is the reaction I've been having to these guys for the past few years. One day I decided to get Forged Prescriptions and I've been converted ever since.

xgau otm, but it's hardly a slam

well i was not kidding when i said imo GOAT

reading "stooges for airports" as a slam requires one to think the stooges and/or music for airports is drivel

and even if you believe such you must admit the successful synthesis of those binaries is a magic trick worth lauding

i took it to mean a polite, wallpaper-y version of the stooges ... didn;t really think of the possible music for airports reference until later

though for all their minimalism i can't hear spacemen as "ambient" ... though obviously later sonic boom did a ton of straight-up ambient music

may be some conflation of drone/ambient going on there

which is maybe another way of saying the stooges did stooges for airports when they made "we will fall"

Now I am envisioning a will-never-happen S3 version of We Will Fall which would obv be one of the greatest things ever,

one of my fave summertime jams, perfect for a pool float, also pretty ambient imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWrF2xkUPA

Jugando con fuego is a Spacemen 3/Spectrum/Spiritualized tribute album from Central & South America.

It's pretty great - scratch that, it's outstanding. Get it...

http://f0.bcbits.com/img/a0272785327_2.jpg

you had me at free download

Loving this. I've only listened to Loshing touch with my Mind and How you Satisfy Me and I love this. Thanks!

good stuff, thanks

Very sad news per Elvis T. on Twitter: "Word in that Natty Brooker, Spacemen 3 drummer and artist passed away after a long battle with cancer."

Oh no. That sucks.

Some art of his you might recognize

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Spacemen_3_-_Recurring.jpg

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3s9i4RB6x1qaxunto1_500.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VUom765tKLs/TTLdbKiz0II/AAAAAAAAA6Q/o2AF9N8pAXc/s1600/Anywayblog.jpg

the taking drugs sleeve is awesome. RIP man.

RIP

this is one of the worst thread titles on ilx

"This is indeed a disturbing universe."

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/09/27/the-simpsons-spacemen-3-music/

indeed

Happy 50th birthday to both Sonic & Jason today!

Back when I was 16, Playing With Fire was so ace. Happy birthday degenerates!

wow, they both made it to 50. happy birthday boys.

incredible!

I consider myself privileged to have met both, and they were charming. They remain icons. I wish them both many more birthdays and good health.

Happy birthday to my favourite band I never listen to any more.

How are they getting on with each other these days? What are the chances of a S3 reunion?

At the benefit "reunion" a couple of years ago, onstage they had literally every person who has ever been in Spacemen 3 for more than a week, with the noted exception of Jason. (Photos are on a phone that has since died, tho.) So sources point to... no.

For All The Fucked-Up Semicentennarians Of This World We Give You A Cake

Quinquagenarians!

Happy birthday 😍

The semi-legitimate rumor is that Coachella and Primavera have been racing each other as to who can offer up the most $ for a S3 reunion, but the response has solidly been laughter and shrugs.

That only increases my respect for them TBH.

Yeah this will never happen imo

Wouldn't Europe give way more of a shit abt an S3 reunion than west-coast US would?

Yeah, I wouldn't mind betting ATP have offered them £££.

Didn't know Jason was on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jspaceman3/

http://spiritualized.band/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12878&sid=d591c3a1db501e5550c6d370577c4f13#p132432

read Sonic Boom's post

wtf?

Hasn't Space Age been reissuing stuff of theirs for years?

and wasn't Sonic involved in the double-CD Forged Prescriptions (which I have and is awesome...?) Could've sworn he wrote the liners.

Note the followup:

My 'involvement' was doing artwork & mastering on either my own , Spectrum or Spacemen 3....

Gerald palmer has always been 100% space age owner .

Will has a new book coming out this year:
http://www.lebowski.agency/will-carruthers/

Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands tells the story of one of the most influential, revered and ultimately demented British bands of the 1980s, Spacemen 3. In classic rock n roll style they split up on the brink of their major breakthrough.

As the decade turned sour and acid house hit the news, Rugby's finest imploded spectacularly, with Jason Pierce (aka Jason Spaceman) and Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) going their separate ways. Here, Will Carruthers tells the whole sorry story and the segue into Spirtualized in one of the funniest and most memorable memoirs committed to the page.

i want that book, goddamn!!!

Interview with Will about the book: http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/The_Tom_Dunne_Show/Highlights_from_Tom_Dunne/156575/Playing_the_Bass_with_Three_Left_Hands

woa

Need to order this.

Mine arrived Saturday

I nearly lost my shit the other day when I thought I heard an S3 clip being used in a commercial and then I realized it was just some dumb song w a drum loop sampled from "I Love You"

If anyone's in the US, there are a bunch of new copies on Amazon Marketplace that come to like $15 w/ shipping which is prob 8-10 cheaper than you'll pay getting it shipped from the UK.

i had no idea about this - gonna order a copy now!

Read Will's book in one sitting - yes it's that great.

Got my copy the other day but I'm going to save it for a trip here in a couple of weeks. Figure it'll be the perfect timekiller.

short extract here:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/26/spacemen-3-will-carruthers-playing-the-bass-extract

Humblebrag ahead...

So I finally tracked down the Rosetta Stone for this sort of thing… pic.twitter.com/gYCrR0ptva

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) July 2, 2018

nice!

that's awesome

jealous

i've read the writing on the wall

A couple days ago, all of Spacemen 3 (except for the Losing Touch With Your Mind comp) disappeared off of Apple Music. I wondered what was up and then I learned that Spacemen 3's old manager (and sole corporate officer of Adasam Ltd.) and Apple are being sued for pirating hundreds of recordings that he falsely claimed licenses to.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/apple-hit-with-lawsuit-by-songwriter-heirs-for-allegedly-running-a-massive-music-piracy-operation/?fbclid=IwAR3SLF3-vctvj0P0EbU-e1S3y8pxzXeZjnEQ7H8zLMM1DEZXwAKBxZo8v1w

Holy shit at that -- but also how perversely appropriate that S3's stuff gets caught in yet ANOTHER weird legal zone.

Is this the same guy that runs Spaceage records who Jason and Pete both hate?

unutterably shite

the arts centre live piece where the band were so munted that the bass player forgot to turn on his amp, and the PA keeps announcing the screening time for "Wings of Desire", is one of my all time favourite records.

Are they on any other streaming services?

They only have one song on Spotify and that's only because it's on MGMT's Late Night Tales comp

Is this the same guy that runs Spaceage records who Jason and Pete both hate?

Yeah. Will's book talks about the shit stuff he was doing back then. The guy who hired me into the music industry once told me "an idiotic and ignorant t-shirt salesman has no business managing an important band." I never forgot that...

Anyway, my hope is that Adasam will be so far in the fucking hole with insolvency that SP3 can finally get their own music back. Crazy year gets crazier...

the arts centre live piece where the band were so munted that the bass player forgot to turn on his amp, and the PA keeps announcing the screening time for "Wings of Desire", is one of my all time favourite records.

cosigned

Maybe a perfect band for an ILX covers album.

Are they on any other streaming services?

They only have one song on Spotify and that's only because it's on MGMT's Late Night Tales comp

― groovypanda, Monday, May 11, 2020 5:24 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same on Amazon Music and Tidal.

> the arts centre live piece

> an idiotic and ignorant t-shirt salesman

ironically, the person who first put out an extract from the contemporary sitar music thing went on to sell t-shirts on a my bloody valentine tour (one of the che / cheree people, can't remember which)

Nick Allp0rt, perhaps.

yeah, i mail ordered stuff from him a few times and he said once he was taking a few month off to tour with mbv. the spacemen3 thing was initially a flexi (5"?) shared with 2 other bands, but is now part of the Dreamweapon lp.

I wonder if that's the same item with a really early (and pretty terrible) Bark Psychosis tune.

yes, clawhammer. and the third band was the fury* things.

* not furry things

I wonder if that's the same item with a really early (and pretty terrible) Bark Psychosis tune.

BTW in addition to being SP3's old manager, the Adasam guy was also Bark Psychosis' manager. Graham Sutton has been at war with him for a long time and also recommend that people *not* buy the Record Store Day re-release of Independency.

Gerald Palmer is the guy that runs Spaceage, that's who I assumed you guys were talking about. He's the one that reissues Spacemen 3 albums and the band discourages people from buying them.

Would love to see a fine remastered Sp3 box set, but I can't imagine it happening.

I guess they have multiple people sponging off of them.

Sonic Boom has a new album coming out this year! Three videos are on youtube. They're okay? I want to like them more than I do.

Bassman weighs in on Palmer
https://petespacemanbassman.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/the-blues-according-to-adasam-and-apple/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRyie8Z1-hA

^^ awesome.

Norman Recs just mailed out they have new, limited (no idea how limited) coloured vinyls of a lot of SP3/Spectrum/Spiritualized releases https://www.normanrecords.com/promos/605 (all by Space Age Recordings)

Now on Spotify!

The Space Age Spacemen 3 vinyl reissues are bad news. Bad pressings.

Fucked Up Inside reissue is great and highly recommended.

XP HOLY SHIT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY FOR LIKE 9 YEARS, AAAAAAAAA I AM SO EXCITED

It's not all their albums tho but still better than nothing and does have Forged Prescriptions which has the glorious full length version of Ecstacy Symphony

honestly I'm just going to be stuck listening to "Big City" on repeat so I'm fine with that

Just seeing their stuff on Spotify now. I see the first two albums are missing but “Taking Drugs” and “Forged Prescriptions” are there. Is that just a rights thing or do the band/fans consider these to be the more definitive documents of that era?

Separate but related question - as someone who has never heard those early albums (especially Perfect Prescription), am I gonna get a diluted/distorted vision of the band if I start with these?

Of those available, I would start with Playing With Fire

Listen to all of it because it’s all good. Taking Drugs is a collection of demos that got them a deal with Glass Records. I think Glass still owns the rights to those first two albums which is why SOC and Perfect Prescription aren’t on Spotify. Taking Drugs is great, the versions are rawer than SOC in a very good way. I’d start there to get a sense of where S3 started (Stooges/Cramps/MC5).

Forged Prescriptions collects the original recordings of songs that wound up on PP but for the most part they are not demos. They initially recorded these songs with lots of overdubs and studio trickery but decided not to go that direction because they wouldn’t be able to replicate it live. The FP version of Walking With Jesus is incredibly beautiful.

Dreamweapon has now been added!

Listen to all of it because it’s all good. Taking Drugs is a collection of demos that got them a deal with Glass Records. I think Glass still owns the rights to those first two albums which is why SOC and Perfect Prescription aren’t on Spotify. Taking Drugs is great, the versions are rawer than SOC in a very good way. I’d start there to get a sense of where S3 started (Stooges/Cramps/MC5).

Forged Prescriptions collects the original recordings of songs that wound up on PP but for the most part they are not demos. They initially recorded these songs with lots of overdubs and studio trickery but decided not to go that direction because they wouldn’t be able to replicate it live. The FP version of Walking With Jesus is incredibly beautiful.

― Cow_Art, Friday, July 31, 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Thanks, I think this answers my question. I will listen to it all of course - I was just trying to understand if there was some revisionism going on based on what they were making available. Like, Forged Prescriptions is not the director's cut.

Correct. It’s sort of an alternate version of the album that has been cobbled together. I like many of the FP versions as much as their PP counterparts, and they are different enough to be worth seeking out. But those versions never cohered into a finished album which is where PP succeeds. Sonic considers FP to be the ultimate version of that material fwiw.

BTW, supposedly the master tapes for PP were lost long ago. All digital versions are sourced poorly. Sonic has said that FP is as close as we will get to a proper remaster of PP. Fucking stoners.

I would say Playing w Fire is their "best" but that Recurring is my "favorite" and that also Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music is fucking incredible even if there not actually any sitar on it lmao

I love this band but getting a handle on how their discography all fits together has always been so goddamn confusing

I bought Sound of Confusion when it first released and have no idea how it all fits together either lol

I've spent thirty years trying to figure it out and I still quite can't. But I'm glad I've got everything one way or another.

Nice piece by Will here about An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/26/spacemen-3-will-carruthers-playing-the-bass-extract

I love this band but getting a handle on how their discography all fits together has always been so goddamn confusing

SP3 is my favorite band, I've worked for Bomp, worked with Sonic, even have my name on a couple of releases - but I don't even know where to start with this. I suppose it's erroneous to consider any track to be the final/definitive version of itself and more of a snapshot of where it's at. There's hours of outtakes from all four albums - no extra songs, but plenty of differing directions something could have takes: real drums vs. drum machine, reverse reverb or not, lyrical changes, etc. etc.

they really “got” minimalism and understood how to properly exploit its power

For All the Fucked Up Children of this World...: Early (first?) recording session. Copied to tape and distributed around town by the band who are not terribly proud of it now. Their sound hadn't formed yet, it's historically interesting but they are baby spacemen toddling about. Bluesy.

Taking Drugs to Make Music To Take Drugs To: Demos which secured a record deal with Glass. Sometimes I like this as much as Sound of Confusion. Released unofficially and later officially with bonus tracks on Space Age Recordings. Only unique song is "It's Alright" which was later recorded by Spectrum.

Sound of Confusion: First proper album. All UK versions end with "OD Catastrophe." All US versions append the Walking With Jesus single and a demo version of 2:35 that is also found on TDTMMTTDT. Taang! Records put out their early albums on CD in the US. The Taang! covers are ugly and the sound quality is shit. The bonus track "Rollercoaster" has about 20 seconds trimmed off. WTF

Perfect Prescription: Second album. Early versions ended with "Call The Doctor." Since then all versions append "Soul 1" and "That's Just Fine" which are b-sides of the Take Me To The Other Side single. These are nice, if a little slight and they dull the impact of the original ending. Taang! version has a gap between "Ecstasy Symphony" and "Transparent Radiation" where the songs should flow together seamlessly. Unforgivable. Best way to hear it is probably the original Glass vinyl.

Forged Prescriptions: Two cds of alternate takes and demos from PP. A couple of unique songs which aren't terribly exciting, but the alternate versions are sometimes lusher and better than the PP versions. Highly recommended. Demo version of "Come Down Easy" is terrific.

The Singles AKA Translucent Flashbacks: Collects the first three singles including all the SOC & PP bonus tracks, with "Rollercoaster" at its proper length (17:24!!!). "Walking With Jesus" single version is a remix of the TDTMMTTDT track. Good shit.

Playing With Fire: Third album. Should end with "Lord Can You Hear Me?" but most versions add bonus tracks afterward. The 2cd version has loads of great stuff.

Dreamweapon: Technically a live album, sort of the fourth album but not really. Originally just the one track it now always comes with instrumental bonuses that fit nicely. "Spaceman Jam" credits Jason but he's not really on it. Some other dude Sonic was jamming with. It meanders.

Recurring: Fourth album. When I had full on Spacemen fever this was IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND. It drove me nuts and went for $$$. Proper ending is "Billy Whizz." All CD versions have the same bonus tracks. I think.

DJ Tones EP: Random rare tracks that hold together well. Notable for Spacemen 3's version of "These Blues," later performed by Spiritualized.

How The Blues Should've Turned Out: Barrel scrapings sold by Sonic Boom. CDRs maybe? Only a hundred were released and later he could be found on the Spiritualized forum berating people for sharing copies. Some good stuff, but this is where I started losing interest in MORE Spacemen 3.

LIVE STUFF

Performance: An abbreviated PP era show. Taang! version adds the Threebie 3 ep which has live tracks from the same gig.

Live In Europe AKA Spacemen Are Go!: Later live album. Collects tracks from different dates, including a couple of the more delicate PWF cuts. "Bo Diddley Jam" is badass.

Live At The New Morning: Unofficially released and then later put out as a needle drop on Space Age. Avoid the Space Age version. Good show from the PWF tour, although the focus is on the noisier songs.

There are other bootlegs, B-sides, and bits and pieces that I haven't bothered to hunt down. Is there something good I'm missing?

Outstanding guide thank you! I have a few CDs and a folder of mp3 albums of which half seemed like bootlegs - now I can figure it out!

I'd add the Losing Touch With Your Mind comp to that list.

Forgot about that one! More alternates, demos, etc.

There's a live boot that I've seen for sale but never grabbed: Revolution or Heroin.

The tribute album is VERY good. All the way through.

1. Bowery Electric - Things'll Never Be The Same
2. The Asteroid #4 - Losing Touch With My Mind
3. Mogwai - Honey
4. Flowchart - Ode To Street Hassle
5. Accelera Deck - I Believe It 3:31
6. Arab Strap - Revolution
7. Bardo Pond - Call The Doctor
8. Frontier - Hey Man
9. Low - Lord, Can You Hear Me?
10. Amp - So Hot (Wash Away All Of My Tears)
11. Piano Magic - How Does It Feel
12. Transient Waves - Billy Whizz

I discovered about five of those bands via the tribute album, I can't speak highly of it enough.

There's the All Fucked Up boot in my collection too:

https://www.discogs.com/Spacemen-3-All-Fucked-Up/release/3141260

Per the Discogs notes:

Live recording from Germany during the tour of 1988, or probably recorded live on 11th January 1988 at The Rose Club in Koln, Germany.

There's also Out of It, which I think is just a selection of stuff found on Forged Prescriptions but I'd need to check to be sure. Not even Discogs has that one I think.

And here's the Revolution or Heroin info again via Discogs:

Though sometimes thought to be "live 22. October 1987 University of London", this is actually the soundtrack from a video of a show at The Mean Fiddler.

There was a 3 CDR project of various songs from live shows over the years but I only have a basic rip of the first disc.

Highly recommend the cassette (or a digital playlist version) of 'The Perfect Prescription'. The entire proper album is on side A while the flip contains the epic covers from the period - the 17 min version of "Rollercoaster" and the 11 min version of "Starship".

Interesting to see the love for Recurring. I remember being slightly horrified when it came out and found it a big let down after what had come before. Big City in particular seemed cheesily ludicrous. I haven't listened to it in about 25 years - maybe I should give it a chance.

Recurring's their best album! That album and the subsequent first albums by Spiritualized, Spectrum, and the Darkside are the high water mark of everyone involved.

And "Big City" ended up in The Simpsons so hey.

xp "Big City" is like... their best song

Wasn't there a sonic boom LP (confusingly called spectrum) before a spectrum lp (soul kiss)? Which one do you mean fhazel?

(oddly, despite having about 20 LP's by this bunch in various guises, I have nothing by darkside. What am I missing?)

I do not get “big city” :-/

probably 15 years or so ago i thought i had a shitty mp3 rip of "the perfect prescription" so i bought the taang! cd version and realized nope! it's actually that bad. also, if i remember they had a truncated version of "starship" on there even though they had the space on it for the full 11 min version which always pissed me off.

“Recurring” is cool but c’mon ... there’s no way “Big City” stands out as special. Not even the best thing on that album which, in comparison to their preceding albums, stood out as the weakest.

Sonic's solo album was recorded before Recurring, I'm talking about Soul Kiss by Spectrum which was post-S3 breakup...

I have relistened a little on Spotify. Recurring is still poor. Big City is still awful. No offence, but claiming Big City is their best song is crazy....

To say Recurring is better than PP or PWF is equally crazy, IMO

this may be missing the point with Spacemen 3, but always thought the Recurring version of Big City is just too long. the 12" version is about 8.5 minutes and that is just right

Recurring was my first S3 album so I do like it but my heart belongs to Sound of Confusion. listened to Losing Touch With My Mind just now because seemed kind of apt

Big City (Everybody I Know Can Be Found Here), in which Sonic notes the kinship between Dandy Livingstone's Big City and Kraftwerk's Neon Lights and makes a song about it.

Recurring: Jason's side >>>>>> Sonic's side.

I like Big City quite a bit.

Feeling Just Fine is one of my favorite songs out of all the Spacemen projects.

The only track that I feel inclined to skip is I Love You.

I really appreciate some of the recent breakdowns re: pressings and sound, I have Taking Drugs CD on US Bomp, SOC CD on UK Refire, PP CD & LP on US Genius, PWF CD and LP on US Bomp, Dreamweapon CD re on US Sympathy (I regret selling my Fierce OG) and OG Recurring CD on US Dedicated. so I think I'm good except for picking up FP and the singles comp someday. I never really clicked with any of the live stuff but damn do I love their studio work.

Recurring: Jason's side >>>>>> Sonic's side.

Yeah, this was the album where Sonic ran out of ideas and began an exercise in self-parody

Damn y'all I had no idea "Recurring" and "Big City" were so controversial! As a massive Kraftwerk/electronic music stan, it just scratches a very particular itch for me, I guess

yeh I'm surprised too, every S3 fan I've ever known loved Big City. when those farfisa chords come in halfway thru, it gets me every time.

As a massive Kraftwerk/electronic music stan, it just scratches a very particular itch for me

This is 100% OTM. It's funny because I think I actually went backwards? That it was Sonic Boom's interest in analogue synths way back in the 90s, that actually opened up the world of krautrock in general and Kraftwerk in particular to me.

My memory of what happened around Recurring was it came out at a point where Spacemen 3 were already breaking up, and there were already solo albums and 12"s floating around. So that in comparison to what had come before, and what came out just after, it felt a little bit of a letdown. It definitely had a sad undercurrent to it, like, "wow, my favourite band is breaking up? Bummer." Which affected my impressions of the album at the time, followed quickly by "wow, I now have TWO favourite bands and they're both amazing?"

I also distinctly recall that when I swapped my (bought on release) vinyl of Recurring for a later CD a few years later, I listened to it again and had a much more positive impression of it - and realised I had been overly harsh towards it. And Big City has aged incredibly well, it has got better with time.

Cow_Art thank you for that release breakdown, been dreaming about a simple cribsheet for S3 releases like that for a while

My own introduction to S3 was the solo Spectrum album Sonic released as discussed a few posts back -- it was a new release at the time and one of the first things I reviewed for KLA at UCLA as a DJ preview. I'm not really sure I'd heard anything quite like it before, honestly, but I was listening to a lot of stuff for the first time all around then, and it was enough for me to get very interested in who he was and this band of his was. Prompted by all this I gave it a relisten yesterday and it holds up very nicely.

I'm kicking myself because my first exposure to S3 *was* the fabled Glass vinyl - purple swhirlies, black vinyl - and I have no idea what happened to my record collection, if it's still sitting in a box, or if my Mum has thrown it away. Because it has never quite sounded right in the reissues. (I'm going to cry if I start thinking about all the rare Spacemen/Sonic/Spz vinyl I used to have 30 years ago.)

I didn't hear the solo sonic LP until the reissue, hence my timeline confusion above (thanks for clarifying fh). A friend had a copy with the swirly thing on the front but I'm not sure he ever played it in my presence.

(2013 it says. lists Jason in the credits. And Jo wiggs)

yeah I remember seeing that pinwheel Spectrum LP at the record store but it was too pricey to take a chance on (I snagged the reissue and... it's not my favorite Sonic Boom work)

The only Sonic stuff that I'm fully on board with is Soul Kiss & Highs, Lows, Heavenly Blows. There are lots of other good things scattered across his releases but his range is pretty limited. There's a comp of singles and whatnot called What Came Before After that is pretty good.

I stumbled upon a huge wad of used EAR cds at the Amoeba in LA and I was SO STOKED. Worked my way through them and it was a bit of a slog. Mesmerized is the only one I kept.

Yeah that one is my fallback -- I do love the rest for different moods but Mesmerized just seemed to get Sonic's ability to embrace warm drift perfectly, not having to worry about creating songs as such.

Ned, I read and reread your Spacemen 3 reviews several times back in the day. I came to them through Spiritualized and Allmusic led the way. Thanks for that. In college I would stay up way too late devouring Allmusic.

You're most welcome! Glad to know that was a bridge to more.

the first song on that sonic boom spectrum album is so gorgeous and lonely, I think the cover of my vinyl copy had a cardboard roulette wheel you could spin

forever alien completely blew my mind at the time, I could not comprehend it, it sounded like sonic boom tried to record an album while several ufos were landing all around him

OMG, Forever Alien is an absolutely astonishing piece of work. It was just kinda... not where my mind was at when it came out, but it was an album I have revisted again and again, and realise just how formative Sonic Boom was, towards shaping everything I love in music. It's so slithery, and alien-sounding - there's this real kinda 80s mythology that synths are supposed to sound clinical and cold. (Actual Kraftwerk... does *not* sound cold, they can sound clinical, but their tone is very warm.) While Pete took the idea of "what if synths were a living alien intelligence" and ran with it!

I'm so lucky I actually got to see him do that shit live when I first moved to the UK, because transporting the gear necessary to generate those sounds was so obviously never going to happen.

So much of the E.A.R. stuff is... patchy, but when it's good, it's amazing. I recently got out a load of E.A.R. records and started re-listening, because when I'm having a bout of really bad hyperacusis, they're one of the few things I can listen to that doesn't trigger it.

Hm, so out of curiosity, any particular difference between the two versions of Forged Prescriptions? There was that John Rivers-remastered version from two years back, besides the original back in 2003.

Didn't realize the different cover was supposed to be remastered. I know that when FP was initially released Sonic was involved and seemed rather proud of it. By the time the newer one came out things would have soured between Gerald Palmer and him, so I can't imagine Sonic had anything to do with it. And Space Age hasn't shown any particular inclination towards caring about sound quality.

It would be cool to compare them, but I suspect that the new cover and remastering are geared only toward selling the same album to the same people twice.

Suspected as much!

Anyway as long as we're all here, Sterling Roswell has a wonderfully titled Bandcamp site:

https://sterlingroswellvortexionvalveloopdecoderprojectresearchfacilty.bandcamp.com/

And among other things a new album just out (but Bandcamp Friday is about to happen so there's that):

https://sterlingroswellvortexionvalveloopdecoderprojectresearchfacilty.bandcamp.com/album/the-psychedelic-ubik

(Or maybe an old album. He's been adding a slew of stuff over the past few days.)

sonic boom on da BiS

https://beatsinspace.net/playlists/1060/

LOL, my dead husband (tm) loves Kraftwerk even more than I do!

Oh shit ziggy stroom aka nosedrip did the other set too, what a night of joy on BIS

Strong mojo uncle vibe to that BiS mix, thanks uncle pete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvaf1-2Xnmw