Where to start on Spacemen 3

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i've always been put off buying a Spacemen album because i've never heard anyone suggest a specific album to me. I now have the urge to delve into their back catologue, Which album/release should i begin with?

― Silver Rocket (silver_rocket89), Monday, 21 June 2004 06:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"Playing with Fire", but only if you already have "Funhouse" and a live MC5 record and a Steve Reich one or something

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 21 June 2004 06:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Also Spacemen 3...Do i need to have some of their music??

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 21 June 2004 06:44 (twenty-one years ago)

cheers man, who the hell is Steve Reich? That name rings a bell!

― Silver Rocket (silver_rocket89), Monday, 21 June 2004 06:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Minimalist composer/player guy, does really great droney stuff, I like his version of it better than theirs.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 21 June 2004 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

the answer to your question is "the perfect prescription", the most accessible. stuff before it is rawer & stuff after it makes you sleepy. if you want rock, start with "taking drugs".

― autovac (autovac), Monday, 21 June 2004 06:58 (twenty-one years ago)

...& then see if you can find the spacemen 3 album "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to"

― duane, Monday, 21 June 2004 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Kate hasn't responded to this yet? Strange...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 June 2004 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

"Taking drugs to take mucish to druhs" is their best record, actually. Pity it's a bootleg, more or less.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 21 June 2004 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Uh not that I'm Mr Expert on everything I mean I AGREE, that's all. I just can't be bothered w/them, that's all.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 21 June 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

SINGLES is the only right answer.

― F to the Dubya, Monday, 21 June 2004 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't responded, cause I was expecting you to lock it for being a duplicate, Nedster!

(Besides, I'm too busy gushing over the textural qualities of Delays)

― Apostrophe Catastrophe (kate), Monday, 21 June 2004 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha -- well, it's a *slightly* different question. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 June 2004 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Purchase in this order:

Playing With Fire
Perfect Prescription
Recurring
Dreamweapon
Sound Of Confusion

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 21 June 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

What Chris (Elvis) said above, except start with Perfect Prescription, *then* get Playing With Fire.

Etc.

― Iggy Bliss, Monday, 21 June 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I completely agree. Also 'Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To' is the second best album title ever.

― Jamie Fake (the pirate king), Monday, 21 June 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Agreed that PerfPres or PlayWithFire are the best places to start. Both of these albums were recently re-released with bonus material and alternate versions as well. These 2CD sets are well worth your money.
However, the early stuff rocks ass and IMO, "Sound of Confusion" doesn't get its rightful props.
There are also about two or three CD's (some are boots, and I'm not completely sure which) that are titled "Taking Drugs ... " and they are vastly different from each other. (diff tracklists AND versions. That's just a caution)

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 21 June 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

and do whatever you can to get ahold of a copy of the 17 minute version of "Rollercoaster".

it's on one of the reissuses of "Sound of Confusion", i think.

― Kingfish of Burma (Kingfish), Monday, 21 June 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Rollercoaster's also on "Singles" but I think even that snips off a minute or so.
The first version of "Taking Drugs..." has the best cover:
http://www.spacemen3.info/sp3-takedrugs1.gif

― sexyDancer, Monday, 21 June 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

Just got a copy of their live album "Spacemen Are Go!" Really good.

― Evan, Sunday, 24 January 2010 03:49 (sixteen years ago)

yeah that's the same show as Live in Europe 1989. Definitive Suicide imo.

― Trip Maker, Sunday, 24 January 2010 03:51 (sixteen years ago)

"ode to street hassle" is the most listener-friendly spacemen 3 jam

― kamerad, Sunday, 24 January 2010 05:20 (sixteen years ago)

Just got a copy of their live album "Spacemen Are Go!" Really good.

And also my one and only credit on a Spacemen 3 album!

― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 24 January 2010 05:29 (sixteen years ago)

Care to elaborate on that?

― dynamicinterface, Sunday, 24 January 2010 17:45 (sixteen years ago)

Mastering/production credit along with Sonic.

― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 24 January 2010 19:08 (sixteen years ago)

what's the punkest spacemen 3 album? i've got "the perfect prescription," which is good and all, but a bit too tame for this very moment. do they have an album that's a bit wilder, maybe a bit less polished?

― samosa gibreel, Sunday, 24 January 2010 19:32 (sixteen years ago)

sound of confusion!

― Joint Custody (ian), Sunday, 24 January 2010 19:33 (sixteen years ago)

TAKING DRUGS imo. Just waaaaay prefer the demos of that shit!
But those songs fersure. And any live stuff.

― Trip Maker, Sunday, 24 January 2010 19:54 (sixteen years ago)

eight years pass...

(posted the same elsewhere) but I certainly created a dust-up on the Superior Viaduct FB page by asking whether they had artist approval to reissue the Spacemen 3 catalog. I first asked because I knew Space Age reissued "Taking Drugs" for RSD in London (I know because I bought it! without realizing the criticism the band had for that label and Palmer). At the same time SV were advertising their own reissue. I asked if their was more legit and was told "yes" and that it was the artist approved release.

This appears to be not true if Pete Bassman is anyone to go by:

https://petespacemanbassman.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/in-search-of-superior-viaduct/
https://petespacemanbassman.wordpress.com/2018/05/08/taking-drugs/

Posting these links and asking again on SV's ad got be banned from the Superior Viaduct page, and Steve Viaduct, the label head, blocked me on FB (he was the one who had added me, I'd never even met him).

This makes SV look shady to me. They could just answer and say they struck a deal with Palmer and that's it. But don't act like you have artist approval when you don't. Or if they didn't realize there was an issue with the artist when they started the project, IMO they should have called it off if it was going to bring their integrity into question.

― akm, Sunday, 20 May 2018 20:11 (seven years ago)

Yikes

Good job?

― Οὖτις, Sunday, 20 May 2018 20:50 (seven years ago)

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