Best Spacemen 3 Spinoff Project!

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Kerr made me do it!

n.b. some of these options may be pretty tangential

Poll Results

Option	Votes
-Spiritualized, but mostly the early stuff really	20
-Spectrum	11
-Uh, yeah, I bought that "Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space" album coz the NME/Q/Mojo/Whoever name	4
-Dr. Peter Kember And His Travelling VCS3 WubWubWub Sideshow/other Sonic Boom solo	4
-E.A.R.	3
-Some tentatively connected Bristol psych scene band/Head Heritage project where former members of SP* may have washed u	1
-Kate, you are as evil as the EKR for making this poll!!!	1
-Lupine Howl	0
-The Slipstream	0
-Willie B Carruthers/FreeLoveBabies	0
-Rosco/Sterling Roswell	0
-The Darkside	0
-Triumph 2000	0

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:00 (eighteen years ago)

I never said a word!!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:01 (eighteen years ago)

And I like all the Spiritualized albums!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:01 (eighteen years ago)

I won "Live at the Albert Hall" CD in a comp online!

― Mark G, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:02 (eighteen years ago)

I am sure that I am forgetting some really crucial or important side project... argh.

I very nearly forgot to put in Spiritualized! So I was going to make an option that said "Wait, you forgot Spiritualized, come on, their early stuff is good!" because it's a running joke that hardcore SP* fans hate Let It Come Down onwards.

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:03 (eighteen years ago)

I'm hardcore and i like it!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago)

No, pretty much if you like it, you're not hardcore. If you like it, it means the first SPZ album you got was LAG...

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago)

haha bollocks it was. Lazer Guided Melodies was my 1st!

Our Price didn't even get in LAGWAFIS when it came out and I had to order it.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:09 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know a single long-term SPZ fan who can get above a "it's not really as bad as people say it is..." for LICD. :-P

Anyway! Srsly! I'm torn.

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:11 (eighteen years ago)

I also ordered in the shiny luminous box of the 2nd album and the guy in the counter was a fan too!

Do a best Spz album poll!!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

Nah, Spiritualized only really have 2 great albums.

Anyway, this is all part of your fiendish plan to get me posting on ILM again, and it's not going to work.

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:13 (eighteen years ago)

That version of "Ladies and Gence" as 12 individual cds?

(no I haven't got one)

― Mark G, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:23 (eighteen years ago)

neither do i. It was like £70

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:25 (eighteen years ago)

I wonder if anyone else will vote at all.

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

who knows

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

When does poll end?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

When I get back. I will probably have forgotten about it by then.

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

i voted for early spiritualized, but everything up to and including 'let it come down' is (on the whole) utterly fantastic and godlike

― stephen, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

by the way, all this talk about "hardcore" fans not liking 'let it come down' is ridiculous - i know a couple guys who practically worship this band, and we all can agree that 'let it come down' is insanely good in parts, and pretty great on the whole...the true jumping of the ship was 'amazing grace' which truly was below par

― stephen, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know a single long-term SPZ fan who can get above a "it's not really as bad as people say it is..." for LICD. :-P

the first Spacemen 3 album I bought was "Recurring", I got every Spiritualized release from then on, including the "Feel So Sad" 12". My three favorite bands in my late teens/early 20s were the Beach Boys, Spiritualized, and Funkadelic. "Let it Come Down" is a great record. The real drop-off in quality is on "Amazing Grace".

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

by which I mean to say I AM LONG-TERM HARDCORE YO

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

I thought Let It Come Down was rubbish and Amazing Grace was a slight improvement!

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

I'm with Colonel Poo on this, but you know what? THERE ARE OTHER SPACEMEN 3 SPINOFF BANDS!!!!

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

A true Scotsman only likes...

(Yeah, I got into all of 'em at LAG).

― I eat cannibals, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago)

We need Louis to come on and post about Let It Come Down. But sadly he has left forever.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

Forever Alien is such an amazing record. It's so paranoid and close and all those amazing sounds whizzing about. It's a total synth record in a way that Highs and Lows and Heavenly Blows is still a guitar record. I love both, but each in its own ways. I used to be able to sleep to HLHB, which is a mark of a good, good record.

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

well you did leave off Sonic Boom's first solo album, but maybe that counts as Spectrum.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:40 (eighteen years ago)

Bad choices - I had to pick early Spritualized, but that should include Ladies and Gentlemen because, for me, that was their peak. It's been a bit downhill from there. I've warmed up to Let it Come Down over the years, but had a hard time with it at first.

It really came together for me when I saw them perform on that tour. It was like a really loud and trippy Broadway musical about drug addiction.

― Moodles, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:40 (eighteen years ago)

No, that first Sonic Boom album counts as Dr. Peter Kember And His Travelling VCS3 WubWubWub Sideshow/other Sonic Boom solo (which is what I actually voted for.)

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

Sonic Boom confuses things because he's had about 8 million solo projects and collaboration. You really can't beat him for sheer breadth of his musical output. Jason Pierce has released the same album over and over again with different pedals on. Sonic Boom has really challenged and intrigued and explored.

I wonder if anyone will vote for any of the other spinoffs!

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:46 (eighteen years ago)

Chris will vote Spectrum and some MBV obsessive will vote E.A.R.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:49 (eighteen years ago)

Spectrum is amazing.

― novaheat, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:50 (eighteen years ago)

If anyone votes for Lupine Howl we beat them up, right? ;-)

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

every Spiritualized album has something to love! fuck the haterz, etc.

― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

wtf with post-eating monster on nu-ILM?

to be fair most of the non-Pierce/Kember spinoffs are terrible, with one or two bright spots

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 April 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, but what do you think are the bright spots?

― Masonic Boom, Thursday, 26 April 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

Darkside has a handful of decent tunes (mostly on the first album, "Waiting for the Angels", "Burning Universe", etc.), one or two of the Slipstream singles are nice ("Give It Some Time" I remember liking...?)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 April 2007 17:17 (eighteen years ago)

freelovebabies - i like bits of the album but it's not something i'd ever love - but i like the melodies better than a lot of the later spiritualized stuff.

― Geordie Racer, Thursday, 26 April 2007 19:37 (eighteen years ago)

I voted for E.A.R.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Thursday, 26 April 2007 20:03 (eighteen years ago)

I have one of the Lupine Howl CDs. It's pretty OK.

― novaheat, Thursday, 26 April 2007 20:05 (eighteen years ago)

I listened to Lupine Howl yesterday coincidentally, not knowing they were related to the Spacemen 3. I thought they were something to do with either the Wolfhounds or Levitation and was therefore disappointed.

― everything, Thursday, 26 April 2007 20:16 (eighteen years ago)

I accidentally voted for Spectrum :(

I do like them but I prefer spz. The EAR stuff I found a little boring.

― admrl, Thursday, 26 April 2007 20:20 (eighteen years ago)

I've found a handful of things to love about every spz release, but is the consensus that we have "lost" him? Or what?

― admrl, Thursday, 26 April 2007 20:21 (eighteen years ago)

I don't care about consensus - if the live "acoustic mainline" shows are any indication then I think he's still got some decent songs/ideas in him.

I only think "Amazing Grace" is the weakest of the full-lengths because its production aesthetic is rather pedestrian. No drones or tremeloes, no weird wall of sound, no cross-genre-dabbling - its the most "a guy and his band"-sounding album he's ever made.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 26 April 2007 20:57 (eighteen years ago)

What about Sterling Roswell? Huh?

Impossible to vote, choosing between children, etc.

― Ian Edmond, Thursday, 26 April 2007 21:52 (eighteen years ago)

I need to hear more of these spin offs I reckon.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 01:54 (eighteen years ago)

Let It Come Down = At best: Jason's version of Deep Purple's Concerto For Group & Orchestra. At worst: 2000-era Simple Minds tracks with extra guitars.

Amazing Grace = Jason's version of one of those post-Kuepper Saints records. Significantly better than LICD but not a lot of staying power. I like it, but I never pull it off the shelf to give it a listen either.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 27 April 2007 03:51 (eighteen years ago)

Kate OTMFM about Forever Alien - way way ahead of it's time.

If the show a couple weeks back was any indication I'm looking forward a lot to the next Spectrum record.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 27 April 2007 03:54 (eighteen years ago)

"Uh, yeah, I bought that "Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space" album coz the NME/Q/Mojo/Whoever named it album of the year"

i picked this one because it so ridicules, everything up to and including Let It Come Down was great.

― Bee OK, Friday, 27 April 2007 07:09 (eighteen years ago)

who the fuck are "The Slipstream"?

anyway, Spectrum, the Darkside, and Slipstream have all made at least one really tremendous track. I probably like Refoy's stuff above the rest. Alphastone is probably the next rung on the ladder.

― electricsound, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

Spring Heel Jack.

― bear, bear, bear, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

I voted for the same thing Kate did.

I saw Sonic Boom do a show in New York and have never been as impressed with anything S3-related as I was with that. Each song added new elements (electric guitar instead of acoustic; claps instead of snaps) so that the whole evening could be thought of as one long piece that built in intensity. Sonic Boom was so skeletal, and the other band members so glazed-looking, there was something incredibly sad about it all.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 27 April 2007 10:47 (eighteen years ago)

LICD was where Jason stripped off the drones and tremoloes and everything that made SPZ, well... ~~interesting~~ SPZ. Replaced it with 3 orchestras (no, really! I lived near Abbey Road while he was recording it and walked by it every day on my way to work, and counted at least 3 different orchestras' vans parked outside) and managed to be just amazingly overblown *and* boring at the same time. It was like an Andrew Lloyd Webber production of a SPZ album.

Amazing Grace he stripped off all the crap, and actually returned to being a decent band, but still, I have not listened to it in years.

Spring Heel Jack can go under Some tentatively connected Bristol psych scene band/Head Heritage project where former members of SP* may have washed up... :-P

Sonic Boom solo is one of the few performers who have consistently amazed me, live. I've seen him with a full band (Spectrum), I've seen him in collaboration with experimental musicians (E.A.R.) but he can still hold my attention, rapt, for an hour, even when it's just him and a table full of analogue synths and speak'n'spells and electronic sitars and things/

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 27 April 2007 11:03 (eighteen years ago)

Haha I saw him do the table full of Speak n Spells once.. it was at The Cooler I think. Good old Cooler.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 27 April 2007 11:07 (eighteen years ago)

Oh man, the Cooler! Great place! (Though I got locked in their backstage during a gig once, argh.)

My favourite show I ever saw him do was (actually an EAR performance I think) in the Brooklyn Anchorage as a Soundlab thing. He was explaning and demonstrating his VCS3s to various fans after the show.

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

I wasn't so keen on Slipstream or Triumph 2000.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

Btw there's a new Spiritualized early rarities comp coming soon. I got an email a few weeks back about it. Did anyone else?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

what other "early rarities" are there that aren't already on the Complete Works...? I've got almost all the 12"/7" singles from the LGM era, can't imagine what else there would be...?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago)

OK, there's one B-side from the extended single of Anyway That You Want Me that wasn't on the Complete Works - what else is there, unless you're talking about live bootlegs and demos?

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

Actually, maybe there's two. I can't actually remember what's on Complete Works right now. The terrible remix with the wonky Madchester drums certainly wasn't on it - was the early demo with the pretty violin on it?

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:27 (eighteen years ago)

maybe its a reissue Fucked Up Inside

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago)

Complete Works Vol 1:

1. Anyway That You Want Me
2. Step Into The Breeze (part 1)
3. Feel So Sad Spiritualized
4. Feel So Sad (Rhapsodies)
5. Feel So Sad (Glides And Chimes)
6. Run Spiritualized
7. Luminescence (Stay With Me)
8. I Want You
9. Effervescent (Chimes)
10. Why Don't You Smile Now?
11. Sway Spiritualized
12. 100 Bars (Accappella)
13. I Want You
14. You Know It's True
15. Medication
16. Smiles
17. Angel Sigh
18. Feel So Sad
19. Good Dope/Good Fun
20. Lay Back In The Sun

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

The forthcoming album, Blue On Blue, is (like its predecessor, Friendly Fire) a compilation of early takes and demos. They are not official Spiritualized releases. Like all these things, only worth getting if you're really into them. But if you are (esp. LGM era), it's amazing. I've been lucky enough to have a preview of the new one - there's an early version of Angel Sigh that trundles along in a barely-awake fashion, and then just gives up and drones like a fucker.

― Ian Edmond, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)

I only think "Amazing Grace" is the weakest of the full-lengths because its production aesthetic is rather pedestrian. No drones or tremeloes, no weird wall of sound, no cross-genre-dabbling - its the most "a guy and his band"-sounding album he's ever made.

Which is totally true. But I think the songwriting on "Amazing Grace" is pretty pedestrian too.

He's pretty much re-done "Electricity" on every album since "Ladies and Gentlemen...", and he rehashes it at least twice on Amazing Grace. Both "Lord Let it Rain on Me" and "Lay it Down Slow" directly recall his take on "Lord Can you Hear Me?" from "Let it Come Down", which itself dates from "Playing With Fire".

That isn't to say I think either of them are bad songs, but I think he's really fallen into the trap of having a bunch of "hedonistic rockers," a few "spiritual redemption songs" and a "crazy noise freakout" on every album.

I think Sonic has proven himself much more capable of varying his approach, but maybe it just seems that way since he's got a few different projects.

― novaheat, Saturday, 28 April 2007 04:04 (eighteen years ago)

My God...are these all real? And they're all better than Spiritualized?

― Tape Store, Saturday, 28 April 2007 04:08 (eighteen years ago)

(are all these real?, obv.)

― Tape Store, Saturday, 28 April 2007 04:13 (eighteen years ago)

spectrum wins.

― scott seward, Saturday, 28 April 2007 04:20 (eighteen years ago)

Spring Heel Jack! Best guitar J. Spaceman ever played y'all.

― bear, bear, bear, Saturday, 28 April 2007 08:57 (eighteen years ago)

Looking at this list I'm a little disappointed that not all the spinoffs begin with the letters "Sp" or "So"; I always liked how Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Spectrum and Sonic Boom sat next to each other on the shelf.

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 28 April 2007 11:55 (eighteen years ago)

::bump::

Damn, actually they are all real. I meant to make up a not actually real one to throw off the LAG fans from the obsessives, but I forgot.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 30 April 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

Elitist.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 30 April 2007 10:27 (eighteen years ago)

And what, exactly, is wrong with that? ;-)

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 30 April 2007 10:29 (eighteen years ago)

You're gonna be really annoyed if LICD and Lagwafis claim the top 2 positions.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

Wrong poll, Kerr.

― Masonic Boom, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

Why do we have to wait this long for results?

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude ‫茄蕃‪, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago)

wtf i picked the wrong answer because you hid SONIC BOOm

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude ‫茄蕃‪, Monday, 30 April 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago)

When does the poll end?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:32 (eighteen years ago)

I can't remember. Next week? I made it so long because I thought I would be away from work for 10 days, so I wanted the poll to expire when I came back.

― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:33 (eighteen years ago)

Not enough chat to sustain it til then!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 3 May 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

Bah, well, even if you add up the votes for all of Sonic Boom's various projects, Spiritualized still nudges ahead.

Who said I was evil? Mwah hah hah.

― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:47 (eighteen years ago)

At least no one voted for Lupine Howl.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:55 (eighteen years ago)

there was a time, quite some years ago now, when i fondly believed the first spectrum album to be the single greatest artefact in the history of recorded sound.

i must listen to it again at some point.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 10:00 (eighteen years ago)

six years pass...

Mr Carruthers gone done a book:

http://willcarruthers.tumblr.com/

Me wants! (Me is broke & unemployed & has no money)

― ~Autotelic Fabulousity~ (Branwell Bell), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 15:14 (eleven years ago)

hah I got that email from Will too. You can download it for free if you want tho BB.

― ۩, Tuesday, 18 February 2014 15:23 (eleven years ago)

I would have voted for the Darkside.

― erry red flag (f. hazel), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:01 (eleven years ago)

rosco was robbed

― föllakzoidberg (electricsound), Wednesday, 19 February 2014 00:19 (eleven years ago)

ten months pass...

Will's book coming out of the press

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzT1KK3yAY8

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 29 December 2014 23:46 (eleven years ago)

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