Spacemen 3 - classic or unutterably shite?

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?

Sounds fantastic! Quoting Elvis Telecom elsewhere about it:

This is a good upgrade from the recordings of this gig that are out there. At least a generation or two up from the version that's linked here. https://spacemen3.blogspot.com/2016/11/spacemen-3-spot-kassel-germany-1989-05.html (surprisingly the mega.nz link in the comments still works!)

BTW, if you download this bear in mind that “side 2” of the tape is first. The song order should be Rollercoaster / Transparent Radiation / Things’ll Never Be The Same / Take Me To The Other Side / Starship / Revolution / Suicide / Bo Diddley Jam / Mary Anne / Revolution

(And yes, "Revolution" appears twice -- as Dan Parmenter said on FB, "I seem to recall an interview w/Jason where he said that one of the things that annoyed him was Pete K's insistence on playing that song more than once in a set.")

lol (and thanks)

Also from Henry re the source of the recording:

It was from the collection of Jim Romeo who traded it back in the early 90s with the original recorder in Germany. I have so many tapes like this as well, but it wasn’t until I actually looked at the notation that this was basically straight from the master and it sat dormant until yesterday.

jesus this show is incedible

It is!

Truly something. German fellow on Bluesky says he remembered going to the club Spot in Kassel a lot, but sadly missed this show -- his friend went (and in fact was the opening DJ, or at least playing records over the PA) and said it was the loudest show he's ever experienced. Getting a taste of that through this recording has been amazing.

I split up the single file download of that 1989 show in Kassel and put it in the correct setlist order. Download here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fcXqd7_p-kazDl5EZhIKFPL0Lm2OrWZv

Damn i need to listen to this, i saw them two months earlier in March in Manchester at the Hacienda

xp THANK YOU

Fantastic set

Thanks Ned and ET!

Thank you! Needed something aggressive and repetitive to get through a task and it's working so far, great set and curation!