Spacemen 3 - classic or unutterably shite?

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.