Gateways to Geekery: Spacemen 3
Dec 28, 2015 13:49:44 GMT -5
Dellarigg, Ice Cream Planet, and 4 more like this
Post by repulsionist on Dec 28, 2015 13:49:44 GMT -5
Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To....
Background
In the preceding century of solar years a small gathering of lads from Art School, the premier origin nexus of many bands in UK, conferred about their love of weird, old guitars and electronics, 60s psychedelia and garage rock. I discovered their works as they were in the middle of their tear through crystallizing aspects of the Zeitgeist (ca. 1990).
Why You Should Listen
Each generation of humans experiences their forebears' past, and many choose to enhance that history by applying their own attitude and joy/pain of experience to artforms. These guys made "trippy" records with very old recording electronics, some even electro-mechanical, as happily as a bunch a scientists discovering coulombs. They plumbed the depths of forgotten, cast-off instruments and studio equipment with exotic names to make trance versions of the 60s garage rock they adored, like 13th Floor Elevators, Suicide, MC5 and The Stooges.
Where To Start
Weel, if you've been paying attention to The Simpsons in the last year or so, you have already started at the end of the Spacemen 3 oeuvre. In a nostalgic fashion that only modern youth possess, the Lena Dunham episode utilized "Big City" from Recurring - an effort to evoke the 60s "freak out with your guru" nostalgia that the track itself calls to (because Spacemen 3 cribbed the chorus and a few bars from The Electric Prunes' "Big City") and an effort to portray drug binges on cartoon television as having an adequate, pulsing rock-y song to underline what fun the participants are having). I know, I know - too many direct references that muddle. Oh well. #mopomo. Listing back into the aim of the section's title, I submit that Playing with Fire be the place to start with Spacemen 3. This, with respect to then-current criticism and the light of revisionism cast on it 20-odd years later, is their most enduring work of beauty. Gleaning from Carter family harmonies and Anglican choral hymns to ugly Ron Asheton chords and droning, sustained reverb from the relic 1967 Vox Starstream V296, this record bears repeat listening because of its hymnic glory.
Where Not To Start
Early live albums. Unless you get hooked, whereupon you'll want a listening to hear what happened.
Where To Continue
Forward: Spiritualized, Spectrum, MGMT. Backward: Electric Prunes, Silver Apples, Red Krayola.
Background
In the preceding century of solar years a small gathering of lads from Art School, the premier origin nexus of many bands in UK, conferred about their love of weird, old guitars and electronics, 60s psychedelia and garage rock. I discovered their works as they were in the middle of their tear through crystallizing aspects of the Zeitgeist (ca. 1990).
Why You Should Listen
Each generation of humans experiences their forebears' past, and many choose to enhance that history by applying their own attitude and joy/pain of experience to artforms. These guys made "trippy" records with very old recording electronics, some even electro-mechanical, as happily as a bunch a scientists discovering coulombs. They plumbed the depths of forgotten, cast-off instruments and studio equipment with exotic names to make trance versions of the 60s garage rock they adored, like 13th Floor Elevators, Suicide, MC5 and The Stooges.
Where To Start
Weel, if you've been paying attention to The Simpsons in the last year or so, you have already started at the end of the Spacemen 3 oeuvre. In a nostalgic fashion that only modern youth possess, the Lena Dunham episode utilized "Big City" from Recurring - an effort to evoke the 60s "freak out with your guru" nostalgia that the track itself calls to (because Spacemen 3 cribbed the chorus and a few bars from The Electric Prunes' "Big City") and an effort to portray drug binges on cartoon television as having an adequate, pulsing rock-y song to underline what fun the participants are having). I know, I know - too many direct references that muddle. Oh well. #mopomo. Listing back into the aim of the section's title, I submit that Playing with Fire be the place to start with Spacemen 3. This, with respect to then-current criticism and the light of revisionism cast on it 20-odd years later, is their most enduring work of beauty. Gleaning from Carter family harmonies and Anglican choral hymns to ugly Ron Asheton chords and droning, sustained reverb from the relic 1967 Vox Starstream V296, this record bears repeat listening because of its hymnic glory.
Where Not To Start
Early live albums. Unless you get hooked, whereupon you'll want a listening to hear what happened.
Where To Continue
Forward: Spiritualized, Spectrum, MGMT. Backward: Electric Prunes, Silver Apples, Red Krayola.
