Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 22:19:03 +0100 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: Spacemen 3 tribute Joseph Burns: > there's a new compilation out on Rocket Girl Records of a bunch of > post-rock/bliss-pop/this-listy bands covering Spacemen 3 songs. Its > absolutely brilliant! > > here's the track listing: > > BOVWERY ELECTRIC - Things'll Never Be the Same > ASTEROID #4 - Losing Touch With My Mind > MOGWAI - Honey > FLOWCHART - Ode to Street Hassle > Arab Strap - Revolution > Bardo Pond - Call the Doctor > Frontier - Hey Man > Accelera Deck - I Believe It > Low - Lord Can You Hear Me > AMP - So Hot (Wash Away All My Tears) > Piano Magic - How Does It Feel > TRANSIENT WAVES - Billy Whizz > > I can't think of a better line-up for this project. This is an absolutely first-rate tribute album. The idea of tribute albums is very stale now, but this is an exception. Bowery Electric actually sound like a fusion of themselves and Spacemen 3, Arab Strap (as you might expect) dump Revolution's noise-barrage in favour of drunken Scottish mumbling (and actually remain true to the spirit while sounding nothing like the original). I don't think there's a duff track on the album. Flowchart's contribution is extremely odd - their single on the recently-deceased Wurlitzer Jukebox label is one of my favourites of the year. Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 10:08:19 +0100 From: Richard Clemens Subject: Re: Spacemen 3 tribute Just to add my little bit to this it is rather wonderful, mine came in a black box with logo on and a nice key ring, I think that version was a limited edition though (got the no 45/250 penned on the back). Anyway Rocket Girl is run by Vinita who used ot run Che Records mailorder and now does Rocket Girl Mail Order (email: Rocket Girl Mail Order website: http://www.64slicesamericancheese.com/rgirl/index.html) Please go and be nice, I have just managed to cock up my credit card number for the second time on an order... shame on me. Rocket Girl alos put out the Windy and Carl/Silver appples splitover Richard Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 21:59:28 +0100 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: Spacemen 3 tribute > Alright time for a stupid question: can someone tell me the connection > between Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, and Man or Astroman? Spacemen 3 = Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) and Jason Pierce (J Spaceman) and others. Recorded four albums, followed by an acrimonious split: Sonic went off on his own, he released a solo album called "Spectrum" with the other members of S3 before the split, after the split he used Spectrum as a group name though often it has only been him, also Experimental Audio Research is sometimes just him, sometimes includes others (Kevin Shields, Eddie Prevost, Pete Bassman who was in the original S3 lineup). Jason and the other people in the S3 lineup formed Spiritualized (again, the first recordings were made prior to the split and the record company's use of the S3 name to promote them was one of the causes of the split). Has since shed all the others, and Spiritualized is now basically Jason, his ex-girlfriend Kate Radley (Linda MacCartney keyboards, hasn't been seen with the group for ages but the last thing I heard Jason was still living with her parents), and Sean Cook (bass, harmonica). Best S3 recordings: "Playing with Fire", "Perfect Prescription", "Recurring" - the latter is the "Jason and Pete never in the same studio" album, with half being basically a Sonic solo album and half by the people who were also recording as Spiritualized at much the same time. Sonic's "Highs, Lows..." or EAR's "Mesmerised" are the key releases (EAR tends to be more ambient-ish, though that doesn't do justice to the complexity and chaos of the sound), and Spiritualized have recorded three well-loved albums, I like "Pure Phase" best but you can't go wrong with any of them. Other members of S3 are/were in Darkside and Alphastone. Man or Astroman, as far as I know, are Americans and completely unrelated.