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August 22, 2007
Retrohump Day: Spacemen Three-way
For all of the up and comers on the bill for Saturday's inaugural After the Jump Festival, we do have a certified legend in our midst, namely Pete Kember, better known as Spectrum, better known as Sonic Boom, best known as a founding member of the psychedelic juggernaut that was Spacemen 3.
Spacemen 3 - "Revolution"
Spacemen 3 took the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat drone techniques to lengths unseen in their native 80's. After an embryonic stage as a sloppy garage punk combo, Sonic Boom and J Spaceman (Jason Pierce to his mum) would stumble upon their signature sound with 1987's the Perfect Prescription. The boys would extend one chord to infinity, jamming furiously for long stretches until hitting a tonal epiphany. It was not for nothing that their song and album titles often had a pharmaceutical bent (the bootleg Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to, being an all time classic of that sub genre).
"Revolution" is from the band's 1989 swan song, Playing With Fire. Sonic Boom has said that the album "was the refining point of a lot of my theories on minimalism being maximalism." One killer riff is hammered over and over again, as our man Boom drolly espouses his rhetoric in a deadpan fashion. For such simple elements, it sounds effin' huuuuge. As with most of the band's clips, the footage is straight on, disaffected live playing, distorted with swirling light visuals that were clearly designed to be "trippy" though that word deserves a stern banning.
Spiritualized - "Anyway That You Want Me"
When differences within the band became insurmountable, J Spaceman followed his muse to a more conventional place, forming Spiritualized. The visuals in this video may be completely lifted from the Spacemen 3 playbook (which is home to maybe two plays) but the sound is gentler, more melodic, and less submerged in white noise. Though everything is prettied up as compensation, the dangerous edge provided by Sonic Boom is noticeably missed.
Spiritualized - "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space"
Shame there was no complete footage of the band performing this, which is perhaps their enduring signature song. The beneficiary of their former tourmates' Radiohead paving the way for abysmally depressing yet sonically pleasing rock, it routinely scored the horrible pain of soul searching brats on MTV reality shows and even got a few nubs of alternative radio play. A song so nice that I'd snarkily suggest that it would quickly be snapped up for a car ad, except that I have a fuzzy remembrance that Volkswagon actually did just that.
Spectrum - "How You Satisfy Me"
Which brings us to Sonic Boom's little branch of the family tree, our After the Jump MetroMix day stage headliners, Spectrum. Here, with a swirling blue screen visual style that's surely familiar to you by now, is the band's first single from 1991. Though Pete Kember would eventually follow paths that were far more experimental and avant-garde than his former bandmate, this track is an exceedingly melodic little fuzz bomb. Sheets of white noise surround a simple, sixties inspired melody and the doggedly repetitive organ sound takes the place of the guitar as the drone agent of choice.
Spectrum - "How You Satisfy Me"
You can be personally attacked by Mr. Kember and his magic distortion pedals this Saturday at Studio B in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for a grand total of free. With like eight other bands. At a charity benefit. Basically, you're gonna look like a total jerk if you don't go.
P.S.The Music Slut's tireless Jen Kellas gently grilled Pete a bit.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at August 22, 2007 10:10 AM
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