That dork from JHS is easily impressed, maybe thats why...

[nightraven]

I was pretty keen on Spacemen 3 when I was younger! I much prefer Spiritualized though. Never thought S3 were remarkable enough to warrant that kind of weird/hostile elitist response earlier in this thread though. Funny to argue so dogmatically about the artistic 'merit' of a band that ultimately isn't that far advanced from 'Piper at the gates of dawn' - they're a very similar group of bored English dudes on drugs. More stompboxes, I suppose...

Besides the IHOPKC issue, what bothers me is that JHS's marketing/promotional spam has resulted in him appearing to the masses as some sort of expert/figure of authority on vintage pedals, when he actually has an extremely limited/flawed understanding of anything built before 1975. Never played any of his pedals though. I tried to argue on another forum about a mistake that he'd made re: pedal history in one of the Youtube sensations, and people just responded with stuff along the lines of, 'well, I trust him because he has more vintage pedals than you', which isn't even true, lol.

[Psyre]

'well, I trust him because he has more vintage pedals than you', which isn't even true, lol.

Well hopefully you set them straight, having a lot of vintage pedals shouldn't go uncredited

[Woolworm]

I was pretty keen on Spacemen 3 when I was younger! I much prefer Spiritualized though. Never thought S3 were remarkable enough to warrant that kind of weird/hostile elitist response earlier in this thread though. Funny to argue so dogmatically about the artistic 'merit' of a band that ultimately isn't that far advanced from 'Piper at the gates of dawn' - they're a very similar group of bored English dudes on drugs. More stompboxes, I suppose...

Firstly, they're the Velvet Underground of their time. Joy Division and The Smiths influence were obvious and mainstream, but Spacemen 3's influence goes far beyond their sails. Note: all genres in alt rock in the late 80's and early 90's all influenced and goes back to them. These are the 3 main influencers of alt rock going into the 90's, and who sold the less and has least name recognition? That means a lot.

Even the big big records. Recurring came out earlier than Screamadelica, Ladies and Gentlemen came out earlier than Urban Hymns. They did Britpop before Britpop, they psych rock / space rock mixed in with garage drone nosie before anyone with some chill rock elements here and there, before JAMC, before Verve's Storm In Heaven. They did electronic alt rock (note the alt so not krautrock) before anyone else, and NO a few organs / keyboards on some madchester bands don't count. And ofcourse, they are one of the seminal influences on Shoegaze. Every Shoegaze band listened to Spacemen 3 FACT!!! All those proto shoegaze bands were important. They were never on Creation but its no secret Alan McGee was hugely into Spacemen 3 and their 60's vibe. They also heavily influenced post rock and acts like Sigur Ros or Mogwai or This Will Destroy You or whoever the fuck, moreso maybe on the Spiritualized sized cos of the Symphonic Rock way he went, Spectrum / Sonic Boom went moreso in the Gospeldelica route, spiritual rock, ambient rock, whatever the fuck you wanna call it with electronic elements and some noise rock, mroeso on the early work of Spectrum / Sonic Boom.

Now in terms of their artistic merit, its not only about all the beautiful simplistic songs all round their albums with their own experimental edge (hmm who does that remind you of, certain Velvet Underground maybe?), but its also about Peter Kember's (Sonic Boom) and Jason Pierce's personalities and who they are as people, and how much genuine hardship and life difficulties and crestfallen sadness exudes in their music and lyrics. Even the happy songs, you gotta understand them as people and how deeply sad they are. Jason moreso was able to get that across, theres more hopefulness in Peter's songs.

Their lyrics are beautifully insane. Heavily inspired by lyrics of 1920's and 1930's blues gospel, where its ultra depressive and pessimistic music, with really severe and harsh emotions, onto themselves and others. This mixed with lyrics about drug dependence and how it makes them feel good and be able to survive the world and their sadness they are going through.

This also extends to their amazing solo work, Jason with Spiritualized and Peter with Sonic Boom / Spectrum but also Peter's production work on albums of Panda Bear, MGMT, many other homies.

[nightraven]

'well, I trust him because he has more vintage pedals than you', which isn't even true, lol.

Well hopefully you set them straight, having a lot of vintage pedals shouldn't go uncredited

But somebody's viewpoint isn't automatically invalid just because they're not in a position to spend a fortune on fuzz pedals

[retinal orbita]

What if he just found all those vintage pedals in a box by the highway or something? Or like hidden away in a large burlap sack?

[crochambeau]

With all due respect, I think you might be confusing Spaceman 3 with the Butthole Surfers.

[Blackened Soul]

With all due respect, I think you might be confusing Spaceman 3 with the Butthole Surfers.

This wins best post of the thread right there

[Woolworm]

With all due respect, I think you might be confusing Spaceman 3 with the Butthole Surfers.

That band was a joke and everyone who said they were influenced by them saw them as such. They were just working the tabloids. Same with Sonic Youth but with the critics. Sonic Youth are actually a shit band but for like 1 or 2 songs per album they remember that purity of music they used to know as kids so they actually try, and the critics faun over them with 5 star 10 star reviews when they literally just taking the piss and see how much they can get away with. Sonic Youth was a troll band.

[crochambeau]

Ah, thank you for providing the delightfully obstinate opinions that harken back to full fledged MISC shitstorms.

Someone get this guy another round, he hasn't passed out yet.

[Woolworm]

Ah, thank you for providing the delightfully obstinate opinions that harken back to full fledged MISC shitstorms.

Someone get this guy another round, he hasn't passed out yet.

Was Misc another user? Sounds like my kind of guy.

[coldbrightsunlight]

With all due respect, I think you might be confusing Spaceman 3 with the Butthole Surfers.

This wins best post of the thread right there

^

[qersty]

Sonic Youth are shit because
1: They don't know how to tune
2: You don't play guitar with a drum stick idiet
3: You can't have a wombyn in your cool punk band

[Woolworm]

Sonic Youth are shit because
1: They don't know how to tune
2: You don't play guitar with a drum stick idiet
3: You can't have a wombyn in your cool punk band

Tbf, those weren't my reasons so I'm not like those types of people. My reason is they are trolling. And damn they are good. But I also give them props because for 1-2 maybe 3 songs per album, they drop their act and actually be songwriters and music makers.

[qersty]

If they just wrote "good songs" they would be boring as shit imo. I like them cause they keep the NYC thing alive.

Too few free-form punk bands these days

[qersty]

Like if I want the 80s alt rock thing with great song writing hüsker dü is the only way