"Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to"
"For all the fucked-up children of this world we give you Spacemen 3"
"PURITY * LOVE * SUICIDE * ACCURACY * REVOLUTION"
And, really there are not many groups better than Spacemen 3. Purity and accuracy are the crucial words to describe their ethos, their raison d'être. Their version of minimalism was all about distilling the very essence of Rock down to its most organic infant forms. They were a band that oftentimes you must feel would record majestic symphonies, and then like a sculptor, would chisel off layer after layer until they had revealed the bones glowing and humming through the flesh. Only the essential is shown or heard. They were a Rock group that rarely used a drummer. A Rock group that used guitar to express every tone, mood, or color in the Classic Crayola 64 Crayon Box. A Rock group that was not afraid of new technology. A rock group that was never afraid to ask the difficult questions. A Rock group that could get you through devastating moments of pain or sorrow. A Rock group that could enrich your soul and take you to places of contentment and peace of mind that you had never experienced before. A Rock group that was not so much a "Soundtrack for your life", as an annotated roadmap for (all) Life.
Spacemen 3's purity is also what makes their music timeless. The records they recorded in the 1980s still sound as fresh today, or even better, as they did a generation ago. The two men -- from Rugby, England -- J Spaceman and Sonic Boom have neither achieved anything near as magical or crucial or important on their own since the band broke up. Perhaps part of the special elixir to produce such astounding works of art was the tension between these two men, two men that ended up bitterly hating each other, recording their final album like two solo records, Sonic's songs on side one and J's on side two.
There was a funny moment in my life when I was nearly homeless, looking for a new place with two male housemates. They were house sitting, and had the normal male bachelor twentysomething set staged: Watching videos, the bong on the front table, beer bottles all over, pizza boxes, etc, ... But, the family came home early, late at night. I received a distress call at my apartment in Berkeley, "Can we come over and stay the night? We got busted, big time."
They came over, and we all found a place to sleep in the bedroom. I put on The Perfect Prescription by Spacemen 3 and we smoked a J.
The next morning, one of my potential housemates, Michael K, told me how perfect that record was, what a balm it was to his soul and psyche.
I know, I know. Being caught-out on a house sit is not like going through a divorce or the death of a loved one, or anything as heavy as that. But, it is still a great story.
Spacemen 3 ask the tough questions and do the bad shit, so as to make it easier for you.
Michael
xxxoooxxx
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