Spiritualized?

the Acoustic Mainline show I mentioned above was great btw

new sogns were really good

New album: 'Songs in A&E' due out May 19th.

New tour dates are all called 'Electric Mainlines'.

I didn't expect I'd end up being excited about Spiritualized again.

I have a funny feeling this will be more snooze-inducing than my anaesthetics database. But that could just be me.

Not arsed really. He's been essentially rewriting the same songs since 1991 and the arrangements have been getting increasingly predictable since 97. This is going to be a stripped down affair, isn't it? Which makes me wonder why anyone would bother.

the Acoustic Mainline show I mentioned above was great btw

I agree. They could have done with varying the approach a bit - it got predictable after a while - but it was a beautiful night.

Not arsed really. He's been essentially rewriting the same songs since 1991

more liek 1987!

but in general he's getting on a bit to be singing about what he sings about (being useless owing to heroin addiction). as with bobby gillespie (being awesome owing to heroin addiction).

Great, now I'm imagining their "Come Together" mashup.

The thematic content of Spz songs is utterly unimportant. I could care less if he's singing about drug addiction or dressing up his drummer in his girlfriends' frocks so long as it WUBS.

What makes or breaks a Spz album is the interestingness of the people playing with him, and how much free rein he gives them. Which, since the contract/sacking incident is about 0. Hence the snore-inducing factor of the album.

^^^could not disagree more - he's had a rotating cast of inconsequential sidemen since day one.

Lupine Howl lolz

Tracklist (allegedly);

'Harmony 1'
'Sweet Talk'
'Death Take Your Fiddle'
'I Gotta Fire'
'Soul On Fire'
'Harmony 2'
'Sitting On Fire'
'Yeah Yeah'
'You Lie You Cheat'
'Harmony 3'
'Baby I'm Just A Fool'
'Don't Hold Me So Close'
'Harmony 4'
'The Waves Crash In'
'Harmony 5'
'Borrowed Your Gun'
'Harmony 6'
'Goodnight Goodnight'

Spacemen 3 fan from way back, but I haven't been interested in Spiritualized since Ladies & Gentlemen... & the Royal Albert Hall live thing. Great records, but Jason's a one trick pony, and like w/ Stereolab, you reach the point of diminishing (or zero) returns after a while. "200 Bars" is still an all-time favorite, for reasons I don't fully understand.

Masonic Boom crazy off the money mark in every respect, but oddly accurate with regard to the pull-date.

Hope I'm wrong and that the new one crushes me.

I think he hit a bump in the road with Amazing Grace but Let It Come Down is a fantastic record, and lyrically/songwriting-wise he's certainly grown more clever/wry since his early days so I still have some faith.

(altho no I'm not expecting to be "crushed" either honestly)

The trouble with the straight and the narrow
Is its so thin I keep sliding off to the side
And the devil makes good use of these hands of mine

And if jesus is the straight path that saves
Then i'm condemmed to live my whole life on the curb
On the crossroad to the devil, I'll dwell and i'll count my years

You know that I got a little something I should say
I guess that I'm just so easily led astray
It's alright because I know my own way back home from here

And I don't fall of the wagon you know
I take a dive and go as deep as I can go
Don't hold your breath because I'm coming up slow, this time.

^^funny

So why is every album except the one recorded with all the same people from Spacemen 3 shite, then? Eh?

Oh wait, you all started with this band around LAGWAFIS. Say no more.

Jason Pierce has been writing the same song for the past 20 years. What makes them better is who else got involved. The moment he started bringing in the session players and letting no one else have a say, it started getting less and less interesting.

oh fuck you I've been listening to Spiritualized since the Feel So Sad 12" and was a Spacemen3 fan before that

I have no problem with people writing the same song for 20 years - viva la Ramones etc

So why is every album except the one recorded with all the same people from Spacemen 3 shite, then? Eh? Oh wait, you all started with this band around LAGWAFIS. Say no more.

Jesus Christ. I took issue w/ your description of the sidemen in question as "interesting", and don't believe they were ever given free reign, even in Spacemen 3 (whom I've loved since the Glass days).

And the lyrical content is hugely important, no to me personally, but clearly to Jason. It's not as though those words are just grafted on top of music that doesn't live & breathe the same themes. Everything works together, and that's what makes them great (when they actually are great).

That said, you're right, as I mentioned earlier. Something went out of the band around the time he sacked the original crew.

I mean I honestly can't believe that Pierce's music was significantly improved by the genius-level input of the guys from Darkside and Slipstream and Lupine Howl etc especially when all those bands' own records range from the unremarkable to the unlistenable

x-post

Um, considering I've actually recently sat down and had a conversation with said "sidemen" about how much free reign they *were* given in the early days of Spz, I think I might be more qualified to comment on that. But, you know, everyone has their own agenda.

x-post, actually I saw Slipstream a few weeks ago, and trust me, they were a HUNDRED times more interesting and memorable than any Spiritualized show of, oh, about the past ten years or so?

Sometimes bands are a magical combination of a certain group of people. Replace those people, and the chemistry is gone. This idea that it was all about Jason is a myth which he himself loves to perpetuate.

eh diff't strokes, I guess

Slipstream are still going?!

You might as well have told me there's a new HASTCo album.

Best SPIRITUALIZED bassist poll?

Sean Cook ftw, but I started with LAGWAFIS (acdtually seeing them a few weeks before it came out, so the set was mostly pre that. But anyway.)

Will Carruthers

I don't know if it's a question so much of "still going" or "back." It's down to just Mark and Jonny now, though.

I wasn't that bothered by their albums, but live they are freaking great. They've got the energy and they've got the wub. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the live show.

Again, silly lyrics, but so are Jason's AFAIK.

Spz are one of those bands where it makes a huge difference who the rhythm section is. You know, like most dronerock, based around drones as it is and all.

I'm a bit confused to these references to the "original crew" given that there was no stable lineup of the band between any of the albums. the guys that made LGM /= the band on Pure Phase /= the band on LAGWAFIS, etc

x-post WILL CARRUTHERS X 1000000

He showed me how to do the slide up to the octave on "Run" and I still can't manage it myself. Damn.

OK, get the broom, I am done namedropping.

My ideal SPZ backline = Mark, Will and Jonny.

That was definitely LGM, which is still my favourite album. I'm pretty sure that both Mark and Jonny were on board for Pure Phase. (Though Jason has a bad habit of not crediting drummers on the album sleeves.)

After that, it's very much a case of "if you change the handle and the blade, is it still the same axe?" for me. But I think LAG is massively overrated.

...now the "Will joins Spectrum" lineup that you bastards on the Left Coast got, *that* is something I wish I'd seen. :-( I probably would have exploded, though.

...now the "Will joins Spectrum" lineup that you bastards on the Left Coast got, *that* is something I wish I'd seen. :-(

It was pretty great, yeah.

::cries::

Yeah, well, Will's playing at my birthday party so NYEAH NYEAH NYEAH!

wait I thought you were done namedropping

Sorry. See, I explode and can't control myself just at the thought of Will and Sonic onstage together. ;-)

I'm a bit confused to these references to the "original crew"

Good point Shakey. You got me.

Original Spiritualized lineup was Spacemen 3 minus Sonic. And, yeah, that probably contributed to the greatness of the early singles and Lazer Guided Melodies.

But, re: Kate, that 1st band was replaced by an entirly new lineup for Pure Phase and Ladies & Gentlemen..., w/ Jason & Kate being the only carry-overs. Termination of that crew coincided w/ the onset of dullness, but it seems silly to ascribe causality, given the band's history.

P.S. I've read that Sonic & Jason were pretty dictatorial WRT the parts played by the other members of Spacemen 3, but I can't claim to have been there, so who knows.

It WASN'T an entirely new crew for Pure Phase. Pure Phase was the LGM lineup minus Will plus Sean Cook. The whole process was one of carry-throughs and slow attrition. By the time there were no original members left, the dullness set in. Which was around the time after LAG.

I'll take yr word for it, I'm just going by album credits (which I know, are not entirely reliable)

It WASN'T an entirely new crew for Pure Phase. Pure Phase was the LGM lineup minus Will plus Sean Cook.

-- Kate

1st lineup = Pierce, Carruthers, Refoy & Mattock, w/ Evans on keys, right? That's who did the early singles and LGM. Refoy and Mattock apparently performed on Pure Phase, but were out of the band before recording was done, with fill-in/completion work from others. By the time you get to LAGWAFIS, Pierce is the only constant.

History of the band as I understand it doesn't seem to argue for the idea that a core band was the key to their success. Especially if you like LAGWAFIS. Then again, I can't claim to be an expert, just a fan.

On second thougt, I have the feeling I'm being a contentious, pedantic dick here. I defer to those who know the band members more intimately than I do (which is to say, not at all).

idkidc, this album will crush

you're a spiritualized fan, Chris?

i only know ~25 songs, but i LOVE 70% of that music and enjoy another 25%

You're a big fan, right?

Well, I once was. After LAGWAFIS, I lost most of my interest. But the best Spritualized show I ever saw was in 2003, years after I'd written them off. I don't pull out my SPZ nearly as much as my spacemen 3 (and spectrum) records, but I still like them.

Good gig last night - backing singers, Doggen, no strings, no acoustic guitars, an awful lot of Amazing Grace material.

So they've signed to Fat Possum. Huh.

???? whhhaaaaat