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Another quick stroll down memory lane for fans of late 80s psychedelia and the Rugby sound. Jason Pierce and Sonic Boon of Spacemen 3 both began their own side projects around that time. Sonic Boom did a great and criminally neglected sideline in experimental drone pop with both a corking solo album and then the Spectrum brand. Jason on the other hand started up Spiritualized, who went on a less experimental tangent, carrying on the Spacemen 3's killer line in blissed-out space ballads. Unfortunately, friction around these solo projects was a part of the reason the pair split so acrimoniously and ended up going their seperate ways.
Personally Spiritualized have never enthralled me to any real degree beyond their initial release, a fuzzy and frankly delicious cover of the Troggs song, Anyway That You Want Me. I don't think they ever came close to the sheer brilliance of that first EP, despite throwing everything at their sound over the following decade, bar the kitchen sink. This one's especially poignant for me, as this EP came out not long before their first UK tour. I was over the moon as my band at the time were down to support them at their Cardiff Gig. However, we imploded shortly before and were replaced by local rivals Prunus Tenella.
It still brings a pang of regret that I missed the opportunity to meet one of the Spacemen 3, but hey - that's life. They were great live, but the albums just never fired me in the same way as the Spacemen 3's stuff or indeed, much of Sonic Boom's increasingly strange output. That said, this track remains amazing - and this is the first time I've seen the video and had to share it here (it's all very Spacemen 3.)
If you've never heard Guided By Voices LP Bee Thousand, you're missing one of the most eclectic and frenetic indie lo-fi albums of the 90s. The band are prolific to say the least with a massive catalogue of LPs, and of the ones I know, I'm yet to find one that's dissappointing. The singer Robert Pollard's stream of conscious vocals often move from whimsy to moving to WTF all in the space of a song - and the music is the same. Bee Thousand remains my favourite of their LPs and it's from whence today's track came from.
The bizzarely titled Tractor Rape Chain is one of the highlights from the LP, and here's the band doing a great version of it live - just listen to the changes in mood and tempo, and it's less than 3 minutes in length, truly superb off-the-wall songwrititng. It really is a strange ride. I'm gutted to say I missed them live in Cardiff just before they split, and word has it, the gig was amazing. /me kicks self
You may not be aware, but this blog lives on a knife's edge. If you've been back through the archives, a number of the videos in the posts have been removed from YouTube for copyright infringement. Let's not beat around the bush - YouTube is full of great material which unfortunately, shouldn't be there. How long YouTube lasts in the face of legal threats from the big music industries and spiraling costs is open to debate.
This is not the place to go into the narrow-minded big music industry and their ongoing campaigns against the very fans who keep them in business. Nor is it the place to go into how having this material available on the web for everyone to use as we already are, could in fact help their business model. At least it could, if they were clever enough to do something with it other than sue and try to legislate against people's wish to share music they love.
So, be warned, the video material on this blog could disappear without warning. Not that the blog would disappear, just the video embeds. But - don't fret. There are things you can do to protect against this loss of material.
KeepVid is a great site for people wanting to grab the files on YouTube. Simply add the URL of the video page you want and it will create a downloadable link for you. You need to rename the file and give it a .flv extension when you download it. With it safely on your hard-drive, you can watch it any media player that supports the .flv (flash video) format. We recommend the free VLC Player - it'll play them and lots of other exotic file formats that your standard players will balk at.
If you're like me and use Firefox for your browsing, you can skip KeepVid and simply install a neat FireFox plugin called Video Downloader. Every time you want to save the video, simply click on the icon in the status area of the bottom of the FireFox window and it opens up a pop-up that once again gives you a downloadable link.
So - there you have it. Tools to help you preserve the things we've featured here, before they get taken away by money-grubbing ludites. Don't lose that little gem you've waited years to see. Grab it before it's gone.
Keeping it late 80s, UK indie and extremely influential on my musical outlook, this is another of those landmark introductory tracks for me. I've been hoping this would show up for a while, save me the effort of finding my old VHS tape and doing it myself. Kitchens Of Distinction remain firm favourites of mine, a strange mix of showgazing honey guitars and awkward lyrics based around pop song forms - barely a month goes by I don't find the band back on my playlist.
For a three piece the noise they made was deceptively grand. I saw them live a couple of times, once not long after I got this track and their first LP, Love Is Hell. It was a Tuesday night in the Square Club in Cardiff, there were only about 10 people there and I had an amazing time listening to the band spin their noise. This track got me into them after a by chance recording on the peel show, and it's still a great little EP if you can pick it up. The single featured here, The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule remains a signature song for me, and now for your pleasure here's the dreamy video. If you can get your hands on any of the LPs, do so, all four of 'em are a treat.
Beep Beep, we're taking a trip down memory lane, if you'd like to depart, do so now. If you're still with us, here's some old favourites of mine, who've not featured here since earliest days of Real Cool Time. Spacemen 3 - a band who music was partially responsible for getting me into music, and whose style we aped mercilously. Trippy, droney and downright out of this world, I still get a shiver when I hear their music.
I can take you back to the first time I heard them, it's one of those moments that sticks in your mind forever. It's 1989, myself and our band's guitarist were both working in a crummy supermarket stacking shelves. We were working late, and it was one of those rare occasions we had the radio on. Out of nowhere this song came on (I think it was the Peel Show) and we literally stopped in our tracks. We walked to the radio listening, transfixed. We didn't know who it was, but it was special - I was aware of the Spacemen 3, but hadn't knowingly heard them. The song played out with its fantastic sax ending and trippy simplicity and the name was announced.
I knew there and then it would be a long term relationship. It was love at first listen, and I'm happy to say we're still going strong to this day. The track playing was today's featured track - Hypnotized. I've never seen the video till now either, it's fairly standard, multilayered, lots of strobing etc. The song still my heart after all these years, and will be remembered by me as one that defined an amazing period in my live when music was the most important thing and what I wanted to do.
Dio Bach is a music fan who loves sharing his opinions on his favourite music and videos. Subscribe for regular nuggets.
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