Since 2010, we’ve been tracking the Burlington, Vermont duo The Vacant Lots, whose status as opening act for Dean Wareham and the Brian Jonestown Massacre tells you a lot. Their sound is really a cross between Spaceman 3 and Suicide — electronic drones generated by machines, with guitar and vocals riding atop the Fritz Lang concoctions. Departure isn’t exactly what its title promises: it’s much of what you’d expect from the band’s earlier work, and is for this reason excellent, occasionally thrilling, and one of the summer’s highlights. If you heard “Never Satisfied” on the radio, you really might think that Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom had run into each other at an insta-studio and cranked it out — that’s a high compliment! We intend to listen to this one ’til our hard drive fails.
Archive for Spaceman 3
The Vacant Lots’ “Departure” Updates Spaceman 3 For A New Generation
Posted in Music with tags Spaceman 3, Spiritualized, The Vacant Lots on July 27, 2014 by johnbuckley100Are The Koolaid Electric Company The Great Lost Shoegaze Band?
Posted in Music with tags " Galaxie 500, Dandy Warhols, Spaceman 3, the black ryder, The Koolaid Electric Company, Velvet Underground on February 11, 2010 by johnbuckley100The Koolaid Electric Company were first spotted by our detective when they were mysteriously served up by Last.FM as part of the black ryder radio stream. Hmmm, who were these guys? The sound was something Kramer would have coaxed out of Galaxy 500 on a frozen night in Soho: all Sterling Morrison lead atop crudish rhythm guitar with not much more than tambourine as an afterthought. Cool!
We started pulling on threads… their MySpace page didn’t give up much… and all we could find on iTunes was a single song in a Dead Bees sampler podcast. Google, the detective’s friend, linked us to — of course! — a KeepMusicEvil.com forum. Naturally, they’d fall in the orbit around the Brian Jonestown Massacre. From there we were directed by a one-eyed, mohawk-tonsured, uh, short person in a tuxedo to the ApolloAudio site, where, yay, an EP was downloadable (though not without some hiccups.)
The KeepMusicEvil experts tantalizingly included a post from someone who, in April 2008, claimed that the Koolaid Electric Company’s first album was BEING MIXED IN THE ROOM NEXT TO HIM. And then, silence, the trail cold.
Ah, but the music is very warm: full-fledged Velvets goo mixed in a blender with the BJM, and Spaceman 3, with a sprinkling of Dandys and soupcon of The Darkside. To be continued….
Austin Get Ready: First Communion After Party Is Playing SXSW
Posted in Music with tags Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Byron Coley, First Communion After Party, Spaceman 3, Spiritualized, SXSW, Tulip Frenzy on February 25, 2009 by johnbuckley100Ah, I still remember my first communion after party: all the seven-year olds swimming on a bright May Sunday, school almost out, summer near. Maybe we saw God, but probably not the way First Communion After Party does. These guys are maybe the best neo-psychedelic band to have emerged in recent years, which when you think about it, is saying something. If they set their amps up in a Catholic church parking lot, the Warlocks and Black Angels would put down their bingo cards and listen. They’re that good.
If Byron Coley isn’t a charter member of the FCAP fan club, I’ll give up music for Lent. See, they’ve got this Grace Slick/Marty Balin, Exene/John Doe thing going on vocals. The guitarists have spent a lot of time listening to the 13th Floor Elevators. I’ve seen an interview in which they deftly eschew the comparisons to the Brian Jonestown Massacre, but admit to getting their noses into the same batch of altar wine: Spaceman 3, Spiritualized, the Darkside, that whole tribe.
Austin get ready, these guys are going to be the biggest thing hitting SXSW other than the premiere of the film The Least of Me (which has a simultaneous premiere at Snagfilms.com, FYI.) If you want a little taste right now, go to the iTunes Store and download Sorry for All The Mondays and To Those Who Can’t Sing, which is either the best album title I’ve heard in a while or the worst, I can’t decide. I do know this: if my First Communion After Party had sounded like this, I might have kept the faith.
Some Morning After Girls Are Now the black ryder
Posted in Music with tags Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spaceman 3, the black ryder, The Morning After Girls, The Warlocks on April 29, 2008 by johnbuckley100From the same tipsters that told Tulip Frenzy that Sacha of the Morning After Girls was in New York mastering the band’s new album comes word that Aimee and Scott, having left the MAG, are now in a band called the black ryder. See links below. Some good songs on their MySpace page. They sound a lot like the Warlocks, and lo and behold, see who their friends are: the Warlocks, the Dandys, BJM, Spaceman 3, etc. No album or downloadable songs yet in the States, but watch this space.
Tulip Frenzy 