The Old Black Hole

 Music, after all, is the ultimate way to bend space and time, isn't it?

A tribute show to Spaceman 3

This show will feature many of our favorite psych artists but will take a set to acknowledge the contributions of leading indie-rock progenitors of the space-rock aesthetic, Spacemen 3. Jason Pierce and Peter Kember may be best known for their later, similarly mind-melting combos Spiritualized and Sonic Boom, but it was the droning, languid and admittedly drug-fueled fusillades of their 1980s band Spacemen 3 that rocketed them to notoriety. Taking their aural cue from chugging Velvet Underground drone-scapes like Black Angel's Death Song and Sister Ray, as well as the Detroit sludge-rock of The Stooges, S3 worried less about technical proficiency and song structure, and more about noise, color, and hypnotic, transportative effect, veering from anarchy to fragile balladry

Spacemen 3 were psychedelic in the loosest sense of the word; their guitar explorations were colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s. Instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia, relying on heavily distorted guitars to clash and produce their own harmonic overtones; frequently, they would lead up to walls of distortion with amplified acoustic guitars and synths. Often the band would jam on one chord or play a series of songs, all in the same tempo and key. Though this approach was challenging, often bordering on the avant-garde, Spacemen 3 nevertheless gained a dedicated cult following. After releasing several albums in the late '80s, the band fell apart after in 1991.