Jason Pierce a/k/a J. Spaceman of Spiritualized
Last year’s O+ Festival headliners, the Felice Brothers and Richard Buckner, were right at home in the mid-Hudson Valley milieu, literally and figuratively. The Felice Brothers, of course, are blood and soil natives, with a formidable Big Pink obsession apparent in their ramshackle grooves and the ratty surrealism of their poetry. Buckner, I have heard, is a recent transplant to the area, but his dark and tender, country-tinged acoustic balladry is a kind of music that has always played well in these parts.
This year the fine folks at O+ reeled in a big fish of an entirely different stripe. British space-rockers Spiritualized are essentially the alias of Jason Pierce, a/k/a J. Spaceman. Pierce was previously one-half of Spaceman 3, a prolific, noisy cult band made famous by an album title that was interpreted as a mission statement, a modus operandi and a motto fit for a coat of arms: “Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.” That famous tagline has dogged Pierce long after he split from Spaceman 3 to form Spiritualized. Why, look: I am repeating it even now! But, while hard drugs seem very much a part of Spiritualized’s story as well, the music of Jason Pierce – the reams and reams of meticulous, maximalist space-rock that he has released in a career that is creeping up on 30 years – is very serious business and no mere hedonistic indulgence.
The standard critical line is that Spiritualized has produced one indisputable genre classic, 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space. In truth, Spiritualized’s output is quite consistent, both in character and in quality. But Ladies and Gentlemen… is the one, if you had to pick one. Pierce’s talent for almost laughably excessive layering and sonic augmentation is in full effect throughout. The miracle is that it never seems like too much, even though it clearly is too much. Somehow, Pierce maintains lucidity, an effective counterpoint and a separation of elements, even as the number of elements in a single mix approaches or exceeds three digits.
All bands of this ilk revere the monochromatic melodicism and the two-chord staple progressions of the Velvet Underground (as well as the VU’s realism and candor), and Spiritualized is no different. Where Pierce departs from the party line is the undercurrent of blues that can be detected within the maelstrom of droning, reverberant guitars, the borrowed gospel vocal arrangements and a touch of riffing rock that is (dare I say it?) downright Stonesy.
In recent years, Spiritualized has done a number of live performances of Ladies and Gentlemen… in its entirety. Pierce has characterized these shows as deeply satisfying and unsustainably expensive, requiring as many as 50 performers to produce a credible recreation of this legendary piece of studio art. One wonders what Pierce will bring to the Old Dutch Church in Kingston when Spiritualized headlines O+ on October 13.
Spiritualized, O+ Festival, Sunday, October 13, 9:30 p.m., Old Dutch Church, 727 Wall Street, Kingston; https://www.opositivefestival.org.
This is a really lazy article. Did the writer just Google the band before approaching it? There is much more to the band than the standard historical resume of Pierce and his older musical project. Why not listen to some albums, read some reviews and take in some interviews before giving an uneducated account of the band? Spiritualized are the most underrated band of their generation and shoddy journalism like this does little to promote them further.
Your comment is lazy, Kenny. How many of John Burdick’s reviews have YOU read before condemning him as lazy, uneducated, and his work as shoddy? BTW, I never heard of this band before reading his article. If you want to promote the band, you might want to start by not insulting the very few journalists who do write about it.
I confess I’m not familiar with Spiritualized, but no one does his homework more diligently, or has more open ears toward the full spectrum of new music, than John Burdick.
Great article for people like me who have never heard of Spiritualized. I found it very informative and I am going to check them out specifically because of this article. This is a positive endorsement of the band, and if one person checks them out because of it, mission accomplished. Sorry you were disappointed Kenny. Maybe next time Mr. Burdick will write an article just for you. Better yet, write your own article about them and read it to yourself. John Burdick rocks!
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
Spiritualized is a lazy band, what do you expect? Spectrum is more interesting.
Kenny…John has consistently been the strongest arts/music/culture writer in the Hudson Valley the last two years, and one of an extremely small number of voices representing the avant/indie/underground etc…you should probably read some of HIS reviews before making a shoddy attempt at criticism
The criticism of John Burdick as “lazy,” researching via “Google,” or “uneducated” is laughable upon reading about half of one of his pieces in the last two years for the Almanac, including this one. I admit that I do not know Spiritualized, but I know after reading this what John finds “critical” about them–both what he wants to applaud and what he would encourage them to reinforce and work on–and he handles it in a conversational tone that I appreciate. John shines a spotlight on our local music scene here from the inside as a working musician, but minus any professional jealousy, and as one of the great appreciators of new talent.
It is almost always lazy to throw that word at a writer.