Spacemen 3
The Perfect Prescription
Label: Taang! Records
Released: 1995

Sonic Boom - guitar, tremolo, organ, vocals
Jason - guitar, organ, farsifa, vocals
Bassman - bass vibrations
Rosco - percussion
Alex Green - saxaphone
Mick Manning - Trumpet
Owen John - Violins

1. Take Me to the Other Side
2. Walking With Jesus
3. Ode to Street Hassle
4. Ecstasy Symphony/Transparent Radiation (Flashback)
5. Feel So Good
6. Things’ll Never Be the Same
7. Come Down Easy
8. Call the Doctor

Bonus Tracks
9. Call the Doctors
10. Soul 1
11. That’s Just Fine
12. Starship
13. Live Intro Theme (Xtacy)

Back in June of this year my Son celebrated his fourth birthday. A few days before the day, I went out and bought a few outfits for him to wear to his party, then let my Wife choose what he’d wear on the day of. I bought a Batman shirt, and few others. The last shirt I found was a funny shirt with a drawing of a rock with a Mohawk and spikes, and above it was the wording “Punk Rock.” I thought this was cool, nothing more than that. My Wife thought it was funny also and that’s what my Son wore to his party.

This September my Son started pre-school, it’s very good private school, with strict policies about what the kids wear; no media related clothing (Mickey Mouse, Sponge Bob, etc) and no name-brand logos (Nike, No Fear, etc), which is fine, though sometimes tricky to find such plain clothing.

Anyway, a month into his school year, I was dressing him one day and I pulled out his “punk rock” shirt from his dresser. I figured it’s generic, and it doesn’t support any particular group. He has dinosaur shirts, car shirts, and these have all been deemed acceptable. So, I put it on him. No problem.

He comes home, three hours later with his shirt inside out. I asked my wife “what happened?” It turns out that the shirt made some of the kids and teacher uncomfortable, and they put it inside out and asked that it not be worn again. It cracked me up.

The poor kid is having his clothes banned and he doesn’t even like punk rock. For some reason, since birth my Son doesn’t like any music if it’s in English. He loves Arabic music, he requested Umm Kulthum the other day. Turns out he likes a few Enrique Iglesis songs . . . Spanish ones. The boy cracks me up. He speaks some Spanish, some Chinese and some Egyptian dialect. So when we talk I don’t always know what he’s asking for. He has since gotten into some of the Sesame Street songs, and some Wiggles. A few weeks ago I popped on a Lords of The New Church CD, I figured I could ease him into the stuff, he politely asked me to turn it off. Oh well.

On to the review . . .

I don’t know how to explain this album . . . it’s as if the Doors learned to play better, and their music was more hypnotic, then you’d have Spaceman 3.Sound of Confusion is the second studio release by influential space rock group Spacemen 3, released in 1987 on Glass Records. It was later re-released in 1995 by Taang! Ensuing reissues on CD included a rotating assembly of bonus tracks, often including two instrumental b-sides to the “Take Me to the Other Side” single: “Soul 1″ (a Stax-like ballad) and “That’s Just Fine.”Thanks again to Curtis over at TAANG for passing this one to me!If you get the chance to get a copy of this, check them out.

Rating: ** *** Two out of five stars.

On a separate note, I’m going to be putting on the Los Angeles Punk Con June 6, 2009. I am looking for vendors, and sponsors. I have contacted some of the biggest names from the world of American Punk to be guests, Henry Rollins (Thanks to Henry for responding within an hour of our request) and Jello Biafra are a maybe until the beginning of the year. Razorcake fanzine is looking to get involved. We have Lisa Fancher founder of Frontier Records, and Dr. Strange Records coming out, so make sure to browse their great selection of merchandise. Danny of Warning Label Records is trying to bring a couple of bands from his label. Check out the site, http://lapunkcon.com. Any questions, feel free to write: punk.con@gmail.com.

Currently:
Reading: Men without Women by Ernest Hemmingway
Listening: MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
Watching: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang directed by Shane Black