A Tribute to Spacemen 3

While many tribute albums only hold the interests of the musicians who contributed to them, this 1999 homage to the influential Spacemen 3 plays like the good folks at Rocket Girl Records painstakingly chose a select group of artists that could best represent the importance of the band’s pioneering influence while simultaneously bringing something new to the table. Bowery Electric gives “Things’ll Never Be the Same” guitar drones blasting under a mantra of looped beats while hushed vocals float over the top. Philadelphia’s the Asteroid No. 4 inject huge doses of delay and reverb to “Losing Touch With My Mind” to make for something that sounds more like early-'90s shoegazing before Mogwai’s rendition of “Honey” delivers a cover that perfectly grasps the core of Spacemen 3’s balance between sonic soundscapes and vocal lethargy. Bardo Pond gives “Call the Doctor” larger- than-life guitar distortion, howling feedback and seizures of wah-wah pedal, while Low matches Jason Pierce’s melancholy and slowed heartbeat rhythms.