Make no mistake, Christopher Owens has led an interesting life. He spent much of his childhood traveling, as a member of Children of God, before finding his way to Amarillo, Texas, as a 16-year-old and then later making a home in San Francisco. It was there that he paired up with JR White to form Girls and make reverb-drenched ethereal pop music. But last summer Owens announced he was leaving the band to do his own thing, which turned out to be his solo debut, Lysandre (stream it below). As the LP is named after a French girl Owens once fell in love with several years ago, it should be no surprise that it’s filled with ambitious, intimate, revealing songs. “There’s a certain amount of storytelling with this album,” Owens tells Spiritualized frontman J. Spacemanin Interview, “and I felt like I had to make it quite specific to the person and to what actually happened.” Watch him, above, discussing the album and performing for Pitchfork TV and then go see him live at The Bowery Ballroom on Monday and Tuesday.
The English space-rock band Spiritualized has been making lush, atmospheric music since its debut, Lazer Guided Melodies, came out in 1992. Despite several personnel changes over the years, the group—guided by frontman Jason Pierce (J. Spaceman)—has continued to produce quality albums, including the much acclaimed Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, featuring a gospel choir (plus Dr. John on one track), which they played in full as part of SPIN25 at Radio City Music Hall in 2010. Well, now Spiritualized (above performing “On Fire,” “Sweet Talk” and “You Lie You Cheat” on Later with Jools Holland) is back with another terrific, ambitious album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light. So do yourself a favor and see them on Monday night at Terminal 5. Otherwise it will be one of those shows you can’t believe you missed.
It was such a great week, you get to relive it again! This past July SPIN magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary with amazing shows—the Smashing Pumpkins, the Flaming Lips, the Black Keys and the National at Terminal 5 and Spiritualized at Radio City Music Hall. Each show was streamed live, so if you couldn’t be there in person, you could still get a taste. And now you can have the whole meal because Fuse presents the concert series this Friday, 12/3, at 9 p.m. Don’t know what channel Fuse is? No problem, just go here.
(Encore presentations will follow at 3 a.m. and 11 a.m. on 12/4, 5 p.m. on 12/7, 4 p.m. on 12/9 and 2 a.m. on 12/10.)
Last week SPIN magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary with an epic five-night run of shows: the Smashing Pumpkins, the Flaming Lips, the Black Keys and the National at Terminal 5 and then Spiritualized closed out the week with a choir and an orchestra at Radio City Music Hall. If you weren’t there in person you still had the opportunity to check out what went down because each show streamed live on SPIN.com. But that is so last week. And since the music was extra stellar—thanks to ZYNC from American Express—you’ve got another chance to see these shows: The headlining act from each date will be rebroadcast at 9 p.m. ET every night this week here.
The English space-rock band Spiritualized has been making lush, atmospheric music since its debut, Lazer Guided Melodies, came out in 1992. Despite several personnel changes over the years, the group—guided by frontman Jason Pierce (J. Spaceman)—has continued to produce quality albums, including the much acclaimed Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, which features a gospel choir plus Dr. John on one track. Why bring up a disc that came out in 1997? Great question: Because as part of SPIN25, Spiritualized (above, playing the dreamy “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space”) will perform the LP in its entirety with a choir and orchestra on Friday at Radio City Music Hall. And how can you top that?
