12. Spacemen 3
Their approach to the minimalism of rock & roll is really unique. You hear it in other groups, but I think they really nailed it on that record. We had the garage rock invasion in Detroit with The White Stripes, and that was not my cuppa tea at all, but it was happening concurrently with Wolf Eyes starting to get known.
I loved the Gories, I listened to a lot of them after The Cramps – that stripped down garage rock really turned me on. But when the garage rock scene hit I was not down with a lot of The White Stripes and the hundreds of bands that followed, and I heard Spacemen 3 around that time, and I was like, well, what else do you need? Why is anyone else even bothering, because they did it, this is it. It’s a lot more honest in dealing with issues, dealing with drugs, dealing with depression, instead of marching armies or whatever [‘Seven Nation Army’? – ed.]. I mean, I talk shit about Jack [White], but he’s always been a fixture around Detroit, we have a record on his label and he’s super supportive, but I feel like what he tapped into was really the mainstream version of all this dark personal stuff.
