The third Spiritualized album, 1997's 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space,' is very much one man's story. Genre-wise, it falls somewhere between science fiction and self-help -- group mastermind Jason Pierce's journey into the both the distant cosmos and depths of his own soul. One day, he might consider playing the whole thing with just an acoustic guitar, but Friday night at New York's Radio City Music Hall, he went the opposite route, honoring the record's sonic grandeur and performing it from top to bottom with the help of an orchestra and gospel choir.

Pierce, who spoke to Spinner about the gig earlier this month, has staged similar concerts in England, but Friday's performance -- the culmination of a week-long series of shows celebrating the 25th anniversary of Spin magazine -- marked the first and possibly last time he'll revisit the album on U.S. shores.

Chocolate Lab Records

Artist: Jon Lindsay
Hails From: Charlotte, N.C.
Song: 'Futuretown'
Album: 'Escape From Plaza-Midwood'
Sounds Like: Rufus Wainwright, Elliott Smith

In Their Words: "Futuretown is a place that has something for all and sundry. It is always summer and everyone knows how to dance but you'll find out fast what happens when you break the rules. Futuretown's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there ... yet."
-- Jon Lindsay


Download: 'Futuretown' (MP3)

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With just five other musicians onstage with him during his three decades as a guitarist in the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir often sounded like he was playing with a full fledged symphony. Certainly epic compositions such as 'Dark Star' and 'Terrapin Station' leant themselves to such comparisons, and the Dead's vast catalog has indeed been touched by several orchestras in recent years. But, for the first time ever, Weir will actually collaborate and perform with a live orchestra on October 22, in the Bay Area, when he takes to the stage with the 41-piece Marin Symphony.

"The idea was presented around 18 months ago by two of our board members," Marin Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Noralee Monestere tells Spinner. "[We] arranged a meeting with several former Dead band members and the idea was a huge hit with guitarist Bob Weir, who wanted to create a symphonic voice in the Dead genre."
The program will showcase rearranged Grateful Dead classics and, in honor of the Dead's live tradition, the performance will include lots of room for improvisation. In other words, they're gonna jam.

Gil Scott-Heron grew up with a distrust of television. As his grandmother, who helped raise the young poet, told him, "Anything I've got to watch is dangerous."

Son of a librarian and her estranged husband, a Jamaican-born soccer player, Scott-Heron is best known for his timeless commentary on media and activism, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.' The revolution will take place at the moment when minds are changed, he said -- before the advertisers arrive: "The theme song will not be written by Jimmy Webb or Francis Scott Key, or sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, Engelbert Humperdinck."

Besides his intense social conscience, Scott-Heron became known for his unblinking portrayals of the perils of substance abuse in songs like 'Angel Dust' and the dance-oriented 'The Bottle,' the biggest "hit" of this hip-hop godfather's modest commercial career. So it came as a disappointment to many of Scott-Heron's fans when his long, frequent absences from performing beginning in the late 1970s were attributed to a lifelong struggle with booze and drugs.

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Dawes may have already played SXSW, Sasquatch! and Bonnaroo, but frontman Taylor Goldsmith has grander plans for the future.

"We're happy just to play our music and get our stuff across to people and make a living at it," Goldsmith tells Spinner. "But in terms of goals, a lot of other bands wouldn't say this and it might be a little shameless, but we want to play the biggest stage that we possibly can."

Whatever inspired 'Ladies and Gentlemen, We're Floating in Space,' Spiritualized's classic 1997 album, it was heavy, heavy stuff. Frontman and songwriter Jason Pierce has repeatedly downplayed the influence of his breakup with then-bandmate Kate Radley, but with its bipolar mix of drugged-out despair and manic hopefulness, the record nevertheless sends listeners through an emotional ringer.

On Friday, July 30, Spiritualized will present 'Ladies and Gentlemen' in full at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, staging what's being billed as the album's first and last stateside performance. Pierce says that even after all these years, playing the songs is a powerful experience.