Spaced "Flying Thru the Sky" b/w "Ain't That The Way It Is, Babe"

Spaced

“Flying Thru the Sky” b/w “Ain’t That the Way It Is, Babe”

scum stats: shit. i can reasonably account for four copies of this record amongst collectors. wouldn’t doubt that any more than 100 were pressed originally

It’s not often your number one want shows up. So when it does…you make sure it’s the Record of the Week.

First became aware of this gem in 2008. Copy showed up on eBay with the info that it had been found in a pile of local records in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Michigan.

The audio clip with the auction showcased otherworldly, wild, unhinged, almost unbelievable rock and roll. Not quite psych, a little bit beyond garage. Just perfect in every way. Theremin? Nice touch.

It sold for $588 and I was the second-highest bidder.

I’ve felt burnt about it for the past ten years.

There’s nothing to be gleaned from the label, the pseudonyms for the songwriting credits (at least I THINK they’re pseudonyms) of “Gypsy, Ape, Skin, Chuckles” float around through my head ALL THE DAMN TIME.

Shit, I’ve been tempted to start a band called Gypsy Ape Skin Chuckles because of how amazingly it rolls off the tongue.

Who in the hell were these guys? Where were they from? What were they on?

With almost zero info to start with…how would YOU try and track down the parties responsible for this record and answer these questions?

I’ve often dreamed about a mythical message board that everyone in the world was automatically subscribed to, where you could ask questions of this sort.

“Hey, who was in the band Spaced that put out this batshit crazy single?”

Even with the reach of the internet, how would you even try to START to reach a wide-ass group of folks?

I know you see shit like this on the Today Show, when someone takes a picture of a marriage proposal but then doesn’t actually know who the people are in the photo. I think Facebook usually solves it. Maybe Reddit on occasion. 

Seems like in the past you could try using ads in the newspaper. Hell, that’s how I scored a bunch of copies of the Afterbirth “Who’s in There?” record back in 2009. But shit, who even reads the classified section anymore?

To be fair, my fascination with this disc is largely predicated on the thought that it is a Michigan record. Yet there’s nothing explicitly proving that…just some words from an eBay seller a decade ago.

The copy in my hands showed up on eBay a few weeks back, this time complete with a sticker on the label that says “Jupiter” because, why not?

While I wasn’t exactly happy about the hammer price when I bought it, I wasn’t too disappointed at the $20/year inflation. This was a present for me.

This copy came from a seller in Florida. It’s totally possible this is NOT a Michigan record and I’ve just been excited about a myth for almost a third of my life.

But if you can’t fully commit your attention and desire and passion to weird rare records, then what can you commit to?

And now…I don’t even know what my #1 want is anymore. I’ve got some time to think about it, which is nice.

Apologies there’s nothing to listen to here, but you can see, this record is just so damn rare, no one even has it to share. There’s a bootleg repressing of it available on yellow or black vinyl that should suffice if this has piqued your interest enough.