june 2010

Super-duper exciting month in the space camp!
Staring with two great hometown shows @ SPANKY VAN DYKES for Nottingham University's Alt-music society & opening for YUNIOSHI at their EP launch @ Nottingham Contemporary.

Then it was a 2am wake up call & jumping in our posh mini-van taxi down to Heathrow airport to catch the early flight to Toronto for this year's NXNE festival! We had x3 days of high energy spaceships action, including:

Thursday: making audio diary for our favourite BBC radio Nottingham show 'The beat', which saw Rob chatting to festival organisers and bands such as the wonderful 'WE ARE ENFANT TERRIBLE' check them out here.

Friday: possibly the most hectic day for the band, starting with a morning live acoustic session on internet TV station 'THATCHANNEL.COM', session included a lot of talking about football and hockey as well as describing the presenters as 'Fluffers' for a certain female artist's new pop video. (big hello to Randy & Stu!). Footage of the session will be up on www.youtube.com/spaceshipsarecool very soon.

Next up was a mini-pop set at The AUX TV day stage in the Hyatt hotel's NXNE ballroom. Many thanks to all those who braved the warm weather & free booze to see us play! Then it was straight off to The Neutral Lounge for our last gig of the day, well straight off to King Falafal first (king burrito was full).

Saturday was again another fun-filled day, starting with our Merchandise stall @ the indie music market in Dundas Sq. Thanks to all those who bought copies of the new shiny vinyl and big hello to the bands who swapped theirs for ours.

In between Flyering for our next gig and checking out an awesome rock band of 7yr olds (I kid you not, they were ace!), Rob chatted via live link-up to Dean Jackson on BBC radio Nottingham from the Dundas sq 'VIP lounge' Interview & audio diary can be heard over on the TUNES PAGE.

Our last and best show of NXNE was over @ The Cameron, an old vaudeville theatre bar on Queen St West. We were lucky enough to play with some amazing artists including Icelandic Acoustic music master SVAVAR KNUTUR & Canadian noise-pop mayhem from PETE SAMPLES. An awesome crowd, an awesome venue, an awesome night!

Back here in the UK we are now gearing up for the next gigs in July @ The beautiful octopus club in Deptford, London & then @ the fantastic TRUCK FESTIVAL, Steventon, Oxfordshire with Mercury Rev, Teenage Fanclub, Fonda 500 & our good friends FISTS.

We will also be making our first HD music video with the help of 'Nottingham isle productions' @ a yet to be announced venue (we will keep you posted so you can come & be a part of it). And finally, the Brand new webshop is now online so go get yourself some goodies!

Love from SAC mission control. x

may 2010

It's getting warmer & there's definitely more sunshine around! with summer around the corner, Spaceships have been hard at work gearing up for their debut performance at this year's NXNE festival in Toronto.

The band will be landing in Toronto on Thursday the 17th June and will be exploring the city in their bright orange spacesuits, giving out flying saucers candy and origami rockets to lucky passers-by.

The band may also be popping up on street corners doing some busking with stylophones & casios, whilst reporting on the festival for their fave show, BBC Radio Nottingham's 'The Beat'.

More Live Shows!

After a mighty fine gig for High Society (Nottingham Uni's alt-music society) at the wonderfully named 'SPANKY VAN DYKES' venue, Spaceships are cool & Yunioshi are taking over the new Contemporary Art Gallery in Nottingham on Saturday the 29th May. The night is gonna be awesome!

With the Launch of YUNIOSHI's 3rd EP 'How to survive a robot attack!' and Spaceships' 'Heart echoes' ltd edition 12" vinyl, plus live video projections, Yunioshi cake & cookies, candy, popcorn and lots of glitter!!! If you live in the UK...Be there, it's FREE.

Other web-based stuff

Rob spaceman has just done an interview for FERNTV over in Canada. The website features music, arts & fashion with environmental issues, so spaceships' use of Hand screen printing onto Recycled card and water based inks for all the band's CDs & vinyls was a hot topic.

You can check out the interview here.

And finally, if you haven't discovered us already.... you can follow all things spaceships on twitter.

april 2010

A fond hello to you all!

2010 is certainly shaping up to be a very busy year for us all at S.A.C HQ.

Rob & Helen returned a few weeks ago from playing some wonderful acoustic shows in Sweden with Thomas Denver Jonsson (big thanks to all our new friends out there), and it was straight back into gearing up for our debut appearance at this year's NXNE FESTIVAL in sunny Toronto, with a whole load of warm up dates in the UK including, Brand new Nottingham venue 'SPANKY VAN DYKES' on the 10th May, a special Down the Red Bricks night @ Kings Cross social club, London on 20th May & an amazing night at Nottingham's fantastic CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTRE (spaceships & Yunioshi take over the whole building for a night of robots, flying saucers, VJs & DJs, exclusive films and much more!)

Our busy little website programming droids have been working around the clock and the spaceships Webshop is very close to completion!!! and will be your one-stop-shop for Spaceships T-shirts, CDs & Vinyl.

Broadcast & CD news

Big thanks yet again to Dean Jackson @ BBC Nottingham & Tom Robinson @ BBC 6 Music for the airplay of our toy-tune GAMMA RAY 2 last month. The track met with a great response and is out now on the amazing new compilation from french DIY label WINTER RECORDS, featuring 13 fantastic tracks from US/French/Italian artists (and us of course!) details here

City Rooftops has made it's way onto a compilation released by ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING, a charity who campaign for Deaf & disabled right to access at live music events.

And!!! if you find yourself travelling to Helsinki this month, you can enjoy GINGERBREAD HOUSES on Finnair's in flight radio players. How cool is that?

SAC MISSION CONTROL. X

march 2010

New exclusive track 'Another Last Night On Earth' available from the tunes area.

january 2010

Greetings space cadets everywhere. So, the new year is off to a busy start here @spaceships HQ. We have loadsa new studio projects on the go, including; making a single version of LUNAR SUNSHINE which will be available as a digital double A-side backed with a very special live acoustic recording.

A brand new instrumental track 'GAMMA RAY 2' has been made for another release on french DIY label Winter records. The track has already been played on Dean Jackson's BBC radio show THE BEAT and is currently available to you as a free download over on our tunes page. Spaceships & Tatatamoto tune SHE is currently on a fantasic animated film by Noriko Okaku being featured on the Dazed and Confused website which forms a promo for fashion designer duo Hall Ohara. See it here. And visit the amazing world of Noriko Okaku here. Tatatamoto & spaceships tracks will be available to buy from iTunes stores soon.

Our old fave track from many years back BELOW 29 DEGREES is under going a re-working for TV & Film licensing projects and includes some mighty fine vocoder stuff! (if we don't say so ourselves).

More blog and online stuff: there is a very rare spaceships are cool interview and review due for broadcast on the TWO GROOVE blog and we are also gonna be the 'Artist of the week' on Indie universe website on April 26^th.

Preparations are well underway for our mini-tour of Sweden with the wonderful Thomas Denver Jonsson. Helen & Rob will be playing a handful of dates including Stockholm, Karlstad and Gothenburg, with more details coming soon.

Many of you will be pleased to know that we will finally have our very own webshop active soon! There will be some very special treats for your 'Greed bags' including Vinyl LPs & Singles, stickers and our new 'Vintage wash' Tees.

Well, that's all for now, we're off back to the studio to remix Bloodgroup song 'My Arms'. x

december 2009

Secret Santa Free Downloads

Two exclusive seasonal tracks are available to download from the tunes area.

Ok so it has been A LONG LONG WHILE! Since we updated the news page, but here's the reasons why

NYC

October was a fun-filled trip with the run up to our very first USA live show @CMJ music marathon in NewYork city on the 23rd. This was to prove a very special 'folktronica' event @Kenny's Castaways in Greenwich village, with just acoustic guitar, violin, iPhone, and some fine retro space-synth action from Hallur & Raggi from Icelandic electro band BLOODGROUP.

Many thanks to all who made this show special. X
There will be live film footage on Youtube just in time for the festive season.

After chewing the fat, eating tons of sushi and seeing the sights in NYC, it was straight back into on our return. With the addition of our brand new band member Johnny Cousins on Bass guitar, we headed off to play his first gig @Birmingham NEC (no pressure).

Our escape pod studios have been a hive of industry with a major remixing project on the go for LO RECORDINGS. A highly enjoyable commission to remix two tracks from the 1970s synth LP 'THE STRANGE WORLD OF BERNARD FEVRE'. All the remixes will feature on a new LP from LO next year. To get your hands on the previous remixes of this classic LP by Black devil disco club, visit here

HEART ECHOES

We now have huge boxes full of CDs & 12" Vinyl ready to be beautifully packaged in hand printed sleeves! They go on sale in the new year.

News from France

The Long awaited release of WINTER RECORDS' VOL3 tribute to John Williams LP is now available! It features around 17 tracks by bands from France, Italy, Switzerland, USA (oh, and spaceships being the only UK artist!). Every artist was set the task of using elements from the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND soundtrack to create new tunes. As you can imagine... there are some amazing results on this fine LP. Order your copy from winterrecords@gmail.com

On the horizon

We have one last live show on December 5th in our home town of Nottingham UK. This will be the first show with the full 6-piece line up, and is being filmed for a music DVD about the Nottingham music scene. Back in the studio; a new collaboration with 'Sunday best' (Rob Da Bank's label) artist FEAR OF THEYDON, will feature vocals and lyrics by Rob Maddison and will be on an exciting new compilation LP out next year.

july 2009

Greetings space kittens!

Summertime is definitely upon us, with last month seeing Spaceships performing a massive live show at this year's Glastonbury festival. The sun was shining, there were jars full of sherbert flying saucers, everyone dressed in orange! The band were joined on stage by fantastic spacesuit-wearing sign-language interpreters; Robert Skinner and Kyra Pollitt, who brought a whole new aspect to the Lyrics! (many thanks guys!)

Spaceships full band will be performing on september 5^th as part of London's Liberty festival in Trafalgar square. It runs from 2pm and is, of course, free.

Back in the studio, the long awaited HEART ECHOES LP has now been mastered and is on its way to the pressing plant. The CD will feature new artwork by New Giraffe City and will come in a beautifully screen printed, recycled card fold out package and will be available from all live shows and by online mail order.

For those (like us!) who love their vinyl... we are pressing a strictly limited edition run of heavy weight 12" vinyl LPs. We will keep you posted on how to get yer mits on these beauties soon.

The BBC's monthly online disabilty talk show 'BBC OUCH!' now features a brand new theme tune created by Rob Spaceman here at The Escape Pod.

The show is hosted by Mat Fraser and Liz Carr and can be heard over here.

News from across the pond

Both MTV in New York and MTV in Los Angeles have now licensed tracks from the Debut Spaceships EP for use in their reality TV shows. Keep watching Cribs!!!

Infamous indie music magazine 'UNDER THE RADAR' have included spaceships track 'city rooftops' on their digital sampler LP. This fine compilation LP is free to download once you buy your news stand copy of the magazine and get your download code.

The nice folks at CMJ (US college music journal) have invited Rob spaceman & Helen Maltby out to New York city to play a special 'Folktronica' live set of spaceships songs as part of their CMJ Music Marathon festival. Date and venue still to be confirmed, but it will be between 21^st & 24^th of October this year.

News from across the pond and then a long way north!

Spaceships are cool have been in contact with 3900 pictures over in Greenland as they are hoping to use the track 'SENT IT TO YOU' for a scene in the first ever Greenlandic feature film.

The film is entitled 'NUUMMIOQ' (which means a resident of NUUK) is filmed in the Greenlandic capitol city of Nuuk and is entirely shot,produced,funded and editted in Greenland by Greenlanders.

See the trailer on youtube.

june 2009

Rob spaceman is currently hard at work at the escape pod studios creating a new theme tune for the BBC OUCH! podcast.
Ouch! is the BBC's disability website and regularly hosts a fantastically entertaining podcast, presented by Mat Fraser and Kiruna Stamell

spaceships are also performing a special live set for universal records, to celebrate the launch of the 'indie circuit' music library LP (featuring spaceships' own strawberry kickers).

april 2009

Spaceships in the Guardian

The Guardian has two articles covering the upcoming Spaceships appearance at Glastonbury. Spaceships sightings here and here.

Closer Than You Think

Now available for your listening pleasure in the tunes section.

Greetings everyone, here's all the spaceships gossip from march

It's time to put on your wellies coz Spaceships have been asked to play this year's GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL!!!! The full 5 piece line up will be appearing on Saturday 27th june to help promote the work of 'Attitude is everything', a london based organisation that focuses on improving disabled access to music events.

To celebrate the new band line up featuring: Ben James on electric piano, clavinet, organ. Rob Yunioshi on stylophone, synth, melodica & musical saw. Helen Maltby on Violin, Viola & Theremin. And Tim Maddison on percussion & sample triggers. Spaceships have been working with NEW GIRAFFE CITY & I DRESS MYSELF to print up a series of fantastic new t-shirts! Hand screen printed on to vintage washed tees in red and blue. Tees will be available at all live shows, from April onwards.

We continue to hold our place in the US CMJ college radio charts, the spaceships EP has now been charting for 8 weeks! Our good friends at Tinderbox music and their sister company 'Chased by flying monkeys' are now embarking on a big push towards getting spaceships tunes on US TV & film. (fingers crossed!).

The interest in placing spaceships music on TV & FILM has been coming in thick & fast this month, with our song 'this fond farewell' being snapped up for a second UNIVERSAL compilation release Through HUB100/LO-RECORDINGS. (strawberry kickers already features on Universal's INDIE CIRCUIT comp lp).

Over in Australia, we have teamed up with licensing company 'KLEENBEATS' who source music for a multitude of iconic Aussie brands. Keep your ears out for spaceships on surfing ads soon.

More exciting US & CANADIAN radio play in the form of FM & internet stations, Banana Peel radio, Breakthru radio, Pongid radio and radio crystal Blue.

Back home at ESCAPE POD STUDIOS, we have been busy mixing the first spaceships are cool Long Player. Clocking in at exactly 60minutes, with 13 supercool sci-fi pop tracks, the LP should be hitting the virtual shelves of iTunes at the end of April, with a physical release soon after.

february 2009

welcome to the new website!

Yes, we are finally online with a website of our very own. Featuring exclusive artwork by NEW GIRAFFE CITY and the masterly programming skills of Microwulf. This will be the first place to go for all those wanting to emerse themselves in the wonderful world of SPACESHIPS ARE COOL.

Following on from the excitment of last year's BBC radio airplay, live sessions & podcast, Spaceships have been real busy over the festive season.

We have begun to spread our wings across the pond and started to get on th airwaves states-side. Working closely with the friendly people at Tinderbox music in minneapolis, the spaceships are cool debut EP went out to over 450 college radio stations on february 3rd. Early indications are that you guys in the US are lovin it with a national CMJ radio 200 chart placing of 160 in the first week!

Hopefully, this month will see some serious chart climbing!

Spaceships are cool are now officially available on iTunes.... the debut EP is up there for you to add to your ipod playlists, as well as 'the tokyo ep' collaboration project between DJ & Lounge producer Mr Bird & Spaceships are cool.

Back in the UK, we are busy putting the finishing touches to the first S.A.C long player. featuring a few old faves, some unheard newbies, a cheeky instrumental, and a feast of beautifully wierd sounds from the escape pod studios.(yes we just got our new moog theremin!). the lp is due to hit ITunes in early May.

Rehearsal has begun for the Spaceships tour of ICELAND. From april 8th to 14th S.A.C are touring as support for our good friends and iceland's own electro-masters 'BLOODGROUP' who release their 2nd LP that month. The line up will include ben james as co-pilot, rob yunioshi on synth, helen maltby on electro-violin, and tim maddison on the junior drumkit. as well as all the usual beats n bleeps!

A full tour film is being made as we journey through the land of the ice & snow accompanied by live audio recordings which will be available for exclusive download on this site!

Love from S.A.C MISSION CONTROL. X