Boston Rock Photos And Stuff
Space Cranes
Merrily On High
2014
Let Space Cranes take you on an eclectic, electro-retro journey this holiday season. This dynamic duo and friends are back with another collection of mostly instrumental musical cheer. My favorite? I’ll take the samba-ized version of “Jingle Bell Rock” appropriately renamed, you guessed it, “Jingle Bell Samba.”
Where to get it:
Space Cranes
Christmas Robots
2011
Space Cranes (aka Chris n Kate) put out this collection of holiday tunes a couple of years ago. It features oddball arrangements of the classics. There’s the new wave surf of “Winter Wonderland” and “Good King Wencenslas.” Their version of “Silent Night” is a spacey country waltz with horns. Like synths? Check out “Deck The Halls.” Would “Jingle Bells” arranged for a pair of ukuleles, slide guitar, shaker, sleigh bells (naturally), bass and a couple of horns make your season brighter? Chris and Kate have you covered. “Hark the Drunken Angels Scream” is pretty much what you would expect (and then some). I love the wacky world of Christmas Robots.
Where to get it:
Space Cranes
“Apricot One”
2011
Synthy falsetto goodness! Space Cranes (aka Chis n Kate) have a single out called “Apricot One.” It sounds like The Bee Gees, Bananarama and Beck throwing a party in your basement.* This is the song that gets played a little later in the evening, when everybody’s head is spinning but no one is ready to call it a night. It’s a well crafted pop song with a mid-fi aesthetic.** The high-pitched vocals float along on top of a retro-syth drum beat and a slightly fuzzed out bass line. Throw in a distorto-freakout in the middle and a couple of heavily processed dialogue samples in the outro to put the whole thing over the top. I can’t wait to hear more.
Where to get it:
* Or maybe at Moe’s Lounge in Radio’s basement, where the duo can often be found holding court as part of the He Said She Said series.
** In that way it reminds me a bit of The Folk Implosion.
Did you know that Radio has a downstairs lounge? They do. Chris n Kate (from Kingsley Flood and Just Rice, respectively) were the first people to perform down there.
The first show in Radio’s other performance area was like hanging out in a basement with friends, drinking beer and listening to music. There’s wood paneling. It works.
