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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Space Camp: Back to basics
Wednesday 02 May @ 12:08:55 |
by ROB VAN ALSTYNE
With the current trend of ever grander and bigger rock bands dominating the national indie music scene (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, etc.), I'm starting to worry that kids these days will think they have to round up nine friends and teach one of them to be a kick-ass tympani player before they can form a band. That's why it's refreshing to know that tried and true rock bands like Space Camp are still flourishing here in the Twin Cities--the kind of two guitars/bass/drums and no fancy bull outfit that may not have its sights set on world domination, but certainly creates a stirring enough rock racket in its own right.
Favoring a spiky college-rock sound that anyone who remembers early '90s collegiate rock scene will warm to immediately (think Superchunk, the Archers of Loaf, Pavement in their more acerbic musical moments), Space Camp's soon-to-be-released third album A Foundification For Soundification is an exciting new addition to the section of my musical library I like to refer to as "fist pump-inducing."
Featuring guitarists/vocalists Tim Uhl and Jon Greenlee, bassist Adam Meyers and drummer Aaron Seevers, the fierce foursome that is Space Camp buoyantly bounce between piquant Smiths-inspired jangle pop ("The Princess of Soul") and more discordant buzzing rock (the title track) on record, going for an approach that favors passion over precision.
The give and take between searing rock and polished pop is part of Space Camp's appeal, and a natural extension of the very different approaches that songwriters Uhl and Greenlee take to the recording process.
"It's my natural tendency to overdo the recording process," admits Greenlee. "Endless takes, changing amps too many times for different guitar tones, adding uncool instrumental details that get abandoned, and so on. It's Tim's tendency to underdo the recording process ... keeping messy takes, defending suspicious vocals takes and so on. We are very good and old friends and it is important to each other that both of us like the music, so if we are in consensus we feel good about it and that's when we feel done."
 Uhl and Greenlee's yin and yang relationship extends to the groups ferocious axe play as well, rather than designating a "lead" or "rhythm guitarist" Uhl and Greenlee's distinctive guitar tones wrap tightly around each other on each track.
"As far as lead guitar specifically, if anybody has a melody they go for it," says Greenlee on Space Camp's creative process. "I'll play the 'guitar solos' in the Jimmy Page sense of the word, but in general it's my opinion that Tim and I perceive complementary melodies and rhythms that seem to fill holes in each other's material and we just play them when we find them. I like how it goes down and it happens this way a lot. Tim is generally more chaotic and messy than I am and I am generally more uptight and rehearsed. We hurl these facts at each other and Space Camp comes out."
All in their early 30s and veterans of various outfits on the local scene, Space Camp know their way around the ups (their first record, If You Find the Old Beat, Play It, sold out its initial pressing) and downs (their second, Royalty, Etc., didn't come close) of the local music biz and at this point are far too smart to take any of it too seriously.
"It felt good to sell out If You Find the Old Beat, Play It, and even better to hear it in rotation on the radio," says Greenlee. "Hearing stuff on the radio is a great milestone for a band and [University of Minnesota station] Radio K has done an awesome job of delivering that experience to tons of bands in town. Radio K hated our second record, Royalty, Etc., and wouldn't play it when we put it out. That was depressing but that is what drugs are for."
Space Camp plays the CD release show for A Foundification for Soundification on Saturday, May 5th at Big V's. 9 p.m. $6 (admission gets you a free copy of the disc). 21+. With opening acts Middlepicker, Zibra Zibra and Seymore Saves the World. 1567 University Ave. W., St. Paul. 651-645-8472. For further information on Space Camp check out their record label's official website at royaltyetc.com.
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