The Year That Was...

  Most every fanboy and fangirl in the world is familiar with the Tale of the Band. While there are a few massive, scintillating exceptions, ususally the Tale goes something like this:


- Band gets together
- Band works hard
- Band almost 'Makes It' (or Breaks Big, depending on your era of fanboy-or-girlyness)
- 'Making It' falls through
- Band gives up The Dream and breaks up
- Band's surviving work leaves you with great memories and the dull ache of sadness that   comes from knowing their music should/could have been enjoyed by so many more people


  Spaceship Days has a Tale too, only ours is a little bit different. After the demise of grey, Matt, Greg and I only hit the pause button on our capital D dream; 2010 was the year we well and truly hit the play button again.


   For the band, the last 364 and 1/4 days has been like making the jump to light-speed in the Millennium Falcon. The world has flashed  by in a barely visible streak of CD colored light, leaving us perched precariously on the edge of another decade, wide eyed and wearing grins big enough to make our cheeks hurt.


 The continuation of our Tale goes something like this:


- Released The Halo Effect and Black Holes & Butterflies
- Made our first video, Shadow Walking  (Thanks Sean!)
- Had a cover version of Pain in Pretty Things performed in a school Talent Show
- Made a second video, Hanging From the Satellites (Thanks Pip!)
- Finally figured out how to use a webcam
- Did our first ever collaboration (Thanks Sarah!)  
- Did our first ever radio interview
- Were voted Band of the Year on Somojo Magazine & Radio
- Got nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award 
- On top of all that we did our first photo shoot, which was a lot of good giggling fun 

  The most important thing we did this year though, and the one we're most proud of, was forging all the new friendships we've made.  Many of them have come through an appreciation of music, but the hows and whys are aren't important when held up beside the bonds of respect and mutual admiration.

  It would take twenty seven blogs to send a message to everyone who has reached out and touched Spaceship Days in 2010, but we wanted to offer a word to a bunch of you. 

 To Mr. Summers, Ms. Peffers, Mr. Locke, Mr. Jackett, Mrs. Hohensee, Mrs.Wilkins!!, Ms. Pratt 2.0 (aka the High School model), Mr. Slater, The Admiral, Ms. Storm, Mr.White, Mr. Fingerz, Ms. Dirty Diamonds, Mr. Beckwith, Ms. Rhodes -Taylors, Mr. Saint, Mz. Behaving, Mr. Kirsch, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Johnno T., Mr. Noonan, Ms. Love, Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Stewart, Mrs. Mory, Ms. Fuchsia, Mrs. Foltz, Mr. Brennan, Mr. Charles, Ms. Acuvi, Ms. Phoenix, Mr. Williams, Mr. Osborne, Ms. Kerr, Mr. Frost, Mr. Allindie, Mr. Saunders, Ms. Burns, and if you're still reading this, then you too:  Thank you all for being there for us this year with your support, encouragement, open eyes, opened minds, and listening ears. We love you.

Oh yeah, Mrs. Mocharnuk, Mrs. Cox, & Mrs. Torsone--we love you too.

So its on to 2011, but we'll always remember 2010 as the Year That Was...pretty damn good.

C

Keeping Ourselves Amused

  It's been said a couple of times before, but we three gentlemen who make music together are fanboys before anything else. We are intensely serious about our entertainments, and will dig, travel, and pay to find amusements suited to each of our particular fancies. This past year we did that quite often, as it turned out to be a fairly good twelve months for the things that we enjoy the most: Music & Film.

 Spaceship Days we made two albums of our own in 2010(we'll talk more about that later)--but we also listened to quite a few of them as well.   As usual, we decided to share some of our Favorite Albums of 2010...in no particular order.

Chuck's List

1. Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots

2. Deftones - Diamond Eyes 

3. Birds of Tokyo - Birds of Tokyo 

4. Cee Lo - The Lady Killer

5. Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade 

6. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

7. Kanye West - My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy 

8. Mutemath - Armistice Live

9. Neon Trees - Habits 

10. Drake - Thank Me Later

Greg's List

 1. OK Go! - Of the Blue Color of the Sky

 2. Ed Kowalczyk - Alive

 3. Manic Street Preachers  - Postcards From a Young Man

 4. Brandon Flowers -Flamingo

 5. Tonic - Tonic 

 6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Mojo

 7. The Goo Goo Dolls - Something for the Rest of Us

 8. Lifehouse - Smoke and Mirrors

 9. Muse - The Resistence

 10. Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots

 Matt's List

1. Spaceship Days - Black Holes and Butterflies 

2. Duran Duran - All You Need is Now

3. Thirteen Senses - Crystal Sounds

4. Editors -  In This Light and on This Evening

5. Muse - The Resistence

6. Oceansize - Self Preserved While the Body Floats Up

7.  Rogue Wave - Permalight

8.  The Ruse - Love Sex Confusion

9.  The Golden State - Problem Reaction Solution 

10.Mark Ronson -  Record Collection

  Largely, we prefer our movie viewing pleasures to be in a dark, and quiet theater.  Quiet is getting harder and harder to come by, so we did a lot of living room watching this year. Although 84% of this list are the picks of just one watches-too-much-TV member (one other member being busy writing songs, and the third mixing said songs to hang with me on my weekly movie trips) here...in no particular order, are Spaceship Days Favorite Movies of 2010**

**Note the use of the word favorite and not best.

1. Let Me In

2. Paranormal Activity 2

3. Kick Ass

4. Brooklyn's Finest

5. The Human Centipede

6. Faster

7. Predators 

8. Bitch Slap

9. Splice

10. Buried 

    

Honorable Mentions : Defendor, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Crazies, Karate Kid, & The Losers 

A new year is just a handful of days away. With it, will come more audio and visual delights for all of us to use while we spend time with our families and friends, and soothe ourselves from all those little aches and pains that come from a daily grind. Whatever your amusement of choice, take few moments to enjoy it each day in 2011  - just a bit more than you did in 2010

  Spaceship Days would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday Season

C

 

The Final Song

  I don't really sleep.

 Little known piece of Spaceship Days lore though it may be, it is alas an inconvenient truth. Two or three hours at a time is all I can normally manage, and not even every day. Pretty ironic, as I spent the bulk of my twenties laying down with my eyes closed; its like I used up all of my allotted ZZz's too early.

 There is something of an upside to being a insomniac though. I use the wee hours to get plenty of work done, there's always time to exercise, and I've become a full on infomercial connoisseur. Lots of classic movies on late at night too. Flicks like "Switchblade Sisters" don't get that much play on prime time television but I've seen it twice this month already. OK--classic "B" movies.

 Unfortunately being a non sleeper carries the requirement of periodic crashes--I'll sleep for ten sometimes twelve or more hours solid when the time comes.  Said timing always seems to be bad, but when sleep finally does decide to be my friend, she is extremely hard to resist.

  This last time came on a long stretch of highway.

 As one of those annoying slow drivers that many flip off from time to time, I log lots of road time over in the slow lane. There I was, rolling along  and listening to one of my many mix CDs. I give them silly little names like New Jedi Order, Picture Day Blues, or My Cousin is a Superhero. No meaning behind the titles really, other than Megamix Number...Whatever being just so dull; one must keep ones-self amused after all.  This particular CD was called Everybody Happy?  I had it up loud, because sleep was pressing down quite insistently on my eyelids and I was still a fair distance from home.

  I blinked at the sound of a tooting horn and the disconcerting screech of tires. It seemed that during a previous 'blink' my car had drifted across two lanes of traffic, and into the fast lane hard toward the dividing wall. With the cruise control on, I'd been just a moment away from slamming into it at upwards of 60mph.  The driver whom I'd cut off was still laying on the horn while swerving around me.

  I took back control of my vehicle, with a few colorful expletives to honor the over all mood. Another  heartbeat, and there would have been no more bass playing.

  The very first thing I noticed when I came back to my normal not scared witless senses (even before doing a quick mental survey to make sure I hadn't gone Number One all over the place ) was that a David Bowie tune was playing. 

  Bowie?!

  Don't get me wrong, I love the man. He has been alternately number three, or four on my Top 5 Favorite All Time Artists for approaching two decades, but Moonage Daydream isn't exactly the last song I'd want to hear while still shuffling on this mortal coil.

 

  I made it home safe, and sound.  For the remainder of the trip, sleep was kept at bay by the gallon or so of adrenaline galloping through me, and the question that jumped into my head a few miles away from where I almost went boom.

  

  Well,  I've been semi retired from coffee drinking for years now, but I've dusted off my trusty Spaceship Days Coffee Mug for all subsequent road trips, night time or otherwise. Safer to get a beat down from sleep while on the couch, or at the computer, even in the shower -  so the plan is to keep good and caffeinated while behind the wheel. It's worked quite well so far, but  I still haven't come up with an answer to that question.

 If I were able to have my light switch off the way we all want: At home. In bed. Surrounded by old friends and great-grand children, and other happy things,   What would I want to be the last piece of music I ever got to hear?

How about you?  What would you want to be your final song?

C