How To Build A Rocketship were a Tucson based band that existed from Summer 1997 to the fall of 2000.  This is a site devoted to keeping their music available for those that loved them and also in the hope that the music might be exposed to others that might also find something to love in the twisted art pop that was their specialty.  HTBAR was a band built on the idea of playing honest music with emotion and expression and thrived on always finding something new to explore within each song. This created a sense of freedom and improvisation which meant that every time they played a song something new would reveal itself to both the musicians and those listening. This site is new but hopes to keep that spirit alive with regular updates, a rotating playlist and a more detailed history available in the future. Keep in touch and keep your ears, mind and heart open and most importantly, enjoy the music.

An old Press release I recently found from 1999 or so...
I'll get a scan of it soon and post that but here's the content...

How To Build A Rocketship
Why go outside to enjoy another beautiful panoramic desert sunset when you could be huddled in the corner of your basement, knees tucked up under your chin, headphones wed to your ears as if fixed there by some reverse-engineered polymer spoken of only in whispers down along the shiny, echoing halls of NASA's secret sub-oceanic science laboratories?
Go Outside, friend.
Some Things are best left to the shadows.
Take for example the facts of
How To Build A Rocketship
jOhN mAtZeK-drums, nipples, howler monkeys
mAtT cAlAbREsi-bass, good to MOM not like the rest of these bums
mArIO cOrDoVA-bass, guitar, former altar boy
jASoN gArTHWaIt-the guitocals

Jason fled the east coast 3 years ago and headed west, stopping only for Graceland and a blizzard up Santa Fe way. From there he followed "...the Thing?" billboards until reaching Tucson, Arizona. He bonded with co-worker Mario over vintage psychedelia and the two began co-noodling. Soon they enlisted a bright, clean young lad named John, whose future they ruined by absorbing him into their burgeoning rock band. Matt drove like a dust devil, sans license, across the continent to fill out the roster. & here is How To Build A Rocketship...
Our Launchpad:the memory of days spent lost in the headphones...
Our Fuel:Ronson's Moonage Daydream solo...
Our Flag:opalescent Barrett-era Floyd
Our Sweethearts waving from the window of command central:Radiohead, Spacemen 3, the Church & Built To Spill

How To Build A Rocketship is based in Tucson, Arizona. The CD Thank You Easter Bunny was released independently in the summer of '99 & was predominantly recorded & mixed by Jim Waters(Sonic Youth; Jon Spencer Blues Explosion;the Posies) at Waterworks Studios West in Tucson.