OK- i was gifted a neato thumbdrive just the other day.  I took it upon myself to load up both our albums on it in mp3 format (192kbps) and i tossed some artwork on there as well. So, if you're one of those types that no longer sees the need to venture out to record stores and you live in the Northampton or Springfield area I can swing on by your place and throw these tracks on your computer for a nominal fee.  Manually bringing our music to the masses in every way possible.  isn't technology great? (don't answer that).
So, just shoot us a message and we'll see what we can do.

Boston MA-  Lots of friends and family came out. The grown up noise was kickin it.  Rocked out, Got fucked over at the door- welcome to Boston, right? Well, at least the door guy made money.  Stayed at marks sisters house.  Justin snored.  Breakfast in the morning was awesome.

Hamden CT- Well,  i was riding with my lovely girlfriend Alison on the way to the show when her alternator went.  We called mark and justin, who happened to be off course about 10 miles away.  they swooped in, picked us up, the car was left in some awesome folks driveway to be dealt with the following day.
we played at the space, one of those places we wanted to play for years.  cool spot, good sound.  unfortunately for us we played with about 6 emo bands that night.  we went on first, set up in about five seconds and rocked the fuck outta the twelve people who were there.  Mark got drunk in the van after the show and ran back in to sell a bunch of merch to the emo kids moms.

Burlington VT- after about 20 minutes justin and mark replaces Alison's alternator, we parted ways and headed up to the radio bean.  This venue is pretty awesome, it was our third time there. All ages coffee house that serves beer too.  Got some free mochas and adult beverages.  Saw our friend Joe from Nosebleed Island, sketchy guy but his music is neato. Someone skimmed off our tips.  Slept in a Walmart parking lot.  VT rest stops rule: free wifi and coffee.  they were doing some fund raiser so we donated some money and got some cider and donuts.

Plattsburg, NY- We had a lovely drive up and over Lake Champlaine.  Koinonia is a house that hosts shows, all the folks who live there are extremely kind and super artsy animal lovers.  Mixalodeons' (from Montreal) set was pretty hot as was D-vices’.  We played well.  Ended up closing with a ten minute improv version of into you/ onto you which melted faces. We busted out long versions of this tune for the rest of the tour, justin and mark hated it, maybe they should learn where the song ends.  Slept on couches.  Justin invented a 'super bed' but the dog went crazy and woke us up early.  Great venue, will return.

Buffalo NY-  Our first time  in Buffalo. Justin got us an awesome discount on the turnpike somehow. The flywheel-like spot the show was booked for was undergoing zoning bullshit so we played at Rogers apartment.  This guy was awesome, lots of cool recording gear around, setup in his living room, played our set ended with long version of that tune.  Got hijacked by MC vendetta and her crew-  They wouldn't let us leave until we had Buffalo wings from Buffalo.  They were invented there. Went to Jim's Steak Out and the crew bought us a bunch of food.  Wings were great as was the Chicken finger sub. Totally excellent!

Dayton OH- The Dayton Dirt Collective is another nonprofit place that hosts shows.  The spot was cool for having been open for only a few months.  Played with some cool Stoner rock band called Electric Smoke and a hardcore band called Onceler.  My cousin Ryan had his first child the day we were in town so it was cool to be see all that stuff going on.  Stayed at Ryan's house while he was with his wife at the hospital.  Their house is haunted as fuck.  We did some laundry and drank his beer.

Nashville TN- This is the second time we played at the Basement. Its a bar under a fabulous record store in East Nashville maybe? Mike Grimes owns the place and he is quite amazing.  Some guy from the eagles did an instore before our set.  Every time we are there there's a band doing an instore and they are handing out free beer upstairs.  We played a half hour set and got taken out by some locals to a rad pizza place.  We got a little bonkers that night but its nashville.  Didn't eat at Jack in the Box- deduct four road points.

Athens GA-  Well I was pretty psyched to play this town.  We rolled in and stopped at a panera to check out the internet and score some free food. It was here that we got an e-mail that notified us the show we had booked was actually in Athens Ohio. After we agreed we were all completely shot we talked to some local folks for a bit and called it to bed in a walmart lot.  Got hassled by a cop, then she said she wouldn't bother us again on her shift so we rented rambo 3 from the red box and put a case of beer to our brick.   The next day we rolled into Athens to make something happen- I’d be damned if we weren't gonna play a show in this city.  After about 2 hours of asking different venues if they had an opening I saw some kids loading into the 40 Watt.  I asked if there were any cancellations on tonight's bill.  The mustached kid took my number and called me back in twenty telling us to load in for the show.  The 40 watt is an incredible venue, sound guys were real nice.  The bands we played with ruled as well.  They inspired justin to ditch his current beard and rock the rest of the tour with a stash.  The girl working to door offered us a place to stay , turns out she is the publicist for our friends lo-fine from Northampton MA,  small world.  We stayed at her place on Grady Street, its a famous street there in Athens.  The house across the street was where Jeff Mangum wrote Aeroplane Over The Sea and two houses over is where Michael Stipe lives.  awesome.

Bradenton FL-  Our friends Matt and Star put the show together for us.  We showed up an hour late like a bunch of dicks.  Lots a folks were out and we played with The Turncoat.  great band, cool venue.  Apparently they are gonna stop having shows there.  its a shame really.  We stayed at Matt and Stars, took some showers and got taken care of pretty well. it’s always good to see familiar faces.

Melbourne FL-  A bar you can smoke in is nice.  The hustler had a halloween themed stage. Played with our buddies Clock Hands Strangle.  Stayed at the bassist Brian's house.   We bought pizza the next day and i broke our key off in our lock on the way to get a replacement key made.  we had it fixed up in no time.

Merrit Island-  Played at a pizza joint with Clock Hands and some emo bands.  It was cool and loud.  No free food. I think i had some coffee and stole some of marks beers.  Hit up a walmart for some sleep.

Jacksonville FL-  Fuel in jacksonville, one hell of a way to end our tour.  Beers were a dollar.  The same gutter punk kids were there from two years ago.  The place hadn't changed much.  Worst bathrooms in the world.  Played with a real cool band called Jonathan Appleseed.  Saw some old friends, made some new ones.  This was the was the same venue where I first was introduced to my girlfriend Alison (via drunk dialing), long story but it was cool to be back there.

Savannah GA-  We hit an open mic at the Live Wire Music Hall in Savannah.  It was our first time through this town and we will definitely make it back whenever possible. Great crowd.  Over 100 people getting into it.  I was acting like a weirdo on stage. We stayed at some friends house and a dog tried to mount me.  I was hung over as shit in the morning.

The Citadel-  We accidentally pulled into this marine training school or some shit in our camouflage van.  We got cheers from every soldier there, heads were turning as we quickly got the hell out of there while hysterically laughing and being amazed at marine life.  we will try to get a gig there next time.

Richmond VA- Another open mic on the way up.  We were again completely shot and wanting tour to end.  We played a shitty set and asked around for some weed.  Not much came of this night except deciding to take the van back to western MA the following day.  We spent our tour profits on 3 five dollar pizza and ate like kings.

all in all a great little outting with a shit-ton of driving.

-mike

So, it's like the eye of the hurricane in the recording process right now. Lately i've been tossing out bulletins that you may have missed so i decided to freshen up the blog. We've got some pretty sweet mixes of the new tunes we've been throwing in our live sets for some time now.  Drums were done at James' house while i was house sitting this summer.  I've been working feverishly to get loads of guitar and vocal tracks down.  Justins about to even the score in a major fucking way- I'm really looking forward to that.  Ideas have been rattling around for keyboards, synths, tape effects and a small string ensemble for a tune or two- we'll cross that bridge when we get there. 

These songs are pretty good. I enjoy picking them apart during the mixing process. It's us covering new ground, yet dumbing down our sound.  it's strange, you'll hear what i'm talking about soon enough.  This particular batch of songs really have the gooey, catchy chorus thing going on- all of them ( greenpeace strays from this a bit- it has changing choruses that lengthen and get more intense ).  We've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the songs and that is always great, but after playing for a while, they just seem a bit calculated.  Again, it's wierd. There's definatly a time and place for that and we certainly aren't strangers to this kind of stuff. Half the time some of the choruses make me cringe a little and ask myself what the hell I was thinking when it was written. Kilie Minogue meets Dinosaur Jr can't be that bad , right? we'll see.

The CD of early mixes I've been listening to for the last few weeks has the following songs in 1's and 0's form:

A Better way to Live

Into you/ Onto you

Alaska

AM Gold

Greenpeace

Will (this is the cringer BTW)

 

Well- that's enough.  It's time to get weird.  We got together the other day to discuss and practice the second half of the record.  It's different than the rest. The subject matter (for the tunes that have words now) is a bit more abstract I guess- not as direct, not so many inside jokes. Some of the songs are also gonna be approached differently.  it's gonna be fun. fuck what you heard.  It's time to erase all your preconceived notions, and ours.

 

Making a Space Captain record is sorta like what I'd imagine making those new Star Wars movies was like.  We are a three piece band when we play live and rehearse new stuff.  In the studio, it's a different story. So this last July when we recorded drum tracks for 7 new songs, Mark might as well have been dressed up like a young Obi Wan Kenobi acting to some imaginary Jar-Jar Binks looking creature that will be added later by the effects team.

We all get to wear the George Lucas hat at different points during the process. We all have different visions of what certain songs should sound like, and we bounce those opinions off each other at all times. Being at the helm of the recordings, I become Industial Light and Magic- placing in all the digital effects and landscapes that Mark acted to earlier.  I would say Justin acts as the head of the Creature Department-  the bass is a very fundamental element in our tunes and he keeps me in check if some of my effects steer the song away from where it needs to be.  This makes the end result believable and not too out there.

All this has become evident through making our first record and me spending about 6 hours laying down guitar tracks for two songs for the upcoming album.  Right now I have a pretty cool basic mix for this song called "Alaska".  The last time Justin and Mark heard this recording (which was just drum tracks and one scratch guitar/vocal track) was in July.  The song has taken shape by leaps and bounds in the last 48 hours.  I'm still surprised by it-  I've been hearing this song as a three-piece for the longest time.  Now it has a super strong acoustic rhythm track that dances to and fro in the stereo image, an electric guitar track to thicken things up and a lead line that ties everything together and makes you see the song in a new light.  And don't get me started on the Glacier sounds I'm working on...

more to come.

 

-mike

..> ..>

recording again...

So yesterday I dumped demos from various four track tapes and a little hand-held voice recorder into the digital realm. This provides easy access to the second batch of tunes for our next record. I ended up looking at about an hour and twenty minutes worth of demos, just for the second batch. No one has heard any of these songs. Within the next two months they will be arranged and tracked to tape. At the same time are gonna  do lots of recording (mostly overdubs) for the first collection of songs we got basic tracks down for in July 07. The process is all around us now. It's time to dive in. Just thought you'd like to know. We will see you soon, thanks for your patience and support. -mike

Ok- maybe its not so Mega, let's call it a super update.

First off I'd like to apologize for lack of Space Captain in your life. After you digest this blog entry you will know we have been busy.

OK, second- I'm putting up some demos' and outtakes from the album on this page. There is one up there right now: It's an instrumental noise/ i hate to say "jam". I've been secretly calling it "hippies own you" , sorta an homage to a terrific pin I found in parking lot in Enfield CT. I may get in trouble for some of the stuff I put up here, but it's gonna be worth it.

Alright- moving right along to the third bullet point: Photo update. HOoray! You can join Space Captain on their zany adventures of recording some new stuff for your ears. Thats right, back in July-August we turned our friend James' (of the awesome band OPEL- www.myspace.com/opelmusic ) living room into a recording studio. He was away on a road trip for a month and let Mike house-sit. So when all that was going on we took some pictures. They are now in our photo section. dig in.

FOURTH course- SHOWS!!!!

CHeck it out- DECEMBER 10th at the ELEVENS in NORTHAMPTON MA. this show is getting confirmed tomorrow so keep your eyes here.

and DECEMBER 17th at ABBEY LOUNGE in Somerville MA. Its our first Boston area show IN OVER A YEAR. we go on at 9pm. www.abbeylounge.com

Almost done- FIFTH, What else is new?
well, funny you should ask...

We got a new Practice Space in a barn in western MA. It's nice. we will be tracking the rest of our record there.

Justin bought a 1974 Volkswagon bus. this may come in handy in the future.

Mike is just about done recording the debut OPEL record. It was quite a fun experience and a good prep course for mixing our record. You can hear tracks off that record by visiting www.myspace.com/opelmusic

Mark now has three Jeeps



I think this is all for know, say hi sometime and get ready for some hot Space Captain action real soon.

see you soon, and thanks for everything. you guys are the best.

-mike

The folks at WERS had this to say about our new stuff....

 

Hailing from Western, MA the three-piece band Space Captain brings back the 90's in style.  With their sound based in acts like Pavement, Dinosaur Jr. and The Pixies, the group takes the best from all those bands and creates nothing less than a distorted rock frenzy.

In the song "Will" guitarist Mike Stitsinger lays down a guitar solo that J Mascis would be proud of.  Resonating with fuzz and a monolithic energy, the musicianship between the members is outstanding. 

They recorded their latest record while house sitting for a friend and taking the opportunity to make an album, with all the welcome amenities such as the space being free of charge.  The D.I.Y. attitude of the band is sure to get them far, but the music is more than enough to garner them acclaim.  

The songs "A Better Way to Live" and "Nature in High Places" have Stitsinger doing his best ersatz of Stephen Malkmus' voice, and the group's ability to appear loose while the conviction they have in their songs never fades is more than a small step for indie bands.  

http://spacecaptain.net/

-Nick Stefanovich

Ok-

We are officially done with our first foray back into the studio. As you may have heard I got to house sit for my friend James for the month of july so we took all the shit out of his living room and set up our studio there. It was a great time. We wrote some brandy new songs, watched COPS and the Food Network, watered plants and feed cats. we even turned on the fish tank filter and the fridge when we were done rolling tape.

So, i've been describing these new songs to a few friends of late and I thought I would toss some vague details to our myspace crew. Keep in mind these tracks are still in their early stages, so these accounts are merely assumptions at this point- but we all kinda have an idea of where these tunes and this album are headed.

Heres the breakdown thus far:

Alaska -
(wishful thinking country tune about an ex leaving town)

Will -
(sounds like every dino Jr song rolled into one with a chorus so catchy it would make kiley minogue touch herself)

But Darling you're fucked up all the time -
(relationships and facing the fact that love does not exist, oh did i spoil it for you?)

A better way to live -
(to be featured on the goonies 2 soundtrack)

Greenpeace -
(starts off as 60's psychedelia -strawberry alarm clock-ish, ends up as heavy as shellac at a bad show, on the way there stops by kurt cobains house while he's writing "very ape", gives him a Lando Calrisian skiffguard head-nod (you know, from JEDI) and then makes him flinch repeatedly until he starts to cry)

into you/onto you -
(heavy "Lowenstein sebadoh"-like chorus w/ loads of Tamborine, jittery , off-kilter vereses with beats that break and repair themselves)

AM Gold (a tender throw-back song to 70's era AM radio classics)

High- (driving coolness riff-rock breaking into one of the creepiest non-chorus' ever. gets loud)


These sessions were all about getting the basic tracks down, so Justin and I really have done nothing yet. Mark stepped up to the plate in a major way with these drum tracks. He transcribed everything and came up with some solid tracks in a very short amount of time. Justin and I have to compete now with the Solid Gold that mark has bestowed upon that analog tape.

In other news. I have posted the real version (non-reversed audio) of the in-studio take of the NEW SONG "AM Gold". Sorry to tease you, but we gotta have some fun ya know? The Real version is on our new VIDEO page on our legit website www.spacecaptain.net (you know the website where you can buy our cd's and shirts and stuff). so go there, read about the shows we got coming up and the radio show on August 10th that you can listen to online. Then check out mark and myself recording the new tune, you can come back here and let us know what you think and tell us how much you miss the Space Captain.

see you soon, and thanks for the support-

Mike
ps- happy birthday dad. I'll call in a minute

Ordered some tapes today. 1/4 inch Quantegy 457. We will be tracking directly to tape on the same tascam 388 reel to reel machine we used for the first record.

Mark is picking up my friend Jays' Mesa half-stack he's letting me borrow for recording. A first for a Space Captain record: 4 12 inch speakers for guitar. Green backs no less

We are putting together the studio over the weekend. It's getting set up in our good pal James' house, he will be away for a month on a cross-country road trip. I have been elected to house-sit, so we are recording our album there.

did you hear the new live track?

more to come,

mike s.

If life were a play, the Captain would finally be hitting a point of stasis. For Mike, Mark, and myself the seas have finally calmed. the fog has rolled out of the bay and our path is visible again. Looking around, the damages are still around us, but now its time to rebuild and re-populate.

Mike , although its not my place to say, is doing great. IN a few weeks he'll be collapsing his tent and moving out of jake, jay, Rob, and Tim's basement in Northampton. Nearly 6 months single and I see a completely new person, the one i use to catch the bus with as a kid, the one that inspired me to be a musician. he has a force unknown to himself that draws people near. Mikes is well on his way to becoming the fonz.

Life for me is great. I rekindled a past love after tour and finally found a little stability in my life. I went from wiping my ass with coffee filters to wondering if i watered the hanging plant before i left the house. Of course it wouldn't be a play if there wasn't drama. I fucked up bad. Nikki, I'm sorry more than words could explain. Your an incredible person, beautiful inside and out. A day hasn't gone by that i haven't felt remorse for my actions.

Mark is the great and amazing neutralizer. Not much has changed in his life since tour. he's back to chopping wood, breaking and fixing his jeep and helping out everyone he possible can.

like i said, the fog has rolled out and the visibility is crystal clear now. We have ten months until we intend on releasing our 2nd album, than we'll be spending the better part of 2008 on our "This Time Its War" Tour.

We have a few drunken live performances of new tunes and a few more floating around on the 4 -track that we're gonna star debuting on myspace. We'll be changing it up every week or two with different unreleased material. Give us your feed back on it ,

awesome
awesome,

spc cptn