Space Carnival: Getting Weird in a Galaxy Near You

Beaming down to our very own Galaxy (Brewing Company) November 4th is Space Carnival, the four-piece band that started out jamming at house parties in Oneonta and now opens up for the likes of Dopapod and Twiddle. Galaxy will be the next to last stop of their Fall tour, throughout which they have played songs off of their album “Drawn in by the Sun” along with a mix of their favorite covers and with the new, unrecorded originals which they are always tweaking and rethinking.

The group came together while attending SUNY Oneonta and began practicing together and playing for their friends at house parties. Bassist Chris Meier says that it wasn’t until a few months into playing together that they started to feel like they were doing something serious: “Oneonta is one of these small towns that has just the greatest little jam community, and so like bands that were getting bigger around us would keep coming through and eventually it got to the point where they wanted us to open up for them.”

Since graduating between 2013 and 2014, Chris has moved outside of Albany while guitarist Jeremy Kraus, drummer Nick Tassinari, and Cameron “Ron” Fitch who does vocals and plays keys and guitar all live outside of Ithaca.

Their genre is described, in their own words, as slippery disco. Chris describes what this means: “Did you ever watch Popeye with Olive Oil? You know Olive Oil’s arms would shake back and forth when she was wailing for Popeye to do her a favor? So just put like a disco beat behind that and pretend she’s dancing and like that’s like, a great visual representation of what it would be.”

And a great auditory representation is of course, he says, to hear them play. While proudly rooted in the legacy of Phish and the Dead, their sound diverges with spacy synthesizers and segues into minor keys. The Talking Heads are another of their major influences, contributing to that good-weird quality you find in their sound. In the tradition of a genre centered on some sort of payoff, their skill also shines in the quiet sections of their songs. The softer moments are more than anticipatory; they feel as important and as engaging as the high energy sections that have everybody moving.

The songs which they cover in their sets are ones you’d probably skip over when they come on the radio, and that’s why they like them. A friend’s bandmate once suggested they cover Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long,” which they ended up nailing and making a recurring part of their sets. They can delve into some obscure songs, like the deep cuts of Rupert Holmes, who, if you don’t know him (I didn’t) sings “The Piña Colada Song.” “We’ve also played ‘Row, Row, Row your Boat,” says Nick. Then Chris, “Yeah, we’ve been known to cover nursery rhymes.”

The group certainly has a sense of humor; it comes out in an Indiegogo campaign video from a year ago consisting of several strange antics including Jeremy dancing in a bedroom dresses as Elvis. They don’t let goofiness take attention away from their music, but it makes for a lighthearted experience.

While you can hear a cover of “Ice, Ice Baby” on one of their live albums, their first studio album Drawn In by the Sun consists of all original music. It was released this July and features polished versions of their songs, some of which had gone through long evolutions on stage before finally being recorded.

Having to refine and sharpen such “slippery” music has led them to a new understanding of their music. “Because we are a jam band, we kind of had to pick and choose like what moments of energy were going to really translate best to the tape or to the digital format,” Chris says. Now when they play the songs live, they have a pretty solid jumping off point. Chris says, “It’s definitely like a road map sort of thing now. There are many ways that you can get to a certain place but like now we have like one guaranteed like this is a good way to get here, we can take all these other roads if we want to, and it kind of opens things up while still keeping it contained.”

Although they’ve been touring since early September, they haven’t taken a break from writing new music, so their sets include music even newer than their new album. Recently they’ve been on a roll with writing new songs. They are quickly cranking out songs of a quality they are proud of. “It’s funny, our process is kind of streamlined these days where we just put one out there and have another one right in the works, so I like it,” says Chris.

Space Carnival’s performance at Galaxy Brewing Company begins at 9pm on November 4th. Admission is free. You can check out their music at spacecarnival.bandcamp.com.