by eliza czander
N.A.S.A. has been all over the music mash-up map as of late, collaborating with nearly everyone and anyone on the planet. From Tom Waits, to Kanye. David Byrne to Karen O. These guys seem to have a decent pool of friends.
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Well, I suppose connections are made more easily when your the brother of Spike Jonze, am I right? Producer-turned DJ Sam Spiegel recently teamed up with Brazilian electro head DJ Zegon to form N.A.S.A, and since releasing The Spirit of Apollo, have been compared to the likes of Girl Talk, Z-Trip and A-Trak. Now let me just say, the album is FUNtastic. Electro-pop-dance-hip-hop has never sounded so good. Put that on at any party, and you’re guaranteed to get some asses shaking. I was interested to see how they would perform live, being that pretty much EVERY song on their album features a guest appearance. They advertised their show at the Oxford Arts Factory to include “special guests,” but kept it under wraps as to who might actually show up. Intrigued, I was.
The duo didn’t hit the stage till 11:30 last night, but once they did, crowd went bananas. It wasn’t a sold out show, but it certainly felt that way as I bumped and bobbled my way to the front. Spinning hits is the easy part, but attempting to keep the crowd fire’d up is the challenge, especially when your stuck behind turntables. With no “special guests” in sight, I was beginning to think it might just be a straight DJ set from Squeak E. Clean and Zegon. During the JAM that is “Gifted,” the guys decided to let everyone up on stage a la Girl Talk style and folks rocked out as N.A.S.A. seamlessly segued into Santogold/M.I.A. hit “Whatchadoin.”
Toward the end of their hour or so long set, a screen set on the stage revealing the head of a Mr. Kanye West. That was the special guest? A prerecorded Kanye saying what up? Lame lame lame. I went upstairs for a cigarette and by the time I was at the filter the show had ended. I’m assuming I didn’t miss anyone else, and if they were on a screen as well, I really don’t care. Even if N.A.S.A was lacking in terms of live performance, (let’s admit they were, O.K.?) I’ll still throw on Spirit of Apollo any time I want to get the party pumpin’.
