NASA Space Universe (or NSU) were an American punk rock band from Santa Ana, California, United States, who originally formed in 2006.
History
2006–2007
After the collapse of controversial,
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
Santa Ana
Art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
electropunk
Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...
band
Zoophilia
Zoophilia is a paraphilia involving a sexual fixation on non-human animals. Bestiality is cross-species sexual activity between humans and non-human animals. The terms are often used interchangeably, but some researchers make a distinction ...
, Kevin Hermes (
Drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
), and Kevin Rhea (
Vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
) joined with John Cardwell (
Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
), whom they had worked with prior in the SCHS (Santa Claus Hypnosis Show). NSU starting as a Pyramid Scheme system, Punk crime group, and
Socio-political
Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...
project. After a group viewing of
Videodrome
''Videodrome'' is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Debbie Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small UHF televisi ...
and all having a connection that particular viewing, they then later played to what videodrome had influenced them to play that particular night. Soon after the
Socio-political
Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...
project was transformed to the current Punk Rock incarnation of NASA Space Universe . In the summer of 2006 they met Paul Kubasek of
Noise Rock
Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extrem ...
band
Ex Oblivione
"Ex Oblivione" is a prose poem by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in late 1920 or early 1921 and first published in ''The United Amateur'' in March 1921, under the pseudonym Ward Phillips.
Inspiration
''An H. P. Lovecr ...
during a Zoophilia show at
The Smell
The Smell is an all-ages, alcohol and drug-free, punk rock and experimental music venue in Downtown Los Angeles, California. The Smell, notable for its DIY ethic, is home to many of the area's avant-garde performers and artists. The venue is ...
Two months later they became a
quartet
In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments.
Classical String quartet
In classical music, one of the most common combinations ...
and started playing shows in the
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
Area.
2008–2010
After continuous touring, their first release was a self titled
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.
on Gradual Limbo Records. NSU started to play more notable shows including the Smell's 10th anniversary, and a concert on a boat. This followed with a tour of the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
with Okie Dokie a
Cal Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bot ...
band featuring a then student Mikal Cronin. For much of the year NSU played numerous shows for Sean Carnage Mondays, Don Bolles' Club Ding-a-ling, as well as numerous warehouses, generator shows, and fringe venues. Despite the Reverb heavy punk movement of the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
scene NSU, had continued their abstract punk sound and played with many bands such as xbxrx, White Lung,
Shearing Pinx
Shearing Pinx are a Canadian experimental, punk rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. Formed in 2005, the band is made up of Nic Hughes (vocals/guitar), Isabel Ford (vocals/bass) and Jeremy Van Wyck (drums).
The band has over 50 release ...
,
Mika Miko
Mika Miko was an American band formed in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. In 2004, they gained local popularity for their frenetic live performances. Featuring Victor Fandgore (Jennifer Clavin), Jet Blanca (Jenna Thornhill), Michelle Suarez, Jes ...
,
White Flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.
Contemporary use
The white flag is an internationally recognized protective sign of truce or ceasefire, and for negotiation. It is also used to symbol ...
Saccharine Trust
Saccharine Trust is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1980 by singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza. The band would frequently perform with SST labelmates Minutemen and Black Flag. However, Baiza descri ...
. NSU had also been played on several punk and independent radios as Nardwuar's
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, ...
show,
Razorcake
Razorcake is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that publishes the Razorcake fanzine, a DIY punk rock fanzine published bi-monthly out of Los Angeles, California. It was co-founded by Todd Taylor (former Flipside managing editor) and Sean Car ...
,Maximumrockandroll, and KXLU's Demolisten, as well as performing live on air. The Release and constant touring eventually caught the attention of many critics and fans including
Kyle H. Mabson
Kyle or Kyles may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ireland
* Kyle, County Laois
* Kyle, County Wexford
Scotland
* Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrsh ...
White Flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.
Contemporary use
The white flag is an internationally recognized protective sign of truce or ceasefire, and for negotiation. It is also used to symbol ...
. The Second EP Brainrailers would then be recorded by Vic Alfaro of
Christian Death
Christian Death is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles County, California, in 1979 by Rozz Williams. With major line-up changes over the years, Christian Death has retained "a relentlessly confrontational stand against organized religi ...
Fame, and released by French label Shogun Records in April 2010.
2011–2012
Shortly after the release of ''Brainrailers'', NSU quickly went to recording work for their debut full-length release ''
Across the Wounded Galaxies
Across may refer to:
Technology and engineering
* Across Language Server, a software platform
* ACROSS Project, an R&D project in social robotics
* Suzuki Across (motorcycle), a motorcycle manufactured by Suzuki
* Suzuki Across (crossover)
...
'' to be released on Shogun Records. A Nationwide Tour of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
paper ''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
'' recommending the band, with the comment that "Musically, their high-pitched wall-of-jangle/atonal solo approach has earned them plenty of Die Kreuzen comparisons, which have merit, but I’m equally reminded of the collective mentality of those mid-Eighties
Ron Johnson Records
Ron Johnson Records was a UK independent record label based in Long Eaton operating between 1983 and 1988.Robb, John (2009) ''Death To Trad Rock'', Cherry Red Books, , p. 19, 383 The label contributed five tracks to the NME's C86 compilation. ...
bands, only with a hardcore upbringing."
In June 2012, NSU along with Manager
Alan S. Tofghi
Alan may refer to:
People
*Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname
*Alan (given name), an English given name
**List of people with given name Alan
''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.''
*Al ...
embarked on a second Nationwide Tour in support of the Ice EP, Treated Versions of Various songs in Various Speeds, and the Tour Documentary "Van Warped Tour Death Drive", Directed by Longtime NSU associate Vincent Catanho. With both items selling out prior to tours end, NSU had successfully completed the Bi-Coastal tour.
Musical and lyrical style
Drawing from
Science-Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univer ...
Cosmicism
Cosmicism is the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his fiction. Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien m ...
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded L ...
delivery, and has been described as "
speaking in tongues
Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...
". Musically influenced by
Japanese hardcore
Japanese hardcore is the hardcore punk scene in Japan, which originated to protest the social and economic changes sweeping the country in the 1980s. The band SS is regarded as the first, forming in 1977. Bands such as The Stalin and GISM soon f ...
syncopated
In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "plac ...
drum beats,
Cowpunk
Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s - early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject matter ...
and
Free Jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians dur ...
guitar licks, along with a constant start stop song aesthetic.
Live setting and performances
NASA Space Universe's unusual performance style drew comment from UK paper ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'', who remarked on the "chaotic shows in unusual locations and unusual clothes" in calling out the band to exemplify a wave of "interesting, uncompromising and just plain bonkers" punk bands. The latter praising NSU's credibility compared to other contemporary bands.
Coming from a
DIY punk ethic
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
, NSU rarely use a stage, even when one is provided. Constant audience participation has been a part of the NSU live show, which can include group reciting of
curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
s,
sacrificial
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...
consumption, desecration of objects, handing out texts, and various topic based actions. Copious amounts of receipt tape and books have also been a part of the NSU aesthetic, often at times with the whole audience being covered in receipt tape, and the floor unseen.
As of 2011 Video Projections have been an ever present force via a Self rigged projector. The subject usually containing various film collages nearly untraceable in obscurity.
Apart from playing generator shows,
art galleries
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lo ...
, and
overpass
An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together form ...
es, they have also played on a boat on the
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporated ...
coast, along with many often regarded unconventional settings.
At
The Smell
The Smell is an all-ages, alcohol and drug-free, punk rock and experimental music venue in Downtown Los Angeles, California. The Smell, notable for its DIY ethic, is home to many of the area's avant-garde performers and artists. The venue is ...
, a wall of
aluminum foil
Aluminium foil (or aluminum foil in North American English; often informally called tin foil) is aluminium prepared in thin metal leaves with a thickness less than ; thinner gauges down to are also commonly used. Standard household foil is typ ...
was created, in which the back of the wall would be shined on by full stage lights. The options would be either to stay behind the wall and face a twelve-foot glare, or view the band who were positioned in a configuration facing the stage. as a result, those who wanted to avoid slamming would stand on the stage while all others would be on the floor level with the band.
Members
* Kevin Rhea, Vocals (2006–2016)
* John Cardwell,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
(2006–2016)
* Kevin Hermes
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
(2006–2016)
* Paul Kubasek
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gu ...
, backing vocals (2007–2016)
Discography
Albums
* ''
Across the Wounded Galaxies
Across may refer to:
Technology and engineering
* Across Language Server, a software platform
* ACROSS Project, an R&D project in social robotics
* Suzuki Across (motorcycle), a motorcycle manufactured by Suzuki
* Suzuki Across (crossover)
...
Secret Sins
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.
Secrecy is often controvers ...
'' (2011)
* ''
Ice EP
Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...
'' (2012)
*
EGM EP EGM may refer to:
* Earth Gravitational Model
* '' An Egg's Guide to Minecraft'', a British animated web series.
* Electrogram, an electrical recording of an organ.
* Electronic gaming machine
* '' Electronic Gaming Monthly'', an American video gam ...
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...