Jul 28th, 2008 · Philadelphia's The Asteroid No. 4 takes dreamy shoegazer pop and mixes in elements of '60s psychedelia to create a folk-rock sound that falls somewhere between The Byrds and The Stone Roses. The group's fifth studio album, These Flowers of Ours, is dripping with reverb, echo, and tremolo effects. The album plays like a pastoral work of stargazing time-travel.
Jul 7th, 2008 · Apollo Sunshine blends '60s psychedelic folk with the arena rock hugeness of the '70s and the lo-fi noise pop aesthetics of '90s groups like My Bloody Valentine or the Olivia Tremor Control. The cover art for the Boston, Mass.-based trio's third record, Shall Noise Upon, depicts a Jackson Pollock-like, color-splattered globe surrounded by constellations of religious and spiritual icons from every corner of the earth. The image suggests the record somehow takes the disparate cultures of a large world and unifies them into a single, genre-breaking, stargazing album. It may seem like an impossibly lofty goal, but the songs deliver.
Oct 6th, 2006 · Danish musicians Philip Owusu and Robin Hannibal give "Caroline No" an entrancing makeover, capturing Brian Wilson's doleful melody and a gentle acoustic-guitar accompaniment in a cavernous electronic whirlwind, with stargazing bleeps intensifying the song's sense of isolation and grief.
May 23rd, 2006 · Somehow, a California man got stuck going down the chimney of someone else's house. Matthew Allen was jammed near the bottom of the chimney for hours. He finally pulled off his pants and waved them around to set off motion detectors in the house. Police responded three times before they found him. Once he was rescued, police charged him with burglary. He denies it, saying he was climbing on the roof to look at the stars when he just fell in.