Space Camp

About

Another band that forced the formation of Royalty, Etc. Records is Space Camp. In 2002, Jon Greenlee and Tim Uhl discussed forming a band upon the stoop of Mercil’s campus auto repair. This band would attempt to play pop music through the trashed lens in hand. Greenlee brought in bassist Adam Meyers, and drummer Aaron Seevers came from a classified ad run in the City Pages. Band in hand, Space Camp set forth into Albatross studio with engineer Mike Wisti, and cut the impressive debut, If You Find The Old Beat, Play It. Tracks like “Beat Up Chevy” ooze fake sentiment with searing guitars in hand, and plodding anthemic mantras like “The Slowed Down” pulled the plug on a drain that would begin to pull down the rest of the drowning team, as they arrived. The follow up, Royalty, Etc. was the last straw, and a label was formed. In a moment of pompous numerology, the label Royalty, Etc. Records issued the Space Camp sophomore release Royalty, Etc. as their first title. Icy and cold, Royalty, Etc. is the Space Camp masterpiece. Listen to “There Are Openings” and “Credit Due” for a taste of a band doing their finest work. A Foundification For Soundification arrived a couple of years later, rounding out the catalog with a bookreader’s take on soul music. A punk in a juke joint. These exercises left us with classics like “Suspicion”, and “The Constant Regret of Actions Taken”. Buoyant Philly soul was retranslated briefly for the exuberant “Princess of Soul”. After this, Space Camp went silent for many years. In 2013, Uhl was able to coax the fearful Cassidy (of Bagger ’97) out to fill the drummer void left by Seevers, who had departed around 2009. A set of songs culled from the demo sessions of the prior years was rolled out alongside shiny new tunes, and Space Camp returned to the studio to follow up the 2007 Foundification sessions with Cassidy on the drum throne.