N.A.S.A – Way Down
Artist/Band: N.A.S.A.
Album: Spirit of the Apollo
Release date: 17th February 1999
Label: ANTI-
Mediums: CD, vinyl, digital
N.A.S.A is an ongoing creative collaboration between two lifelong music aficionados, Squeak E. Clean ad DJ Zegon, and their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes. While N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America and contains a number of superstar artists from both coasts of the US, it is about as far from a tension-building geographical showdown as a record can get. Rather, their Anti debut ‘The Spirit of Apollo’ was born with the righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art, and that is exactly what masterminds Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean) and Ze Gonzales (DJ Zegon) have done. Brazilian funk provides the roots of the songs and binds them together into a cohesive whole, but from there, the imagination behind ‘The Spirit of Apollo’ ranges far and wide. Unexpected collaborations abound on the eighteen track release. Tom Waits growls over Kool Keith, Karen O taunts while Ol’ Dirty Bastard gives shout-outs to Wu Tang and N.A.S.A from the grave, and David Byrne, Chuck D and others expound on the evils of “Money.” In spite of the range of performers, the pairings seem organic, inspired and make perfect sense on the first listen, never coming off as ironic or impulsive.
N.A.S.A. does not stand for United States’ space program. It stands for North America South America, as it’s a product of one North American – Squeak E. Clean (Sam Spiegel) from USA and one south American – DJ Zegon (Ze Gonzales), a native of Brazil, where the two met on a party. The album’s final title was Spirit Of Apollo and it was released in February 2009.
The project took around five years to complete and the authors themselves said that the idea was to ignore all of the boundaries and boarders [sic] that are in place to keep people divided, such as musical genre, race, politics, geography, language, etc. A documentary was done to capture the process of the album’s creation and it is yet to be released, as well as a remix album.
John is credited for his appearance on the track “Way Down”, which also features the talented singer Barbie Hatch (also known as BarBie) and RZA of Wu-Tang Clan. The song is reportedly about a woman who falls in love with the Devil, who lures her into the underworld by taking the appearance of an attractive young boy. A multitude of reviewers, including a lot of professional critics, have named “Way Down” the best track on Spirit of Apollo.
A music video was done for this track as well, directed by Syd Garon and featuring the amazing artwork of Sage Vaughn. Mr. Garon was interviewed by Boing Boing, as the video caught their attention as well.
Many other names one’s surely heard of participated in release of this project, such as David Byrne, Tom Waits, Karen O, George Clinton, Method Man, Cee-Lo and it even features a posthumous appearance of Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
It is still as enigma so as to what John is actually doing on Way Down. Trailer for the N.A.S.A. documentary shows him singing in the studio and for a long period of time, everyone assumed he was playing guitar and singing the backing vocals to Barbie Hatch in the chorus. However, it turned out that the backing vocals and the guitar riff are an interpolarisation of the song Vou Sair Do Cativero, by Brazilian artists Ton & Sergio. The said tracks is available as a rare vinyl single and it’s also on a compilation titled Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas. But as one can see below, John is shown singing in a studio in the still-unreleased documentary trailer, so who knows.
N.A.S.A. toured for the album, feauting dancers, visual effects, art installations and special guests.
Just like all the songs off the N.A.S.A. album, Way Down was available for remixes as a part of a competition. The competition was carried by Indaba Music. One of the remixes of this song ended in top 10. It is not clear if only the winning remix will be included on the remix albm, or more of them.
Music video
MEDIA:
[trailer]
[trailer stills showing John]
[acapella and instrumental versions of the song]
SOURCES:
http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2010/02/brazilian-guitar-fuzz-bananas
BUY:
[song]
[CD]
[vinyl LP]
PREVIEW:
SEE ALSO:
All news on NASA on this website: http://www.invisible-movement.net/tag/nasa
NASA page
N.A.S.A. Myspace http://www.myspace.com/northamericasouthamerica
John on Wu-Tang Clan’s 8 Chambers
John on RZA’s Bobby Digital
John’s contribution to the soundtrack of RZA’s shaolin film.
RZA’s quote on John
Barbie Hatch’s page
N.A.S.A: “Spirit Of Apollo†10-Year Anniversary Reissue Box Set
http://www.anti.com/releases/the-spirit-of-apollo/tracks/way-down-feat-rza-barbie-hatch-john-frusciante/
