November 9, 2012

Friday night live at Transistor: The Astronomer and One Hour Naps. Sound by Jon Monteverde. 

For this performance "queasy listening" combo One Hour Naps offered up a set of concise indie pop songs, their vocals drenched in reverb, with selections culled mostly from last fall's "Encrypted Code" release; they threw in a cover of Guided By Voices' "As We Go Up, We Go Down" for good measure. In this configuration of the band, Pat (left), Matt (right) and Pete (center) played an assortment of keyboard, synth, effects, percussion and acoustic guitars.

Also find One Hour Naps on Facebook.

The Astronomer plays rootsy, floaty, creaking, chamber pop/rock about the things you misplaced and the things you're about to find. Their recently completed second disc, "You Could Be Something When You Disappear," evokes the song construction and lyricism of The Band and mid-period Kinks, while sonically akin to releases by Brian Eno and Brian Wilson. The Astronomer's self-titled debut is a collection of hopeful and naive tales wrapped in rustic orchestrations of pedal steel, vibraphone, upright bass, creaking electronics and floating voice.

Charles Kim (front, with guitar) has played with bands and aritsts such as Pinetop Seven, Sinister Luck Ensemble, Will Oldham, Boxhead Ensemble, Ken Vandermark, Pan American, Fruit Bats, and Chris Mills. He's also a film, television and theater composer, working for Showtime, Chicago's Redmoon Theatre, and author Joe Meno.

The Astronomer's delicate art-pop songs, filigreed with pedal steel, vibraphone and electronics, have a distinctly otherworldly feel despite their occasional rootsiness; it's as though Kim learned songwriting by picking up radio signals in low earth orbit. Chicago Reader, July 10, 2008

Cinematic space trip Americana! Marty Lennartz, WXRT 93.1 FM Chicago