they are the aliens, and they want to make our leaders bouncy and cheerful.

for all the talk lately about the new earth, there's been very few references to aliens, when some might think that this is the best opportunity we've had to find life on other planets. as likely as it is that intelligent life exists elsewhere besides old earth, we don't have to leave our backyards to find aliens. they're just over in fife.

you know the story of the beta band: 4 scots (gordon anderson, robin jones, john maclean, and steve mason) get together, release 3 excellent EPs and one good album (and one or two not so good albums), get popular, become agonizingly unpopular, break up. steve mason (vocals) goes on to found king biscuit time (he had his first full-length black gold released this week), gordon anderson succumbs to mental problems, working through them under the moniker lone pigeon. after releasing at least six albums under that name, anderson reunited with jones and maclean last may to record and release the alienoid starmonica ep under the name the aliens. since then, the aliens have released two other singles, and their first LP, astronomy for dogs, is released in the united states july 19. it is already out in the united kingdom.

i would say that most of astronomy for dogs has leaked by now, just from blogs alone. i have five tracks myself, culled from various sources, and i'm providing links to all of those mp3s below.

the aliens' sound draws heavily on 60s psychedelia and beatles-esque pop, resulting in an appropriately harmonic and layered approach. the first single from astronomy for dogs, "setting sun," is energetic and driven by a strong and sloppy guitar line, bolstered by a slippery organ, darting in and out of the melody. the instrumentation of songs is frequently internally repetitive, relying on the same beats and patterns for all four-or-so minutes of the song, but the differences between each track i've heard so far make up for it.

so, without further ado, here are the five mp3s i've been able to find. the aliens live here.

"setting sun" (i can't remember where i got it)

"rox" (getweirdturnpro) "caravan" (getweirdturnpro)

"only waiting" (good hodgkins) "robot man" (monocrave)

as a bonus (of sorts), i've posted the video for "setting sun" below. i like it.