Big Head Todd and The Monsters will be at Houston’s NASA Mission Control Center early tomorrow morning to become the first band ever to wake-up U.S. astronauts with a live performance. The band will play their original song “Blue Sky” at 3:23 am CST, and the live performance will be beamed up to Commander Steve Lindsey and the other five crew members to wake them for Shuttle Discovery’s second to last day in space.
“Blue Sky” – which was originally written by the band as a tribute for the first post-Columbia flight, STS-114 – was the top vote-getter in NASA’s “Top 40 Song Contest,” where the voting for shuttle wake-up songs was opened to the public for the first time in history. “Blue Sky” recieved 722,662 votes, or 29 percent of the 2,463,774 total.
Anyone can tune in to NASA TV http://www.nasa.gov/ntv tomorrow at 3:23 CST to watch the performance live. It will also be documented and replayed several times on NASA TV throughout the day and available on the web (www.nasa.gov/shuttle).
IN OTHER BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS NEWS:
May 8th, 2011 marks the 100-year anniversary of blues legend Robert Johnson’s birthday. In celebration of the most influential bluesman that ever lived, the Big Head Blues Club – an ad-hoc collaboration featuring Big Head Todd and The Monsters and special guests B.B. King, Hubert Sumlin, Honeyboy Edwards, Charlie Musselwhite, Ruthie Foster, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm – released 100 Years of Robert Johnson last week. The debuted at #1 on the iTunes blues list, and is receiving rave reviews in the press:
““A superb musical collective…moving and wildly entertaining.” – Boston Globe
“4 stars…a down ‘n’ dirty album…
rich with music-history lessons, yet it never feels like it’s trying to teach.”
– New York Post
“Todd Park Mohr’s growling and moaning like he’s got muddy Delta dirt under his fingernails.”
-USA Today
“The kind of musical event that the modern music world is waiting for.” -The Examiner
100 Years of Robert Johnson is a stirring collection featuring 10 potent interpretations of some of the most vital and durable music of the past century. The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, and produced by Grammy award winning blues producer Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama), 100 Years of Robert Johnson was released March 1, 2011 on Ryko/Big Records.
Look for Big Head Todd and The Monsters on tour this spring and summer. Visit
www.bigheadtodd.com for a complete list of tour dates.
