by Dave Schaefer

James Allison and Jacob Halpern are Blastronauts, a two-person band that splits their time between Columbus and Boston.  Their sound is a mix of trippy layered folk, alt-pop, and a touch of pop-punk.  And throw in some garage rockabilly too, while you’re at it.  In reality, the sound is less of a mix and more of a mutt -- you picture something really ugly, but when you actually meet it, you want to take it home.

Blastronauts are the headliners and brainstormers of Outer Sounds, a music festival featuring local bands that they hope will be an annual Columbus event.  The festival is split, with the first shows taking place at Rumba Cafe on Wednesday, March 12 and the following night’s festivities being held at Scarlet & Gray Cafe.

The idea for the two-night Outer Sounds Music Festival came to them while scheduling shows for the brief window in March when Jacob will be in Columbus.  They ended up scheduling two venues for back-to-back nights -- a definite local music no-no. 

“We were just trying to think of how we could play two shows in Columbus in such a short time period without it screwing us over or pissing people off,” James laughs.

But as the idea of Outer Sounds began taking shape, other reasons for doing the music fest became more clear. 

“We feel like nothing’s going to help us unless we try and help the scene,” James told LotC. “The only way to get your band to the next level is if the music scene gets to the next level.  Columbus has a great music scene -- it might already be at the next level -- but as a band you gotta help out and really promote it.”

The Outer Sounds features a total of 10 bands.  Playing at Rumba will be Blastronauts, Jason Quicksall, Jon Chinn, Jonathan Hape, and Nick Cline. At Scarlet and Gray will be Blastronauts, Our Cat Philip, Russenorsk (from Athens), The Existentialist Tea Party (Blastronauts’ side project), Zephuros (from Athens), and Aperture.

Blastronauts will be going back to the East Coast right after Outer Sounds wraps up to open for Junior Revolution at The Cake Shop in New York City.

Their new 5-track EP (plus a bonus acoustic track) will be available at the two nights of the festival.