The Aliens have landed and want to conquer Chicago.
In March, The Aliens’ debut CD, “Astronomy for Dogs,” was released in England to wide acclaim. Critics applauded the record’s majestic melodies and expansive songs that skip back and forth over four decades without tripping over their influences.
Having won over Britain, the psychedelic-pop band — Gordon Anderson, Robin Jones and John Maclean — has North America in its sights. “Astronomy” was released in the U.S. in June, and The Aliens are in the midst of a North America tour that brings them to Schubas on Tuesday.
Asked if he is surprised at the overwhelmingly positive reaction to “Astronomy,” drummer Jones says “Astronomy” is difficult not to like.
“It’s quite innocently done. Gordon is a very open guy. He’s actually feeling all these things. There’s no pretense. It carries over to the words in his songs,” Jones says. “Is it a bit too slick? Maybe the next album will be rougher around the edges. But some of these songs Gordon’s been sitting with for 10 years. It’s all good fun. Anyone who’s not really twisted will like this record.”
On the album, the band created a musical catchphrase for itself — “We are the Aliens,” first sung harmoniously, like a snippet from “Abbey Road,” at the end of rowdy garage-rocker “Setting Sun” and then more moodily, like a “Their Satanic Majesties Request” fragment, at the conclusion of “I Am the Unknown.”
“When we play festivals the crowds start chorusing that,” Jones says. “The way it happened was, Gordon says, ‘I have a song that goes, “We are the aliens, we come from space.” ‘ John picked up on that, boiled it down and came up with that little skit.”
The single that put the band on the map in the UK, however, was “Robot Man,” a funky hip-wiggler that Anderson reportedly was inspired to write while doing an impromptu dance to relieve the boredom of waiting in line for a bus.
“It sounds very likely,” Jones says, because Anderson “is always switched on.”
The musical relationship between Jones, frontman Anderson and keyboardist Maclean extends back more than a decade, when the three were members of trippy electronic-rock outfit the Beta Band. However, soon after completing work on the Betas’ 1997 debut EP, “Champion Versions,” Anderson fell ill and left the band.
In 2005, Anderson reunited with Jones and Maclean, who were with the Beta Band until it disbanded in late 2004.
“We always had been friends, and John and I knew [Anderson] from art college back in the early ’90s,” Jones says. “I’ve always had a massive respect for Gordon’s songwriting.”
Anderson tapped into his experiences in the U.S. while writing lyrics for “Astronomy’s” 14-minute closer, “Caravan.”
“Gordon spent some time in the States in Oregon four years ago, and he liked the life and the lifestyle,” Jones says. “He was thinking of this girl and a wistful romance when he wrote the words. He saved them for ‘Caravan.’ “
