I just don’t know how N.A.S.A. does it. I mean I know Squeak E. Clean (aka Sam Spiegel) is Spike Jonze’ brother and all that, and the dude is obviously well connected, but the callobos he manages to link together and the artists he has work on his projects are otherworldly (like that Syd Garon directed “People Tree” video featuring David Byrne, Chali 2Na, Z-Trip and Gift of Gab). And in all fairness, the quality of their output is top notch as well (e.g. “Whachadoin?” with M.I.A., Santogold and Spank Rock). This time the duo (with DJ Zegon) teams up with two of the baddest ass men on the planet — the looney tunes Kool Keith and cooler-than-McQueen Tom Waits.

BoingBoing posted an interesting interview the Montreal-based design team Fluorescent Hill who created the above video for N.A.S.A.’s “Spacious Thoughts” (off their Spirit of Apollo album we’ve been blabbing about for awhile). An excerpt from the interviefw with collaborators Mark Lomond and Johanne Ste-Marie:

“We got an email one day describing the entire NASA project, the musicians involved the visual artists involved and it just blew our minds. As soon as I saw the list of musicians, deep in my brain I already was hoping to work on the Kool Keith and Tom Waits collab. They’re two artists that I go way back to my early tape buying days with. So when we finally got on the phone, and they said it was this track “Spacious Thoughts” a small peice of my brain exploded. Then when they sent the track I was absolutely just ecstatic.”

“Spacious Thoughts” NASA feat. Kool Keith & Tom Waits from Fluorescent Hill on Vimeo.