Growing up wasn't easy for the members of Man or Astro-Man?, three
aliens from grid sector 23-B6-1 who crash-landed in Alabama when
they were young. Though Earth's gravity enables them to have human
bodies, their forms are naturally comprised of vapor. Integration
with human beings wasn't easy for these body-conscious aliens
and playing in pools and on the beach was even more difficult.
So, even though Man or Astro-Man? plays some of the most stratospheric
surf rock this side of the Milky Way, they aren't exactly a bunch
of big Kahunas when it comes to playing in the water. But being
that this is earSHOT's swimsuit issue, we wanted to know about the aquatic inspiration
for their surf sounds. Their most recent EP, 1000X (Touch and Go), includes some of their catchiest work ever, with
twitchy songs in the vein of Devo's early hits as well as several
instrumentals that solidify the band's reputation as reverent
disciples of the Ventures and Dick Dale. Drummer Birdstuff says
surf rock is the kind of music heard on his home planet and programs
like The Twilight Zone and Space: 1999 accurately represent aliens and life in outer space.
On 1000X Man or Astro-man? seems to be taking a slightly different approach
to its music with more vocals and synthesizer and tighter melodies.
You're talking about bringing in the funk. [Keyboardist] Coco
the Electronic Monkey Wizard was listening to a lot of big, phat
P-Funk and stuff like that when we wrote the material. It's obvious
that Coco's biggest influence by far is Bootsy Collins. When we
first wrote the newer material, we figured, we've got the groove
thing going on, why dismiss it? Why not let people hear it?
As for the higher percentage of vocals than usual, we never really
decided at any point to be a completely instrumental band. We
just have a lot of difficulty expressing our own alien language
in a frequency audible to the human ear. But [guitarist/vocalist]
Star Crunch has gotten better at dropping down under 20,000 hertz.
We also realized that on the first five albums Star Crunch is
machine-gunning eighth and 16 notes and it gets a little brutal,
so he's lightened up a bit and there is more room for vocals,
keyboard or theremin.
Being that you're natural state is vaporous, do you find it difficult
to go swimming?
Star Crunch doesn't swim because something traumatic happened
when his Earth parents tried to give him swimming lessons as a
young child. He was very nervous and hesitant about getting into
the pool and his instructor would dunk and hold him under water
as punishment. Now he's really weird about going swimming. So,
yes, swimming is of great difficulty, but not because of our changing
physical states, because of bad childhoods.
Do you go swimming?
You know when you're in the pool and everything's going well and
you're starting to believe that Marco Polo is actually a fun game
to play, then all of a sudden you feel something warm in the pool
- that was me. As a child I lived in great fear of these rumors
of pools that'd turn colors when urinated in.
What number sunblock do you need?
Man or Astro-Man?'s home planet is far away from stars or suns,
so we're very unused to UV radiation. Coco actually has a whole
line of sunblock lotion, but it's not really practical on earth
because it's number 507. He does have shirts that are made out
of suntan lotion - that makes them very hard to stitch, but Coco
really knows how to out-contract so we can get them done.
What kind of bathing suits do you look best in?
Well it's often been said that what makes Man Or Astro-Man? so
appealing isn't the astrophysics, but the astro physiques. I think
most of us prefer the stoked U.S.A. look with the big flowery
prints, but Coco's still a Speedo man. You know those pre-cut
small little carrots that you buy at the grocery store that are
an inch and a half long? He always puts one of those in the front
of his suit. I haven't seen the actual carrot, but it always looks
like that.
Do you have any tips for cruising chicks on the beach?
Well, a lot of people underestimate the power of Van Halen II and play Van Halen I instead. I think Van Halen II is much more of a beach-oriented record and has much more of
a summer party groove with maracas and castanets that have a beach
party flavor and get the chicks happening.
zoom
Man or Astro-Man?