On Sirus the other day, I heard a track by a band called Satan's Pilgrims that I loved from the moment I heard it. Upon getting home and doing a little research on the band, it brought me to Man or Astro-Man which was a band that I knew of but never really knew anything about.

I downloaded a few tracks, and like what I have heard, but from reading reviews of all their records, I am wondering if they are pretty much a one trick pony or are they a band worth discovering through their catalog?

Can surf rock without much if any vocals be entertaining beyond the bands best release? or is there more to discover as I go on?

Where do I begin?

i dont know where to begin, but they are a one trick pony

not bad at the one trick, though

I have like 2 or 3 of their records somewhere. Used to be into the whole Estrus records thing. They do their thing, which I guess could be considered a 1-trick pony act, but they do it extremely well. They used to do a whole onstage persona as well, which was pretty amusing. I remember writing them and getting crazy letters back with strange symbols and whatever on them.

I say if you like 'em check them out but I doubt you'll buy tons of records.

I would recommend this one:


which was actually released on Touch and Go.


this live record is good as well

[img][650:641]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Livetransmissions_from_uranuscover.jpg[/img]

If I can find them in my unorganized mess, I'll up them for you, but no promises on when that might be.

As one trick ponies go, they're pretty damn good. They actually branched out their sound a little on their last few records, but the sound they're most known for is the surf rock + B-movie sci-fi samples, which is pretty much what they did up until about 1997.

Most of their early records are of pretty even quality, although I'd probably recommend either Destoy All Astromen! or Experiment Zero as the one to get.

a one trick pony, but one fucking hell of a live act.

yep

the one time i saw them, they brought this huge tesla coil (?) out onto the center the stage at the end of their set and shot lightning bolts out across the crowd

it was a tiny club too

Yeah, I saw them do that at the Echo Lounge.

Saw them twice. The first time was one of the loudest shows I have ever been to.

The printer song was pretty damn funny live, too.

i agree with all of this. as for the latter era, i like eeviac quite a bit. that one ends with a really cool surf/psych jam that i can't get enough of.



absolutely, on both counts. i saw them 4 times and they did the dot matrix song at two of those and i think they had the tesla coil for 3 of them. great live band.

Yeah, I think I like EEVIAC even more now than I did at the time.

The 1000X EP is pretty good, too. I'd put it up there with Experiment Zero.

You wrote a band?
As in wrote a letter, used a stamp, and mailed it?

Experiement Zero and EEVIAC are the ones to get. Also the Deluxe Men From Space EP is pretty good. You definitely don't need to delve deep with them. Also Satan's Pilgrims are great, i think a (double disc?) collection came out a year or two ago...

Yeah, in like 1995 when I was 15...Sorry, people used to write actual bands not publicists for stickers, posters and stuff.

good to know...thanks for the input!

I agree, but it's pretty unique within their catalog, I think.

Really, I don't think they put out anything bad, at least not that I've heard. You could close your eyes and pick any two-three albums/EPs of theirs and you'd pretty much be set.

Did they do the Space Ghost theme?

Sort of.

As per Wikipedia:

The original theme song was by Sonny Sharrock and Lance Carter. They recorded some other music for the show, too.

Man or Astro-Man? did the song that was used during the closing credits of seasons 4-6.

i think they were on a sgc2c episode too.

Hey for the few people who care -

They've reformed and are touring. Their first show back together is next Friday (March 5) at Whirlyball here in Atlanta. I really want to go if I can. And they're playing SXSW later on so maybe some of you already knew about this.

It's the 3 original guys I think - Star Crunch, Coco, and Birdstuff. I believe Star Crunch had left the band several years before the rest of them called it quits.

I was just reading a Chunklet interview with Birdstuff where he mentioned that they have reels and reels of unreleased stuff, so here's hoping they'll at least have something cool to put out on a 7" or something.

henry said he's gonna put out possibly 2 man or astroman records this year...I think I need to get a ticket for that whirlyball show.