For Immediate Release: Your Weight on the Moon reissue!

The UK was always especially receptive to Man… or Astro-Man?’s odd mix of traditional surf music, campy sci-fi schtick and southern charm. British radio mainstay John Peel played their debut EP on his show and would eventually have them do several of his “Peel” sessions in studio over the years. From this initial contact a highly impressed One Louder Records struck up a relationship with the band. In December of 1993, One Louder released the masterpiece Mission Into Chaos 7” single. Here's the cover of that one:


The band went on to tour the UK and their outrageous live shows (flaming computer helmets, 50s b-movie graphics and tesla coils) won them a legion of British fans.

In August of 1994, One Louder put out the genre-defining and ground-breaking Your Weight On The Moon 10” record pictured at the beginning of this post (on black, silver, pink and glow-in-the-dark vinyl). Fans were hooked. Even though the band was relatively unknown stateside, Your Weight actually charted in the UK—entering the independent charts at No. 7.

In May of 1995 the Return To Chaos EP was released on One Louder, packaged in a top secret dossier format and with a track so secretive its name was classified. The EP charted at No. 4 in the top 10 independent singles chart. The band had conquered Great Britain. Here's a shot of that one:


One Louder would go on to co-release the Deluxe Men in Space EP with Touch and Go, and the Live Transmissions from Uranus picture-disc LP, but it was these first three UK releases that solidified MOAM?’s legacy overseas. All three records have been out of print for years, and even the label has disappeared. And even though the band continues to record and even tour (yeah!), it is for this early ‘90s period that a majority of their fans will most fondly remember them.

So here’s the good news: Overground Records is reissuing the early One Louder records. This reissue compiles Your Weight On The Moon with the two EPs in a 16-page booklet. It is the first time that some of the tracks have appeared on CD, and it’s the first time in a while that the music from the two singles has been easily available. And for the vinyl enthusiast in all of us, and staying true to the One Louder/MOAM? historical model, the record is also being put out as a limited 12” picture disc. Here is a mock-up of the front side of the picture disc artwork:


Since this is a dumping ground for Astro-man releases, I thought it would be an appropriate forum to drum up some support for the reissue. You should consider picking it. You can order the CD HERE. The 16 pages of liner notes alone will be worth the moderate price tag. For the limited vinyl, you'll want to go through a local record shop. Anyway, here are the techno-specs:

NEW ALBUM RELEASE
MAN OR ASTRO-MAN?
Your Weight On The Moon
Label: Overground

Cat. No. OVER 127CD / 127LP (limited picture disc)
Barcode: CD 689492106225 - LP 689492108267

Release Date: 26th September 2011

TRACK LISTING
Your Weight tracks:
1. Rocketship XL-3
2. Secret Agent Conrad Uno
3. Electrostatic Brain Field
4. Shockwave
5. Taser Guns Mean Big Fun
6. F=GmM(moon)
7. Space Patrol
8. Happy Fingers
9. Destination Venus
10. Polaris

Mission Into Chaos tracks:
11. Name of Numbers
12. Of Sex and Demise
13. Madness in the Streets
14. Within a Martian Heart
15. Point Blank

Return to Chaos tracks:
16. Classified
17. Secret Agent Conrad Uno
18. Point Blank
19. Goldfinger

Overground Records, PO Box 1NW,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE99 1NW

A Spectrum of Finite Scale

A Spectrum of Finite Scale was a self-released, tour only Man... or Astro-Man? album available only on CD. It was limited to 1,000 copies, and was for sale on the band's 2001 tour in support of A Spectrum of Infinite Scale.

There were 13 listed tracks on the disc, and a 14th “hidden” track that was actually song number 32 (placed after 18 silent tracks that were each four seconds long). Musically it was an experimental collection of tracks performed by members of the Astro Staff Live Division, in isolation or in pairs. In other words, it was a series of songs written and played by band members and road crew, with a few extra folks thrown in for good measure. Everyone on the recording had some kind of an Astro-Man connection. Here is a list of the eight performers:

Birdstuff
Blazar The Probe Handler
Coco The Electronic
Trace Reading
The Brannock Device – Live Sound Coordination
Q-Beam – Live Visual Control
Andy Baker
Shannon Wright

Birdstuff, Coco, Blazar and Trace were the official line-up of MOAM? when this disc was released. For some reason, "Monkey Wizard" is dropped from Coco's name. The Brannock Device and Q-Beam were both members of the band's tour crew, with Brannock being the sound guy and Q running the merch table and helping with projection/lighting. The other two are a little more peripheral. Andy Baker played bass on track 6. He also was the recording engineer for tracks 1 and 6 and is responsible for the disc’s mastering. He had previously played in the affiliated band Servotron, alongside Birdstuff and former MOAM? guitarist Dexter X. As a member of Servotron he was known as Andro Series 600. Here’s an old Servotron press photo with an arrow pointing to Baker:


If this appearance by Baker is enough to merit his inclusion as an official band member, then the only member of Servotron in the above photo that never went on to play in MOAM? was the woman: Proto-Unit V-3.

Then there’s the curious case of Shannon Wright. Wright had previously been a member of the Astroman family, part of the Gamma series of Clones. As one of the two guitarists in the Gamma Clones, her name was Carol. Here are two grainy shots of Wright taken during a Gamma Clone performance in September of 1998 in Signal Hill, California:



Where the case for Wright’s full inclusion in the MOAM? pantheon really comes into focus, though, is when you consider that she toured with the band proper, replacing Blazar on the South American/Brazilian tour of 2001. On tour she dropped her Gamma Clone name and took the official Astroman moniker SW6. This, coupled with her playing guitar on "After All the Prosaic Waiting... the Sun Finally Crashes into the Earth" on this recording, really makes a strong case for her legitimate Man… or Astro-Man? membership. Recently, Astro-Man ad nauseam contributor Abraham Lincoln III found a picture of Shannon Wright/Carol/SW6 performing with the band in Brazil. It is the only photographic evidence I’ve ever seen of the full-fledged Astro-Woman:


(That photo is the property of Flickr user withlasers). Note that, in the photo, Wright is wearing Blazar's jumpsuit!

To bring the rest of this recording into visual focus, here is a scan of the front and back of the CD booklet:


And here’s a scan of the front and back of the tray card, and of the disc itself:



And, finally, here’s a track listing with a breakdown of exactly who contributed to each track:

1. After All The Prosaic Waiting... The Sun Finally Crashes Into The Earth
Shannon Wright (guitar)
Birdstuff
2. The Limitations Of A Serial Machine
Blazar The Probe Handler
3. MO₂
Trace Reading
4. Halfway To The Infinite
Coco The Electronic
5. Space Helmet
Birdstuff
Coco The Electronic
6. All The Quietest Whispers
Andy Baker (bass)
Birdstuff
7. Mt-52 Tone/Magnus Opus
Q-Beam
8. Tolerance In A Transitory Universe
Blazar The Probe Handler
9. Analysis Paralysis
The Brannock Device
10. Man Or Man-Machine?
Birdstuff
Coco The Electronic
11. The Potential Energy Of Roger Stone
Trace Reading
12. Mortimer Butomite's Pocket Of Capacitors
Coco The Electronic
13. Fig. A: Dispersion In Full Spectrum Pattern
Birdstuff
Blazar The Probe Handler
32. Untitled
Personnel: ???

And for those of you that are scouring the Internet looking for a download of this disc, consider this section of the liner notes: