This is a compilation album from the group featuring the b-sides from their 7” records. There is 23 tracks on this record. Some fans call this album their second album. There is so many tracks that there is no reason not to. Technically, it is not since all of the tracks were previously released only as b-sides. It is on black vinyl with a yellow and orang/red graphic in the center of a robot with a beer on one side and that same robot with a pack of cigarettes on the other. As is with all of their albums, the music is very surf oriented with sound clips of old sci-fi shows. There is also a cover of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Love Theme. This is the reason that I bought this album. There are also many covers of old surf style tunes including two from The Ventures; Joker’s Wild and The Heavies, and one from Dick Dale; Taco Wagon. The one thing that I love and hate about the band is that they released extra tracks on vinyl only. Since they released most of the albums in the 90s they did not press many of the albums. This makes finding the albums on vinyl very difficult. They kind of did it backward compared to most of the popular bands of the 90s who put the extra tracks on the end of CDs. I like that they had an appreciation for the analog sound but there are so few records pressed in the 90s that it gets really hard to track down Man or Astro-man? albums at reasonable prices. I did find a small record company in Canada that has quite a few of the albums that I am still looking for. Maybe I will be able to get a few when father’s day rolls around. I am only missing a few albums from the group at this point and I haven’t reviewed a few that I own yet here either. I love the song Out of Limits. The title is a pun on the title of the TV show called The Outer Limits. The opening to the song is the Close Encounters of The Third Kind sound done with a guitar played by one of the members. It sounds real cool being played on a guitar that is set up for the surf tone. I have this song on a couple of records now but it is a great track and I don’t mind hearing it more than once. All of the songs on this album are less than three minuets long. Just under half of those are less than two minuets long. This is how they get 23 tracks on a vinyl LP.
Man or Astro-Man? - Intravenous Television Continuum
There is not much out there about this band. They have released a lot of material. There are a couple of fan sites out there that try to catalog all of the releases. I think that there is more information out there it is just hard to come by. This album was released in 1996 in two different colors, clear or opaque purple. My copy is on purple. When I took it out of the sleeve the first time I saw what looked like a chunk of something stuck in the vinyl. I gave it a first listen on that side to be sure that it would play. It turns out that it is just a gold fleck of vinyl that got into the press. The record plays fine without any issue. The album is technically the third release from the band and contains alternate mixes of previously released songs and covers of television show theme music. Some of the covered themes are from the likes of The Jetsons, My Favorite Martian and the Munster’s Theme. This album also has the song Out of Limits. This album was still earlier enough in their career that the music was not so experimental and still had a great surf rock sound. For the most part the group stuck with the basic band sound. What I mean is that they used drums, guitar and bass guitar. Later in their career they started using keyboards. They have always had an affinity for using odd instruments like the Theremin and Tesla coils. They have also always used samples of dialog from b-movies.
Man or Astro-Man? - Made From Technetium
This is the fifth release from the group. The album was put out in 1997. It was around this time that they started to experiment with the sound that they were creating. They did this by writing their own version of surf music and not covering other artists’ music. This was started in the previous album, Experiment Zero and was carried forward through the rest of their career. I did not realize this but they are one of my big musical influences. Not that I create music that follows the surf style but in that I create music without intending to use lyrics. I love the music. For the most part this group does not have a singer. There are a few tracks that Star Crunch, the lead guitarist in the band, will sing on but I can probably count them on one hand. I like the experimentation that that is used through the album. The idea that surf rock can be bent and experimented with is really cool to me. The music on this album has a surf/punk/rock sound that I can get into. They are still using the movie dialog clips but not just at the beginning of the songs now. They are mixed into the songs and are sort of used in place of lyrics. It makes the songs that much more interesting.
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
This is the second full length from Fleet Foxes. It was released in 2011 on a double vinyl or CD. I have only given this album a few listens. I like it a lot. The group still has that 70s light rock sound that I like. It is similar to the sound that Grizzly Bear has been putting out for the past four or five years but a bit more poppy. The group does not intend to put out pop music but that seems to be what they are good at. They released this album on record store day on white vinyl. I think that there were 200 copies of this version so I did not even bother looking for it. They also released a double A-side single for record store day. I was not as interested in that so didn’t bother looking for that either. This album seems to have a bigger sound than either the first release or the first EP. I am not sure that I like this bigger sound yet. It could also be that the tracks on this album are a bit more compressed than the other two. All three come with a download code from SubPop records. I did not record these tracks from the records. I probably should. The songs would probably be easier to listen to. I like creating MP3s from the records but at the same time it is such a hassle to have to sit down and cut up the recorded tracks in a piece of software.
Family Force 5 – III EP
This is a three song EP that has been released in 2011. The Three songs are; Wobble, Dang Girl and You Got It. The EP is a prerelease to the upcoming third album. This EP is only being sold on the Tourantula tour and at the FF5 web store. There are only a total of 3000 copies made. They are still available at this time. The cover is a new photo of the group with some added art photoshopped into the picture. The first two tracks are big crunk, as they call it, rockers. A great couple of dance tracks. The third is a slowed down 80s style male RnB track that works as a cool down track after to two huge sounding dance tracks.
The Who – The Who Sell Out
This is the third album from The Who. It was released in 1967. It is supposedly a concept album and formatted as a collection of unrelated songs interspersed with radio announcements and PSAs. Supposedly, it takes place at a pirated radio station called Radio London. The track I Can See For Miles was the only single from the album. I do not own an original copy of this album. I found a repressed copy at Half Priced Books. It was sealed so I can only assume that it was overstock. The book store often gets sealed and unsealed overstock records and resells them at reasonable prices. The copy that I picked up is on 140g clear blue vinyl. The poster from the original pressing was not included. The original pressing was special because of that poster (500 mono and 500 stereo copies had this poster). The record itself sounds fantastic. I have heard records that are quieter than this one but it is still a good sounding record. I had only heard the single from the band and was surprised to find out that the other members of the group shared in the lead singing duties on this album. I like the group but to me they have always had a wishy-washy way of writing and playing music. This album is no exception to that rule. It is not an album that I would listen to on repeat over and over like other bands that I really like. I got it because I wanted to have the classics in my collection. This is one of those 60s/70s rock classics that I am after. Don’t misunderstand me, there are some really good riffs that the group comes up with but the music that they create as a whole is just not that great.
All right, that is all I have for now...
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