bigtikidude
Some here say that the one of the clone projects
was Johnny and the Shamen, a very good band on their own right.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

JATS are Go!

Jet Sterling, Cosmic Spy
www.surfabillyfreakout.com

I figured the midgets was a joke, but I was pretty sure the girls was real.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I still have vials of their DNA I bought from the merch table at a show in Atlanta, so I guess now's the time to fire up my own cloning lab.

BTW, I don't think there's an "h" in the name of the Jonny who fronted Jonny and the Shamen.

GREGORY NICOLL, Southern Surf Syndicate Agent # 44

The first videos are coming in....!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW2puQqbPfI

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Dig the multi-cam action.

>

wow fantabulous, yes the multi camera shots helped it alot.
and the sound was pretty good. I bet they got a PA feed.

Jeff(bigtikidude)
wish they keep it going.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Sweet! That was teh first decent footage of MOAM live I've ever seen.
They really need to come out to California.

Science friction burns my fingers.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Chicago Reader:

7:45 Man or Astroman
Man or Astroman? was one of the most consistently fun live bands of the 90s—a bunch of proud nerds from Alabama, obsessed with cheesy 50s and 60s sci-fi movies, who assumed fake identities and cranked out blistering neosurf tunes. They eventually became so popular that they created “clone” bands to re-create their stage show around the country—one of them consisting entirely of Astrowomen. This will be the first time the original lineup has performed together in eight years.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sidebars/music/touch/

I went but was out of luck as it was sold out. So I stood around the entrance area, listening to Scratch Acid (it was loud even where I was) and doing a litte people watching. I sure wasn't the only one turned away at the door. People were coming and going - reentry was allowed because they had the wriststrap thing going. I decided to hang around and maybe come across someone selling a ticket. But nobody was selling and a little before 8 I heard Man or Astroman take the stage. They were so much quieter than the previous band that I had a little trouble identifying the songs, partly due to a nearby beer truck which had its engine going in order to keep its cargo of beer kegs cold. I listened to them and cursed my bad luck for missing this and because I was out of town for THE live surf event of the year when Madeira/Volcanos/Cocktail Preachers played on Memorial Day weekend. Just when all seemed lost someone came out, looked at me and asked

'Need a ticket?'
Yes!
Well, I don't have a ticket but for a few bucks I'll give you my wriststrap.
Ok, I really just wanted to see Man or Astroman but I can catch the last couple of songs.
I'm in a surf band myself.
Really? What's your band's name?
The Coffin Daggers.
You're kidding! I've got a Coffin Daggers CD. It has a Pink Floyd song on it (I couldn't remember the title of the CD).
I'm not actually on that CD, I'm the new drummer. My name's Pete. We'll be playing in Europe in the near future.

So Pete the new drummer for the Coffin Daggers gives me his wriststrap, I give him 10 dollars (half the price of a ticket) and make my way over to the gate. Now this whole little exchange took place in full view of the security personnel and I was wondering what I would say and do if they challenged me but they just knowingly smiled and let me pass.
Once inside I saw why the band had sounded so quiet: there were two stages which the bands were alternating on, and the stage the previous band was on faced the entrance, whereas the stage Man or Astroman was on faced the other direction. Two songs later and they finished. At the end the drum kit was handed out to the crowd where it was passed around for a while before disappearing. I don't know what became of it but later I saw someone walking around with a cymbol under his arm. At this point most of the crowd began migrating over to the other sound stage but I moved up to get a closer look at Man or Astroman's equipment (but not before securing the necessary provisions, i.e. a large cup of Warsteiner). I couldn't see too much.

The band came out to meet the people who were standing up front. A girl asked for the playlist, which was scrawled out on a chunk of cardboard. Not trusting my memory I asked to take a photo of it. Here it is:

Television
Socket
Atom
Sferic
Evil Plans
9 Volt
Maximum
CO2
Uranus
Time Bomb
Escape
Planet
Principles
Pyrex
(A couple of the titles have curvy arrows pointing to the line below it).

The band members and crew were also handing out little glowsticks, different colors, one color for each bandmember. Here's what's written on the label:

Cryonic Waste Sample (UPC code)
Star Crunch Batch: 69345-675
Man or...Astroman Disposal: 09/09/06
A division of Astro Technologies City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Planet: Earth
System: Milky Way
Grid Sector 23-B6-1
10 cents refund

I got one of each heh heh! Of course people wanted to know if there were any plans for them to record together again, but there aren't. They've gone their separate ways and are doing their own things. I asked if they ever went to any of the surf web sites, specifically SurfGuitar101.com, and they said no. I told them how they come up every now and then and that there are even Man or Astroman guitar tabs available. They got a real kick out of that and said "boy, we sure could have used those! It's been so long since we played we kept asking ourselves 'how does this song go?' We should've downloaded Man or Astroman tabulature!" Everybody was thanking them for what they've done and I told them that I was there that night just to see them. They seemed to genuinely appreciate that. One story the band related went like this: Attilio Mineo was in a record store in the 90s and saw what he thought were brand new copies of his record "Man in Space with Sounds'. He bought them all but later discovered that they weren't his recordings (of course we all know this as the Project Infinity record). He contacted the band and told them that it wasn't a big deal that they plagiarized his cover and that, although he wasn't going to, if he wanted to, he could sue them. The upshot of all this is that, up until that point, the band members themselves had no idea that the cover art was based on somebody else's work.

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/monocle/album_cover_gallery__bachelor_pad_redux/

Finally, somebody asked: "OK, the most important question of all - is Pluto a planet?" They had a good time going into a spiel about how they leave this solar system for a few years, come back, and everything's a mess. What are you guys doing??? Where outta here!

Larry

Thanks for the show report Larry!

Damn, I was hoping the reunion show would spark some band creativity. Eh, it was hopeful thinking.

Science friction burns my fingers.

Brian - I wasn't sure where to put this link but...

A NEW MOAM? DVD coming out:

http://www.raucousrecords.com/shop/product.asp?pid=11473