Man…or Astro-Man?
It’s that kind of thinking that must have led the band of space-guys-marooned-on-earth called Man…or Astro-Man? to hit on their snazzy surf-rock MO. “How can we distinguish ourselves from all the other 21st-century guitar boys from Planet Q hanging around Auburn, Alabama?” guitarist Star Crunch must have asked bassist Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard. And maybe drummer Birdstuff, listening to terrestrial radio, cranked up “Wipeout” and voila, gimmick problem solved.
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Of course, the Astromen’s space-surf split holds a natural appeal in these United States. What is NASA if not a Beach Boys-era extension of manifest destiny? And isn’t the protagonist in all those surf movies the most cosmologically centered archetype in postwar cinema? He surfs on the lunar pull of waves by day, and courts his bikini-clad Venus under the stars at night. But Star Crunch, a sort of Troy Donahue meets Stephen Hawking, is more likely to talk astrophysics than clambake. Venus asks him, “What’s a nice alien like you doing on a planet like this?”
