April 19, 2021

ASTRO-MAN

Part of the fun of working on the upcoming Spy Vibe book is doing deep dives into various aspects of 1940s-1960s culture in order to provide context. Our fave spies often tapped into cool stuff that was happening in the worlds of art and design, and they certainly reflected ideas and anxieties around science and world politics. The Atomic era research inspired me to get back into enjoying some of my own boyhood sci-fi faves again, such as The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and the 70s-80s boom of space opera stuff: Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Battlestar Galactica. It was only a matter of time before the surf-rock band Man or Astro-Man also bounced back on my radar, with their rapid-fire guitar picks and wailing whammy bars! If you were into MST3K back in the '90s, chances are you liked Man or Astro-Man, too. They covered the Man From UNCLE theme on Project Infinity (1995), as well as other cult classics. The thing I enjoyed most about them is the band often began their songs with dialog sampled from old sci-fi B-movies and government training films- lots of monsters, rockets, and atom bomb bits! They also had great cover designs, such as this jacket for Destroy All Astromen (1994). Below is a fave track of mine from their EP, Deluxe Men in Space (1996). Enjoy!



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