Man or Astro-man?

by Greg PratoAs part of the surf revival movement of the early 90s (Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Laika & the Cosmonauts, the re-emergence of the great Dick Dale, etc.), Auburns Man or Astro-man? specializes in a slightly different variation on the genre, self-described as space-age surf. Formed in 1992, the quartet originally consisted of members who went by such off the wall aliases as Birdstuff (drums), Star Crunch (guitar), Dr. Delecto & his Invisible Vaportron (bass), and Electronic Monkey Wizard (on something called alternate-universe bass), Man or Astro-man? combined the classic surf sounds of the 60s along with the quirky humor and approach of such groundbreaking groups as Devo. The group issued albums at an extremely brisk rate throughout the 90s (a few of which were engineered by renowned punk/alternative guru Steve Albini) — 1993s Is It...Man or Astro Man?; 1994s Destroy All Astromen!!; 1995s Project Infinity; 1996s Experiment Zero; 1997s What Remains Inside a Black Hole, Live Transmissions From Uranus, and Made From Technetium; plus 1999s EEVIAC: Operational Index & Reference Guide. The group has been able to successfully overcome the defection of two original members (Dr. Delecto and Star Crunch), as Man or Astro-man? pressed on into the 21st century with such further releases as 2000s A Spectrum of Infinite Scale, plus a pair of releases in 2001, the limited release A Spectrum of Finite Scale and the compilation Beyond the Black Hole, the latter of which combined What Remains Inside a Black Hole along with B-sides and outtakes.