Eartling Idiots

It’s no secret that we are big fans of Ed Wood, both the flick and the director himself. The movie that Tim Burton directed about Ed Wood is in my humble opinion the best film Burton ever made.

Ed Wood the man, is a testament to doing it yourself and just going after a vision and getting it done. Sure the results were a bizarre mess but that is their joy.

If we even get a partial bit of that joy of spectacularly hilarious disasters in our recordings then we are achieving our goal.

I think in hindsight this track is a bit too long.

I do often wonder what superior aliens would think of us if they ever came to our planet. I’m sure their first thought would be, how stupid are these monkeys?

Of course Plan Nine from Outer Space is amongst our favorite Ed Wood films. So this was our loving tribute to that film and all things sci-fi.

Transmitting from a brain dead planet,

Count Robot

Onion Town

In the not so distant past we did a gig at the premiere of Onion Town which is a variety show which is held at the historical Tapley Hall in Danvers, Mass. A nice space with some cool stuff on display. Onion Town is an ongoing series of gigs and you should go and check them out. Contact Tapley hall to find out the schedule.

The show is hosted and run by Dan Tremblay. Dan does some goofball standup and plays some cool 60’s cover tunes. This show is not an open mike. Dan lines the acts up ahead of time.

Dan himself was up first. Seems apropos seeing as how it’s his shindig.

Next up was someone who’s name I’ve forgotten. Sorry. She was good though did a fun Janis Joplin cover while her son and guest star bopped about.

Then MC David Breen introduced the next act after ranting about Sesame Street.

This dude was cool. Did some blues tunes with just his voice and a harmonica.

Then up next was Michael Bloom. He did three great original tunes of his. That song of his Restless is very catchy.

David Breen came back and introduced us after a rant about Starbucks being the people’s coffee. That one is just for you David.

At this point Astro Al was up to get freaked out. We played three tunes. Ghost Town, Dr. Gumdrop, and Steampunk. During Steampunk the singer’s son played the part of an airship and ran all around the room. It was a darn fun time.

After our set there was an impromptu acoustic sing along on This Land.

Next was Captain David Fork Tongue telling a spooky pirate story.

After that a woman whose name I don’t know read some jokes.

Then a dude got up and sang a few tunes.

And that was it. A good night full of fun stuff. Admission was only five bucks and that was a lot of entertainment and the admission included free snack food and soda. If you like a good fun time you should check Onion Town. We will be back to play there again sooner or later.

Your scribe,

Count Robot

Outsider Music

Perhaps you’ve heard the term Outsider Music. For those not in the know here is the deal, the term refers to people who operate outside the standards of music writing and don’t conform to normal song structure either because they consciously reject it or don’t understand the supposed norms of song construction (verse, chorus, etc.). It’s music by people outside the commercial industry of music.

The New Hampshire 60’s band, The Shaggs are a good example of this style of music. Other folks in this genre include Tiny Tim, Jandek, and Syd Barrett. Check them out and see what you think. Not sure if Syd really falls into this category to my way of thinking, but given the fact that he was once the lead singer for Pink Floyd his name is a little more recognizable so he does make a good reference point for this discussion.

So you might be wondering why am I blithering on about these types of folks.

Well a question came to me… Is Astro Al outsider music? Do I care if we are?

Well as to whether I care much or not… I guess I must since I’m writing a blog about this subject.

So are we outsider music? Let’s check…

We do produce our material outside of the recording industry.

We don’t consciously follow or break song structure. Often times we start a song with a chorus, which is against the thought process of most songs. Now in all honesty we never did it because we wanted to purposefully reject songwriting rules, we did just because we thought it sounded cool and felt it made the song better. When we work on our tunes we just do what we think makes that piece the best it can be we just let our minds go and if its verse, chorus, fine, if not that’s fine too.

So are we outsider music?

Call us outsider music if you want. That choice is up to you.

I will always think of Astro Al as psychedelic B horror/sci-fi music and that label is good enough for me.

From the outside realms,

Count Robot

our friend Dan

We like acting in our friend Dan Margarita’s videos.

Dan writes some pretty funny and cool songs.

Dan cast us in this video for his song, Carol Merrell.

I was miscast, as a cop. Love the blend of black and white and color in this one.

It all started for us with this one, Stitches and Nudity. We spent a great day working on this one with a gaggle of our friends.

Yours in video madness

Count Robot

Questioning the DNA Girl

A brief interview conducted with DNA Girl from Astro Al on the winding road…

Count Robot: What would you say is your biggest influence on Astro Al?

DNA Girl: Monty Python, 60’s avent garde movement, Robyn Hitchcock and the Three Stooges. We’ve been compared to the Bonzo Dog Band.

Count Robot: What is your view of playing live verses playing a song in the recording studio?

DNA Girl: More nervous live, more relaxed in the studio. Love the audience reactions but playing in the studio we can experiment more.

Count Robot: What’s your favorite live gig we’ve ever done?

DNA Girl: The Landing Pad in Philadelphia. We had a ball there and people seemed to get us there.

Count Robot:  What was your favorite recording experience?

DNA Girl: The thing that stands out the most to me are the videos we made. Some of the most interesting things is when we are recording against other peoples music like when Joe Davis (from Harts Horn) or Brian Fowler (from Spaceseed) contributed music.

Count Robot: Which video is your favorite?

DNA Girl: Hands down, You’re Dead, So Shut Up, had a ball doing that one. Rio Santos was a hoot too. It was fun not having to play the straight character. It’s been fun having our friends in these videos. It’s turned into an extension of our old theater group.

Count Robot: Where do you get your inspiration?

DNA Girl: A lot of is from crazy dreams, like the song Cocoa Clouds Hides the Chocolate Dimension. I just woke up one day with that phrase in my head and Rodney the Rodent Roadster was based on a dream.

Your correspondent,

Count Robot

Ghost Story

Many of the best horror stories leave it to the reader to fill in the gaps and use the darkest parts of their own imaginations to fully develop the terror of the tale they are reading. The HP Lovecraft story, The Music of Erich Zann is an excellent example of this type of fiction. If you like a good creepy story and haven’t read the Music of Erich Zann than seek it out.

With our track Ghost Story we took that approach.

The idea of suggesting enough things to send the listener down many shadow filled paths.

What happened between Jack and his wife? Did he really love her and she him? Was the ghost trying to please Jack or did she want something else?

The video was shot in an impressionistic style to attempt to emphasize the gothic mood.

Some of the houses in the video are no longer standing.

The cats in the video just happened to be there while we were filming. It was an interesting coincidence to say the least.

So here it is, from Pet Noizes, our horror fiction, Ghost Story.

Supernaturally yours,

Count Robot

Dollhouse of the Damned

DNA Girl finds dolls to be creepy.

I’ve always thought that dolls are an odd and weird totem for our society. We project onto them the things we want to be and the things we fear to be and do. They are portals to our imagination.

And sometimes our imagination is a very frightening place.

From Pet Noizes here is The Dollhouse of the Damned.

Eerily yours,

Count Robot