Their futuristic surf music doesn't bother with the basic drums, guitars and bass.  Man Or AstroMan? are as much scientist as they are musicians, incorporating such instruments as the Tesla Coil, Theremin, Dot Matrix Printers, sample playback and dozens of other unheard of instruments.  

Coco the Electric Monkey Wizard took time out from their current tour to speak with Maximum Ink Magazine. 

Your new CD, A Spectrum of Infinite Scale is a big jump in style from your previous CDs.  How did this happen?

Well...I am not sure how you quantify such things, but I do not think the jump is that drastic in terms of the changes that have occurred over the years with Man or AstroMan?. Of course the difference between our first few records, and this one is substantial, but the change over time, over the course of 10 full lengths has been natural, if not predictable. I know we could not have continued to make the same record over and over for this long, so just the passage of time, new experiences, line up changes, etc, all have lead to this progression.

Tell us about the Eeviac Mainframe Supercomputer and how is it incorporated in the group?

The "Embedded Electronic Variably Integrated Astro Console", or EEVIAC was developed as a tool for Astro progress. An attempt to consolidate many of the rote elements of the daily tasks that we must deal with, the EEVIAC ended up as the most amazing monument to the practical inefficiency that IS Man or Astro-man - a huge lumbering behemoth of a machine that requires endless input, endless maintenance, and constant attention in order to produce the number 4. But this aside, the EEVIAC Mainframe was still the first, and only, and hence the best Supercomputer used in rock and roll, and thus has earned its place in Astro-history, rock history, and of course computational history.    

How is the The Astroman Genome Project coming along?

The project is complete, and was a complete success! We have completed mapping the Astro Genome, or genetic map; we have completed developing clones of ourselves, and even completed making substantial modifications to the code in the form of Astro-Genetic Engineering.  Culminating in the GAMMA Clones, the first batch of all FEMALE ASTRO-MEN!

But all that is complete now. In fact, we took the clones back to the lab and placed them all in large glass/Pyrex cylinders, dissolved them in an aqueous solvent, evaporated out the solvent, which left a film on the inside of the glass, scraped that down, into a powder that we keep with us, and we can re-hydrate whenever we need another astro-staff member.

Man Or AstroMan? seems to perform more shows than any other band I've ever heard about.  Why the nonstop touring?

We have actually slowed the pace down a bit over the years, but what makes it seem like we do so many shows may be the fact that we never do long tours. Some bands will release an album, and hit the road for 5-6 months solid. We would all kill each other if we tried that.  We tour utilizing Packet-Tour-Technology (TM).  We hit the road for like 2-3 weeks, sometimes even less, then take a few off, then back on.  It keeps us sane, and allows us to fix all the crap we break every outing.

Tell us about your new recording studio?

We have been working toward this for over 3 years, and I have been physically building it for the past 2. We have just opened to the public, and are really pleased with the recordings we have done there.  The first recording was our newest album, which was actually engineered by Steve Albini.  That was great because even though we became our own guinea pigs, he was able to lend his studio building advice at just the right phase of construction. I had been speaking with him about the design for some time, and I think he was into coming down and seeing how things turned out. What was cool was that after we did the tracking in our place, we mixed it, up a Steve's. This enabled us to really hear how our rooms sounded in a known environment and the results were very pleasing. Since then we have finished the control room, which is actually made from two intermodal shipping containers (much like railroad cars) up on their own concrete pillars, isolated from the rest of the building structure, this aided in isolation greatly. The interior of the control room was designed in part by Wes Lachoe, who is known for studio designs like Mitch Easter's new place, among others.  The real crux of the studio though is the live room. We have been in so many studios that lack a good live room...nice and large, high ceilings...and that is what we wanted...you just can't beat a nice large room for drums, and all other acoustic instruments/vocals, in our opinion. Our live room turned out really nice sounding. It's a large 24x26' room, with 15' high diffuser ceilings, hardwood floors...semi-diffuser walls, basically we took what we liked from studios we had been in, and worked with as many knowledgeable people we could, and are very satisfied with the results. The studio also has several isolation rooms of varying acoustic qualities, and sizes, so we are pretty well setup for lots of different options.

Is there any equipment (at the studio) that is off limits to us Earthlings?

We have opened up our vast knowledge of technology to be shared with all mankind (ha ha!).  We do have a decent pile of nice old mics, we have some cool old gear like compressors, and mic pre-amps. A full list of equipment can be found at www.zeroreturnstudios.com. or www.astroman.com, and click on "Studio".  We do have a nice old school huge plate reverb like a 4'x8' plate metal reverb...and a cool old 3' vertical spring reverb.  Those are kind of rare and sound really nice to us.

Is there ever going to be a Man or AstroMan? VH1 Behind the Music?

Ha ha ha...that would be hilarious!  Lets do it!  The tragic rise and fall of Birdstuff and his addictions...Just kidding!  We are probably the most boring band; no hard drugs, no octopi in hot tubs, no booze binges.

What do you find most interesting about our planet?

Well, I would be a miss if I did not state how your atmosphere is the unique element that even allows for music to exist the way it does.  Think about it?   Your favorite record would sound like crap on Mars or even Jupiter, if your turntable could handle the tremendous gravity you got a good thing going on this planet.  Try not to fuck it up too bad, too quickly!

Please restate your goals?

At this point we have no objective...in so far as being practically attainable. The Astro-brainwashing is in place, the clones have been developed, the EEVIAC system has proven superior to all other computing devices, the wheels of the future are in motion.  Our only plans are to bring it to you.  Get ready.

Man Or AstroMan? are playing the following dates in the Maximum Ink distribution area:

SAT 12/9 MADISON, WI - The Annex

SUN 12/10 MINNEAPOLIS, MN - First Avenue

MON 12/11 GREEN BAY, WI - Concert Café