Spaceboy

I don’t listen to very much metal. Probably because I don’t have a lot of it. If I had more, I’d listen to it more often. But I often want to listen to the stuff that is metal. So I mine through my music, and I end up listening to Spaceboy‘s Getting Warm on the Trail of the Heat. I’m not saying you should all copy me all the time, because I’m only human and I often make lots of mistakes, but here’s this album for you so that you can try, if you’d like, to be a good person and do the correct thing and listen to this on a regular basis.

Spaceboy was from Santa Cruz, CA, mid to late 90s. The singer is Clifford from Bl’ast. Spaceboy is, in a way, stoner metal. The way that it’s stoner metal is that pretty much all the songs are about smoking pot and traveling through outer space. The first line of the first track (“Planet of Pot”): “40 million light years in space, to the planet of pot, destination seems so far when a roach is all we’ve got.” A moment after this line is crushed it will become apparent that this is the only way it’s stoner metal; the next moment erupts into a blistering, insane guitar solo. For the next 45 minutes it is big, staggering metal (mixed with ethereal breaks evoking Pink Floyd).

Clifford shrieks, howls, and occasionally YEOWS like David Lee Roth. The drumming is absolutely all over the place. It’s super technical, filled nonstop with little flairs and flourishes. I saw them a few months after getting this album, in 1998 or so. They played a daytime show at the Pickle Patch, to an audience of about 12 people. The drummer had about ten cymbals, many of which were teeny, and bell-like. It was, no doubt, some of the most amazing drumming I’ve ever witnessed. It was also a freaking really loud show. They came across like surfer hippies, sand in hair and between toes, and just super skilled at cranking together brutal, complex, pummeling metal.

MetroActive has a great show review.

Spaceboy crafted behemoth riffs at a furious pace, then sent everyone grabbing for something to hold on to with a glorious finish. NASA’s trying to steal the blueprints to Bill and John’s bookend guitar licks–their stuttered step progressions in “Planet of Pot” sent chills up my hunched back. “Stoner Fort” showcased more of the same seething guitar work–I swear I saw Cheech and Chong’s shadows passing the roach above the packed house.

Photo Kym A.

In case you’re thinking about not downloading this, the seventh track, “Emitic Translation Cathedral,” contains the lyrics, “When innocence is lost… We sing the battle song, drunken with revenge we stagger on. Dethrone the fucking tyrant.” So there you go.

Sorry, I don’t have the lyric sheet on me. I’ll get it next time I visit my parents.

Spaceboy