The Asteroid #4 - Here We Go

(Rainbow Quartz, 2006)

Quite a surprise to see this one sitting in the sales racks in 2006. After skidding off the road into country-rock territory for the Honeyspot debacle three years earlier, I’d figgered Asteroid #4 for dead. Not so! These songs straddle the dense guitar-psych of the earliest material and the bright, peppy pop of King Richard’s Collectibles; even if it’s a retreat, it’s a definite step back in the right direction. Unfortunately, the hooks aren’t nearly up to snuff and the lyrics, as always, remain dreadful (one boneheaded verse is built on an around/down/found rhyme), so this doesn’t quite take gold in the comeback sweeps. Still, non-LP B-side “What I Really Want to Do,” the stronger of the two tracks, is passable dream/space-informed altpop with unusually fine singing, and it would’ve stood at least a fighting chance on college radio or 120 Minutes fifteen years ago.

The Asteroid #4 - What A Sorry Way to Go

(Lounge, 1997)

For its second single, the Asteroid #4 takes it all back to ’67 on “What A Sorry Way to Go,” droning, Eastern-tinged psychedelia with groovy pitter-patter hand-percussion. The fat bassline and strong vocal melody indicate that the sitars and such aren’t just startling gimmickry meant to distract from a non-song… this one is legit, and probably would have been a winner even without the layer of added instrumentation. But the rich, relatively intricate arrangement really does work; catchy and beautifully put together, it trumps similar material being churned out at the time by bands like the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Saddar Bazaar. Certainly the best original in the Asteroid #4’s catalog, and one of the better songs to come out of the whole “Psychedelphia” scene. The B-side guitar-drone – “Sometimes I Roll My Eyes Into the Back of My Head to See What I’m Thinking – is a throwaway, but it’s an appropriate sonic companion to the main event on the other side.

While it’s unclear whether there’s a physical release or if it’s digital-only, the band has recently gathered all of its singles and compilation tracks (including a great Spacemen 3 cover) on B-Sides & Singles 1997-2007. Freeloaders can stream the album here.

The Asteroid #4 - The CIA Took My Dog Away

(Lounge, 1995)

The Asteroid #4 is one of those groups that, as the saying goes, plays its record collection. Which is generally fine with me, because it has always seemed like there’s a lot of overlap when it comes to our fave-raves (but what was with that dire country-rock album, doodz??). The band ties its wagon to the early-90s shoegazers on its debut single, focusing on volume and density of sound as opposed to the strictly Floydian space-cadet moves the fellas would soon be pulling. This record actually sounds quite similar to Philly pals the Lilys’ contemporaneous Eccsame the Photon Band album – and whoa, DIG IT, the Asteroid #4 would work with Kurt Heasley in the studio and follow his group into Brit Invasion territory a few years down the road.

“The CIA Took My Dog Away,” with the gentle, quavering guitars of its verses and the churning, distorted guitars of the choruses, is your basic yet successful shoegaze-pop construction, and a fine way to kick off a career …even if those reverbed-to-death vocals are a bit much. On a rather less interesting note, the first half of “Mellow Beach” drifts and throbs, barely there, before the effects-laden guitars come rushing in to boot ya in the pants for the last few minutes. While neither song has anything of note going in terms of originality or structure (and “Mellow Beach” isn’t much melodically, either), it’s hard to be too grumpy about anything that gives you a few blasts of satisfying MBV-lite. Buck up; it’s a fine mess o’ aural comfort food.