Tusk Magazine - The Tuscaloosa News - OCT. 9TH, 2006
D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen
Who: D.C. Moon, guitar; Celesta Riner, vocals; Ricky Lee, bass; Sandra Hunt, backing vocals; Warren Eckstein, guitar; David Standifer, drums.
Style: Punk
Sounds like: the Ramones seducing the Blue Oyster Cult during a MST3K rerun marathon.
Influences: old school punk, heavy metal, B movies, science fiction
Contact: www.dcmoon.com
Tusk Magazine - The Tuscaloosa News - On-line Poll - Sept. 22nd 2006
Who is your favorite local band?
A. All-American Tragedy 20.8%
B. Jackson Jones 45.8%
C. Fire the Missles 0.0%
D. D.C. Moon and his Atomic Supermen! 33.3%
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSTuscaloosa Music - D.C. Moon by Joe Bush - PLANET WEEKLY - MAY 12TH 2005 - Issue 216
The chicken goes cluck, the cow goes moo and the D.C. Moon goes Rarr!
Sounds strange? Well that's because it is. D.C. Moon and his Atomic Supermen are one of Tuscaloosa'a most original bands, playing their brand of sci-fi punk rock. They don't go out and play too often these days, but when they do they literally play one hell of a show.
For a local lo-tech band they put on a performance whcih would make them the GWAR of Tuscaloosa with pyrotechnics, dancing girls and a big green dinosaur.
They will be playing at Egan's for the upcoming Friday the 13th celebration. They have made the challenge for anyone willing to come and try their luck.
They have recently been promoting their latest album, "RARR!," which includes old favorites like "Colossal Man" and "When California Falls," and some new ones like "Hunting Humans," which was written by Macobean author John Shirley.
Shirley is a noted author who has written songs for rock greats like Blue Oyster Cult and has worked on movies such as The Crow. D.C. Moon has worked with him on several songs that are on the new album.
The theatrics, with lots of smoke, some flames coming out of an ashtray filled with black powder, and a green tube with a dinosaur head attached, makes the stage show sound cheesy, but it's none-the less wildly entertaining and energetic.
Lead singer D.C. Moon and drummer David Standifer formed the band in 1990 and have picked up several band members and released three albums in the last 15 years.
Standifer is also the author of Planet Weekly's "Hail Metalheads" column and host of WVUA's highly successful Metal Zone on Friday nights.
Other band members include Ricky Lee, bald by choice, funny by nature, bassist for the six-member band.
Then there is the second guitarist, Warren Eckstein, a busy man with two kids who still has time to show off at the local skate park, and back-up vocalist Celesta Riner, who is one of the two women now with the band.
Riner has become more vocal in the band on certain tracks on "RARR!" And like Dave the Metal Guy, she also has her own radio show on WVUA, called Waking Up Hard with Celesta on Friday mornings.
D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen were a regular act at the Chukker until its' closing in 2003. They even played there on its last night to help close the old hang out. They were then invited to be the opening band the first night Club XS was open downtown. In addition to playing around Tuscaloosa, they've also made past appearances at DragonCon.
For more information on D.C. Moon, visit www.dcmoon.com
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSChukker's last hurrah melds angry punk rock with passed-out customers - THE CRIMSON WHITE - NOV. 3, 2003 - by GRAHAM FLANAGAN
As I waded through the sea of remorseful Chukker patrons at the nearly 50-year-old bar in the wee hours Saturday morning (the last official day for it to be in business), two distinct thoughts ran through my work-weary mind.
The first: "Hey, that guy is passed out on a table."
The second: "Hey, so is that guy over there."
I entered The Chukker after getting off work at another bar at about 4:15 a.m.; thankfully, the managerial staff had ceased to charge the rather unappealing $10 cover. Never before had I seen The Chukker hold a larger, or for that matter, drunker, amount of customers.
While I do not and should not condone intentional intoxication by means of the excessive consumption of alcohol, I felt this moment was one when it was understandable to want to drown one's sorrows in drink.
While I, personally, cannot claim to have been a Chukker regular - I only recently turned 21 and entered a bar legally - I understand the reason for the sadness of its hundreds of faithful, former customers. In the past few months it has, for me, become somewhat of an automatic destination after a long Friday night spent working at the aforementioned "other bar."
I have numerous fond memories of losing at pool and sipping on Pabst Blue Ribbons after pumping multiple dollars into what I consider to be the most impressive and eclectic jukebox in town.
By impressive and eclectic, I mean . . . Well, you read Friday's online edition of "The Weekend Warrior," didn't you?
"This song is for the c--------s in the Tuscaloosa City Council!" - D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen bassist Ricky Lee.
After only seeing one rock n' roll show (Charlie Hunter in 2002) at the 1956-established bar, I must confess that the performance (which began at 4:30!) delivered by D.C. Moon and his Atomic Supermen easily goes down as one of the greatest shows I have ever seen in Tuscaloosa, let alone at The Chukker itself.
Awash in rage and hostility toward the City Council, the performance contained a myriad of bizarre details and instances.
One particular instance, and the most memorable as far as I'm concerned, came during a performance of a song that I'll assume is titled, "Dead Babies."
Amid the creepy instrumentation and lyrics ("Dead Babies take things off your shelves"), the band added some theatrics to the mix by having a man wearing an S&M slave mask perform crude surgery on a blond-haired kewpie doll and then hurling its body and cotton entrails into the crowd.
Case in point, D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen now own every local rock band.
It's no wonder The Chukker management decided to close out the night with their performance.
Aided by drummer Dave Standifer, host of the Metal Zone (Fridays at 10 p.m. on New Rock 90.7), as well as Celesta Riner (also a New Rock veteran) on vocals and Warren Eckstein on guitar, lead singer/guitarist D.C. Moon's performance Saturday morning certainly did justice to the well-known legacy of the infamous downtown booze-hole.
What a way for the place to go out: with mean-as-hell, ass-kicking rock n' roll.
I will miss hanging out at The Chukker.
It was a unique spot with a unique environment.
I will always remember, though, the grade-A final performance that graced its very narrow music hall.
I can only look forward to the next time I get to see a live performance of "Dead Babies," if that is indeed what it is called.
RARR! - SCI FI MAGAZINE - OCT. 2003 - SOUNDSPACE by Jeff Berkwits
Thank the SCI FI Channel for the title to this raucous romp, which was inspired by the channel's closed-caption description of the roar for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Played by D.C. Moon and his Atomic Supermen - who describe themselves as "sci-fi punks from planet Earth" - cuts like "I Married a Woman From Outer Space" and "The Meteor Titanic" mix solid garage, surf and psychobilly enthusiasm with imaginative, albeit decidedly idiosyncratic, sentiments. Billed as "the musical equivalent of a '50's/60's science-fiction double feature," the 11-song set is wonderfully wacky and welcome.
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSMOON MEN - The live show of the genre-blending, sci-fi punk outfit D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen probably won't give you nightmares, but it might make you feel like checking out a good horror flick - THE STRIP - June 19, 2003 - by Carter Davis
The man many people know simply as D.C., the leader of the Tuscaloosa-based sci-fi troupe D.C. Moon and His Atomic Superman, is confused and irritated.
"I don't think people get that we're supposed to be a funny band," Moon said. "We don't take ourselves seriously at all. I hear these so-called rock bands on the radio and the music is all so pre-packaged and angry. I see a band like Creed, and I'm like, 'You're from Florida. Lighten up.'"
It is a deeply rooted love for all things science fiction and a willingness to seek humor in everything that has kept this band afloat. D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen has existed in a town where a large portion of its potential audience turns over every few years and stable venues for original music have been hard to come by.
Moon's group has long been a fixture on the Tuscaloosa music scene and Moon himself has played in bands here for more than 20 years. In this particular band, Moon handles the vocals and also plays guitar. Filling out the group is a cast of local semi-all-stars - most notably, band co-founder and drummer David Standifer, is the longtime host of WVUA-FM's "The Metal Zone" each Friday night. Also a DJ at the same station is the band's other singer, Celesta Riner, the host of "Waking Up Hard with Celesta" and member of the local band Cicatrix. The group is rounded out by guitarist Warren Eckstein and bassist Ricky Lee.
D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen got its start sometime around 1990, though Moon admits it gets difficult to keep up with all the changes in his musical past.
"I started out in one of Tuscaloosa's first punk bands in 1981. We were called The Drillers," Moon said. "From there, I played with several bands. One of the bands I was in, Burning Zoo, went through 16 guitar players in three years," he said chukling.
D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen began as D.C. Moon and Red Giant. The title "atomic supermen" is a thinly veiled reference to a line in the Bela Lugosi/Ed Wood film Bride of The Monster. Moon estimates that the band, as it exists today, has been around for nearly a decade, though some members have come and gone.
"We released a few demo tapes, which all got good press, but it wasn't until we released the CD, The Meteor Titanic, in '95 that people began to notice us," Moon said.
The band has relased two-other full-lengths - The Uncertainty Principle in 1997 and 2002's humorously titled salute to monster movies, Rarr!.
The band's most recent disc in an unapoligetic mishmash of several musical styles, all rooted in early three-chord punk rock.
"That's what I grew up playing," Moon said. "When I hear kids talking about Green Day being old-school punk rock, it makes me sick. I guess that's part of getting old, though."
Rarr! is 100 percent dedicated to the band's love for sci-fi. With song titles such as "I Married a Woman From Outer Space," "U.F.O.!" and "The Man From Tomorrow," the theme is not exactly buried within cryptic song lyrics.
"The title of Rarr! came from the film The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," Moon said. "I was watching the movie with the sound muted. Every time the (fictional) rhedosaurus would make a noise, the closed-captioning would say 'Rarr!' It was hysterical, so I knew that it had to be the title of our next album."
Moon also said that a drinking game named Rarr was also created, in which participants watch the aforementioned film and take a shot of liquor every time the beast roars.
"By the end, everyone is extinct," Moon said.
The cover of the disc features a Moon-created "Rarrasaurus" devouring one of Tuscaloosa's most recognizable landmarks - the downtown AmSouth Bank building.
Although the band as yet to gain widespread notoriety, it's not for lack of trying. The group can be found playing everything from Halloween parties to Atlanta's annual gathering of sci-fi and comic book lovers, DragonCon. Moon claims the band has fans in places a far-flung as France, Australia and Latvia.
"Once, when the Woggles were playing a university in Prague, a song was playing over the P.A. . . . it was our music. I sure don't know anybody in Prague," Moon said.
The strange occurences don't end there. Legendary science-fiction icon John Shirley, who is know as the principal screenplay writer for The Crow, is also a contributor to the band.
"We met him at DragonCon in 1996 and he liked our stuff. He has written lyrics for us before and I have a ton of stuff at home from him that I have to work into songs," Moon said.
Shirley is also know for his lyrical contributions to another group of offbeat rock musicians - Blue Oyster Cult. He wrote nearly all of the lyrics on the album Curse of the Hidden Mirror.
D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen might bring to mind other sci-fi obsessed groups such as Man or Astroman?, Electric Frankenstein, or even the almighty Misfits, but the group is striving for an original sound and concept.
"I can't think of anyone that is really doing what we are doing," Moon said. "I like to call it sci-fi punk with old school metal thrown in. I'm talking about metal like Foghat. We've paid our dues, that's for sure, but if you're not from L.A. or New York, it's tough to make it as a punk band. We get good press, but if the industry doesn't like you, forget it."
The newest addition to the band is a 20-foot dinosaur, constructed by Moon. Built from dowels, foam, glue and pool noodles (those flexible, floating brightly colored foam tubes) the dinosaur is now a constant presence at each of the band's shows.
"I think we'll try to sneak it in to our next show at The Chukker," Moon said laughing. "It's probably too big but we can stick its head through the door, I think."
In the coming year, the band hopes to record and release a live CD and an accompanying DVD, featuring a live performance by the band.
"It just depends on how much it costs," Moon said, "but people just need to see us live to understand what we're about. It's a crazy show. We all love doing this and I think it shows."
Standifer echoed that sentiment.
"We're in it until the end," Standifer said, "whether or not it's (because of) a car wreck or someone steals my drums. I've been in this band for twelve years. I've tried to quit, but it keeps dragging me back."
Rarr! Review - Andy Duncan - Locus Online - Thursday, March 20th, 2003
The new CD from D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen is titled Rarr! in tribute to one of Moon's favorite movies, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. While recently watching the picture on television with the closed captioning switched on, Moon noticed that any sound the Ray Harryhausen creature made was captioned as "Rarr!"
The CD art, a collaboration between Moon and drummer David Standifer, thus shows a Rarrasaurus menacing the AmSouth bank building, the tallest in Moon's hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama - here blessedly minus the ugly time-and-temperature sign permanently suspended atop the real building like a junked mother ship. Maybe the Rarrasaursus already bit it off.
Moon has been knocking around the Southeastern punk and science fiction scenes for a while - playing cons, collaborating with John Shirley and Nancy Collins, opening for GWAR (a thankless task). He also is one of the founding members of the tw-month-old Tuscaloosa Science Fiction Society, where I belatedly met him. Rarr!, which contains a couple of older Moon songs as well as a pod full of new ones, is a good introduction for the rest of you.
Even when Moon isn't performing, an hour spent in his company - discussing DragonCon, Esperanto, David J. Schow's The Outer Limits Companion - leaves one convinced that Forry Ackerman, not that tight-ass pretender John W. Campbell, is the true guiding genius of American science fiction, with the most pervasive and long-lasting impact on American culture as a whole. But Moon really hammers this point home once he picks up his guitar. Like all of us, Moon watched entirely too much television growing up, and the songs on Rarr! - all but one written by Moon himself - will set off photon torpedoes in the memory of anyone hip enough (or geeky enough) to know what MST3K stands for: "They're Coming After You," "I Married a Woman From Outer Space," "Colossal Man."
The cheerfully manic "The Communists, The Martians and the C.I.A.," an X-Files update of Bob Dylan's "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues," shows off Moon's talents as a writer and a singer. His vocals manage to sound, all at once, like Rocky Horror's Richard "Riff Raff" O'Brien, Fred Schneider of the B-52's and Rick Miller of Southern Culture on The Skids. Another standout, "My Virtual Julie," strikes a surprisingly wistful note in its ode to online chat-room sex; it's like a Johnathan Lethem story set to music by The Who, circa "Pictures of Lilly."
Moon gets able support from the rest of the Atomic Supermen, including Standifer (the band's co-founder), bass player Ricky Lee, top-notch guitarist and keyboardist Warren Eckstein, (who moonlights, off stage, as the most intentionally funny person in Gordo, Alabama) and a crowd favorite, Celesta Riner, who sings, shimmies, yelps and plays the vibraslap, a percussion instrument that sounds like a surprised rattlesnake and looks like something borrowed from a mad scientist's lab, or maybe the salad bar at Ryan's. The vibraslap provides ominous undertone for the CD's first track, "Vasquez Rocks," which appropriately is inspired by a backdrop: Vasquez Rocks is the jagged landscape near Los Angeles that has served as the Monument Valley of generations of low-budget filmmakers. (Kirk fought the Gorn there.)
Riner's vocals, which suggest both Grace Slick and Nico, are showcased in concert by the band's most haunting number, "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You" - from the band's sadly out-of-print second CD, The Uncertainty Principle. (You can hear the song at the band's website, www.dcmoon.com)
In his March 15 show at The Chukker, the gloriously seedy bar next door to his downtown Tuscaloosa apartment, Moon dedicated "They're Coming After You" - inspired both by the opening dialogue of Night of the Living Dead and by Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll, Part Two" - to his friend Sandra Sahm, a popular Tuscaloosa bartneder who died March 3 of complications from diabetes, at age 31. Sahm, Moon explained, was a big zombie fan and an aspiring author of zombie fiction.
This short, touching intro, like Rarr! and indeed, Moon's whole act, is a reminder that in a horrific world, the made-up horrors we grew up with - the more low-rent and kitschy, the better - continue to serve us well, as old friends, places of refuge, excuses to party. Everybody who reads Locus Online should enjoy partying with D.C. Moon. Everybody Rarr!
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSRARR! - John Shirley - Boing Boing Online
DC Moon's "Rarr!" compilation CD is the perfect antidote to the depressing actual world. These are songs about low budget B scifi movies (DC Moon is billed as SciFi Punk Rock) like the "Colossal Man" and "I Married a Woman From Outer Space" or on thems which are DC Moon's persomal eccentric equivalent of old scifi movies -- his own view of life as a cheap scifi movie. The music has a flavor of surf rock filtered through punk. It bashes - in a good way. My favorite, which could have been a top ten radio novelty song hit, if given the chance, is "The Communists, The Martians and the C.I.A." BLAME THEM for what's wrong in your life. DC Moon's unique sensibility makes him a panacea for the shudders you feel when you read the newspapers. And also, he rocks. Go to www.dcmoon.com to find out how to get the album. This deserves to be a nationally known cult itme and probably will become one.
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSThe Man in The Moon - Rhonda Ellis - Univ. Of Alabama
His name is D.C. Moon, but he may be Superman
It was 4 a.m., and I was sitting in a straight-back chair in D.C. Moon's living room enjoying Budweiser in a can, taking in the festivities. Me and the guy to my left were laughing at The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, which Moom was showing in closed caption so we could all partake in Rarr! the drinking game. His apartment alone kept me captivated. The entrance hall and the living room were covered with Spider-Man, Godzilla and other science-fiction nostalgia, including the Godzilla phone that he really uses.
There was an assortment of refreshments: chips, dips, pretzels, red beans and rice, popcorn, beer and liquor. He gave us all shot glasses so we could be sure to drink every time we saw "Rarr!" on the screen. My glass had Frankenstein's face on it. The group let out a hefty "Rarr!", and as my lips hit the rim I was struck in the head by a large tribal mask of some sort.
My eyes watered, and I was dazed wondering if God had thumped me for something I said. My eyes refocused, and I saw Moon leaning down apologizing repeatedly as if somehow he had summoned the mask to fall from the tall, green bookshelf. His black "Mars Attacks!" T-shirt was eye-level, the sleeves cut off. My eyes floated up to his face, a neatly trimmed goatee, kind eyes and finally his shaved head. His girlfriend, Susan, ran to get me some napkins. The blow had spilled my whiskey shot in my lap. The whole time Moon wanted to know if I was OK and could he get me anything.
It was hardly the punk attitude. Even when I met him for this interview at a local bar, he offered to buy me a Bud Light to go along with his Bud, and he was sure to light every Camel I pulled out. Don't get the wrong idea. He's no angel either. In fact, he's the front man for Tuscaloosa's most evil band, D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen, and he's been spreading his sci-fi punk sound all over the place. Underneath his politeness and through his modest goatee, you'll find a man who loves horror, science fiction and all things evil.
Moon has always had a hard time sitting still. He had lived in at least eight states by the age of 10 due to his father's job. After his father's passing, he moved with his mother to Marion, Ala., and had made Tuscaloosa his home by the time he was in the eighth grade. His mom sang in the church choir and his brother played bass guitar and even the cello. Moon started playing the guitar at 15. He wrote his first song, "Screaming At The Edge," which is on his first CD, The Meteor Titanic. Moon spent his college years at Oregon State and the University of Alabama, where he was a film major.
"I was going to make movies and be the next Stanley Kubrick, but I dropped out of school to be in a rock-and-roll band," Moon says.
Moon's band, The Drillers, played punk covers from bands such as The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and some original songs. His ghoulish and often hilarious sci-fi punk sound stems from his childhood.
"I saw Planet of The Apes and 2001 when I was 9, and I haven't been the same since," Moon says.
Planet of The Apes had such an effect on him and his brother that they didn't even notice their dad when he came to pick them up.
"We just talked and talked about the movie," Moon says. "My dad said that I just looked right at him. But I was seeing him. I was seeing apes!"
As a child, Moon never missed a creature feature, even if he was so scared he had to watch it peeking through his fingers. His grandmother was also a fan. She took him and his brother to see The Green Slime. One character in particular got under Moon's skin: Christopher Lee as Dracula.
"He was so creepy that for weeks I'd keep my sheets pulled up around my neck!," Moon said. "My mom told me I shouldn't watch that stuff if it scared me, but I enjoyed it. It's fun being scared."
Aside from his eerie background, Moon has worked hard to get where he is today. He has completed a total of three albums and has received praise from all over the world. A friend doing a world tour in the band The Woggles noticed Moon's music being played in Czechoslovakia to pump up a crowd for a show.
"I have no idea how they got a copy of the album. I never saw the money from it," Moon said jokingly said.
Moon's band is a favorite in Tuscaloosa as well. They are known for their entertaining and fun shows laced with catchy beats and guitar riffs. In the song, "Mokele-Mbembe," Moon and his men might drum on buckets, or you could get "slimed" by the band with silly string. Many of their songs are tongue-in-cheek such as "The Communists, The Martians and The C.I.A." Their latest CD, Rarr!, is a collection of all of their sci-fi material on one album. Moon and his girlfriend Susan came up with the title of the album while watching Saturday afternoon movies on the Sci-Fi channel. They had the closed captioning on while watching The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and began laughing because no matter what kind of noise the monster made, it would say "Rarr! across the screen. Thus, the album title and the drinking game were born.
Outside of performing, is an often quiet and humble man. Not all of his parties consist of being bonked on the head. After boozing and snacking, he'll usually throw on a Ramones record or a particularly disgusting G.G. Allin video. Most of all, he wants to know if he can get you anything and if you're having a good time. He's so nice he even has a hard time saying anything bad about the pop-fluff being put out today.
"What I think sucks, someone else thinks is cool," Moon said. "It's like what Alice Cooper said back in the 70's, 'For every Debbie Boone, they're be a Johnny Rotten.'"
Moon is upset that a lot of young people assume that if it's not on MTV, it's not worth hearing. "There's so much more than what one company has to show," Moon said.
Moon and his Atomic Supermen have proved that some of the best things aren't on MTV as they continue to break out from the underground. Though skeptical about MTV and other music industry giants, Moon is optimistic about the future.
"There can be a future if we make one," Moon said "That is, if we don't get wiped out by a giant rock from outer space!"
D.C. Moon And His Atomic Supermen - Southeast Performer Magazine - Live Section December 2002 - Brett Tannehill
D.C. Moon has been playing the Tuscaloosa music scene long enough to remember when there actually was a music scene.
But times always change, and with the latest resurgence of Tuscaloosa music comes the newest (and perhaps best) version of this long-time, sci-fi metal/punk themed band, the Atomic Supermen. The group cut loose with a show in late September that's possibly one of the strongest shows ever played in the band's history. The crunchy metal riffs swapped between Moon and new guitarist Warren Eckstein were unique and lively, and played with a level of passion never seen before. Vocalist/auxillary muscian Celesta Riner brought a femine fire to the show, shaking and swinging herself all across the stage. The rhythm section still holds the same groundshaking lineup of drummer David Standifer and bassist Ricky Lee.
The strangest part of this show was the group drum solo, which combined heavy beats from the drum set with a strange, tribal groove banged out on the top of large plastic buckets. It was something hard to describe, but it tickled the fancy of the listeners standing in the narrow hallway leading to the Chukker's stage front. The rest of the show played out like a heavy metal comic book, featuring songs from the band's origins with Red Giant and its previous CD The Meteor Titanic. Those original tunes have helped the band land big gigs from here to DragonCon, including a raucous show with GWAR. The Chukker show featured some new stuff as well, like the drum solo, which is titled "Mokele-Mbembe" after a legendary dinosaur thought to still be living deep in the Congo. "Mokele-Mbembe" can be heard on DC Moon and the Atomic Supermen's new disc. The CD is titled Rarr! and it debuted Halloween night 2002 in downtown Tuscaloosa at Dionysus.
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSHalloween's not just for young kids - Tuscaloosa News, Oct. 31st
Rarr! CD Release Party
Dionysus (2310 University Blvd, 345-6638) will host its first CD release party tonight for the new DC Moon and His Atomic Supermen disc "Rarr!"
You can't miss the disc cover, featuring Moon's hand-sculpted Claymation-style Rarr-asaurus attacking a famous downtown Tuscaloosa landmark.
"Rarr!" was cut in one hot August day at Airwave Studios in Birmingham because the group knew the material Most of the Atomic Supermen have worked with Moon over the years in bands such as Red Giant and Burning Zoo.
"Rarr!" features a selection of the best Moon forked tongue-in-cheek cuts from past years, including "The Communists, The Martians and the C.I.A," "Woman From Outer Space," "Far Beyond the Stars (The Green Slime)" and "Vasquez Rocks," along with new cuts like "Mokele-Mbembe."
The latter is about the fabled Brontosaurus who purportedly lives in the Congo, after the name given it by the tribespeople.
"(The name) literally means 'one who stops the flow of the river,'" Moon said.
The instrumental "Vasquez Rocks" is another science-fiction touchstone: That's the name of the rocky landscape where Kirk fought the lizard man on "Star Trek."
The Vasquez Rocks, a stark state park, also has been used a backdrop for TV shows such as "The Outer Limits," "The Twlight Zone," and movies from "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" to "The Flintstones."
The CD release party will start about 10:30.
The band will play two sets, with a costume contest between sets. There's no cover charge.
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSThe Strip - Sept. 26th, 2002
Locals Only - The State of local music in Tuscaloosa and beyond
D.C. MOON AND HIS ATOMIC SUPERMEN
"D.C. Moon . . . has gathered quite a lot of critical praise (by) playing some of the strangest mixtures of punk, metal and science-fiction-flavored rock over the last decade." The band has shared the stage with acts like GWAR and their drummer is WVUA-FM's own Dave "the metal guy" Standifer, the longtime host of Friday night's radio meltdown "The Metal Zone." Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The Tuscaloosa News - June 7th, 2002
Sci-Fi Double Feature - Best Bets
It's not the drive-in, but it's close: The Summer Sci-Fi Double Feature Show Saturday at Dionysus will feature speculative-fiction rock bands D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen and the monster-surf Daikaiju.
Tuscaloosa's D.C. Moon and His Atomic Supermen, shown below, bills itself as "Sci-fi Punks from Planet Earth." The new disc "RARR!" is due out October.
Huntsville's Daikaiju is touring behind it's new CD "The Phasing Spider Menace," and kabuki-style masks.
To learn more about their weird and wonderful ways, you can see their Web sites www. daikaiju.net and www.dcmoon.com.
Dionysus is at 2310 University Blvd., in downtown Tuscaloosa. Call 345-6638.
Atlanta's Creative Loafing - Aug. 29 - Sept. 4, 2001 - Sound Menu
Sci-fi punk act and Dragon*Con veteran DC Moon joins horror/sci-fi novelists Craig Spector and John Shirley - known together as Smashcut - onstage as the festivities begin to wind down. Though you haven't heard Godhead on local radio, the D.C. goth/industrial act has quite an underground following. Voltaire's headling slot helps close out the convention while heavy-hitters Clutch play in the larger Centennial ballroom (Williams)
Alternate Realities - The Tuscaloosa News - Mark Cobb - August 23, 2001
Call it what you will - science-fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction - it's a load of inadequate names for imaginary landscapes, differing lives, other realities. It's as old as Jules Verne and as contemporary as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," as elaborate as Anne McCaffery's Pern and as thin as "H.R. Pufnstuf," as pop as "Star Wars" and as esoteric as "Dr. Who."
Atlanta's DragonCon is another world
"Every time I go, my jaw just drops," said Andy Duncan, a local writer who has been a guest at DragonCons past. "It's what most folks believe a science-fiction convention should be; just more and bigger and wackier than any of the others.
"At any given time, you can see 1,000 Klingons walking down the street, rather than just four or five."
Coming up next weekend, Friday through Sept. 3, the country's largest convention for fans of science-fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, gaming, animation, television and more is, if nothing else, a great people-watching weekend.
More than 20,000 visitors buckle on swords and stormtrooper helmets, tights and werewolf hair to join in creating the multi-faceted event, which this year features guests Alice Cooper, James "Scotty" Doohan, Anthony "C3P0" Daniels, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson and Harlan Ellison.
Even though the 20,000 are loosely gathered under the same tent, at DragonCon, there are worlds within worlds: filkers (fantasy folksingers), gamers (those who'll buckle down with Dungeons & Dragons or the latest video game), goths (lots of white makeup, black clothes, serious jones for vampires), Trekkers, Star Wars fanatics, Xena-philes and much more.
"Traditionally, a science-fiction convention is usually geared toward one aspect," said D.C. Moon, local musician and singer/songwriter/guitarist of D.C. Moon and Red Giant. Moon's unit will again play this year's DragonCon, about 10:30 Sunday night, having also played there in 1996 and 1999.
"You'll have a 'Star Trek' convention, a 'Star Wars' convention. But because this one is so diverse, with so many different programming tracks, you'll have all different kinds of people, all ages, all levels of fandom."
A monster costume contest will show everything from simple thrown-together cases of bad make-up to professional level of dedication.
"Some look like they just stepped off of a movie set, they're so good," Moon said.
The big-name guests recieve awards, give lectures or sit on panel discusssions, then later gather in dealer room (selling pretty much anything you can imagine) to sign autographs and chat. Like pro athletes, this crowd doesn't sign for free, so be prepared to cough up $15 to $25 for an autographed photo.
Cooper will recieve the International Horror Guild Living Legend Award at a banquet, and Daniels will serve as master of ceremonies. Racounteur Ellison is the writer guest of the millennium. Doohan, who played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek," will provide some star glamour.
More than 300 other guests - writers, actors, artists, musicians - of varying levels of fame will play, entertain or just show up and be fabulous throughout the weekend.
"The guests range from the real draws, the Harlan Ellisons and William Shatners and Neil Gaimans, to, frankly, panel fillers," Duncan said, laughing. It is one of the rare places where someone like Gaiman, a respected short-story writer, novelist and creator of the "Sandman" graphic novels but not exactly a household name in middle America, needs bodyguards.
Duncan and Moon, both long-time fans of things SF, have had brushes with fame at DragonCon. Duncan was especially enamored of the panel from a few years back that held Ray Bradbury, Ellison and movie stop-motion animation genius Ray Harryhausen.
As if that weren't enough, Famous Monsters of Filmland (a magazine devoted to all things green and glowing) magazine creator Forrest Ackerman was sitting in the front row.
"It's the old-timers I like to see at DragonCon," he said.
Moon was back in the green room with his artist's pass back in 1999, when David Prowse walked in.
Name doesn't ring a bell? How about Darth Vader? Although James Earl Jones is famous for that villain's voice, it was the ex-bodybuilder Prowse, who also played the Frankenstein monster in some Hammer films, who wore the big black suit.
"So there's me and Darth Vader, having a beer," Moon said.
Moon started going to DragonCon back in 1995, before the band was first invited to play. A big fan of Ellison - renowned for reams of wildly twisted short stories, television criticism and movie and TV scripts - Moon recommends being wherever the writer is.
Duncan echoed that.
"Whatever Harlan does - being Harlan - go see that," he said. "Harlan can draw a huge audience by himself, just up there ranted. There aren't many writers, especially in science-fiction, who can keep a group of 1,000 people boisterous and happy for an hour - or two, depending on how he's feeling."
Smaller moments also make DragonCon memories. Duncan recalls being pleasantly surprised at the wit and charm of John Rhys-Davies (Salla in the "Indiana Jones" movies, and a star of TV's "Sliders"), and enjoying the oddities of the Atlanta-based creators of "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast."
The days are mostly given over to the panels, with early evenings for multiple concerts - Moon and Red Giant will be joined by splatterppunk writer John Shirley, who will sit in on some Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and other covers - and late nights turning into drum and dance fests.
Duncan has attended various fantasy conventions over the years, sometimes with academic friends who study speculative fiction. One such went berserk at the sight of one-too-many swords-and socery getups, ranting "who are these people? These are not my people!"
"Whenever I go to such an event, though, I feel a great deal of kinship," Duncan said. "I think, These ARE my people."
HOME BIOGRAPHY SOUNDS LINKS PRESSMusic Menu - Atlanta's Creative Loafing - Oct. 16, 1999
Pain, D.C. Moon - It's Alabama night as the horn-driven popsters of Pain roll eastward into our town to promote their brand new CD Full Speed Ahead. They're accompanied by their state-mates, the sci-fi rockers of D.C. Moon. With a lively mix of ska, pop, Oingo-Boingo-ish bounce and raging Link-Wray-meets-The Twlight Zone tomfoolery, this should be a show to remember. 513 Club -Gregory Nicoll
Music Menu - Atlanta's Creative Loafing - Aug. 28, 1999
D.C. Moon - These hardcore sci-fi rockers swooped over here from Alabama to entertain crowds at both DragonCon and World Horror Con this year, appearing onstage with acclaimed author John Shirley (who co-writes some of their material). This rare Atlanta appearance outside the boundaries of a fantasy con gives the band a chance to show off even more of their otherworldly punk rock anthems, which include songs inspired by The Twilight Zone and The Amazing Colossal Man. 513 Club -Gregory Nicoll
RISING MOON - Local band may have shot at theme song for new show - Tuscaloosa News- June 24, 1999 - by Mark Hughes Cobb
After rollicking along for many years, slugging it out in dank clubs where indifference could be punk aesthetic as much as unfamiliarity, D.C. Moon & Red Giant broke to a higher level with the 1996 DragonCon.
At the Atlanta science-fiction/fantasy convention, the country's largest such gathering, the Tuscaloosa punk-metal rockers opened a show for MTV favorites GWAR. And that was just the beginning.
DragonCon organizer Ed Kramer pushed novelist/screenwriter John Shirley, who's fronted numerous punk and progressive rock bands, together with Red Giant. Shirley, who wrote the screenplay for the hit movie "The Crow," TV scripts for series such as "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Poltergeist" and numerous novels and short story collections (including the current "Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories") dug the results.
Shirley collaborated with lead singer/guitarist Moon on a couple of songs - "Hunting Humans" and "The Flies." Moon recorded them for the last DC Moon CD, "The Uncertainty Principle." Shirley also writes lyrics for renowned smart-metal rockers Blue Oyster Cult, and for this own band the Panther Moderns.
"I liked their creative whimsicality and their intelligent, satirical use of science-fiction imagery," Shirley said in an e-mail interview. "I admire Frank Zappa a lot, and they have a Zappa-goes-punk kind of quality that's very cool.
"DC has a winningly warped rockin'-pop sensibility."
So when they met again recently at March's World Horror Convention, Shirley casually brought up the TV pilot "Redstone," which he's writing for the F/X cable network. He talked to Moon about doing a possible theme song for the show.
Moon wasted no time in crafting a guitar-heavy instrumental.
"I started writing it right away," said Moon. "He gave me the title and some idea of what he wanted. It's kind of my take on a Link Wray (a 50's-60's guitarist famed for thick, resonant, rumbling lines) sound."
He first recorded a "cheesy" home version, then went to local musician and Copacetic Sounds studio owner and producer Robert Huffman for a more polished take.
"Robert had some great ideas, including adding a lot of vibrato," Moon said. "There are lots of guitar tracks, so it's pretty heavy."
Red Giant singer Celesta Riner said the tune "sounds like being stranded in the desert at night . . . with rattlesnakes . . .menacing."
Moon sent the tape to Shirley. He was pleasantly surprised to get it so fast.
"I asked him to do something a little Link Wray, and he did. I think he produced exactly the continuum of both sinister and oddly amusing that I wanted, with eerie surf-music-on-a-haunted-beach overtones," said Shirley, who mentions themes to "Twin Peaks," "The Twilight Zone" and "Peter Gunn" as favored TV sounds.
"Redstone" is still in the fetal stages. Shirley had turned in the pilot script, and is waiting.
"That's a ways from getting the network to greenlight an order for 22 episodes. But it's a ways father than most people are," he said.
"Redstone" draws on something of a "Twin Peaks"/"X-Files" feel, with a teen-ager trying to find his vanished girlfriend amidst a vast government conspiracy.
DC Moon & Red Giant's being virtually unknown doesn't really hurt the chances, Shirley said; it may in fact help.
"Unknown bands were used for the hot-selling soundtrack of 'Dawson's Creek,'" he pointed out. "For one thing, you don't have to necessarily go through a greed-head agent, or cantankerous record companies. You can make a reasonable deal right with the band."
Still, it's too early to say.
"If it happens, it'll be a pretty big deal," Moon said, grinning. "Bur more in exposure than money."
"I don't know if I can get (F/X) to use it," Shirley said. "I have told them I want the show to feature hot new bands whenever possible, and to have a sort of modern rock/goth/crossover atmosphere. You'll notice all the cross-over and cultural references I've made - the show will showcase exactly that.
"Like DC Moon, somewhat grim but with a sense of humor."
That somewhat grim but grinning band will play the Chukker Friday, sandwiched by band Dust and Pure Rubbish. DC Moon & Red Giant will again play DragonCon this year (July 1-4 in Atlanta; Red Giant plays July 2), this time opening for The Michael Bruce Band. Bruce was a guitarist and singer in the original Alice Cooper band, co-writing much of the band's material with singer/frontman Cooper.
"I'm bringing my copy of
'Killer' (an Alice Cooper album) for an autograph," Moon
laughed.
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MUSIC MENU - Creative Loafing Atlanta - July 3, 1999 - by Gregory Nicoll
Sci-fi punk rockers from Alabama, these guys have terrific fun songs about everything from classic Twilight Zone episodes to going on dates with aliens. They frequently collaborate with Crow screenwriter John Shirley and have been known to perform the theme from The Green Slime.
They're
scheduled to play at 11 p.m. in Centennial ballrooms II-IV. DragonCon/The
Hyatt.
SCRAWL MAGAZINE - Winter 1997- by Rev. Keith A. Gordon
Over the course of two albums, D.C. MOON has done more to honor the legacy of
the MISFITS than even that band, reformed, has done, cranking out
three-chord, metal-tinged, ass-kickin' punk rock like nobody's business. With
The Uncertainty Principle, MOON's second indie release, he's successfully
beat the dreaded sophomore jinx, delivering a set that is tighter and more musically mature than The Meteor Titanic, his acclaimed debut. MOON shows a marked improvement in both his sharp-edged six string work and in his songwriting, creating
material that is at once both more raucous and better thought out. The sky's
the limit for lyrical content on The Uncertainty Principle, MOON straying far
and wide across his favorite territory, which includes such measured insanity
as aliens and U.F.O.s, conspiracy theory, pop culture, technology, quantum
physics and rock music. There's a method to his madness, however, and the
dedicated listener will discover, beneath the surface, a socially conscious
songwriter tackling controversial issues while having a hell of a lot of fun.
Additional kudos for two excellent songs co-written with novelist/rocker John
Shirley, whose own band, THE PANTHER MODERNS, are no slouches, either. In an
art form lacking visionaries, D.C. MOON sits tall in the saddle and shoots
for the stars. The Reverend sez "check it out!" (Boiled Hippo
Records, P.O. Box 20039, Tuscaloosa
AL 35402) - ReverendK
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Spectrum #3 reviews - D.C.
MOON AND RED GIANT -
The Meteor Titanic CD -
"I liked this a lot. It's got a punk influence musically,
more like the early eighties underground punk with a touch of
metal, more so in the vocal department. This has got to be a
fun band live. You've got to love a band who sing 'Punch a yuppie
in the face, I hate Dodger Blue and I hate L.A.' from "California
Falls"(into the sea). Or songs titles like "Kings of
Sleep," "Going To A Hurricane Slam Dance Party"
etc. They obviously love California! With all the fake punk
out there a.k.a. Green Day and Offspring I'd rather see this band
where those bands are. They do it 100 times better and 1,000
times more legitimate. Although no one does it quite as good
as The Ramones (never have, never will) D.C. Moon and Red Giant
come close. The singer sounds like an even better sounding El
Duce from The Mentors! I love this band." - Chuck
Atlanta's Creative Loafing
- Week of June 19-25 Music Menu - "D.C.
Moon & Red Giant, John Shirley - Billing themselves as 'Sci-Fi
Punks from the Planet Earth,' D.C. Moon and his band bring a sense
of cosmic (and comic) wonder to their three-chord crunch. They
look like ZZ Top and sound like the Ramones playing Devo tunes.
Tonight they'll also back up cyberpunk author (and The Crow
screenwriter) John Shirley as he performs several songs. A midnight
show. (DragonCon, June 22) - Gregory Nicoll
The Tuscaloosa News - June 13, 1996 - "Punk Writer to join Red Giant in Atlanta" - "In a further coup in their plan to rule not just the world but the charted and uncharted universe, D.C. Moon and Red Giant will be joined in their Dragon-Con gig by writer and punk rocker John Shirley.
"He'd written to (the science-fiction and fantasy convention in Atlanta) and asked if there were any bands playing he could sit in with," said Moon, songwriter, singer and guitarist with the hard-rocking local trio. "He called, sent me some of his tapes, some writing, and I sent him our CD, which he loved."
The upshot is that Shirley, known as co-writer of the hit movie "The Crow" and author of novels and story collections "Wet Bones," "Eclipse," "New Noir," "Heatseeker" and "A Splendid Chaos," wrote three new songs (lyrics only) for Red Giant and will sit in with them in Atlanta, where they're opening for "Beavis and Butt-head" favorites GWAR.
"We're working on music for the three sets of lyrics he sent, plus we're going to do 'Dominance and Submission,' an old Blue Oyster Cult song," Moon said.
If you're not up to the Atlanta drive (DragonCon will be held June 21-23), you can catch Moon and Red Giant tonight at the Chukker. Local band Daisy Chain will open the "Revenge of the Ironmen" show.
Dragon*Con Program Profile - "Punk rock from the wilds of western Alabama? Yes! Dragon*Con is pleased to welcome this SF-and cyberpunk influenced band in 1996, for a live show Saturday evening. Their first full-length CD, The Meteor Titanic (Boiled Hippo Records 1995) contains many SF-themed songs, plus they can reel off SF cover tunes.
Critics ranging from The Tuscaloosa
News to Spectrum magazine have praised D.C. Moon and
Red Giant as "old-school metal-influenced punk," and
"driving, intense rock n' roll," [with] " bite
and bile in their message of class struggle, but a real devotion
to the underground of people who don't fit the societal mold."
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The Tuscaloosa News - April 4, 1996 - An 'Ironmen' triple bill - "The self-billed 'Ironmen' of Tuscaloosa rock- D.C. Moon and Red Giant, Despondency and Daisy Chain - will try to make one thing loud and clear tonight: If they bang it, people will come.
"We want to get everybody we can out," said Moon. "Daisy Chain is a very good band. Despondency draws a bigger crowd than we do. We want to show there's a market for this music."
The three bands will play tonight at the Chukker, starting about 10:30 p.m. There will be a cover charge. More information is available by calling 391-0708.
Since the release of their CD "The Meteor Titanic," Moon and Red Giant have seen a gradual groundswell of support. They've picked up a number of gigs in Atlanta - including a June date opening for GWAR - and radio airplay has been tracked as far away as Latvia.
Yes, Red Giant is big in Latvia.
Eddie Lavrinovics, a DJ at Latvian Radio, sent Moon a letter asking for a copy of their CD, noting that a 'DJ friend in Los Angeles' had sent a tape with a couple of Moon tunes.
"I have no idea who the 'L.A. friend' is," Moon said. Also on the unexpected gift side, "a couple of days later I got my first airplay royalty check - 17 bucks - tracking 177 college radio plays of 'Meteor Titanic.'
"I have no idea who (those stations) are, either, but it's just good to know that somebody out there is hearing it."
Atlanta is heating up for them, thanks to live gigs and notices in that's city's Creative Loafing alternative newspaper.
Their reviewer Gregory Nicoll said of "Meteor Titanic": ". . . 18 tracks of hard fuzz-tone punk . . . Moon's shrill but forceful vocals make all the lyrics surprising easy to understand, revealing insightful wiseguy wit in his descriptions of situations both mundane ('Going to a Hurricane Slam Dance Party') and outlandish ('I Married a Woman From Outer Space'). . . a stellar reminder of how much fun American punk rock can be."
They'll build on their popularity in the Olympic city with their GWAR-opener gig at DragonCon, a popular science-fiction/fantasy convention. Last year's DragonCon drew 14,000; this year the mailing list is more than 35,000 for the June 20-23 weekend. The ballroom where they'll play seats about 1,500.
"We've been working on it for a long time," Moon said. "We sent 'em a press kit with a CD, and said 'This is a thing we'll do for nothing.' That's one good thing about us: We work cheap.
"I can't imaging a more perfect target audience for us. They're not all kids, but they're all into science fiction, and that's a large part of what our music is about.
"And they're honoring the forefather of cyberpunk, so what would be more perfect than a cyberpunk band?"
Moon works long and sometimes odd hours at a local grocery store, so when he got the late afternoon call from DragonCon, friends were worried he'd dreamed it all.
"Then the confirmation came in the mail and I could finally relax and say 'It's for real,'" Moon said.
In addition to mainstream writers and filmmakers, the DragonCon features figures such as comics artists John Byrne and Peter David, animator John Kriscfalusi ("Ren and Stimpy") and Fred Olen Ray, director of many cheesy flicks.
Moon and Red Giant expect more
bonuses from the DragonCon gig than money (none) and the thrill
of opening for a nationally known rock band. They're hoping to
garner airplay on Atlanta's 99X and WREK, the Georgia Tech college
station, and sell a little merchandise to help pay expenses."
- Mark Hughes-Cobb
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R squared - October 1996 - Reviews
"When one thinks of punk rock hotbeds, Alabama is seldom mentioned - although the rock & roll 'muse of attitude' has certainly had as much effect on young musicians in the South as it has in Southern California. Tuscaloosa's D.C. Moon & Red Giant are a good example, being a stellar trio of punk-influenced, metallic-tinged rockers trying to build a following the old-fashioned way: earning it by touring and performing and hyping themselves to anybody who will listen. I ran across them at last summer's Dragon*Con Science Fiction & Fantasy convention in Atlanta, where the band had landed themselves a prime performance slot in front of the thousands of convention attendees. Frontman D.C. Moon laid a copy of The Meteor Titanic on me and we talked about how tough it is for a band to get gigs outside of their small geographic area and how few industry players really want to listen to new bands that don't adhere to the latest musical trend.
As I was to discover after my
initial spin of The Meteor Titanic, D.C. Moon & Red
Giant don't fit anybody's mold. Tracks like the tongue-in-cheek
Kings of Sleep, the hilarious (to us Southern boys) When
California Falls or the dramatic The Man From Tomorrow
hurtle from your speakers like high-explosive depth charges slicing
through the water for a kill. Moon rips off some wicked six-string
work, tearing at the chords like a shark feeding on a surfer.
Moon's untrained voice is often a lethal weapon, coarse and,
at times, bordering on the intolerable - sort of a sandpaper hybrid
of Johnny Rotten and Pere Ubu's Dave Thomas. His lyrical material
is priceless, though, mixing the fantastic with the whimsical,
covering subject matter from alien brides and Unidentified Flying
Objects to virtual love and even punk rock itself, all delivered
in a no-frills, high-energy, hard-rocking style. Drummer David
Standifer and bassist Ricky Lee - the Red Giant portion of the
trio - do an admirable job of filling in the cracks with a muscular
underlying rhythm, but The Meteor Titanic is altogether
Moon's show. A rough-edged talent with guts and imagination,
Moon is a wonderfully original rocker, The Meteor Titanic
a well-aimed opening shot in what will hopefully be a lengthy
career." - Rev. Keith A. Gordon
Atlanta's Creative Loafing
Record Reviews - Damnage - expressions of anger - D.C.
Moon and Red Giant - The Meteor Titanic - "Rock
music hardly punches any harder than in the stuttering, raging-bull
guitar rhythms of Damnage's expressions of anger. Clocking
in at less than 15 minutes, this four-song CD lives up to its
title as soon as frontman Robby Warren opens his mouth; His voice
roars like a grindstone sharpening a sword to hack open the soul.
On "The Advocate" this Georgia-based combo howls about
"hysterical savage aggression," offering a bloody raw
demonstration of it in the process; and on "Clash,"
Warren growls that he will "endure these trials from behind
my bars." Terrific drum effects and some amusing multi-layered
sound bites crunch through "Who Is your God?" - which
has the band declaring, "There is no such thing as equality/In
your mind you have found divinity." These songs stab mercilessly
at every human weakness, and cut all the way to the marrow. But
while Damnage probes the inner soul, Alabama-based D.C. Moon and
Red Giant are more interested in exploring outer space. Their
CD The Meteor Titanic offers 18 tracks of hard fuzz-tone
punk, punctuated with lyrics describing virtually every type of
cosmic apocalypse form the end of the dinosaurs ("The Meteor
Titanic") to earthquakes destroying the west coast ("When
California Falls"). More storm warnings thunder through
"New Dark Age," "Critical Masses," and the
instrumental "Mister Tornado;" and B-movie science fictions
infuses "(The Amazing) Colossal Man." Moon's shrill
but forceful vocals make all the lyrics surprisingly easy to understand,
revealing insightful wiseguy wit in his descriptions of situations
both mundane ("Going to a Hurricane Slam Dance Party")
and outlandish ("I Married a Woman From Outer Space").
- Gregory Nicoll
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The Tuscaloosa News - "Digital Subversion - Red Giant to boost CD 'Meteor Titanic' with release party - Thursday June 8, 1995 - "What could luminaries such as Harry S. Truman, Frank Zappa, Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison, Lenny Bruce, Iggy Pop, Rod Serling, Forrest J. Ackerman and Bear Bryant have in common - besides relentless drive?
All of their various visions of life as they lived it influenced the music and mind of D.C. Moon, coinciding with his passions for science, science-fiction (from cyber to silly), subculture and subversion.
D.C. Moon & Red Giant's latest recording, a CD release titled "The Meteor Titanic," is now out on Moon's label, Boiled Hippo Records. Boiled Hippo's Motto: "Entertainment as subversion; subversion as entertainment."
With such titles as "New Dark Age," "Goin' to a Hurricane Slam-Dance Party," "Firehogs!," "Rat Race" and "Screaming at the Edge," you can probably guess that D.C. Moon & Red Giant are not the kind of band Bob Dole kicks back with after a long day campaigning.
For your $7 (through local record stores or at any Red Giant gig), you get 18 songs for 61 minutes worth of Moon's sanctified rants and ramblings (along with new bassist Ricky Lee's "Critical Masses") backed by an aggressive rock rave.
Although the Red Giant sound is heavy, Moon says, it's not grunge, heavy metal, thrash or punk - just good old garage-band rock n' roll.
There'll be a CD release party next Thursday, June 15 at the Chukker for "The Meteor Titanic."
"Play it really loud," advises Moon, guitarist, vocalist and chief songwriter, who along with Lee (formerly of Firebase:Hell) and drummer David Standifer make up the current incarnation of Red Giant.
"I hope people will get up here and take notice," Moon said.
Having completed the recording and after undergoing a number of personnel changes in the past few years, including losing a guitarist and keyboardist (pushing Moon to drop the bass and switch to guitar), they're just returning to live dates.
"We're just really getting back on the road," Moon said.
Back in January, they began recording at local KOS Studios, working towards a 7-inch vinyl single.
"We spent several hours working on the first two songs, 'New Dark Age' and 'Meteor Titanic,'" Moon said.
"But we started looking into costs for printing a vinyl single, and really, it's so hard to push vinyl these days anyway, and we just decided to go ahead and do the whole CD."
The biggest chunk of "The Meteor Titanic" was recorded in April at Airwave Studios in Birmingham. Red Giant put down the final 16 tunes in about 2 ½ hours.
"We recorded them all live, slamming them out with no overdubs," Moon said.
It helped that many of the songs were older ones they'd played numerous times at shows, he said.
"It's not so much an album as a collection of tunes," he said.
"It's the whole story behind the band. I wouldn't even sit down and listen to the whole hour. I usually just listen to a few parts of it at a time."
Although it's Red Giant's first CD, they've also recorded low-budget homemade tapes such as "AIEEE! We Will Be Eaten!" and contributed to the compilation benefit CD "Johnny's Café: For The Benefit of the Wolf."
"Airwave Studios did a great job getting our live sound down," Moon said.
"It cost us $330.50 total. We beat Nirvana almost by half (referring to Nirvana'a first self-produced album)."
The cover photo was shot at Meteor Crater in Arizona, where he and his wife Debbie stopped on the way back from his brother's wedding in California.
Moon hopes the CD will help get them more gigs, of course, and help spread the Red Giant sound and his messages ("Our music is for the freaks of society," he said in a previous interview).
But Moon's not blind to the archival aspect of "The Meteor Titanic" either.
"I thought, 'Well, if I
croak tomorrow, at least I'll be digitally recorded," Moon
laughed." - Mark Hughes Cobb
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Curious Goods - Issue Number 9 - Reviews - "D.C. Moon - Aieee! We Will Be Eaten!
Different as reality will allow.
From Alabama comes D.C. Moon, an alternative rock band mixed
with Seventies influences. The guitars buzz away and the vocals
drone through on the 4-track production - it's not perfect but
I dig it anyway. The lyrics seem to be based on the universe
and its future - examples include "The Man From Tomorrow,"
"The Meteor Titanic" and "Too Near Jupiter!"
Samples from sci-fi movies add to their futuristic approach -
they could rival GWAR in strangeness. Eight songs that aren't
out to pound you with messages, instead allowing you to groove
into the next world. Not my normal fare of music - yet D.C. Moon
captivate my ears and will get a play once in a while because
it's not the norm." - Matt Coe
-
Techno-Boredom - reviews - "D.C. Moon and Red Giant - AAAIIIIIEEEE! We Will Be Eaten!
A punk unit from the "old school", my kind of insanity. This tape rocked my world and still does.
The lyrical content as well as the rockin' intense, kick ass music combine to create a very powerful sound that is the music to incite anti-N.A.F.T.A. types into a chaotic frenzy.
Recommend large doses of
caffeine and ephedrine for maximum listening enjoyment. Really
cool music to murder the ILLUMINATI in their beds." - Steve
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