I've mentioned to you previously that one of the things that set Blaster apart from a lot of other Christian bands was authenticity. You are a little older than me, and up until mid-1995, I was under the impression that the edgiest Christian music was able to manage was Carman (not a compliment from me, now or then), so I had not yet discovered Scaterd Few or LSU when I came across Disasteroid. I had recently discovered a few of the active bands of the 90s era, and was getting into them, but Disasteroid was IT for me. It was the first band I had found that both shared my faith and sounded completely like the bands I liked.
There's a scene in Almost Famous where Billy Crudup gets high at a house party and, fed up with his life, starts poking everything and pointing out that it's "REAL." That authenticity is on display all over Disasteroid. I don't know whether it was the band or the label who chose to only release it on cassette (at least until that remaster a few years later), but that definitely played a part. It's more than a demo tape - recorded in a studio rather than on a garage boombox, color card instead of black and white xerox cover - but a tape-only release just felt more punk than a CD at the time. Punk in 1995 was a lot about vibes and that's a whole different discussion.
I'm looking forward to further posts about specific songs!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, as always, Hugh. I love hearing these perspectives, where people were at and how Blaster (and the scene more generally) hit them at that point in life. I'll never know the experience of hearing Blaster as someone who didn't make the music, so it's nice to hear Disasteroid did that for you. And weird and humbling haha.
I honestly don't think I'd have thought of "authenticity" being a central aspect of Disasteroid back in the day. I was too busy thinking about getting on to the next album and improving our sound and songwriting. I hardly gave Disasteroid a second thought after SSFFTV came out. It's only listening to it now that I hear all that raw-edged sincerity and struggle in our fun-loving young selves.
I believe it was Caleb's idea to put it out on tape and I suspect it was due to budget constraints. And I hadn't thought of how that might've seemed more punk right in the thick of the Age of the CD. His idea for the red color too, which I loved. I didn't even mention how we decided to print the words upside down on the actual cassette and called the sides Shirts and Skins. We were goofy and playful about every bit of it. We didn't really care if things came across terribly "punk" or not, but I gladly admit I'm pleased it hit you that way haha!
Punk as vibes, I'm very interested in that discussion! I think I agree.
The cassette talk is very funny to me... I remember thr struggle to find Blaster stuff in Canada and finally connecting with Boot To Head. Seeing Disasteroid only on tape was heartbreaking as I only had a CD player at the time!
I remember thinking that I had missed the boat and wasn't going to be able to get the album!
haha, someone else said they ordered Disasteroid and were surprised when it showed up as a cassette! They were like "guess I have to listen to this in the car", the only tape deck they had haha. We did not make things easy.🤦🏻♂️🤣
I've mentioned to you previously that one of the things that set Blaster apart from a lot of other Christian bands was authenticity. You are a little older than me, and up until mid-1995, I was under the impression that the edgiest Christian music was able to manage was Carman (not a compliment from me, now or then), so I had not yet discovered Scaterd Few or LSU when I came across Disasteroid. I had recently discovered a few of the active bands of the 90s era, and was getting into them, but Disasteroid was IT for me. It was the first band I had found that both shared my faith and sounded completely like the bands I liked.
There's a scene in Almost Famous where Billy Crudup gets high at a house party and, fed up with his life, starts poking everything and pointing out that it's "REAL." That authenticity is on display all over Disasteroid. I don't know whether it was the band or the label who chose to only release it on cassette (at least until that remaster a few years later), but that definitely played a part. It's more than a demo tape - recorded in a studio rather than on a garage boombox, color card instead of black and white xerox cover - but a tape-only release just felt more punk than a CD at the time. Punk in 1995 was a lot about vibes and that's a whole different discussion.
I'm looking forward to further posts about specific songs!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, as always, Hugh. I love hearing these perspectives, where people were at and how Blaster (and the scene more generally) hit them at that point in life. I'll never know the experience of hearing Blaster as someone who didn't make the music, so it's nice to hear Disasteroid did that for you. And weird and humbling haha.
I honestly don't think I'd have thought of "authenticity" being a central aspect of Disasteroid back in the day. I was too busy thinking about getting on to the next album and improving our sound and songwriting. I hardly gave Disasteroid a second thought after SSFFTV came out. It's only listening to it now that I hear all that raw-edged sincerity and struggle in our fun-loving young selves.
I believe it was Caleb's idea to put it out on tape and I suspect it was due to budget constraints. And I hadn't thought of how that might've seemed more punk right in the thick of the Age of the CD. His idea for the red color too, which I loved. I didn't even mention how we decided to print the words upside down on the actual cassette and called the sides Shirts and Skins. We were goofy and playful about every bit of it. We didn't really care if things came across terribly "punk" or not, but I gladly admit I'm pleased it hit you that way haha!
Punk as vibes, I'm very interested in that discussion! I think I agree.
Well heck, what else is “that’s punk as fuck!” than a vibe check?
The cassette talk is very funny to me... I remember thr struggle to find Blaster stuff in Canada and finally connecting with Boot To Head. Seeing Disasteroid only on tape was heartbreaking as I only had a CD player at the time!
I remember thinking that I had missed the boat and wasn't going to be able to get the album!
haha, someone else said they ordered Disasteroid and were surprised when it showed up as a cassette! They were like "guess I have to listen to this in the car", the only tape deck they had haha. We did not make things easy.🤦🏻♂️🤣