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Interview with Blue #4 of Manplanet
By: Patrick Steven Patterson
 Someone forgot to tell me that new wave, pop, and punk were throwing a party at the Gary Numan/Devo timeshare condo. Rik Ocasek didn't send me the flyer.
Manplanet, the only purveyors of ear candy for the space-age set worth mentioning have been pleasuring aural canals and lighting up any venue that will have them for the better part of the last 3 years. See, Manplanet rolls with pyro.
The concept of Jeff Ham, well known around the Minneapolis area as pilot of the somewhat-defunct onstage riot known as Detroit, Manplanet brings the best of the humor and antics (as well as out-and-out fine pop songwriting) of Ham's former ventures and transports them, at warp speed, right into the present.
Just to reminisce, I was fortunate to catch a Jeff Ham performance in an even earlier project, The Curbfeelers. Myself and the near-sold-out First Avenue audience were able to acquire forever the image of Ham in a full arctic-ready snowmobile suit with one of those monkey-with-the-cymbals-in-his-hands somehow attached to the top of his hooded head. As the guitarist's head bobbed with the rhythm, the monkey clapped those cymbals. Genius.
It seems that Ham was selected for a 'visitor' abduction encounter in the late 90's and has since been dropped back to Earth (with obvious considerable force). Replacing Ham with pseudo-clone Jefferson White, the forces behind Manplanet have also warped in 3 like entities, Pete Green (electronic drums, vocals), Tim Crimson (Bass and vocorder) and Blue #4 (guitars and synthesizers). Seeing these new-new-wave-poster-children live no longer includes Ham's snowmobile suits and cymbal-monkeys of legend, but will generally contain a combination of various cameras focused on the audience and transmitted instantly through multiple retro video monitors onstage; an electronic drum kit draped in somewhat dirty Kelly green fur; and, of course, full-body, color-corresponding vinyl jumpsuits.
The band is continually busy and usually on tour, so NowOnTour was lucky enough to get to share a small piece of the space-time continuum with Blue #4 (formerly Ben of the pop-punk outfit Benjamins). What follows is the transmission:
What is Manplanet, or should I ask where?
Manplanet is the beast that consumes the lives of me and four of my friends. Some may call it a space-rock band. Where is Manplanet? Manplanet is everywhere… in the gleam of a child's eye, beneath every unturned stone. Manplanet is omnipresent. Oh, wait, we're in Minnesota. Yeah, that's it.
How about identifying the band?
Dude, we're all over 21, I can assure you of this.
Could you give me the history of the band/it's members?
Well, I'm the fourth blue guy, so something fishy's obviously going on. The white guy, Jeff, started the band with his cousin Pete Greene and little buddy Tim Crimson about four years ago, and since then, the band's been ever-evolving.
Is this 'something fishy' like the drummer-explosion situation in Spinal Tap? I mean with a name like Manplanet, you'd think the Blue members were being abducted or something? Did I just say 'Blue members'?
My member is/is not blue
Please tell me about your label and management.
Label? What's that? Our manager, Jim Weber, he's our buddy and devotes any spare second he has in his life to our band. He just bought a house. Jeff and I are gonna live in it. Come to the housewarming party, it'll be fun.
What's the deal with 'Let's Bowl'?
Manplanet played bumper music for four episodes of the show [on the Comedy Central network], and it's been great publicity for the band. The producers are from Minnesota, so they thought it would be a perfect fit. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled before I had a chance to be on TV and make my mom proud.
What's the deal with Penthouse, and how does my band get a piece of that?
Penthouse is a men's magazine, with pictures of naked girls, and I think you can find it at most newsstands across America.
Actually, I was referring to an article titled "Haley's Comet" that appears/used to appear in Penthouse (I'm not a subscriber, so I dunno). It's a serial where the main character was/is this super-voluptuous New York City record label A/R-type. I remember someone telling me that Manplanet was getting some free PR in the storylines. Maybe you're too new to the band to know about all of this - or maybe you're just 'Taking the 5th'?
It's actually only on Penthouse.com, and yes, we got some free press, which was very cool. We met the person that does it in NY, and she's very nice.
How do you decide where and when and for how long you are going to tour?
Weber tells us.
Did you really play a birthday party for those 'BattleBots' twins?
Yes. I wasn't in the band then, but I was tour managing, so I was there. Randy & Jason Sklar are very funny Hollywood-types that are friends with the band and help us out whenever possible, which is very cool. There were a bunch of top-notch stand-up comedians there, so it was really funny. We met the guy that made Sifl & Olly, which was super cool.
Why do you blow stuff up on stage? Is it in homage to the big-hair and arena rock bands of the past?
I think deep down, every band wants to blow shit up onstage. We can just get away with it because we're wearing spacesuits, and who's gonna question us? KISS definitely plays a role in that influence, yes.
Tell me about your spacesuits. What about your spaceship - the one that was on the back of the first EP?
Our spacesuits are made by a friend of the band's from Minneapolis. They had similar ones before, but they were stolen in Philadelphia...so if you see a dude walking around in a smelly colorful spacesuit, have him give us a call. But the spacesuits, yeah, they're really hot. We want to get new ones. As far as that spaceship's concerned, it's from the space room at a fantasy-suites-type sleazy motel.
Your website is great! How did you set that up, was it expensive?
Normally it would be very expensive, but the guys that make it are fans of the band and did it for free. Jeff just had to write a song for their company's website (www.webkromatic.com). They say it still has room to be ever cooler, which would rule.
Are you planning on hitting the road again soon?
Always. We're going out east for a month with a great pop-punk band from California called the Groovie Ghoulies. We're beside ourselves with excitement. We all just got big new amps, so we can't wait to be too loud.
Any new music/new releases from the band to look forward to?
I thought you'd never ask...we just released a new 7" single on colored vinyl (white, blue, green, and red, duh) with two new songs..."Astronaut #1" and "Supercharger". Get 'em while they're hot.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Vote Quimby.
Manplanet – Discography
| 2000 |
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Skylab [EP], Bert Records [Jim Weber] |
| 2001 |
An Introduction to Musicianship, Independent |
| 2002 |
Astronaut #1 b/w Supercharger [7"], Independent |
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