Rocketing into a sonic haze of fuzz and lo-fi rock, Fremantle five-piece Spaceman are your ticket to a wickedly warped world. Navigating through a psychotropic soundscape, their latest single Dead Baum is an exploration into Man versus Tree. And, if that sounds a little messed up, wait until you check out its brilliantly bizarre video clip also premiering right here today.
What’s the best partner for fuzzy, lo-fi rock? Murderous, vigilante trees of course. West coast rockers Spaceman take environmentalism to the extreme with Dead Baum.
Lifting off a few years ago, front man Broderick Madden-Scott has since turned his bedroom side-project into yet another awesome west coast band to add to the list. After following up their galactic debut album Puraede’s Parade with a two-track release earlier this year, these spacemen are taking giant leaps forward for the good of mankind. Making a big bang in the local scene with their genre-bending psych, their latest single and its accompanying DIY clip push the space rock envelope further still.
As the wobbly vocals float in, we meet a confused but wrathful tree. Lying in a bed of dirt, his body of branches and head of leaves rise to face the day. Chucking a ciggie in his mouth, this tree that’s “been around for a thousand years” is about to lose his shit. As the twisted syntheisers stir, the tree spots his neighbour pruning bushes and ‘murdering’ perfectly healthy plants. Fuming with rage, the tree unleashes a tirade of shaky abuse: “Guess what, I help you to breathe. I’m going to kill YOUR family!” before stabbing his neighbour to death… with a twig [of course].
Cruising the streets on his bike, the tree sees his next target – a litter-bugging bogan. As the alien-like vocals creep in with “I’m just a tree photosynthesising / Remember my family!” the tree goes apeshit and strangles the bloke to death. After breaking into a swirling mess of cosmic synthesisers and jangly drums, the tree claims his final victim – a kid buying paper from Officeworks. Humans 0, Homicidal Tree 3.
Wacky from the get go, Spaceman have really stepped up the trippy psychotropic vibes this time around, and it’s awesome. Reminding us that we better respect the environment or prepare to suffer the wrath of revenge-hungry trees that could be lurking in our neighbourhood, Dead Baum is one wickedly far out tune that’s heaps of fun.
