The wheels start humming before the sun is even fully down. Downtown Lubbock, 1996, and the Loaf Nation crew is assembling like astronauts preparing for launch. Carson’s got the camera ready, JonBoy and Bradley are already rolling warm-up lines through an empty parking lot, and Mark is digging through a backpack for the tape that’s about to soundtrack the night. The boom box crackles to life and the opening blast from Man or Astro-man?’s Project Infinity hits like a rocket ignition. Suddenly the whole crew is moving. Boards carve through the wide streets around Broadway like surfboards catching a cosmic wave, brick streets turning into an endless red ocean under tall, bright streetlights.
By the time the guitars start firing like ray guns, the crew is fully locked in. JonBoy launches a curb gap outside a closed storefront while Bradley slashes a rough bank beside Dealers Skate Shop. Mark is laughing somewhere in the background while Carson chases everyone with the camera like a documentarian on an alien planet. Then Screamin’ Cobra drops in from the top of a parking garage ramp that spills toward an alleyway and suddenly the whole street session becomes a downhill space mission. The crew pushes hard and lets gravity take over, boards rattling over grooved brick while the surf-punk instrumentals rip through the night air. To anyone watching from a distance it probably just looks like a pack of skaters tearing through downtown, but to Loaf Nation it feels like surfing a wave that stretches across the entire city.
Later, the boom box is sitting on the curb while the tape spins through another instrumental blast. The crew is catching their breath near a loading dock, boards scattered across the concrete while the night hums quietly around them. Someone replays a trick on Carson’s camera and the whole group erupts again when Cobra’s gap clears perfectly on tape. Lubbock’s streets are empty except for the echo of wheels and laughter, and the music still sounds like it came from another planet. Nights like this don’t feel small while they’re happening. They feel infinite, like a skate session that could roll on forever.
Released in 1995, Project Infinity is one of the most beloved records from the Athens, Alabama surf-rock sci-fi collective Man or Astro-man?. Blending vintage surf guitar with B-movie science fiction samples, the band created a sound that felt like Dick Dale jamming inside a spaceship. The album captures the group’s playful obsession with retro futurism, combining lightning-fast instrumentals with snippets of old educational films and space-age dialogue. Over time it became a cult favorite among indie and punk audiences, helping cement Man or Astro-man?’s reputation as one of the most energetic and imaginative instrumental bands of the 90s. Fun bit of trivia: their live shows often included lab coats, fake scientific equipment, and elaborate “experiments” on stage, turning every performance into something halfway between a garage-surf concert and a low-budget sci-fi movie.
HIGHLIGHTS
Escape Velocity: The perfect album opener, explodes right out of the gate, rapid-fire surf picking and pounding drums, sets the tone like a rocket launching
Transmissions From Venus: Almost spaghetti western soundtrack surf rock, one of the most atmospheric tracks on the record, sci-fi radio chatter and cosmic sound effects, twangy guitar lines like intercepted signals from another planet
Philip K. Dick In The Pet Section Of Wal-Mart: Also spaghetti western tinged, or could be the soundtrack to a 60s surf contest, fan-favorite title and one of the album’s quirkiest moments, humor, chaos, and lightning-fast surf riffs
Manta Ray: solid and unexpected Pixies cover, rare vocals from this era of Man Or Astroman?, quick dip into 90s alt rockness
Alpha Surfari: A cosmic twist on classic surf rock, reverb-drenched guitars, energetic drumming, feels like a space-age beach party, playful, fast, and embodies the band’s mission of fusing vintage surf guitar with sci-fi madness
“We’re Man or Astroman, like it or not. And we’re here, like it or not.”
-Man Or Astro-man?
Pairs well with:
Smooth grinds, planter gaps, Saturn, street surfing, phasers, rocket boosters, brick streets, handrails, Uranus, Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard, chilling with your crew, and time machines
Groove Rituals 