Bad Astronaut has returned after 15 years and released a new single, “Wide Awake.” The new single comes alongside a box set announcement for Universe, which will be released on April 23, with pre-orders currently available.
The box set is set to include first-ever vinyl reissues of some Bad Astronaut classics, while also including a new 7” titled Inner Space. For the first time, Houston: We Have A Drinking Problem and Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment will be made available on vinyl. Acrophobe will also be repressed for the first time since 2010. The upcoming 7” will include an alternate version of “Violet,” which has not yet been released, and the new single, “Wide Awake.”
“My favorite thing in the world is when bands make three records, break up and then years later, there’s an anthology or a box set,” the band’s Joey Cape said in a press statement. “And you’re immediately like, ‘Why?’ But also, ‘I’m gonna buy it!’ It’s like a missing link in my life. When I have that box set in my vinyl collection, I’ll feel like, ‘Okay, I can finally move on.’”
The new single, “Wide Awake,” gives a fresh take on Bad Astronaut’s former sound, the root of the track similar to their previous releases, while displaying how they evolved. The track flows between heavier sounds and melodic tones, the vocals slinking over the instrumentals as keyboards add a slightly haunting element. The track lands just shy of three minutes, incorporating strings during the first bridge.
“Todd Capps has been doing scoring with virtual instruments forever, so he was able to put forth something that was pretty much done,” Cape said in the press release. “I wrote the lyrics, but Todd wrote the melody. I think it came out really cool.”
The band dissolved in 2006, following the release of their last record with band member Derrick Plourde, Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment. The band announced that they did not feel it would be right to continue without Plourde following his death in 2005.
“We’re still really proud of this music, and enough time has passed that we can go back and listen to it objectively,” the band’s Marko DeSantis said in a press statement. “But it’s bittersweet because you get so stoked to think about Bad Astronaut, it brings back so many inside jokes and great feelings and pride, but then it also reminds me that Derrick died, and he didn’t die in a very sweet way. It’s a hard place to return to, but at the same time, you just remind yourself that anything that has Derrick involved in it keeps Derrick alive to some degree.”
Bad Astronaut began as a side-project between DeSantis, who is the lead gutiarist in Sugarcult, Cape, the frontman for Lagwagon, and Plourde, who had also been in Lagwagon, as well as Rich Kids on LSD. Lagwagon released their most recent album, Railer, in 2019.
Box Set tracklist
Acrophobe (2001)
1. Greg’s Estate
2. Anecdote
3. Grey Suits
4. Quiet
5. 500 Miles
6. Needle in the Hay
7. Only Good for A…
8. Deformed
9. Logan’s Run
10. Unlucky Stuntman
Houston: We Have a Drinking Problem (2002)
1. These Days
2. Clear Cutting
3. Single
4. Break Your Fame
5. Disarm
6. Not a Dull Moment
7. You Deserve This
8. If I Had a Son
9. Solar Sister
10. Off the Wagon
11. Another Dead Romance
12. Killers and Liars
13. Our Greatest Year
14. The Passenger
Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment (2006)
1. Good Morning Night
2. Ghostwrite
3. Beat
4. Stillwater, California
5. One Giant Disappointment
6. Minus
7. Best Western
8. San Francisco Serenade
9. Autocare
10. Violet
11. Go Humans
12. The “F” Word
13. The Thirteenth Step
Inner Space (2021)
1. Wide Awake
2. Violet (alternate version)
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