Dreaming of Orgonon

Arisia’s 25th anniversary is coming up and they want to bring in some big names. I suggested they invite Janelle Monáe, whose ArchAndroid suites rank among the best SF I’ve encountered in the last ten years. (My heartfelt thanks to N.K. Jemisin for first mentioning her work to me.) Monáe is obviously a fan; I bet she’d love to play for a fannish audience.

Right now I’m listening to Kate Bush’s album The Whole Story. There is so much SF in here! “Cloudbusting” is about a machine that makes rain, and a government conspiracy (and the train whistle at the end makes it steampunk, right?). “Breathing” is about the aftermath of nuclear war. “The Dreaming” is post-apocalyptic, where the apocalypse in question is the European invasion and industrialization of Australia. “Experiment IV” posits a futuristic sound weapon. Last week’s get-up-and-go music was Information Society’s Synthesizer, which includes slipstream (“I Love It When…”) as well as SF (“I Like the Way You Werk It”).

I mentioned SF music on Twitter and Elizabeth Bear brought up David Bowie and Johnny Cash, but I feel like there must be so much more than big names from decades past. Monáe can’t be working in a vacuum. Who are some recent non-filk musicians telling SF stories? Name your favorites and feel free to include YouTube links and the like. And while I’m focusing on science fiction because I think it’s a lot more rare in music than fantasy and horror are (see: vast swathes of heavy metal and prog rock), you’re welcome to branch out into other speculative music if you like.

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10 thoughts on “Dreaming of Orgonon”

  1. Ken Houghton

    Michael Moorcock used to write songs for–and possibly perform with–Hawkwind, of course.

    Warren Zevon’s Transverse City was self-described as a cyberpunk album. Side one of Rush’s 2112 is a bad Baen novel.

    Can we ignore John Shirley, Ax Nelson, Cats Laughing, and other SF/Horror Writer/Editor Bands? Probably not, excepting maybe the first. But none of those members joined the Rock Bottom Remainders, or even sang “We Are Jung.”

    the less said about GWAR probably the better–and they were “new” twenty years ago as well.

    You need Concept Albums to go beyond the occasional “**** Me, Ray B” or “Major Tom.” Which means you need to be able to sell albums, not just singles.

    That said, Leslie What did a piece a few years ago about a band that either does sf songs or sings about sf authors in a way more, uh, decorous than Ms. Bloom did of The Pedestrian. So I’m certain they’re out there.

    Does Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs count?

  2. Paul Riddell

    Hawkwind.

    Abney Park.

    Ego Likeness.

    GWAR. (Heck, the whole stage routine is based on the conceit that the band members are alien barbarians.)

    Hmmm. Consortium of Genius, perhaps?

  4. indubitable

    This isn’t quite what you’re asking, but Beth Kinderman and the Player Characters come out of a filk tradition, but are far beyond filk in terms of content and lyrical complexity. http://bethkinderman.com/

  7. Glenn Grant

    They Might Be Giants (of course), “The Bells Are Ringing”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tNlBS9JzLk

    Brendan Benson, “Insects Rule”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pwDYnBCLHA

    The Flaming Lips, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (part 1)”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq-W-4Izjwc

    The Rheostatics (a defunct band, sadly), “The Tarleks”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpgjd7Dh8mI

    The Mountain Goats, “Lovecraft in Brooklyn”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHgZRGLgo0

    TMBG (again), “2082″:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1sLBkuYm3c

    Okay I’ll stop now. See you at Readercon!

  9. Kevin Peters

    How excellent to see an extended post about Kate Bush! Regarding “Cloudbusting”, it is in fact actual science as opposed to science fiction, as the song was inspired by Peter Reich’s A BOOK OF DREAMS: A MEMOIR OF WILHELM REICH (which may now be out of print – I have an old Dutton Obelisk paperback, which sports a jacket taken from Kate Bush’s video for “Cloudbusting”). Everything in the song is pulled straight from this book, including the Cloudbuster (which Reich famously ended a drought using). Unfortunately, the government conspiracy against Wilhelm Reich was all too real (this was during the 1950s) and he died shortly after being incarcerated. A BOOK OF DREAMS is a lovely read if you can find it (and deserves a reprint).

    As for Kate Bush’s “The Whole Story”, she released a companion video collection when the album first came out. “Experiment IV” is especially interesting to see.

    Hard Rock and Heavy Metal do have many science fiction songs, in addition to fantasy and horror. Some examples include the proto-metal MC5′s “Starship”, Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”, “Electric Funeral”, and “Into the Void”, Iron Maiden’s “Total Eclipse” and “To Tame a Land” (the latter not being very good, but having been based on Frank Herbert’s DUNE), and Judas Priest’s “Metal Gods”, among others (Blue Oyster Cult also has many songs in this genre).

    Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, released a fairly recent solo science fiction concept album entitled “A Tyranny of Souls”, with songs that explore the idea of interstellar travel and alien contact.

    On the prog-rock side, Rush dominates with science fiction songs, the best-known being “2112″, but also includes song cycles such as “Cygnus X-1″, and later songs such as “Earthshine”.

    On a more contemporary note, the Atlanta progressive sludge metal outfit Mastadon followed up their MOBY DICK concept album “Leviathan” with two science fiction themed albums: “Blood Mountain” and “Crack the Skye”. The latter album featured an outer space-themed video for the song “Oblivion”.

    On a completely different note, one might consider the various songs done by Parliament, such as “Mothership Connection (Star Child)”.

    Thanks for starting the interesting thread!

    Kevin

  10. Jennifer Brown

    Klaatu, Gong, Bowie, (of course), Jimi Hendrix, Bjork. Bjork is the obvious invitee!

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