Sound exists in outer space for San Francisco’s astronautical quartet, the Asteroid No. 4. Sound — and its organized, grooveable offspring, music – relies on air molecules for its transmission to your eager ears. Sound’s need for atmosphere is hardly a limitation for the Asteroid No. 4. The A4 deal in the electromagentic waves of shoegaze and solar flares. Last Friday, September 27, 2024 marked the launch of the Asteroid No. 4 latest full-length release, “Several Shapes of Solar Flares”, availbale for purchase on Bandcamp. Dig it here, people: https://theasteroidno4.com/pages/about Aptly titled, the new LP, “Several Shapes of Solar Flares” is both musical and celestial. “Several Shapes of Solar Flares”…

In December 1993, I was boarding a Southwest Airlines flight in SF bound for Cleveland. I remember seeing a striking fellow – unruly Irish hair – brightly, yet smartly sweatered, beret-topped, and expertly managing bomb-proof carry-ons. I was a single traveler, one of the herd, a throng of holiday travelers, weaving and snaking our way through the pre-911 security apparatus. I was lightly equipped, backpacker, vagus viatorem, dog-eared book in hand, cover out, in an audibly youthful display. The book, my bible, Ann Charters’ Portable Beat Reader, my guide to punk rock poetry.  With each turn, we would pass, eying each other. “What’s his deal?” I thought. Then he spoke,…