Blaster the Rocket Man was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

horror punk Horror punk is a music genre that mixes punk rock and 1950s-influenced doo-wop and rockabilly sounds with morbid and violent imagery and lyrics which are often influenced by horror films and science fiction B-movies. The genre was pioneered by ...

band from Indianapolis, Indiana. It formed in the early 1990s as Blaster the Rocketboy and signed with Boot to Head Records in 1994. It released two albums before signing with Jackson Rubio Records. Its name changed to Blaster the Rocket Man for its 1999 release '' The Monster Who Ate Jesus''. Its final release was ''The Anatomy of a Monster'', a compilation of material from its Boot to Head years plus some bonus material.

History

1994–1995: Formation and ''Disasteroid''

According to the band'
myspace page
in 1994 Daniel Petersen (aka "Otto Bot") came up with the idea for a

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

entitled "Blaster the Rocketboy." This never came to be, but instead grew into a punk rock band with the same name. During the band's formation, many changes in the lineup occurred, until it finally solidified with Daniel Petersen on the microphone, his brother Dave on drums, Michael “The Man” Schauss on the bass, and Chris Dickens on guitar. Daniel's brother Dave was only 13 at the time, and he was the main songwriter. In late '94, the band joined Boot to Head Records and put out their first album, '' Disasteroid'', the next year. This

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

attracted attention, and a small fan base began to form. The cassette sold out and remained out of print until '98, when it was re-released. This, too, sold out, and the album can now be found on ''The Anatomy of a Monster'', the band's final release.

1996–1998: ''Succulent Space Food for Teething Vampires'' and touring

Soon after, the band released its second album, titled '' Succulent Space Food for Teething Vampires'', in late '96/early '97. The CD did well, and Blaster's fan base was growing. During this time Daniel took over

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

duties, penning most of the tracks on the record. In 1998, the band went on tour with

The Huntingtons Huntingtons are a punk band from Baltimore, Maryland which formed in 1993 in the Maryland and Delaware area by Cliff Powell (a.k.a. Cliffy Huntington), Mike Holt (a.k.a. Mikey Huntington) and Mike Pierce (a.k.a. Mikee Huntington). The band is hea ...

1999–2000: ''The Monster Who Ate Jesus'' and split

The band soon switched labels, signing with Jackson Rubio Records and changing its name to "Blaster the Rocket Man." With the maturation of its name change came the maturation of its sound; with its first record under the new label, '' The Monster Who Ate Jesus'', the band's music had become tighter, better-produced. They added in some

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, some

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

, and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

. In 2000, the band headlined a

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

tour. While on their way back, the group decided to break up.

2001–current: Post-breakup, ''The Anatomy of a Monster'', and reunions

Drummer Dave Petersen (aka Heater Hands) went on to join the band Squad Five-0 soon after Blaster unofficially disbanded in the summer of 2000. After the split Otto formed the Voice of the Mysterons in his current home of Scotland. Bassist, Mikey Rocket (Michael Schauss), quit the band and over the years became a teacher, teaching History at Benjamin Bosse High School and leading worship at Faith Bible Church in Evansville, Indiana. Since the split of Squad Five-0 Dave Petersen joined

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

ers Marah for a short while. He currently plays in Adam and Dave's Bloodline, another Philadelphia rock band alongside Adam Garbinski (formerly of

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, One21, Squad Five-O and Marah). Daniel Petersen and various friends of the band got together for a reunion show in Indiana in 2002 (which was recorded and released on its compilation ''The Anatomy of a Monster'' in '02), and again for the

Cornerstone Festival Cornerstone Festival was a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around July 4 near Bushnell, Illinois, drawing some 20,000 attendees each year. In a given year, many artists that played at Cornerstone also playe ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

in 2004, and two more at Cornerstone 2008. In 2002, the band reunited with Boot to Head Records to release its final album: a compilation including all three of its prior albums, plus live material from a show played in Indiana the same year. On May 18, 2011 Otto announced, via his Facebook profile, that Blaster the Rocket Man and Voice Of The Mysterons had released a split EP via Crossroads of America Records and Flannelgraph Records. This was originally released as a limited 100 press 3" CD available in October 2010 via subscription only. His announcement made it clear that the release was now available to the general public as a digi-download via

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

. The release featured four Voice of the Mysterons songs, two Blaster the Rocket Man songs, as well as some spoken word by Otto. It was initially a part of the "Laminar Excursion Monthly" series. Blaster the Rocket Man's songs from this split were later re-released on a 7" split with folk punk band Destroy Nate Allen in 2012 via High Endurance Records. Daniel Petersen wrote and performed a spoken word piece for the gypsy-folk-punk band

Insomniac Folklore Insomniac Folklore is an American rock band from Portland, Oregon. The group is made up of Rev Tyler Hentschel, Adrienne Michelle and Amanda Curry with other members joining them from time to time. Hentschel is the project's only consistent member ...

entitled, "The Homecoming: A Sermon for Certain Serpent-Servants and Sundry Other Unsavory Characters." This piece appeared on their June 2011 release "A Place Where Runaways Are Not Alone.

Adrienne Curry of Insomniac Folklore later adapted the piece into a short play that was performed at

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on December 11, 2011. In March 2012, Daniel also recorded a track titled "The Story of Horror Boy" for Insomniac Folklore. The spoken word piece can be found on ''The Scariest Thing in the Dark E.P.''

Musical style and influences

Blaster's sound is often compared to that of the

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk rock, punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, sa ...

Man or Astro-man? Man or Astro-man? is an American surf rock group that formed in Auburn, Alabama in the early 1990s and came to prominence over the following decade. Primarily instrumental, Man or Astro-man? blended the surf rock style of the early 1960s like ...

, though headman Otto Bot (stagename for Daniel Petersen) denied any direct influence. A review by '' HM'' compared the music to the combined sounds of werewolf movies,

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

, and the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

(among others), further stating that "this is what CREATIVE Christian music sounds like." The lyrics use horror and sci-fi themes as Christian allegories; ''HM'' describes it as using the characters of evil to communicate biblical truth. '' The Monster Who Ate Jesus'' includes a number of songs inspired by

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

Space Trilogy ''The Space Trilogy'' or ''Cosmic Trilogy'' is a series of science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. The trilogy consists of ''Out of the Silent Planet'' (1938), '' Perelandra'' (1943), and ''That Hideous Strength'' (1945). A philologist named E ...

. Many included themes disdaining

Secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

. Blaster was also well known for its stage antics, including masks and costumes as well as frequent audience participation. Masks that Otto wore on stage include a werewolf worn for the band's werewolf-themed songs (such as ''American Werewolf'' and ''I Like Lycanthropy'') as well as a fly mask, which he wore for ''Human Fly Trap''.

Members

Current

Last show played in July 2008. *Otto Bot (Daniel Petersen) – vocals/lyrics *Brett Sempsrott – drums *Ty Sempsrott – guitar *Dustin Spock – guitar *Jason Allender – bass

Former

*Heater Hands (Dave Petersen) –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

on most recordings *Chrissy Rocket (Chris Dickens) – guitar *Jason Allender – guitar *Rusty Sempsrott – guitar *Mikey Rocket (Michael Schauss)-

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

*Oxford Don – bass *John Grey Vogel – bass *Elijah Sheridan - bass

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

EPs

References

External links

Blaster
on Facebook *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaster the Rocket Man Christian punk groups Musical groups established in 1994 Musical groups disestablished in 2002 Horror punk groups American surf music groups 1994 establishments in Indiana Musical groups from Indianapolis