''Free Mars'' is the only album by the

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

project Lusk, released in 1997 in a

Digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case ...

-style case. The album features an appearance by

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

drummer

Danny Carey Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the drummer for the American rock band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, ...

, as well as an assortment of

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...

s and

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

s from the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

scene. Lusk included Paul D'Amour (formerly of

Brad Laner Brad Laner (born November 6, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is an American musician and record producer best known for his work with the shoegaze band Medicine, which he founded and led. Prior to Medicine, he was involved in avant-improv ba ...

(

Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, and Health promotion ...

), Chris Pitman (

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff ...

), and

Failure Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One ...

and Autolux member Greg Edwards . (D'Amour, Edwards, and Pitman were also members of Replicants.) A 7" vinyl single for "Backworlds" was also released, backed with "The Hotel Family Affair." The video for "Backworlds" got good reception on MTV. It premiered on

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After its cancellation, ...

in September 1997, and was also the first video placed into heavy rotation on the channel after it received the most votes in four episodes of the short-lived video-rating series 12 Angry Viewers.

Recording and musical style

In addition to having "

prog-rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. I ...

roots", ''Free Mars'' also contained a strong influence from British music. Chris Pitman said in 1997 "

e have E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...

definite love for crafty songwriting via

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

and

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...

and bands like that. But please, don't lump them in with

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

' stuff." Pitman attributed the album's psychedelic 60s pop sound to the band's recording environment. He stated "We were just going to do an experimental record. But we got this rehearsal space where

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the li ...

and

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

and all these people used to rehearse. It's kept the same way it was back then, and it's really nostalgic. I think that rubbed off into what we were doing."

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

's Steve Bekkala wrote in his review "Blending lo-fi dime store psychedelia with layered shoegazing soundscapes, ''Free Mars'' stakes out the murky sonic turf located somewhere in the midst of My Bloody Valentine,

Olivia Tremor Control The Olivia Tremor Control is an American psychedelic band from Athens, Georgia. The band's main line-up comprised Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, Eric Harris, John Fernandes, and Peter Erchick. The Olivia Tremor Control's music encompasses a wide ...

, and Spiritualized." He concluded by stating that "the album is mostly an assured, solid collection of songs." ''Free Mars'' would go on to get a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

award nomination for

Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer(s), unless the performer is also the art dire ...

, but lost out to ''Titanic: Music as Heard on the Fateful Voyage''. Paul D'Amour claimed in a May 1997 MTV interview that "Lusk is probably the first thing I've ever done that I'm truly pleased with." In August 1998, '' The Lantern'' named it as one of the "top unheard records of '97".

Track listing

#"Backworlds" – 4:49 #"Savvy Kangaroos" – 3:19 #"Gold" – 3:50 #"Free Mars" – 5:58 #"Doctor" – 6:08 #"Mindray" – 4:18 #"The Hotel Family Affair" – 4:28 #"Black Sea Me" – 4:12 #"Undergarden" – 4:21 #"Kill the King" – 5:31 #"My Good Fishwife" – 5:46 / "Blair's Spiders" (hidden track after 10:49) – 19:19 *The case and booklet list "The Hotel Family Affair" and "Black Sea Me" together as one track, but they are separate tracks on the disc itself.

Personnel

* Chris Pitman –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

, chamberlin,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

, organ,

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. ...

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 string ...

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 ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

s * Paul D'Amour –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, bells and shakers * Greg Edwards –

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

s *

–

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

, treatments

Additional personnel

*Dana Woolard –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

*Gilden Tunador – backing

Korel Tunador Korel Tunador is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter living in Los Angeles, California. He plays a number of instruments, including guitar, keyboards, saxophone and accordion. Tunador is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylva ...

– horns *Joe Russo –

*Patti Hood – harp, concert harp,

laughter Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter ...

*Kellii Scott –

–

*Blair Blake

References

{{Authority control 1997 albums Volcano Entertainment albums Zoo Entertainment (record label) albums