''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 whe ...

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 A ...

-style case. The album features an appearance by

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

drummer

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

, 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 the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

s and

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

s from the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

scene. Lusk included

Paul D'Amour Paul D'Amour (born 1968 or 1969) is an American musician who was the original bassist for Tool. His bass sound is recognized by the aggressive picked tone he developed with his Chris Squire Signature Rickenbacker 4001CS, which can be heard on ...

(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 (band), Medicine, which he founded and led. Prior to Medicine, he was involved i ...

(

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

Chris Pitman Chris Pitman (born November 16, 1961) is an American musician best known for his involvement with the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. A multi-instrumentalist, Pitman is known to play keyboards, guitar and drums, in addition to his role as a lead ...

(

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

), and

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

and

Autolux Autolux is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 2001. The group formed as a trio and have released three full-length albums, ''Future Perfect'' (2004), '' Transit Transit'' (2010) and '' Pussy's Dead'' (2016). T ...

member Greg Edwards . (D'Amour, Edwards, and Pitman were also members of

Replicants A replicant is a fictional bioengineered humanoid featured in the 1982 film ''Blade Runner'' and the 2017 sequel ''Blade Runner 2049'' which is physically indistinguishable from an adult human and often possesses superhuman strength and intelli ...

.) 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 rock, 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 it ...

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) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...

roots", ''Free Mars'' also contained a strong influence from British music. Chris Pitman said in 1997 " e havedefinite love for crafty songwriting via

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and

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

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

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...

' 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 music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

and

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band 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 their f ...

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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'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 were an American psychedelic band from Athens, Georgia that released two studio albums, a bonus disc, a singles collection and a live album between 1996 and 2000. The main members were Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, ...

, and

Spiritualized Spiritualized (stylised as Spiritualized®) are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Jason Pierce (often known as J. Spaceman), formerly of Spacemen 3. After several line up-changes, in 1999, the band centred on Pie ...

." 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, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

award nomination for

Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize out ...

, but lost out to ''Titanic: Music as Heard on the Fateful Voyage''. Paul D'Amour claimed in a May 1997

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

interview that "Lusk is probably the first thing I've ever done that I'm truly pleased with." In August 1998, ''

The Lantern ''The Lantern'' is an independent daily newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, published by students at Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000. Copies of the paper are fre ...

'' 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

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

chamberlin The Chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron. It was developed and patented by the American inventor Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, when the first model was introduced. There are several ...

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

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 causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

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

s *

–

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, bells and

shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a Millenarianism, millenarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the Unit ...

* Greg Edwards –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

s *

–

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

, treatments

Additional personnel

*Dana Woolard –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

*Gilden Tunador – backing

* Korel Tunador –

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (anatomy) * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * Horns (novel), ''Horns'' (novel), a dar ...

*Joe Russo –

*Patti Hood –

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

concert harp The pedal harp (also known as the concert harp) is a large and technologically modern harp, designed primarily for use in art music. It may be played solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or in an orchestra. It typically has 47 strings with sev ...

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

*Kellii Scott –

–

*Blair Blake

References

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