Survivor story: Blake Sandberg’s ALIENS attempt second landing by Kurt Gottschalk

The t-shirt Blake Sandberg wears under his leather jacket speaks volumes. The iconic image — a line drawing of a mutant frog-thing with the caption bubble “HI, HOW ARE YOU” — is at least as famous as its creator, the troubled and sometimes revered singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston, who died in September at the age of 58, and the frog-thing’s question is what many who know Sandberg likely want to ask him. How are you?

Circling the floor at the Knitting Factory while opener Frida Kill bangs out some old school, three-chord punk, he is on-task if driven by nervous energy. He talks to the sound man, sits down behind the merch table, gets up again, greets some friends, heads out to the bar and comes back to round the room again.

There’s good reason for his nervousness. The October 22 set will be the second in five years for his band ALIENS, now a duo with drummer Matt King. It’s been a dozen years since his first and only album, Head First, had its moment on the CMJ charts, and times haven’t been easy for Sandberg in the interim.

Sandberg relocated from Austin to New York in the 1990’s with his eyes on the art scene. While painting was his first interest (the cover of Head First is his work), he discovered a second passion when a friend gave him a guitar. After bouncing around a bit, he was soon making art and making a name for himself in a downtown studio near Broadway and Fulton. Then the world changed.

On September 10, 2001, Sandberg took his parents — who had flown in for the occasion — to the opening of a group show that included his work. The next morning, he was working in his studio when hijacked planes were piloted into the World Trade Center towers. His parents were stranded in a hotel until they were able to get out of town and Sandberg sealed up his windows and did his best to survive.

“That stuff was burning for like six weeks,” he said. “The wind was blowing and it just came through my windows. I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I just stayed.”

In the months and years that followed, little was understood about the long-term effects of breathing the air around Ground Zero, but Samdberg knew something was wrong. Bouts of bronchitis and vertigo, and a metallic taste in his mouth that he couldn’t get rid of led him, led him to leave the city and head back to Texas in 2005.

A new doctor and a hospital stay helped him on the path to recovery and gave him the space to start making art again. Through a small business loan, he was able to rent warehouse space in Austin. He set up separate painting and recording studios and launched a label, Miscellaneous Music. Drawing on connections he had made in New York, he recorded tracks with Johnston and another outsider pop songwriter, Jad Fair, as well as avant hip-hop pioneers Ram-Ell-Zee and DJ High Priest. He also recorded three tracks under the ALIENS banner with drummer Hunt Sales, who has played with David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Todd Rundgren, to name a few.

[pullquote]Eventually, he made it back to NYC himself, setting up shop in Brooklyn in 2009. When a mutual friend introduced him to drummer King, Sandberg saw a new life for ALIENS.[/pullquote]

King’s setup includes a small drum kit and a cajon hand drum as well as electronics for looping and processing beats, giving ALIENS a much bigger sound than the guitar/drum duo that was in vogue during the band’s first life. They hit hard at the Knit, delivering a strong set that went off with, or despite, a few hitches. Sandberg’s dirty blond bob and the riffs he grinds out of his guitar belie a certain Kurt Cobain influence, but when King switches from open-palms to sticks, the songs can take on a Ramone-esque immediacy. The set is primarily comprised of songs from Head First — including a raucous take on his personal 9/11 anthem “Survivor Story,” during which it’s a bit hard to believe his affirmation that “we are all right now.” Live, the duo foments a certain excitement, direct, urgent, almost pleading. They end with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Alien Mind Control.”

With a renewed commitment to playing live, Sandberg is ready to give ALIENS another go. Songs are in the works for a second album and he’s set up a Bandcamp page (aliensnyc.bandcamp.com) where Head First and other recordings can be heard in full. He’s also posted a new EP of three Johnston covers and is planning to play Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook before the end of the year.

“I’ve been through a bunch of stuff,” he said. “I’m just trying to get out there and play some shows and let people know I’m still at it.”