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How does one earn the title "Electronic Monkey Wizard," and what does it mean?

Well (laughs), that's a good question. You gotta understand that when we crashed here we knew very little about the planet Earth. I mean, the Earth is cool and everything, but it's not the most prominent planet out there, so we didn't know all that much about it. So when we crashed here and we took on Earth form — which, I have to admit, we did a pretty good job.

Coco & Birdstuff, approved by NASA.

Not too bad.

Thanks. But the whole language thing was a little complicated, and we were inundated with all the sci-fi stuff we had collected very quickly, kind of assuming that was an accurate representation. It was kinda like our names are really kind of a mistake — we picked them with very little knowledge of the planet, just to get by initially, not realizing how ridiculous these names were.

They seemed okay at the time, right?

They seemed fine. We were looking at all kinds of television and radio and movies, and plus we're running into people in Alabama who of course have funny names. Looking back, though, if we had studied that up a little better we would've picked names like "Joe" or "Rob" or something like that.

Did you watch old Devo footage for choreography tips?

Of course. Absolutely.

I'm sure you agree that duct tape is among the most versatile and useful items in the universe.

Absolutely.

How much duct tape do you go through on a tour? What's the most unusual use for duct tape you've found?

Let's see...we were actually approached by a duct tape company (laughter) and we never really followed through with it, but we need to kind of work out some sort or arrangement. You see those pictures of bands holding up guitars in magazines, we were gonna have a duct tape sponsorship (laughter). We probably go through...a standard roll is, I believe, 90 yards by like 2 1/2 inches wide — I don't know how many square inches that boils down to be. But we end up going though approximately 3 or 4 rolls a day (laughter), so if you multiply that out on tour it adds up very quickly.

Oh yeah.

Uses for duct tape ranges from holding various parts of the spaceship — that's cleverly disguised as a van — together. We use it for all the standard sort of things that duct tape would be used for. I actually had at one point an entire jumpsuit made of duct tape (laughter). We have several flight cases — if you want to call them that — that are nothing but duct tape at this point...you know, drum cases and stuff that are solely 100% duct tape; the original fiber no longer exists.

If you have regular stuff and it breaks, you have to put duct tape on it. But if something is made entirely of duct tape, theoretically it shouldn't break.

I know. The theramin that I play, the strap that I hold it on — kind of like a guitar strap — is made entirely of duct tape as well. Duct tape folded over onto itself makes a very, very strong material. Why don't they distribute that fabric in sheets so you could easily make clothing and everything else out of it? I noticed the Beastie Boys did an experiment in making duct tape wallets, which is pretty clever. I think there's endless applications out there for it.

You used a sample from "Battle of the Planets" on Experiment Zero. What were some of your favorite TV shows? Did you watch all those Japanese robot cartoons like Voltron and Force Five?

Man...or Astro-man? circa 1997: Birdstuff, Dexter-X, Star Crunch, and Coco (L-R)

Oh yeah, all that G-Force stuff is totally awesome. The early Japanese animation stuff is totally cool — Tranzor-Z, all that stuff totally rocks. So we watched all that stuff and all the standard stuff you'd see after school. Of course, we watched television in a way that would simulate if we grew up on this planet.

What's your favorite non-MST3K TV show?

That's a good question. Non-MST3K show. (thinks) Well, there are so many awesome cartoons.

Is it mainly cartoons that you dig?

Well, there were shows like "The Prisoner" that were on for a while but are no longer on — that one definitely ranks high with Man or Astro-man. Collectively, that's probably one of Man or Astro-man's favorite serial shows that was ever on.

Who would win in a fight: Frank Black or the guy from Blues Traveler?

(laughs) I don't know, the guy from Blues Traveler has all those harmonicas strapped to his chest like a bullet-proof vest, or he could hurl them as weapons (laughter). But Frank has been known to wear like eight guitars at one time. So I don't know; it'd be an interesting battle.

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