The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Fruit (Small Giants)

By Aiden Landman
Published: April 15th, 2009 | 9:00am

If you own a television, you have no doubt run across the Asteroids Galaxy Tour. The group is a pitchband: a band popular because of its inclusion in an advertisement. Its fame is contingent upon your consumerism, your consumption a validation of a soul-selling gamble. This isn't Robert Johnson at the crossroads; this is Robert Johnson at the Mall Of America.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour shills the iPod Touch, meaning each time you've seen a commercial for that product, you've heard the band telling you that there are “good, good times around the bend.” Fruit is the band's first full-length offering and an album with nothing at stake. It seems to operate on the general assumption that if you're willing to sit through the iPod commercial, you might just want to hear what the Asteroids Galaxy Tour can do with 10 songs.

The answer, not surprisingly, is very little. Other than rehashed sentiments and song structure, there is very little to fall in love with or enjoy in any way other than passively. Therein lies the problem of selling out before people have bought in — you can't even take credit for your own success. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour is a band indebted. It wasn't so good that it got noticed. The group was so marketable, inoffensive, and shallow that it could move product.

While the songs beckon you to dance and the lyrics aren't overly serious, the Asteroids Galaxy Tour falls flat. Low-lying Fruit.

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The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s official site

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s MySpace page