Biography
Five Starcle Men were a drugged alien death band formed by members Luke McGowan and Glen Hobbs in the early 90s out of Lancaster, CA that divined and reproduced interdimensional transmissions from other worlds, transforming visions from dextromethorphan-induced psychotic states into music, books, artworks, artifacts, and costumes to be used as tools to protect them on their alien abduction journeys. They were very prolific, putting out nearly 40 tapes in total.
Inspired by the likes of Captain Beefheart and Pod-era Ween, Luke McGowan along with collaboration from his childhood friend Glen Hobbs pioneered the Starcle Men in the summer of 1992 with their debut tape ISTINT (“I saw them, I’m not them”), an uneasy, dissociative collection of glossolalic rambling, backwards music, noisy sound collages, and fucked rock. They would use a 4-track Tascam, a Roland S-50 sampler, a Boss DR-550 drum machine, a Casio CT-670 synthesizer, various delay and flanger pedals, circuit-bent toys, blenders, pots and pans, and various mass-produced musical instruments and household objects to create their tapes. Luke, being a technical bass player, would often use his Carl Thompson bass (which was later sold to Limp Bizkit) in songs and live shows, Glen occasionally played guitar.
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FSM would play many live shows, the first being on Halloween of 1992. Several recordings of their live shows show up in Briscle Discal (each track whose name starts with “Live” being one, except for “Live forever”), and a show played at the now-defunct Mondo Video in L.A. has surviving footage and pictures. Their intense live shows, which they would play around Lancaster and L.A. at house parties, community colleges, and DIY venues, would consist of violently flashing lights and smoke machines, re-arranging sounds from their previous tapes, playing disorganized bass and guitar through various pedals, speaking in tongues, and screaming.
Luke would be the main frontman of the band for the first few years, with Glen being more a collaborator rather than an official member. Other early contributors include Bob, Eli (both of the band Bobeli), Funitzo, and various other neighborhood friends. They frequently made tapes, and several more came in the coming years such as I Told You Human, Briscle Discal, Sorchatch Fitsel, Sicicbral, and Briscle Discal II. As more tapes were put out, the FSM “sound” and overall philosophy started to become more realized, moving from simple collages and bedroom experiments to more fleshed-out tracks and concepts. Several rudimentary books were published around this time, such as Early Message in Forabslo, showcasing their early concepts and worlds.
In 1995, now located in Austin, TX, Five Starcle Men put out their first (and only) record, Scunibro. This was Luke and Glen’s first big collaboration. At this time, they were both starcle men. The two sunk much deeper into abusing dextromethorphan, and the group psychosis got more extreme. They believed that they were being framed for the O.J. Simpson murders because the TV show Dinosaurs told them so, and that the world would end in 1997. They developed some of their most everpresent concepts during this time, like fight placement (the idea you were living in a construct reality like Truman Show or the Matrix) and crevice block (the idea that reality would break, and within that break zone there was an ocean wave that they could surf on). They completed their “Big Book” a.k.a. Drugged Alien Death God, a roughly 100 page magnum-opus of visual collages and many pages of dense text elucidating the starcle reality. Luke, who soon moved out temporarily to sail the Gulf of Mexico with his family, later threw his copy into the ocean. It is, in all likelihood, irrecoverable.
While he was away, Luke and Glen began mailing tapes to each other, remixing themselves back and forth to craft dense aural collages of self-reference. Eventually, their tape Reject Ward was complete, released on now-defunct Austin label Bobby J; this label also released Gomblasemba Lumbieca, their rap cassingle, and published their only known interview in the associated Whump magazine. Around 1996, Glen was in his “remix era” and delved deep into resampling their old tapes and turning them into dense cut-and-paste collages with his sampler. For a time, Luke distanced himself from the starcle reality and began to pursue further education, though tapes were still being put out.
Glen committed suicide in late 1998. He left behind a wonderful legacy and lots of music, art, and artifacts.
Luke, from around 1998 to 1999, continued to make tape-loopy music under the name Me Baby Dica. In 2003, Lost Frog Productions got in touch with him and his music under Me Baby Dica was repurposed into Five Starcle Men for the release Only Kids of Nothing Star, and eventually more songs from older tapes were compiled into Ghost Starbie's Collected Kids. Later, in 2007, Luke compiled Gomba Reject Ward Japan, a “best of” compilation representing FSM that he was finally happy with.
In 2014, a “crazed fan” stole every Starcle master tape from Luke McGowan's home. They have not been located since. It is estimated that over 20 full tapes are completely lost. For the past 12+ years, fans have been working on rediscovering FSM’s material and preserving it online, through such resources like a Starcle Discord server and the Starclebase, a database website published in 2024.
Luke continues to search for and preserve old Starcle material.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.