Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts

Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts

Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts is the second album by the British indie and psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. The album was released on 8 March 1999 and reached #9 in the UK Albums Chart, during a chart stay of 10 weeks. It was less successful in the U.S., however, where it failed to break into the Billboard 200 album chart. It was preceded in April 1998 by the "Sound of Drums" single which reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart. Two further singles were taken from Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts: "Mystical Machine Gun", which was released concurrently with the album and peaked at #14 in the UK, and "Shower Your Love", which was released in May 1999 and also reached #14 on the UK charts. None of the album's accompanying singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in America.

Initial recording sessions for the album were produced by John Leckie but the band soon decided to bring in producers George Drakoulias and Rick Rubin instead. Eventually Drakoulias and Rubin were rejected by the band and Bob Ezrin was brought in to complete the album. As a result of this, the production credits for the album's lead single, "Sound of Drums", name Drakoulias and Rubin as producers, while the rest of Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts is produced by Ezrin. Like its predecessor, K, the album continues the band's hybrid of 1960s-style psychedelic rock, groovy indie pop, and Indian instrumentation, albeit with a more progressive rock slant than on previous releases. Musically, many of the songs make use of Beatles-influenced psychedelic effects, swirling guitars, and Indian chants. This musical eclecticism prompted the band themselves to refer to Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts as their "kitchen sink album".

The album was partly recorded at the Astoria recording studio, a houseboat-studio owned by Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour. During production, the album was given the working title of Strangefolk, as lead vocalist Crispian Mills revealed during a BBC Radio 2 interview on 10 September 2007. Mills explained that the album's title was only changed to Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts at the last minute before release. However, the rejected album title was later reused for the band's 2007 comeback album, Strangefolk.

In addition, Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts was originally intended to feature the song "Strangefolk", a 10-minute long track that began with the spoken introduction "In the beginning was the word, and the word was...'Om Keshavaya namah aum'." Ultimately, this track was not released on the album but an excerpt of it was included as a hidden track on the 2002 compilation album, Kollected: The Best of Kula Shaker. Another song entitled "Strangefolk" was included on the 2007 reunion album but despite its identical title, this song is not the same as the Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts outtake.

Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts was re-released in a 10th Anniversary, 2 CD edition on 20 January 2010. The 10th Anniversary edition included an expanded running order for the original album, with the outtake song "Strangefolk" included, as the band originally intended. It also featured previously unreleased demos, alternate versions of songs, and new artwork.