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.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.false2025-07-19 01:15:55Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts8.519991999-01-011999-01-0149BritpopFolk RockIndie RockPsychedelic RockRock1138972127424fadfa8ae-39c6-4431-8939-36127147df8a9403a688-503e-464e-bb37-84626c57bb4231e2eb60-398e-38b2-afd7-234c1fd6661e/media/data/media4/Music/Kula Shaker/Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts (1999)/folder.jpgKula ShakerKula ShakerKula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a number of Top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart, including "Tattva", "Hey Dude", "Govinda", "Hush" and "Sound of Drums". The band's debut album, K, reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. It was voted number 879 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).
The band are known for their interest in traditional Indian music, culture and mysticism, with a number of their most famous songs, including "Tattva" and "Govinda", featuring lyrics written in Sanskrit. The name Kula Shaker was itself inspired by Kulasekhara, an Indian king from the 9th century. In addition, many of the band's songs feature traditional Indian instruments, such as the sitar, tamboura and tabla, juxtaposed with guitar-heavy, Western rock instrumentation. Despite achieving commercial success, Kula Shaker were unpopular with some critics, with The Observer's Simon Price describing them in 2014 as a "joke band".
Kula Shaker disbanded in September 1999 but reformed in 2004 for sessions for the School of Braja compilation album. This led to plans for a full comeback, although the reformation was not widely publicised until the beginning of 2006. The band's third album, Strangefolk, was issued in 2007 and their fourth, Pilgrims Progress, was released in 2010. The band returned with a mostly sold-out European tour and new album K 2.0 in 2016 which was well received both by the media and the fans.
After taking an extended hiatus, the band released their sixth album, 1st Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs in June 2022 and their seventh album, Natural Magick, in 2024.