Video Premiere: Science Man Manifests a World of Terror on the Feverish Nightmare "Adventure Spit"

Following the wild assault of garage-punk on Science Man II back in 2020, John Toohill's multifaceted, one-man band project Science Man returns with Nines Mecca, a delightfully abrasive and chaotic collection of tracks that summons the dystopian hellscape that awaits, due out March 18 through Swimming Faith and Feral Kid Records on both LP and VHS. Today we have the pleasure of premiering the video to the album's fifth track, "Adventure Spit."

Science Man is the complex and multifaceted alter ego of the Buffalo-based DIY demigod John Toohill, who's mastered every sub-genre of punk with his countless projects — from the krauty synth-punk blasts of Brute Spring to the blood-soaked surf punk of The Hamiltones, Toohill has done it all. After the gritty punk fury of Science Man II back in 2020, Toohill returns as Science Man with the project's third full-length album Nines Mecca, due out March 18 through Feral Kid Records and his own label Swimming Faith Records on both LP and VHS. To piece together the Nines Mecca concept, Toohill is releasing one video for each track to lead up to the album's release date, spotlighting not only his DIY ethos in his music, but also in film.

Today we're premiering the fifth installment of the series, "Adventure Spit," a surreal and unearthly instrumental that serves as the eye of the storm between the noisy hardcore and experimental no-wave. In our email exchange, Toohill says the low-budgeted video project came about when he realized touring looked impossible amidst the pandemic in late-2020 and saw it as the perfect time to open the puzzle cube.

"All of these videos are heavily influenced by wild green screen sequences in Ken Russell movies then mixed with some zero budget Jodorowsky surrealism. I feel like there is a little of that Army of Darkness fun involved too. We wanted a collection of shorts that are all related and didn't want to burden ourselves with a crystal clear plot thread. Everything is connected, though often out of time and order. There are characters that reappear, themes that glue the vague arcs together, and rules that are always in place. Each video can stand alone but it's best viewed as a collection. 'Adventure Spit' is smack in the middle and the only purely instrumental on the album. Where as most of the videos have their own self-contained plot, this is more of a dream sequence. You get visions of the future, warped versions of the past, and things that may never come to light."

Toohill worked on the album alongside producer John Angelo, who's become Toohill's right-hand man and the "go-to producer" for eccentric punk releases in Buffalo. Since the new album is faster and harder with its claustrophobic cuts of hardcore punk compared to past Science Man ventures, Toohill even considered ditching the Science Man name and releasing it under something new.

"I initially envisioned this album as a full band playing live and I've been horny for the dystopian future for as long as I can remember. Gimme any book, movie, TV show, album that casts a vision of the hellscape humanity is bound to create and I'll eat it up. Maybe I just didn't think we’d actually Philip K. Dick ourselves this hard. I don’t know. I was just at home, marinating in all that while I played guitar alone in my room. I even considered ditching the Sci Man name and making this something else entirely. But I didn't. So… You get a raging hardcore band this time."

Toohill filmed and edited all of the music videos in the series and his partner Lindsay Tripp of Spit Kink (another Toohill project) designed all the costumes, masks and stop-motion animations, while numerous friends fulfilled roles in the videos.

"Everyone drank the Kool-Aid with me. I owe them everything. Especially Lindz. I don't think we ever even formally discussed how this was gonna go. I was just ranting about wanting to make a video series and all these ideas I had sketched out. Then before I knew it she had already pushed me off the pier and grabbed rope. She made all the masks, costumes, stop motion animations, and even acted in a few of them. The videos are my concepts to start but I bounce everything off of her. It wouldn't exist without her. These finished videos are as much her thing as it's mine. That's saying a lot considering how much of a control freak Science Man is."

Nines Mecca will be out March 18 through Swimming Faith Records and Feral Kid Records. Check out the other videos released here and pre-order the album below.