Watch: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol Die in Space

Groove metal cosmonauts animate new video

A scene from the "Death Wagon" video.

Space: A treacherous realm where terrifying unknowns eclipse manifest hazards.

For example, if one’s spacesuit rips, they fall unconscious before swelling into a bloated mass in mere seconds. And when encountering a black hole, prepare to be stretched into human linguini. Still, what about wild card dangers – aliens, galactic hostage taking, burger babes?

Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol ventures to the stars on brand new album Burger Babes from Outer Space, “8 terrifying tales of death,” to investigate. Is space really the place for a greasy rock band? The adventure unfolds today with a video for “Death Wagon,” animated by Katie McDowell and shot by Billie Patterson, in which members Leo Lydon, Aaron Metzdorf, and Sean St. Germain rocket through the cosmos on a sweet cheeseburger shaped craft until something goes horribly wrong.

The expanse beyond our third stone from the sun swirls in silence, but not so when RBBP arrives. In “Death Wagon,” the unit blasts a sonic groove epitomized by the Lydon’s exquisitely distorted 8-string guitar/bass hybrid and high vocals. Eventually, the track opens up into a near death metal squall that proves the perfect soundtrack for having your head torn off by the force of an exploding star.

Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol: (l-r) Sean St. Germain, Leo Lydon, Aaron Metzdorf. (Courtesy of Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol)

Of the new album, Lydon reveals:

“The Burger Babes have always been a symbol of feminism and power. I thought it would be cool to take them into outer space as a superior race of beings that were for peace, but instead, all the Earth guys start catcalling and whistling and try to pick them up, so they end up ‘evaporated’ by space weapons. It’s a very Mars Attacks kind of premise, I guess, but ‘Death Wagon’ comes into play from being in the road.

“Our van is the spaceship or death wagon. The whole thing is a metaphor for sacrifice and connecting, and giving your life to your art until eventually you die doing what you love. That spaceship burns and explodes as it enters the atmosphere, but no one will ever forget how bright it was when it did.”

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

Support the Chronicle  

One click gets you all the newsletters listed below

Breaking news, arts coverage, and daily events

Keep up with happenings around town

Kevin Curtin's bimonthly cannabis musings

Austin's queerest news and events

Eric Goodman's Austin FC column, other soccer news

Information is power. Support the free press, so we can support Austin.   Support the Chronicle