Out of this world but making it to SLO

Valient Thorr is out of this world – literally.

Valient Thorr, a rock n’ roll band straight out of the planet Venus, will be coming to San Luis Obispo Monday to play at Downtown Brew. The band consists of five members, Valient Himself, Bjorn Thorr, Eidan Thorr, Professor Strangees and Lucian Thorr.

The band landed on Earth in 1957 in North Carolina in their time machine. After returning to space for a while, they crash-landed on Earth in 2000, front man Valient Himself said. Now, they are here to stay.

“The next album is our realizing that we are earthlings now,” he said, “and we can’t go back.”

The band is currently recording their second album for release called “Legend of the World.” The meaning behind this album is much deeper, said Valient Himself. The band goes into detail about things such as the “beginning, end and middle of time,” and telling Earthlings that there is something wrong in their world, he said.

“There is a lot of finger-pointing and name dropping,” he said. “We are trying to get people to question their lifestyles.”

In 2000, they were in Virginia and decided to go look for their time machine that had been left behind. Later, they realized that Walt Disney had stolen it, Valient Himself said.

Valient Himself has “held millions of Earth jobs, including a school teacher.” However, he decided that teaching adults was more valuable. “Why teach kids when you can teach adults?” he said.

Other people can tell that the band is trying to get a message across, wrote Dane Moreton, a reporter for the Rockit Magazine of Los Angeles, in his article “Norsemen Visit the Viper Room in the Form of Valient Thorr.” “This band appears to have some sort of mission statement, a message to us humans who march to work every day like ants,” he said.

The band constantly tours. For weeks at a time, they visit cities all over the country to spread their message. “You can’t learn in one place like you can in every place,” Valient Himself said. They are about to leave for a five-month tour of the country.

Though the band plays in both large and small venues, Valient Himself likes the smaller “Rock ‘n’ roll bars” better, he said.

“Those packed-ass clubs are awesome,” Valient Himself said. “When your sweat can’t reach the back of the room, it’s not as awesome.”

However, venues like the House of Blues appeal to Valient Thorr, because it is usually a good chance for exposure, he said.

“Even when you aren’t well known you are caked in the middle and nobody is too tired to check you out,” Valient Himself said.

Valient Thorr looks to bands like AC/DC and MC5 for inspiration and looks to specific artists such as Mic Jagger (“he has a swagger like nobody else”) and Thin Lizzy.

The band is going to be playing along with bands like Thrice, Fall Out Boy, and All-American Rejects this summer on the Warped Tour.

However much Valient Thorr looks to older music, they see potential in some smaller up and coming bands. “Small bands like River Boat Gamblers and Birds of Avalon are awesome,” Valient Himself said. “There should not be a band so underground that you can’t find it at your f–in’ record store.”

All the members write songs on the group’s album collectively. “We would never let anyone write our songs,” Valient Himself said.

The acclaim that the band has received recently has been largely noticed. Purevolume.com said Valient Thorr is “the best band on the planet that is not from this planet.”

Though the band is from space, they still have much to say about Earth and they want to let everyone know it, he said. “The media tries to coat everything with honey, but I’m not going to coat anything,” said Valient Himself.

When asked about his age, Valient Himself takes a minute to calculate it in his head, then answers, “27, 218 Earth years old, but that doesn’t make sense in Venusian years.”

Recently, Hustler magazine did an article on the band and, according to the band’s Myspace.com page, the writer called the members “middle-aged.” In response to this Valient Himself said, “Everybody thinks we are old because of our beards, but we are actually old because we are from space.”