Rhea dreams of the seams of the universe, where his laser comes up short.

“The album took over eight years to complete,” says Matt Rhea of the Manganista’s upcoming full-length, Shooting at the Big Bang Seams. “What seemed like a good idea four or five years ago didn’t always stand the test of time when we were making decisions about the idea years later.” The stop-and-go sessions included multiple band hiatuses. “We recorded in three different living rooms, a garage, bathroom, bedroom, a church sanctuary, and a makeshift home studio, which was kind of our project headquarters.

“It wasn’t until we enlisted Lance LaFave [Skydiver, Kata] to mix the tracks that we would find some light at the end of the long tunnel. I started Dropboxing tracks over to Lance whenever we’d finish a song, and he’d come back with a preliminary mix, usually in a matter of days.”

Shooting at the Big Bang Seams drops August 15, available on CD, vinyl (black or translucent orange), and digital download. “The title is a line from one of the songs on the album. The song was inspired by a sci-fi-ish dream I had where I was traveling through space and somehow managed to reach the edge of the universe. When I got there, space was being held together with common seamstress supplies, thread and needle, but the stitching was falling apart so you could kind of see some light shining through from the other side. I started ‘shooting at the Big Bang seams’ with some sort of laser gun, to see if I could break through, and then the dream ended before I was able to see what was on the other side.

“After realizing this tune and many of the others on the album had references to space and dreaming, Shooting at the Big Bang Seams sounded like a good way to sum up the underlying theme.”

The CD sports a lurid sci-fi cover painting by Dave Talbott. “Dave specializes in painting pulp art and plays lead guitar in the band Skydiver,” says Rhea. “He painted the album cover based on a really crappy stick-figure drawing I made after having the Big Bang dream.”

In fact, according to Rhea, “We’re not putting out an album. We’re putting out an album cover. As an added bonus, all album-cover purchases will include a vinyl record containing ten new Manganista songs.”