Expanding on a character first invented by Bay Area musician Sonny Smith, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Heidi Alexander brought Earth Girl Helen Brown to life in 2017 with an ambitious set of EPs named after planets of the solar system, on which she collaborated with a wide range of different artists from the West Coast indie and underground scenes. Known for her work with San Francisco garage band the Sandwitches, as well as her solo alias Pruno Truman, Alexander's work as Earth Girl Helen Brown incorporates elements of indie pop, lo-fi, folk, jazz, and psychedelia.

The name Earth Girl Helen Brown originated from an ambitious 2010 project by Sonny Smith called 100 Records, which involved 100 different visual artists creating album covers to which Smith then assigned 100 fictional band names and recorded songs for each with a large group of collaborators. Alexander, then active in the Bay Area scene, took part in Smith's project, playing the part of Earth Girl Helen Brown on the track, "I Wanna Do It," later reviving the character in 2016 when she began her own collaborative project. After relocating to Los Angeles, Alexander worked with Smith and, inspired by the collaborative spirit of 100 Records, began spearheading a concept called the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band, which would release a limited-edition series of four seasonal EP's on cassette via San Francisco's Empty Cellar Records. The first release, Mercury, arrived in April 2017 and included contributions from Smith, Ty Segall, Jon Dwyer, Tim Cohen, Tahlia Harbor, and others. Mars arrived later that summer and featured a few returnees plus new collaborators like Shannon Lay, Mikal Cronin, and Jack Name. Alexander closed out 2017 with Saturn, adding yet more players to the roster including Emilee Booher, Aylin Beyce, and Enrique Tena. Venus, the final installment in the series, was released in February 2018, after which the EPs were compiled into the first of two full-length releases a few months later under the title Four Satellites, Vol. 1. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi