― chaki, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― g, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
On a side note: a band I used to play with did a cover of "Private Life", but without the keyboards it sounded like shite.
― paul, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
If you ever lived in So. Cal. for any length of time you'll have a different opinion on Oingo Boingo than the rest of the country. They were certainly responsible for bringing a certain kind of new wave sound to the southland.
― Steve K, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Actually, given the racial divisions heavily prevalent in the 80s in LA, it only makes Oingo Boingo's wholesale appropriation of black music elements that much more offensive - nothing like getting white racist UCLA party animals to listen to black music without actually having to think about or deal with black people...
Fuck Boingo.
― Shaky Mo Collier, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Though there were a couple of Latinos in the band (which doesn't exactly make them Los Lobos, admittedly). I completely and totally agree with the wannabe XTC-meets-Devo analysis going on here, and Rollins once memorably described California rednecks in a 1985-era spoken word bit as like rednecks everywhere, but with Oingo Boingo stickers on their cars.
― chaki, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Oh jesus... uhm, did you not see the above mention of an infinitely better and more interesting LA genre-mixing band from that period - LOS LOBOS?!?! Maybe not so much the ska part, but definitely the latin horns and folk music influences, crossed with rock and a bit of new wave here and there. OB were NOT the only ones. As someone who grew up around there at the apex of OBs career, that's a load of crap. And don't even bother bringing up Sublime - christ, the original wave of British punks ('76-'81) were deep DEEP into mixing ska, punk, and reggae - ie, the Slits, the Clash being produced by Scratch Perry, the Specials, etc. years before Boingo. Boingo was biting a bunch of influences and re-packaging them sans "threatening" interracial, political, or more experimental overtones back to a bunch of stupid white kids that just wanted to have a "dead man's party" and fondle Kelly Le Brock. Even X, another infinitely better LA band, toyed with the Latin imagery/themes before them, and in a better way.
This gets into the motivations of the artists themselves, and while I can't say that I have any real insight into Danny Elfman as a person, I can categorically say that this was a very *commercial band* - on a major label, trying very hard to make hits, with no punk DIY ethic or background whatsoever, so I think it's safe to say that yes, they were probably making a conscious effort to "exploit it to the masses". It sure looked that way at the time.
As for Weird Science - hey, I didn't hear the X cover practically *every fucking day* of my junior high-high school existence, so yes, I can hold it against OB simply on the basis of it being over- exposure of a band I already didn't like. Whereas with X, that admittedly ill-advised soundtrack move was pretty "under the radar" and followed on the heels of years and years of productive, interesting, provocative music. It's not rocket science to easily see that X was the real deal (ie, a grassroots punk band) and Oingo Boingo were a bunch of major label shills. Unless Elfman has some musical background (outside of being a "band geek") that I'm not aware of.
And you're right, I should've mentioned Fishbone at least, but it was YOU who said that "NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING IT", so what's your point?
― Sean, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Hey, play whatever you want, I *love* funk. But a band should be conscious of where their music comes from, who's listening to it, and how it's being reacted to. You could think about what's for dinner while you're playing, I don't care. But Oingo Boingo presented their genres-in-a-blender crap like it came out of the head of some nerdy office worker. They watered the shit down to make it palatable for a basically more close-minded and lamer audience. Their music didn't have the political or social context that's inherent in a lot of ska and reggae. Or haven't you ever heard "Police and Thieves" or "Mister Brown"?
"Should i be singing about black people so the audience 'will have to deal' with it?"
Uhm, surely you must be aware of the vast amount of funk music that DOES sing about black people, or at the very least about race relations? Don't make me break out a list of songs here... assuming you're writing your own material, you're singing about whatever you want and that's cool, all well and good! But to imply that racial consciousness is not part of funk music is just a denial of the music's history.
― paul, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Chris Barrus, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
maybe it's a dead man's party.... (groan)
― gygax!, Monday, 6 January 2003 17:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 6 January 2003 17:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― David Allen, Monday, 6 January 2003 18:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
I also take issue with the idea that appropriating a particular sound means that you must also appropriate the associated ideology if you want to create anything worthwhile (which seems to be what Shakey Mo is saying).
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 6 January 2003 18:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 6 January 2003 19:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Monday, 6 January 2003 19:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Monday, 6 January 2003 21:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
My band is made up of guys I met who could play. I guess since we are all white we’d better not try to “appropriate” any musical style other than Baroque, but golly willikers, we just really like that black rock and roll music! We write what makes us happy and use our producer to help us get rid of the crap. (And it ain’t Henry-diarrhea-of–the-opinions-Rollins, by the way.) Our stuff doesn’t sound to me like Oingo Boingo, but if it accidentally should to anyone else, well heaven help civilization: it’s because we have an album of theirs (we also have a Fishbone, a couple of XTC and a Rollins or two. Whoopie crap).
If Oingo Boingo doesn’t move you, well power to ya, brother! Offer me something besides comparison to bands who came along after Oingo Boingo started playing (1975) or a reason beyond the fact that California radio sucks (everybody knows that, anyway).
As far as Elfman and Bartek’s work being derivative, Angelo of Fishbone has been quoted as saying that Oingo Boingo was a large influence.
― Jackson Stinkhammer, Saturday, 24 April 2004 22:45 (twenty years ago) link
Only a Lad = Classic
― Patrick South (Patrick South), Saturday, 24 April 2004 22:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 24 April 2004 23:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Ian in Brooklyn, Sunday, 25 April 2004 02:16 (twenty years ago) link
― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 25 April 2004 02:28 (twenty years ago) link
― bimble (bimble), Sunday, 25 April 2004 03:53 (twenty years ago) link
Oingo Boingo wasn't around for me growing up. I was of the Nightmare Before Christmas generation. I was brought up knowing of him only as a composer. When I discovered that he was in a band, AND recognised 'Weird Science' from some short-lived T.V. show when I was a kid, I threw myself so far into Boingo-dom that I still haven't pulled myself out of it. Compared with the rubbish that's out today (pop-wise, especially), I gladly look back on Boingo and marvel at their difference. For what they are, they're certainly quite talented. The instruments they incorporate, and the style is just so original. Especially for me, not having lived the life back then.
And I live in Australia, too. I hear very, very little about them here.
― slant, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 10:52 (twenty years ago) link
Heads up for LA folks... As part of their Friday @ midnight film series, the Nuart is showing Forbidden Zone this Friday with at least one Elfman present for a discussion afterward.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 20:07 (twenty years ago) link
Uhm, yes I do "write or participate in the production of music" myself. I do indeed agonize over where the music I make fits into the larger fabric of music history, probably to an unnecessary degree (but then I think being obsessively neurotic is key to making any good art). My band is composed similarly in that it's made up of people I know who could play and wanted to play and share similar interests/influences as me. The ethnic make-up of the band is largely inconsequential... but an essential point of mine is being confused here, which is about the MUSIC itself and not the musicians. Ska, funk, reggae - these genres have an explicit socio-political component, they come from a specific time and place and that is reflected in the music itself. One (among many) of the things that annoys me about Boingo is that they reappropriate this stuff, strip it of its socio-political context, mix it with new wave Thomas Dolby keyboards and present it like its some sort of genius hybrid. It just comes out sounding really empty to me. If I want to hear good ska I can just go get the Skatalites - or hell, even the British Two-Tone bands did it better (the Specials et al). Boingo took this music, tore it out of context, and added nothing as far as I can tell. They don't do anything that other people don't do better. XTC and Devo have them beat hands down in terms of new wave songwriting, and there are tons of better ska bands - hell, even Madness did the pop-ska thing with more panache (and RESPECT, look they're named after Prince Buster etc...)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 20:40 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 20:43 (twenty years ago) link
― everything, Monday, 18 April 2005 18:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― HAHAHAHAHA (Those are children's laughs) (We've run out), Monday, 18 April 2005 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:35 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.usfestivals.com/performers/oingoboingo/oingoboingo.jpg
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:57 (seventeen years ago) link
fuck a shakey mo
gygax i am close to forgiving you
― cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 12 August 2006 19:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 12 August 2006 20:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Saturday, 12 August 2006 20:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 12 August 2006 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 12 August 2006 20:07 (seventeen years ago) link
Little Girls 3:44 Oingo Boingo only a lad 1 9 8/1/06 10:27 PM Same Man I Was Before 3:24 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 8 11 7/23/06 9:16 PM 1Nothing Bad Ever Happens 3:43 Oingo Boingo Good For Your Soul 7 of 11 5 7/23/06 9:01 PM Just Another Day 5:12 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 1 5 8/1/06 10:31 PM 1 of 1Home Again 5:14 Oingo Boingo Boi-Ngo 1 6 8/1/06 10:35 PM 1Weird Science 6:08 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 9 5 8/1/06 10:36 PM 1Flesh N' Blood 4:17 Oingo Boingo Ghostbusters 2 Soundtrack 7 4 7/23/06 9:31 PM Running On A Treadmill 3:21 Oingo Boingo Nothing To Fear 5 of 10 7 8/1/06 10:38 PM 1 of 1My Life 4:36 Oingo Boingo Boi-Ngo 7 6 8/1/06 10:38 PM 1Not My Slave 4:43 Oingo Boingo Boi-Ngo 6 4 7/23/06 9:44 PM 1Good For Your Soul 3:16 Oingo Boingo Good For Your Soul 2 of 11 8 7/23/06 9:39 PM Stay 3:37 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 5 3 8/1/06 10:39 PM 1Dead Man's Party 6:21 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 2 8 8/1/06 10:40 PM 1Heard Somebody Cry 4:40 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 3 9 8/1/06 10:41 PM 1Private Life 3:18 Oingo Boingo Nothing To Fear 3 of 10 5 7/23/06 9:47 PM 1 of 1Fool's Paradise 4:34 Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party 6 6 7/23/06 5:41 PM 1Goodbye, Goodbye 3:54 Oingo Boingo Fast Times at Ridgemont High 19 6 7/16/06 8:34 PM
― cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Saturday, 12 August 2006 20:27 (seventeen years ago) link
I will be the guy repping for a bands lesser album and say I just listened to "Dead Man's Party" for the first time in ages and it's still super fun. Cheesy, somewhat overproduced, not as good as the previous 2 albums - all true. But still lots of fun.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 29 August 2009 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
That's all true- but the next one "Boi-ngo" was a major drop in quality.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQy5vKAaTuA
― a fact-checker with The New Yorker magazine (HI DERE), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 18:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Y'all probably saw this before but it's pretty cool. Oingo Boingo when they were on the Gong Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTRd1a5MVMw
― everything, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Anyone know much about the "Forbidden Boingo" rarities bootlegs floating around?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 13 April 2012 03:23 (twelve years ago) link
Never heard them before then put on "Insanity" from their farewell tour, not expecting much. Fucking wow amazing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 19:27 (six years ago) link
this is my fav band of all time
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 19:35 (six years ago) link
btw William Winant plays percussion on Insanity. He collabs with Zorn often and is Mr. Bungle member. He's one of the original Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo from the 70s! Boingo has a ton of cool avant garde connections. Sluggo on sax played with Annette Peacock and Steve Bartek plays on all the Beautiful Records albums from the 70s.
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 19:38 (six years ago) link
I mean Lovely Music, not Beautiful Records, lol. Bartek is on Blue Gene Tyranny's Out of the Blue on bass! Also the Peter Gordon stuff, etc.
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 19:39 (six years ago) link
Weirdest thing. For years I had this strange song stuck in my head but I just could not place it. All I knew is that I had heard it again some time in the past few years, but mostly recognized it from when I was a kid. I thought it was vaguely ... like, baroque/gothic eastern European pop or something, with fiddles and this bouncy bass line. So there I was, watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 several months back, for the first time since I was maybe 15, and - ta dah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CZCKP-H4C8
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 20:49 (six years ago) link
Also, had my mind sort of blown learning that Danny Elfman and Kim Gordon were a couple back in her California days.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 20:50 (six years ago) link
that's a siqq scene in TCM2
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 20:51 (six years ago) link
btw the original members - sans Danny - still play as the Oingo Boingo Dance Party. Vatos, Bartek, Avila, Sluggo and Carl Graves. I'm opening up for them on May 12th at The Whiskey!
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 20:52 (six years ago) link
i reviewed this whole lot of hurt so-cal/proprietary feels above, but my view as a non-cali-for-lifer is: regardless my thoughts on its reactionary and sexist and problematic lyrics, "only a lad" by oingo boingo in 1980 is likely the second coolest thing outta LA that year after john and exene.
this was a weird bummer to me after i listened to it again for the first time since 1984, but not after i read this thread.
aging will troll you lol.
― Hunt3r, Tuesday, 25 December 2018 06:05 (five years ago) link
there is some top-quality hate in this thread!Neither classic nor dud, but having a greatest hits is fun, and Bartek is one of the more interesting new wave guitarists.
― campreverb, Tuesday, 25 December 2018 16:13 (five years ago) link
Feel a lil bad about going ham on chaki 15 yrs ago tbh.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 25 December 2018 19:24 (five years ago) link
best fucking band of all time a million times better than X cmon fucking fight me
https://img.discogs.com/irsxiVoZ3DCDonc17y43tOl9qiY=/600x498/smart/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/A-79459-1499501611-3055.png.jpg
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 21 March 2019 22:13 (five years ago) link
I'll try in near future, what's a good starter? I was going to go for the "Insanity" album but maybe best go there later?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 22 March 2019 20:57 (five years ago) link
They're stellar from 81-85, after that pretty bad. I'd try "Nothing To Fear" or "Nothing To Fear" first.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 22 March 2019 21:10 (five years ago) link
choices choices
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 22 March 2019 21:55 (five years ago) link
Haha, I meant or "Good For Your Soul".
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 23 March 2019 00:22 (five years ago) link
"We Close Our Eyes" from 1987 is classic, tho.
― naus, Saturday, 23 March 2019 23:07 (five years ago) link
yah start with Good For Your Soul every song is a banger
― kurt schwitterz, Sunday, 24 March 2019 23:13 (five years ago) link
I love the later stuff too of course Dark At The End is one of my fav things every recorded up and is in the same space in my brain as The The's Mind Bomb but that's for superfans I kno
― kurt schwitterz, Sunday, 24 March 2019 23:15 (five years ago) link
chaki otm. I hadn't really listened to Oingo Boingo before now (I know the song 'weird science' maybe only from a remake series on USA or something when I was young). I enjoyed Danny Elfman on Maron. Also had some friends staying with us for around a month, and one of them kept singing "This. is. hallo-ween." over and over to my sons. This somehow compelled me to listen. The influences listed itt are obviously there (first album is Devo+), but I'm blown away by how much I enjoy the abovementioned high points. Everything seems to be listenable. I live in southern california btw.
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:13 (two years ago) link
Shaky posts up top as wrong as the time it was suggested we shouldn't watch Coco because Book of Life already existed. Some kind of post-Ghost World Blues Hammer sensitivity that occasionally fools many of us into projecting Blues Hammer onto an otherwise good time.
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:22 (two years ago) link
Speaking of which, Danny Elfman has his first vocal album out in 25 years - and it sounds like he's fronting 90s Nine Inch Nails! I quite like the two singles, "Happy" and "Sorry", but an entire album of that vibe is tiresome. Good to hear his voice again, though!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 19:52 (two years ago) link
interesting. seems I've chosen a good time to dive in.
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:02 (two years ago) link
my fav band since ive been 4 years old. the rest of the band, sans Danny, still perform together (a bunch of shows coming up in Oct) and I go see them as much as possible because im an insane person
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:12 (two years ago) link
btw re: the weird race stuff up thread there - are 2 mexicans and one black guy in boingo. carl graves. he was in a band with david foster before boingo!
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:15 (two years ago) link
ooo that Halloween night show is close and particularly tempting. probably need to be out trick-or-treating, though.
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:45 (two years ago) link
the oct 8th show is at the mall across the st from magic mountain. can you imagine anything more 80s?
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:46 (two years ago) link
btw this youtube account is so sick... sooo many amazing unreleased tracks. this version of controller goes HARD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4CJ5WwEtZ0
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 22:27 (two years ago) link
going hard really works for that track
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 23 June 2021 14:33 (two years ago) link
Reissues of the first 4 albums coming out from Rubellan Remasters. CDs will all have bonus tracks, though he couldn't get clearance for previously unreleased demos and whatnot.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 23 June 2021 14:37 (two years ago) link
Bonus tracks are good. I gave the new elfman album a first try, but it doesn't have the same energy. Will try again but think I get a lot out of the guitars in OB. I switched to a live 1985 show at The Ritz NY on youtube that was amazing.
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 23 June 2021 14:39 (two years ago) link
I'm very much in favor of the idea of an 18-track album of such big, extreme music that doesn't really stray from one specific mood, and I do like quite a few of the individual songs, but mostly I think "Happy" towers way above the rest of them. Just really love "Happy." It sounds like evil Sparks!
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Wednesday, 23 June 2021 15:43 (two years ago) link
'No One Lives Forever' sounds a bit like Jack Skellington interpreting 'Never Say Never' for Halloween Town. It is good.
― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 23 June 2021 16:46 (two years ago) link