Oingo Boingo! C or D ??

maybe it's a dead man's party.... (groan)

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).

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.

Only a Lad = Classic

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.

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.

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...)

http://www.usfestivals.com/performers/oingoboingo/oingoboingo.jpg

fuck a shakey mo

gygax i am close to forgiving you

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	1
Nothing 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 1
Home Again	5:14	Oingo Boingo	Boi-Ngo	1	6	8/1/06 10:35 PM	1
Weird Science	6:08	Oingo Boingo	Dead Man's Party	9	5	8/1/06 10:36 PM	1
Flesh 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 1
My Life	4:36	Oingo Boingo	Boi-Ngo	7	6	8/1/06 10:38 PM	1
Not My Slave	4:43	Oingo Boingo	Boi-Ngo	6	4	7/23/06 9:44 PM	1
Good 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	1
Dead Man's Party	6:21	Oingo Boingo	Dead Man's Party	2	8	8/1/06 10:40 PM	1
Heard Somebody Cry	4:40	Oingo Boingo	Dead Man's Party	3	9	8/1/06 10:41 PM	1
Private Life	3:18	Oingo Boingo	Nothing To Fear	3 of 10	5	7/23/06 9:47 PM	1 of 1
Fool's Paradise	4:34	Oingo Boingo	Dead Man's Party	6	6	7/23/06 5:41 PM	1
Goodbye, Goodbye	3:54	Oingo Boingo	Fast Times at Ridgemont High	19	6	7/16/06 8:34 PM	

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.

That's all true- but the next one "Boi-ngo" was a major drop in quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQy5vKAaTuA

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

Anyone know much about the "Forbidden Boingo" rarities bootlegs floating around?

Never heard them before then put on "Insanity" from their farewell tour, not expecting much. Fucking wow amazing.

this is my fav band of all time

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.

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.

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

Also, had my mind sort of blown learning that Danny Elfman and Kim Gordon were a couple back in her California days.

that's a siqq scene in TCM2

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!

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.

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.

Feel a lil bad about going ham on chaki 15 yrs ago tbh.

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

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?

They're stellar from 81-85, after that pretty bad. I'd try "Nothing To Fear" or "Nothing To Fear" first.

choices choices

Haha, I meant or "Good For Your Soul".

"We Close Our Eyes" from 1987 is classic, tho.

yah start with Good For Your Soul every song is a banger

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

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.

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.

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!

interesting. seems I've chosen a good time to dive in.

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

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!

ooo that Halloween night show is close and particularly tempting. probably need to be out trick-or-treating, though.

the oct 8th show is at the mall across the st from magic mountain. can you imagine anything more 80s?

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

going hard really works for that track

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.

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.

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!

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!

'No One Lives Forever' sounds a bit like Jack Skellington interpreting 'Never Say Never' for Halloween Town. It is good.