I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERORGANISM-Tiny Desk Concert #735 (April 25, 2018).

Superorganism came out of nowhere with the weird song “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” a weird hybrid of pretty much every genre.  Is was catchy and irritating at the same time.

I didn’t really think too much of them until I started hearing a but more about them.  And that their show at a small club in Philly sold out really quickly.  Then I learned more about the band and saw a live video performance and they seemed really interesting.

Are they a novelty band?  Sure.  But they are having a lot of fun, and that goes a long way with me.  Especially if the songs are catchy.

Why does it take 7 people to make simple, catchy pop songs?  I have no idea.  But they all seem to be important in their own way.

The multinational band of theatrically fun and talented musicians in Superorganism mix melody and mischievous with almost Seussian folly. In addition to the 20-plus inflatable whales they provided, the band requested via email that we provide “7 x Crunchy apples, 7 x cans of Coca Cola (or similar, as long as they are 330mls/12oz cans it doesn’t matter).” They added, “PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A RIDER BUT PART OF THE PERFORMANCE.”

When the seven members of the band arrived and huddled behind my desk, they blew into straws, making percussive noises, used toy cars and radios for sound effects and added lots of handclaps. And in the midst of it all was Orono Noguchi, a small-framed, self-described “average 17-year old Japanese girl living in Maine.” (That’s from an email she wrote me last year). The band set up a couple of belt pack guitar amps for their Moog and electric guitar, along with a big Anvil road case to beat on for percussion – and then they sang about prawns.

The first song “The Prawn Song” really shows everything you need to know about the band (and whether they are for you or not).  Noguchi sits, sing/speaking deadpan lyrics.  The other six splash in buckets of water, blow bubbles in glasses, honk horns and clap a lot.  There’s also a lot of backing vocals.  And a guitar.  And the word?

“Oh, have you ever seen the prawn cause a world war?
Have you ever kissed a prawn; got a cold sore?
Have you ever seen a prawn kick off?
Have you ever seen a prawn in a pair of handcuffs, oh

You people make the same mistakes
Over and over, it’s really kinda dumb, oh
Slow learning is kinda your thing

You do you, I’ll do me / Chillin’ at the bottom of the sea and I say…

[Chorus]  I’m happy just being a prawn.

“Night Time” has a bit more “music” and fewer  effects (relatively), but still a lot of handclaps.  It’s catchy and quieter than their usual frenetic songs (being about nigh time).  But there’s still some fun quirk in it (especially the end).

Then they play “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” (and not their new single “Everybody Wants to Be Famous,” which surprised me).  There’s a Beck’s “Loser” aspect to the lyrics of this song.  Once again for a seven piece band, their music is surprisingly minimal.

And they do actually use the apples in this song.

There is much fun to be had with all the songs and I can’t decide if Noguchi’s deadpan makes things even more fun or if I just want to assure her that it’s all okay.

I bought tickets to an upcoming show of theirs because who even knows if they’ll be around in a year, so enjoy them while I can.

[READ: April 25, 2018] “Treatments”

I often feel like Robert Coover’s writing consists of him getting an idea, writing it down as it comes to him, editing it for spelling and then releasing it.

This is actually three short pieces here and each one is a “treatment” for a terrible/absurdist take on a clichéd movie.

“Dark Spirit” is a surrealist twist on the Beauty and the Beast Tale.  I love when Coover puts in a nugget that makes you go, woah!, like “The industry is obsessed with this hackneyed tale, once inflicted upon young virgins to prepare them for marriage to feeble old buzzards with money.”  Woah, that blew my mind.  It seems so obviously true, and yet I never heard it put that way before.

So this treatment of the “film” involves acting with fake scenes and a Beast who has taken the beast head off and put it in his lap.

The actor in the movie makes fun of the script.  Someone shouts “Toilets are back to the left!”

All of this makes Beauty, “though she’s no longer beautiful, if she ever was” realize she has reached an awful place.

“Desperate Hours: The Musical” is about a group of escaped convicts, led by a psychotic killer.  They are holding a family hostage in their suburban home. It’s violent, with the gang leader walloping the housewife and pistol-whipping the husband.  And with everyone breaking into song at one point or another.

Then it gets surreal with the gang leader shooting and old man but then having a headache-inducing need for sugar.  The gang leader sends his younger brother next door for some sugar.  The brother winds up bedding the woman whose husband walks in on them and then flees to join the Foreign Legion.

The leader can’t wait for his brother anymore so he leaves to go rob a church where he encounters his own brother with the neighbor woman.

It ends with a priest getting shot and chocolate raspberry crunch ice cream with sprinkles.

The final one is called “The Lone Ranger” and it is about the Lone Ranger. He is sick of the life that he and Tonto live after surviving the Cavdenish ambush.  He complains that they’re getting old and they smell bad.  He decides to go after the Cavendishes, so he removes his white hat and puts on a black one.  he then goes after the Cavendishes.

Turns out the Cavendishes have gone straight ad are in a church, preaching.

I love the line when the Ranger takes off his mask and his skin under the mask is white (presumably from never seeing the sun).  It makes him look like he’s wearing a white mask.  Ranger’s answer for why he looks like that is hilarious.

Ranger knows he could shoot the man right now but even wearing a black hat, he’s still a good guy.  So he goes outside and robs a bank instead and then goes back to Tonto intent on taking down the Cavendishes for robbing a bank and killing his brother.

As my 12-year-old and his friends say, So… yeah.