[ATTENDED: September 13, 2018] Superorganism
When I first heard Superorganism, I found “Something for your M.I.N.D.” to be kind of annoying. Then it grew on me a bit. But I was intrigued by this band whose origin story was really fascinating.
The band began as a casual recording project in 2017 (last year) with members based in multiple countries, across the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. Most of the band had met online in music forums or via mutual friends over a number of years. By he time of Superorganism’s formation, the majority of the members had been living in London since 2015 and they decided to embark on a musical project together based on their mutual interest in internet memes.
So that’s interesting, as is this musical breakdown:
- Orono Noguchi — also known as “OJ” – vocals, writing, painting
- Emily — (Mark David Turner) – writing, production, synths
- Tucan,— or Dr. Tucan Taylor Michaels (Timothy “Tim” Shann) – writing, production, mixing, drums
- Robert Strange —(Blair Everson) – visual arts, staging
- Harry — (Christopher Young) – writing, production, guitar
- B — background vocals, background dancing, background musician
- Ruby — background vocals, background dancing, background musician
- Soul — (Earl Ho) – background vocals, background dancing, background musician
Mark Turner (Emily), Christopher Young (Harry), Timothy “Tim” Shann (Tucan), and Blair Everson (Robert Strange), had previously met Orono Noguchi when they were touring Japan in another band called The Eversons. Noguchi, at the time a high school student from Maine, had first discovered The Eversons via her YouTube recommendations, thereafter becoming a fan of the group. … After discovering Noguchi could sing the group sent her a message asking if she wanted to add lyrics and vocals to a demo they had been working on at the beginning of 2017.
The demo was “Something For Your M.I.N.D.” When she graduated high school in June, seventeen-year-old Noguchi relocated to London. “Ever since I was little I had two big goals,” says Noguchi, “One of them was to be a musician or an artist of some sort, and the other was to go to college in the States. That’s why I made the decision to go to Maine by myself when I was fourteen.” In regards to college, she said, “[Forming Superorganism] was a really big decision but you don’t get to decide when opportunities come. So I’ll do this, and I can go to college any time I want.”
As of late 2017, seven out of eight band members live together in a large terraced house in East End that doubles up as a live-in, 24-hour studio. The eighth member, South Korean background vocalist Soul resides in Sydney, Australia. An enlarged image of Soul’s face often takes his place in group photographs.
I was amazed that Superorganism were doing a headlining tour after just one album, but such is the nature of music. This is a band that has the possibility of blowing up into something huge or fading away like an internet meme. So I wanted to catch them before either of those scenarios.
The show opened with the three backing singers walking out in raincoats hitting triangles. Soul was carrying a glowing orb. They walked around slowly while images were projected on the rear screen. Eventually Orono came out (I can;t believe she is only 18, what confidence) and began the show.
I don’t have the record, so I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but I assumed based on the singles (they have released 7 singles out of the 10 songs on the album).
They did not play the songs in order, which makes sense. They started with “SPRORGNSM” in which the raincoats stayed on and it was impossible to know what to look at.
Then came the song “Night Time” (their 6th single) which I saw and enjoyed at their Tiny Desk. There was a bit too much going on audibly for me to really appreciate this somewhat slower, quieter song. Because it was all back to fun and wildness with “It’s All Good.” Everybody sang the chorus loudly.
Their stage set up was interesting, too. The backing vocalists/dancers were off to the side, but up front. The drummer was on a small riser on the other side. Orono was in the middle and the music makers were in the back–guitar and synths filling up the back area.
The songs were all fun, of course. They are mostly about three minutes long on record, but some of them stretched out a bit longer. And some of them were just fun to witness, like “Nai’s March” (not released as a single…yet?) which features a heartbeat as part of the rhythm section.
The band is full of fun and clever ideas–the 8 bit graphics, the simple lyrics and the dancing in unison. All of which come together in “Nobody Cares.” (the third single).
During one of the songs, one of the backing vocalists (I’m not sure who is who) sang a lead part and it was really quite lovely. It was very unlike Orono’s spoken/rapped style.
Midway through the show came “Orono’s Time.” During this time, the band left and Orono gave a little talk about what was going on her day (her feet hurt). [An irritating woman who was bugging me all night shouted “I’ll rub your feet” Gah. She and her boyfriend were totes inappropes]. She told us that she had some friends and family in the Philly are and that they were there. Like her Aunt Jean after whom she gets her middle named Orono Jean (sometimes you can call me OJ). Then she took some Q&A. One Q “will you sign my poster” was deemed not a Q at all, but she did agree to sign it. The final Q was which band member do you like best. Orono dragged someone from the UT crew on stage and said it was him.
The band came back to play the wildly infectious and utterly ridiculous “Prawn Song” (their latest single). And then it was time for the song that WXPN (who sponsored the show) was playing all the time, “Everybody Wants to Be Famous.” My favorite part of the song is when she manipulates her voice, like this.
And that was the end of the set. About 45 minutes worth of music and fun. I assumed it would be pretty short (their album is only 33 minutes). It’s frankly amazing that they are headlining anything with such a small amount of music to draw on.
But they did come back for an encore. Orono stood on the drum riser and invited the woman whose poster she signed to come up on stage. This woman would direct everyone else (except the backing dancers whom they were instructed not to get in the way of). As she was introducing the song (“Relax–not a single yet, but possible going to be), she noticed that her Aunt Jean was going to come up on stage! How fun.
They started the song “Relax” with all of these people on the stage and it was super fun.
For their final song they played their first single “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” Everyone knew this song, of course, and it was so much more fun in a live setting. Orono invited “anyone who wants to” to come up on the stage. People flocked to the stage in droves. Eventually security had to get out on stage to make sure everyone was safe. But even with 50 or so people dancing around all of this gear, everyone had a fun time.
As the show ended, pretty much everyone on stage waited to hug or high-five Orono.
Most of the shows that I have seen recently, for one reason or another have been bands I’ve seen before. So it was great fun to see a band that’s really new, barely a year old new.
On my way out I decided to buy one of their show posters. I figured if they become huge, I’ve got this fun poster (40 copies were made) with a typo! Yes, they spelled Phialdelphia wrong. On their display poster they made a big joke about their mistake and on the one I bought, they crossed out “Philedelphia” and wrote PHILLY!
- SPRORGNSM
- Night Time
- It’s All Good
- Nai’s March
- Nobody Cares
- Reflections on the Screen
- Orono’s Time
- The Prawn Song
- Everybody Wants To Be Famous
- encore
- Relax
- Something for Your M.I.N.D.
I Just Read About That... 
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