bitflipper Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Danny Elfman has long been one of my favorite composers. He can do epic and he can do silly with equal aplomb. Sometimes, both at the same time. I knew he could sing and I knew that, like Hans Zimmer, he'd been in a pop band back in the day. But that was about it. I had shut pop music out of my consciousness throughout the 80's so as to focus on being a serious workaholic cubicle-dwelling technogeek working up to my first heart attack. On a whim I pulled up this concert video of his old band. I am embarrassed to say I had no idea such brilliant creativity was happening in the 80's. Nor that apparently Eugene Levy seems to have been his bass player. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhonoBrainer Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Welcome to the Dead Man's party. I saw them multiple times in '81 and '82 when they were just big enough to be touring colleges. I've never danced my butt off as I did then. And their recordings still hold up well today. They were so original. Intellectual new wave punk with jungle drums and a three-piece horn section. Congrats. To anyone I'd recommend "Pictures of You", "Capitalism", or "On The Outside" or "No Spill Blood" as starters. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Wow Dave, really??? They were my favorite band for quite a while around the end of high school and through college (well, my first three colleges anyway!😂). I actually ended up working with a IT consultant named Jorge who was both Danny's neighbor in Malibu and good friend of his. Ironically, although they both shared a love for B-movies, Jorge didn't like his music much! 😆 The best part was when Jorge told Danny I was a big fan (and a member of Steve Bartek's forum; who was their guitarist). Danny gave him two upfront tickets to one of their famous Halloween shows at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater (I lived in Irvine) to give to me! I got to take the hottest girl in the office and we sat right next to Danny's wife and kid. 😁 I have some very good memories of that night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesha Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 I went to see The Specials and Police and GoGos about 1981 in Phillie (mainly for The Specials) and never heard of Oingo Boingo who were also playing but wow was I blown away by them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwal³ Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Now you have a new back catalog to enjoy 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioschmaudio Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Weird Science was my favourite movie for a while in the 80ies. Oingo Boingo made the main song title. And it was perfect for the film. Omg, if you didn't know Oingo Boingo ... does that mean you've never watched Weird Science?! 😱 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Or Back to School! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulo Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 2 hours ago, audioschmaudio said: if you didn't know Oingo Boingo ... does that mean you've never watched Weird Science?! Nope. Seen it many times.... too busy watching Kelly to even notice there was any music. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 On 4/6/2024 at 12:04 PM, bitflipper said: I had no idea such brilliant creativity was happening in the 80's Oh man. Despite, or perhaps because of, what else was going on in the world and music industry at the time, a very strong underground arose and flourished during the 80's. Since you like Oingo Boingo, I recommend you watch Urgh! A Music War, which is now available for free viewing on Kanopy. All you should need to access Kanopy is a library card. Great set from Boingo, as well as a TON of other US and UK acts along those lines. What was referred to as "new wave" at the time, but most of the bands are what would now be called "post punk." You'll likely come away from the film with a list of early 80's bands you want to investigate further. My favorite performances from the movie are The Au Pairs, Gang of Four, Gary Numan, and The Police. Boingo are in it too, so you can check out what they looked like as babies! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 3 hours ago, audioschmaudio said: ...does that mean you've never watched Weird Science?! Correct. Still haven't. I didn't just abandon popular music in the '80s and '90s, but popular entertainment in general. I skipped gated reverbs, hackysacks, RotoToms, big hair, MTV and the DX7. Instead, I embraced old music. By "old" I mean 18th and 19th centuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwal³ Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 6 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: Urgh! A Music War youboob playlist: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Maar Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 My fav Oingo Boingo concert was the Farewell Tour in 1995. Five nights, ending on Halloween with a 4 hour show. Here's a good portion of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 7 hours ago, bitflipper said: I didn't just abandon popular music in the '80s and '90s, but popular entertainment in general. If you had to check out of mainstream pop culture for a decade, the 80's were a splendid decade to check out of. I went underground. College radio only, club shows only, no TV, no Hollywood movies. Drank a lot of booze, did a fair amount of drugs. My mother bought me a color TV for Christmas 1989, and I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation and then Twin Peaks. That helped me transition back into the mainstream somewhat just in time for the 90's, which were much, much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhonoBrainer Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 6 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: If you had to check out of mainstream pop culture for a decade, the 80's were a splendid decade to check out of . . . My mother bought me a color TV for Christmas 1989, and I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation and then Twin Peaks. That helped me transition back into the mainstream somewhat just in time for the 90's, which were much, much better. Perhaps the 90's were better. For you 😀 and chalk up another cultural win for STTNG. Well done there. In actual fact, having lived through both and enjoyed both, I can say with unassailable authority that the 90's were a mere capitalistic refresh of the vibes and patterns of the original 80s aesthetic. The core cultural principles of the 80s found their way from the streets and the cul-de-sacs into the boardrooms where clever upper-middlemen harnessed the ethos, and monetized it. Proof? OK. Max Headroom got a filter and some polish and became Ryan Seacrest. We can't live in the past. But we can certainly argue about it 😀 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeringAmps Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 11 minutes ago, PhonoBrainer said: Max Headroom got a filter and some polish and became Ryan Seacrest. Hilarious! t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 My transition back into popular culture was kickstarted by a heart attack. It's the kind of event that makes you step back, and if not completely rethink one's priorities at least encourages them to be resequenced. Necessity dictated that the flipping of bits would remain my primary means of paying the bills, but music shot up the list with a bullet. It was the return to live performance - a regular Friday-Saturday gig at a Chinese restaurant - that forced me to become reacquainted with the Top 40. In particular, Tom Petty's Refugee gave me hope that maybe pop music wasn't dead yet. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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