Oingo Boingo - Boi-ngo

It was early '83 that I discovered Oingo Boingo. I bought the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack and heard their song, "Goodbye, Goodbye," and I was blown away. I then started looking for and buying the band's albums and I really got a kick out of how dark and bouncy the band was. I still get a wicked grin when I think of "Only a Lad," and although I didn't really think the movie was that funny, I thought the song "Weird Science" was good, but "Dead Man's Party" was better - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

For whatever reason the quirky lads just couldn't seem to catch a break with their first few albums and A&M dropped the band, and things seemed to be over. Then in the fall of '84 Danny Elfman appeared as a solo artist with the song "Gratitude" that was in regular rotation on MuchMusic. While I don't remember much aside from that one track I still think of it as a good album. An album that featured most of the band. MCA Records had signed Danny as a solo artist, and from what I've read, Mister Elfman would renegotiate his contract to bring the band back. Oingo Boingo would release a trio of albums on MCA and Boi-ngo lands right in the middle of that run.

As much as I liked Dead Man's Party and many of the songs from Dark at the End of the Tunnel, there was something special about Boi-ngo. The band wasn't playing novelty party songs - this felt like rage that was polished into something wonderful.

They grafted their brand of weird shit onto commercial hooks and managed to maintain their integrity. In short, Boi-ngo seemed to find a way to balance all of the strange and wonderful elements that made Oingo Boingo, well, Oingo Boingo.

The opening track "Home Again" is one of my favourite songs ... the interplay between Mike Bacich's syncopated keyboard and John Avila's bass and Johnny (Vatos) Hernandez's drums is mind blowing. Add Steve Bartek's guitar parts and the horn section and you have ... magic. How this was not a hit is a mystery.

I've heard so many records that open with a sonic fury that simply cannot maintain momentum. "Home Again" is far and away for me the best song on the album ... period. However, the band just didn't let up. As the opening track fades out the dead space is filled with the a cappella intro complete with finger snaps that launches into the slow burn that makes up "Where Do All My Friends Go" which is another earworm. My goodness Sam Phipps, Leon Schneiderman and Dale Turner are a killer horn section and know how to punctuate the song in all the right places. The band sets 'em up and knocks 'em down one song after another.

I've not actually sat and really listened to the band in a long time, and Boi-ngo just reaffirms how awesome they were. Oingo Boingo never really broke wide open, but they skirted on the fringes of commercial success which was a pretty nifty trick for a band that was not commercial at all.

After all these years I still get a thrill out of listening to their music. You could say it's like being home again.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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