Strange Daze Indeed

It was Cyndi Lauper whose meteoric rise to fame began with a string of hits from a little old album called "She's So Unusual". It seems somehow appropriate to insert this cultural reference point up front because how else could you justify my proclamation that today we're going to salute oddball music by celebrating Strange Music Day. You people are in such luck today. I'm going to serve up three nuggets for the price of one. For openers we have Venice, California thrash metal pioneers Suicidal Tendencies. Suicidal? That's not strange...sad is more like it. Is that not what's churning in the ever patient melons on top of your necks? That I'm asking this question qualifies me for the foray into strange song singing. If you want to examine "Institutionalized" for its true artistic content you could say it was rap before hip hop exploded out of the box. Explosive!! Here we have singer Mike Muir in the 100% conversational role of Mike, a youngster for whom your garden variety meds are not going to be of much use. Ever had a chance to ride a roller coaster (Yes, Greg. "Love Rollercoaster" Please bury this horse already). No, I mean the sensation where the coaster is ambling its way up to the top, steadily, painstakingly, with a butt load of riders who are either waiting to crap their pants or boarding the cerebral express train to euphoria. That's what the opening portion of "Institutionalized" feels and sounds like. Mike tries so hard but things don't work out the way he wants. If only the other foolish mortals would leave him alone. And what's with his mom insisting he's on drugs? And no, Mike. A Pepsi wouldn't be too much to ask. We're a voyeuristic nation. I'll admit in this case hearing Mike's ongoing train wreck life saga jump the rails repeatedly is a not even close to being guilty pleasure. Why? From the moment Amery Smith's drums are locked and loaded this coaster's headed round the band. In fact Louiche Mayorga, in his capacity as bass player serves as little more than an innocent bystander cranking out one relentlessly earwig stylized guitar riff. Over and over and over. This is what a snapping brain pan resembles. The riff continues. Grant Estes lies in wait for the downfall with his alto guitar machismo. It all comes back to Mike examining Mike. No five octave range here. No vocal theatrics. Just a typical depression soaked suburban afternoon in California. I praise "Institutionalized" for repeating the storyline, resolution, payoff formula three times. I feel for the guy because the points he makes are valid. After all why is he the crazy one when he went to their schools, churches, and institutional learning facilities? If the young stop asking these questions of their elders we've lost our way as a collective species. We'll be nothing more than a bunch of bobble-headed dolls waiting to be told what to say yes to next. Pulse pounding. Metal riffs start slow, go faster and faster and faster until, ARGGGH!! We're inside Mikey's twisted mind. What's real? What's fantasy? Does anybody have a towel? I'm sweating away weight I can't afford to lose right now!! Mike's rapid fire breaking the fourth wall explanation to the listener is the icing on this cacophonous cake. Right after the word "myself", it appears the sanity ship has been righted but, only temporary folks. We've gone from frustrated to accused drug user wanting Pepsi, to flat out rebellion against conformity. I did say rap? That's the truth. No beatbox. No gold chains. Just some white boy angst bleeding all over the vinyl. You have to smile when Mike declares he'd probably just get hit by a car anyway. Each time before he slides over the edge Mike drops hints of what they do to the newly insane (brainwashed, bloodshot eyes, white shirt, copious drugs to avoid actual intervention,etc...) I never much cared for "Titanic" but the principal of enjoying the expected downfall of a sinking ship is just as easy to get behind here. You know Mike's failing to prop himself up. You know there's a sense that his gripes are justified, or are they? See when you're crazy, the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred. The mishmash of joyless noise at each bridge definitely sounds blurred together for a chowder blowing reason. Note to new parents. Please don't make "Institutionalized" baby's first exposure to music of any stripe. It won't be his last exposure to family therapy. In short, "Institutionalized" is a strange psychotic soup with a mental aftertaste. Compelling but cuckoo. Sorry if your dinners tonight started out life with fins, flippers, or the like. Couldn't address strangeness in music without taking a little time to chat up comedy duo Barnes and Barnes. "Fish Heads" is mercifully short. That doesn't mean I don't find it strangely endearing. Watch the video some time and perhaps you won't wince the second you see a fish head in some capacity other than helping us all meet some food pyramid requirement. Art and Artie Barnes are the personas for Bill Mumy and Robert Haimer. All I have to say is their obits are going to be hilarious if the one thing people remember about them is that they were those fish head guys. Too much helium inhalation. Of course do you have a better suggestion? They're...well...I guess I can't swear to the idea that they're singing. Chanting a chant in a bratty five year old fashion is more like it. I'm leaving the terrible twos and tumultuous threes out of this because I don't think they can grasp the concept of a fish head yet. Parents can be pretty amusing, sometimes unintentionally. Give 'em both points for getting their facts straight. Nope, fish heads can't answer all your silly questions. I'd pay money to see a fish head in a sweater though. And no, America's national pastime isn't something they're positioned to be all that great at. I guess Lars Ulrich's job as skins basher for Metallica is safe. They don't play drums either. Again, I'll part with some do, re, mi if you can give me an example of a fish head that does. It's gleeful the way that boys belt out: "Roly poly fishes are never seen drinking Cappucino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women." "Yeah". is the only response we expect to hear but it's funny anyway simply because we didn't need for them to remind us how useless fish heads are in any social situation, much less one where Oriental women are involved. The helium blissed out state sounds too contagious to be ignored. "Fish Heads" is intelligence insulting stupid. Pinching its cherubim cheeks all I have to say is...don't ever change. This moroseness is a victimless crime, unless you can be charged for making somebody die laughing Say the name Thomas Dolby to any one of a number of well-schooled '80s music buffs and the song that undoubtedly comes to mind I bet you is "She Blinded Me With Science". Fair enough. It was a Billboard #5 hit during 1983. The video shows why many people nowadays get nostalgic for when Jersey Shore was just a vacation spot, not a maddening reality show featuring some creature named Snooki. "Science" may have been the breadwinner tune but one tune that gets sorely overlooked IMHO is "Hyperactive" lifted from his 1984 album "The Flat Earth". To this day the man's still a wiz with technology. The opening words are wrapped in unsettling computerized drone speech. Unlike "Institutionalized" which has to come to a rolling boil before it takes flight, "Hyperactive" is the mental patient who's been inside this whole rubber room gig for some time and rightfully so. The track is blissfully heavy on funk licks. The drums have been given steroids. The bass is so beefy I'd swear you'd find a T-bone in the middle. Thomas gives us all a crash course in how he got so messed up in the first place. From age three he's been hooked to a machine so his mind wouldn't spout junk. As someone who really didn't take to math like a pig does to slop I can't say as I get behind the whole "division in my brain" concept. See what a terrible math teacher'll do for you? Granted the dirty rhythms in his blood saturate this effort. That Thomas has cranked the intensity level to 11 is what makes "Hyperactive" Mexican jumping bean fun. Was that a trumpet I heard at the bridge? Yup, this inmate's giving all the orders here. The sympathy vote is easy to come by. Thomas has much to offer the world. If only he didn't seem permanently tethered to the crazy house. The most enjoyable part of a video with no shortage of riveting set pieces has to be when Thomas and his therapist play word association. Anybody surprised when after the shrink came up with "melons" Tom responded with "boobs". This is lightning fast chess match of wills between the doctor and the patient who really is trying to say that he can't help being the space case he is. He's had an entire lifetime of experience with it. For the early '80s the vid had its share of groundbreaking aces to deal out. Thomas Dolby proves with "Hyperactive" that his fascination with science didn't end with "She Blinded Me With Science". Not only that the full gamut of his creative genius is on undiluted display. "Hyperactive"...oddball audio from a wunderkind talent who is plenty comfortable in his own skin, thank you very much.