Hello all, and welcome to the newest installment of A Walk Down Memory Lane’s Bargain Bin! I’m your host Larson Bukowski, and as always, we do our best to shed some light on some oft-forgotten musical artists or bands that are extremely important to me. Seeing as it’s a spooky time of the year (I hope this makes it out in time for Halloween) (editor’s note: sorry Larson), I figured that I should write about the one and only Danny Elfman! We all know who Danny Elfman is, right? Famed film composer and purveyor of Tim Burton’s spooktacular romps through gothic comedy? Elfman has scored many of Burton’s movies, from Frankenweenie to Charlie and Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp one), from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure to Beetlejuice. The biggest one, though, has to be The Nightmare Before Christmas, which Elfman was also in as the singing voice of Jack Skellington! Now, we’re not going to be talking about his film scores. As much as I love them, I love what came before them even more! That’s right, this episode is about the band that Elfman led from 1979 to 1995: Oingo Boingo!
Oingo Boingo was started by Elfman, but it has its roots in a street theater community in Los Angeles that was started by his brother, Richard Elfman. Some years after the community (then called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) had been created, Elfman reformed it into the rock band that would be Oingo Boingo. Members of the Mystic Knights would stick around for this new leg of the journey, including Dale Turner, Sam “Sluggo” Phipps, and Leon Schneiderman. Pulling on influences like famed jazz singer Cab Calloway, ska, and punk, Oingo Boingo began to put out singles leading up to their first album, Only A Lad. Right off the bat, the album is a colorful explosion of catchy guitar riffs supported by a whole smorgasbord of various brass and electronic instruments swirling around Elfman’s voice. Sparing no expense emotionally, Elfman seems to give his all on each song, especially songs like the title track and “Nasty Habits,” which almost sounds like a musical theater song mixed with barking vocals. The mix of fun lyrics with catchy riffs make many of the songs on Only A Lad feel timelessly energetic. Off of this album, I recommend “On The Outside,” the title track “Only A Lad,” “Nasty Habits,” and “Controller.” There are a couple rough spots on the album, but overall, it’s a fantastic starting point for the band.
Their next album, Nothing to Fear, starts a trend of Oingo Boingo having absolutely perfect opening songs. While “Grey Matter” is not my favorite opening track, it’s a great example of why listening to Oingo Boingo is always so enjoyable. The mashing of xylophones, glockenspiels, electronic synth lines, and fast-paced guitar chords playing off of Elfman’s exaggerated vocal style make it an instant earworm. There aren’t many bands that encapsulate the ‘80s for me quite like this band. It feels like any time that you put an Oingo Boingo album on, you’re in a John Hughes movie bedroom, dancing on your crappy mattress and looking at the twenty posters on your ceiling. The rest of Nothing to Fear continues the train of being a ball to listen to, from the surreal buzzing on “Insects” to the brass line opening “Nothing to Fear (But Fear Itself),” you feel like each song is a party within its own right. The party never stops with Elfman and company as they rip through a surreal party every time. I recommend “Grey Matter,” “Wild Sex (In the Working Class),” and “Nothing to Fear (But Fear Itself).”
Now we get to some juicy stuff! The next album is Good For Your Soul, and man do I adore the first three songs off of this album. The opener for this album, “Who Do You Want To Be,” is my favorite Boingo opener by a bit, with an incredibly catchy hook that makes you want to scream along every time, mixed with that synth in the background driving it all forward towards the next blast of brass instruments. Some other hits on here are “Wake Up (It’s 1984),” with its breakdown into the chorus being a stompable beat every time, “Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me” having incredibly tongue-in-cheek lyrics about looking the other way at hardship backed by a driving set of guitar chords, and “No Spill Blood” taking a spoken word story about a society of animals and putting it behind an electronic beat made out of fake animal screams. I come back to some of the songs on this project, but none as much as the next album I want to talk about.
Dead Man’s Party. If you were to look Oingo Boingo up on Spotify, each of their top 5 songs would be from this album—and for good reason. In my humble opinion, as someone who has listened to most of Oingo Boingo’s discography, I would say that this album is not only their best, but also a 10. Every element that I have written about as being exemplary features of Oingo Boingo have increased ten-fold. Incredibly ear-wormy guitar and synth melodies? Check. “Just Another Day” gives most of the other album openers a run for their money on that alone. Energized singing that compliments the odd assortment of instruments perfectly? Check. Elfman goes back to his wild and commanding presence in “Fool’s Paradise,” belting various mantras over energized instrumentation. Speaking of the instruments, a phenomenal brass section? Check! “Dead Man’s Party” has you covered, accenting the chorus and leading the party in a never ending boogie! Some songs off of here that I recommend are… well, all of them! But specifically: “Dead Man’s Party,” “Weird Science,” “No One Lives Forever,” and “Just Another Day!” If you listen to one Oingo Boingo album, let it be this one.
I got into Oingo Boingo through my dad in middle school, and aside from Gorillaz, it was the first band that I did a relatively deeper dive into. I had never really heard anything like this, having grown up on the more electronic-heavy new wave bands (New Order, Yazoo, Alphaville, etc.) and the Beatles (neither of my parents wanted to listen to children’s music in the car, so this is what I got instead). I found myself listening to my favorite songs over and over again, and began reading into the lyrics more to see what each of them meant. Though Oingo Boingo is over and Danny Elfman has moved onto creating film scores for some of the most iconic movies of our time, I’ll always come back to his fun romps through the ‘80s that have scored many-a fun drive throughout high school. This has been Larson Bukowski, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed my rant about Oingo Boingo! I’ll catch you on the flipside!
