COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 315
Great timing, I thought. I got to update my page with info on the new album (in case you forget, I run the Superhero Songs site, which I now shamelessly promote: http://members.aol.com/Krissy80/supersongs.html). It gave me something to do beside watch Pokemon...
Okay, I kinda like that show. But anyway. Down to business. The album.
It's a rock opera. About monkeys. Yes, it's silly. It's also cute and really, really well done. Basically, 'Smell No Evil' tells the story of a lab where they shoot monkeys into space. Simply because it doesn't seem like such a bad idea, and traveling into space is something every good monkey should do. Right. Our two main characters (and by this I mean they get the most songs) are Jeff and Ping. Jeff is the slackerish, immature son of one of the scientists at the lab. Ping is his best friend, a monkey. Over the course of the album we get to hear the pair hang out together, play hockey (in a song written by James Kochalka Superstar), Jeff argues with his girlfriend Lisa, Lisa argues with Jeff, Jeff and Ping escape and have a tearful good-bye, monkey gets launched off into space, primate rebellion, every comic book gorilla in existence is up for sale, and oh yeah, Gleek and Blip get to face off. There's more, but hey, don't want to give too much away...
The songs are up to the usual Ookla excellence. A lot of them are catchy and singable, while there's still that fair share of weird. My favorite song so far is "Dawn of the Day Before the Time of the Land the Lost Dinosaurs Forgot to Remember," which is actually the theme song of the album. And obviously this album is chock-full of references. I was forewarned by the band that one of the songs ("Gorilla City") would add a whole load of new entries into the Superhero Songs site, and he wasn't kidding.
Other standout songs include "Curb Your Dogma," "Rats Live On nO eviL StaR," (don't you just love palindromes?) and "Blastoff Monkey." The album happens to be exactly 60 minutes long. The lyric book is really neat, including a cast of characters, a scene list, and little drawings accompanying each song. Everything comes together into a neat little package, invoking images of old sci-fi movies and TV shows, ranging from Forbidden Planet to Ren and Stimpy. But then again, maybe that's just me. But I'm sure you can find your own analogues.
I give this album four out of five stars. Ooh, I feel so professional.
[You can order Smell No Evil and other Ookla albums at www.otmfan.com. They have T-shirts and concert information too. I highly recommend you purchase a copy of 'Super Secret' there too. If you're unsure, just keep this in mind: they have a song on it called "Stop Talking About Comic Books or I'll Kill You." So there.]