Oingo Boingo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oingo Boingo were an American new wave band from Los Angeles that existed from 1978 to 1995. The founder and director of the band was the current film composer Danny Elfman .

Band biography

Oingo Boingo had their origins in the avant-garde music group The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo , which was founded in 1972 by Danny Elfman's older brother Richard. The Mystic Knights were an ensemble of up to 20 people with a crazy live show in which the members appeared in bizarre make-up and costumes. The troupe mainly played chamber music and old jazz classics from the 1920s and 1930s, such as Cab Calloway , but also some original compositions. Another trademark of the band were the percussion instruments designed by saxophonist Leon Schneiderman himself. In the late seventies, Richard Elfman became more interested in directing and turned the band over to Danny. The Mystic Knights recorded the soundtrack for Richard Elfman's no-budget cult film Forbidden Zone .

Danny soon enough of the complicated task of leading the huge band and their pompous show, and formed an eight-member rock band with some other long-time Mystic Knights members such as Steve Bartek and Leon Schneiderman, which he simply based on their predecessor band Oingo called Boingo . In 1980 Oingo Boingo released their demo EP and a year later their first album Only a Lad . In the years that followed, many more albums were released, and the band appeared on various film soundtracks, the best known being their 1985 theme song for the feature film and the television series LISA - The Bright Wahnsinn ("Weird Science") . The annual Halloween concerts that the band gave at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in Hollywood also became a tradition .

At the beginning of the 1990s things got a little quieter for the band as Elfman's second career as a film composer grew. The 1990 album Dark at the End of the Tunnel showed the band from an unusually calm and serious side. In 1994 Elfman shortened the band's name again to Boingo , and the band released an extremely guitar-heavy and rock-like album that minimized the use of keyboards and wind instruments .

In 1995 Elfman decided to break up the band because "the time was right". The band, reverted to their original name Oingo Boingo, said goodbye after a final tour with a four-hour farewell concert in the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.

Since 2005, Boingo members Steve Bartek, John Avila and Sam Phipps have met every Halloween in Los Angeles under the direction of drummer Johnny Hernandez to play the old classics for Boingo fans and continue the tradition of Halloween concerts. The remaining Boingo members are replaced by other musicians; also Danny Elfman, who no longer wants to perform due to hearing damage.

occupation

John Avila
  • Danny Elfman - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion *
  • Steve Bartek - lead guitar, background vocals *
  • Kerry Hatch - bass, background vocals (1978 to 1984) *
  • John Avila - bass, background vocals (from 1984)
  • Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez - drums *
  • Richard "Ribbs" Gibbs - keyboards (1980 to 1984)
  • Mike Bacich - keyboards (1985 to 1987)
  • Carl Graves - keyboards, background vocals (1988 to 1993)
  • Leon Schneiderman - alto and baritone saxophone, percussion *
  • Sam "Sluggo" Phipps - soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet *
  • Dale Turner - Trumpet, Trombone *
  • Warren Fitzgerald - rhythm guitar, lead guitar (1993 to 1995)

* Also a member of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo

Unofficial members:

  • Bruce Fowler - trombone (1985 to 1994) (only as a studio musician)
  • Marc Mann - keyboards (1993 to 1995)
  • Doug Lacy - accordion, percussion (1994 to 1995)

Discography

Albums

  • Only a Lad (1981)
  • Nothing to Fear (1982)
  • Good for Your Soul (1983)
  • So-Lo (1984) (Recorded by Oingo Boingo but released as Danny Elfman solo album at the urging of the new MCA record company )
  • Dead Man's Party (1985)
  • BOI NGO (1987)
  • Dark at the End of the Tunnel (1990)
  • Boingo (1994)

EPs, singles & compilations

  • Oingo Boingo EP (1980)
  • Only a Lad / Ain't This the Life (1981)
  • Private Life / Wild Sex (1982)
  • Weird Science Split single with Ira & the Geeks (1985)
  • Just Another Day / Dead Man's Party (1986)
  • Skeletons in the Closet: The Best of Oingo Boingo (1989)
  • Best o 'Boingo (1992)

Live albums

  • Boingo Alive - Celebration of a Decade 1979–1988 (1988)
  • Farewell (1995)

literature

  • Stambler, Irwin: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd Revised Edition, New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 , pp. 495-497.

Web links