Dead Air and Mayhem

It's been pretty quiet here for the past couple days. My monitor conked out on me, leaving me scouting for a new one at the nearest mall. And, I have been down with something for the past couple of days. Tonight, I came home from work shivering harder than a naked man in the middle of the North Pole. I hate it when I get fever chills like that. I'm a bit better now though, thank you very much.

Anyway, these past few days, I've been on a muppet bender. I mean, a real serious muppet bender. I must admit, much of my pre- and grade school years were spent immersed in the happy, sad, and sometimes off-the-wall songs from my main nannies: Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and the Muppet Show.

The past few days, I've been an avid visitor at YouTube, scouting out classic S.S., T.E.C., and T.M.S. "music videos". I found the one on "Lower Case N", a story about loneliness and of finding "The One", set against the strumming of a sad and maudlin acoustic guitar. I also found the one on "Capital I" which is a fairy tale song about - what else - the capital letter I which is situated "in the middle of the desert, in the center of the sky". The real gems, however, were the ones featuring the one and only muppet rock n roll band: The Electric Mayhem.

Before there were virtual bands like Gorillaz, there was The Electric Mayhem. Having been saddled with the dues-paying task of being the house band for Kermit The Frog's Muppet Show, The Electric Mayhem dished out a lot of ear candy for many of the show's musical numbers. What's more, they're one hell of a multi-talented bunch. You can catch several members performing solo and taking part in a lot of crazy sketches. Who are The Electric Mayhem anyway? The line-up stands thus:

1. Dr. Teeth - band leader, lead vocals, keyboards, gold tooth
2. Janice - lead guitar, back-up vocals, pouting lips, blonde hair, in-house-funny-girl
3. Floyd - bass, dark glasses, cool-guy-presence
4. Zoot - sax, fuzz-out-man
5. Animal - drums, destruction, demolition

Occasionally, the band is joined onstage by Rolf (the brown dog) on piano, or by some other musical artist-guest who isn't afraid to rock out with a bunch of muppet musicians. And there have been a lot.

Anyway, there was this video on YouTube featuring the band doing Paul Simon's 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, with Floyd singing lead. While I'm not a huge fan of Paul Simon, I wouldn't say I don't like his work. The Electric Mayhem's cover of this particular Paul Simon song showed a different side of the band, especially Animal. I mean, he was playing soft shuffles on his snare! Usually, he would demolish his drum kit a la Keith Moon. But in this particular number, wow, he really showed some neat chops. On top of that, jamming beside him was Rizzo the Rat playing some percussion thingie. (My favorite Rizzo quote: "Don't forget. 'Rats' spelled backwards is 'Star'!")

Floyd was, as usual, laid back in his delivery of the song. Laid back but still pouring out the potent emotions found in the original. Janice looked quite pensive during the entire number (but still got around to providing cool back-up vocals). I found it a bit unusual though that Dr. Teeth and Zoot were nowhere onstage. Rolf, however, made a hilarious cameo onstage in the middle of the song!

I know talking about a bunch of muppet musicians may sound a bit stupid. But, hey, what do you call it when people rave about a band like Gorillaz, huh?

I guess I just miss the songs I grew up with.