It’s a Dead Man’s Party! The Oingo Boingo Album by Album Thread

And...we're off!

OINGO BOINGO EP (1980)



Tracks & Ratings

1. Only a Lad – 3.5/5

This is not the same version you likely know if you are a Boingo fan. It’s the same song, of course, but the mix is different, and in my opinion doesn’t have the same energy or bite as the later versions (spoiler alert – this song will be much higher rated next time it appears)

2. Violent Love – 4/5

This song is an early example of the quirky sex obsession that would become a staple of the Oingo Boingo catalog. Also a clear precursor of the unique brassy and ska-influenced musical style that would find its strongest expression on their mid-career albums. A cover of a 50’s blues song by Willie Dixon, the contrast with the original really highlights the Oingo Boingo sound. It appears in a better version on Alive!, but it was a fan favorite at the shows I went to to in the 80s and 90s.



3. Ain’t this the life – 5/5

My favorite song on the album! This one is a catchy, over the top celebration of hedonism that walks the boundary between sincerity and satire. When things are good and you’re living the high life, there is no better song to celebrate with! This song makes the EP a must have for serious Boingo fans. It doesn’t show up in its studio form again until the “Anthology” comp many years later.

4. I’m so Bad – 2/5

Not a terrible song, but feels kind of low-energy, especially after you hear the live version on “Farewell”. Not the strongest way to end an otherwise good, if short, first effort.


Overall Album Rating: 3.5/5

This album is essential for serious Oingo Boingo Fans, on the strength of “Ain’t this the Life” alone, but likely won’t be the one that wins over new converts. It’s officially available only on vinyl, but there are CD bootlegs out there (as proven by the one in my picture).

It’s a solid debut effort that serves as a preview of great things to come. The sonics aren’t of the same caliber as their later albums – mostly average and unexciting. Overall the solid pacing of the first three songs is undercut by “I’m so Bad” as the closer. Although it’s their first official effort as Oingo Boingo, I wouldn’t recommend starting here. The Oingo Boingo EP is much more easily appreciated when you know how their discography plays out, and you can see it through the “proto-Boingo” lens.

Lyrical highlight

“Tropical island in the deep blue sea

The natives are friendly and the lobster's free

Sipping cognac like a French king

Plenty of room, I own the whole thing

Joie de vivre, mon amie, ain't this the life”

 

Now!

I'm thinking I'll do an album every few days or so. Need to weave this in with my real life, but definitely want to make it worth everyone's time. Also want to give it some time for others to have a chance to weigh in on each album as we go through.

 

It'll be interesting to hear what people say when we get there. Oingo Boingo went through several musical phases, and Boingo almost qualifies as a phase of its own. I'll hold my opinion until we get there, but I suspect there will be a variety of opinions on that album. Will be fun to hear what people will say. Have you run through much of their discography? Either way, curious to see what you think of the earlier work.

 

A live version of "Ain't this the Life" from Urgh! A Music War. If you never had a chance to see Oingo Boingo live, this will give you a good flavor for what their shows were like...

 

The EP is a cool sampler of things to come. The foundation of their sound was laid here. I also prefer the re-recorded "Only a Lad" on their debut album, but I prefer the Boingo Alive version to either. The quirky tritone laden sound was already laid out here, "Ain't This the Life" is an early classic.

 

Coming to Oingo Boingo with Good For Your Soul, and not living on the West Coast, this EP took a while to track down in my favorite used album store. By then I already had all of the A&M albums, but this had "Violent Love" and "Ain't This the Life", so it was a must-have.

I guess we'll save discussing "Only a Lad" for the Only A Lad album, but I'm interested in what his political bent was then and if it evolved later. I do remember circumstances of violent criminals attempting to be acquitted, and sometimes succeeding, by claiming what a crappy upbringing they had. This song seems to be a reaction to that.

It may be worth pointing out that this EP was on I.R.S. Records, so I guess I.R.S. was not sufficiently impressed.

Are we not going to discuss the self-released Demo EP, released in a limited numbered edition of 130 copies?

Oingo Boingo - Demo EP

 

Yep, let's do it! If it's all good with you guys, let's do it when we start the apocrypha section. I honestly think that's gonna be a great discussion.

To be honest, I had only the faintest recollection that existed (I think it consisted of me looking at the listing on Discogs and going "well, never gonna have that" and moving along). Now that I think about it, I know one of my boots is titled "Demo". I'll dig through my discs and see if it looks like a boot of the actual demo EP, and give it a spin.

 

I think Only a Lad is fair game now - it's the lead song on the album. It's the same song, just a different mix.

As to Elfman's politics, he's been on both sides of the spectrum. I remember reading an article where he mentions traveling abroad and coming back to the US with strong right leanings in the 80s. It's hard to avoid seeing those politics in the 80's albums, especially on Only a Lad. Over time, that changed and nowadays he's scoring music for Democrat campaign videos. So with Elfman, there's something for everyone to love, whatever your politics may be.

Since both sides are represented in the Boingo/Elfman repertoire, I would kindly request, that we stay descriptive of any political aspects of the music, and only when we need to, and not let this devolve into the same type of political morass that the rest of the world (well, at least the US) seems so desperate to bathe in. It's hard enough to have a thread that isn't Beatles, Stone, Dead, or the other big names. I'd hate to see it fall apart because we start going political.

 

Their first three albums are on I.R.S. as well, just distributed by A&M.

Technically a different altogether recording.

 

I was a huge fan of Boingo in the 80s. I hopped on board around 82 and really locked in with Good For Your Soul. I distinctly remember going to Tower Records in El Toro to pick up that record on the day of release. I played the hell out of that one and was totally hooked after that. It really channeled my 20 year old angst . It sure helped that I grew up in Southern California, as they were pretty omnipresent there. I saw all of the Halloween shows at Irvine Meadows up until 89, after which I left So Cal and never looked back. Those Halloween shows were some of the most memorable and fun gigs I ever attended. I don't listen to them as much as I used to, but guess what? Saturday's Halloween, it's a full, blue moon and Boingo is the perfect soundtrack for insanity of 2020! Time to bust out the vintage vinyl, crank it up and move these old bones.

 

I think a reissue of their catalog has got to be in my Top 3 wishlist items, perhaps it's #1 for me. I missed the boat on picking up their CDs when they were regular priced and available, and as much as I like these guys no way I'm paying the ridiculous prices they go for on the 2nd hand market. The only release of theirs that I have is the "Farewell Live" album. I also have this unsettling feeling that as soon as I were to track down the albums they'd announce a reissue campaign. That's how my luck works... If they were reissued I would buy them all the first day they were available.

I knew of these guys starting in college (1983-1987). I think probably the first songs of theirs I heard and identified as them were on the "Bachelor Party" soundtrack, but I had certainly heard "Goodbye Goodbye" as I was a big fan of the Fast Times movie. A college friend with a radio show used to play them regularly. I thought they were a good band, but they blended in below a lot of "new bands to me" that I loved in college like The Waterboys, The Alarm, Violent Femmes. But then I saw them as an opening act at JB's Theater in Albany, NY while on a date with a girl I was crazy about and oh my gosh the band was fantastic live!!! I always thought they opened up for Squeeze, but trying to look it up that appears to be false. If anyone knows who they toured with summer 1985, I think that's when it would have been.

After that I was into other music but I always held Oingo Boingo in high regard. But the last 15 or so years, watching their videos on Youtube and listening more closely to songs, they're one of my favorites these days.

 

Haha! Not technically. You are correct, it's a completely different recording. I was sloppy in my language!

 

No-one Lives Forever will always bring back memories of the first kill in Texas Chanisaw Massacre 2.

 

The cruel irony is that I'd been through my deep Boingo fandom and come out on the other side when I finally found a used vinyl copy of the EP in my late 20s or early 30s. It was also at the tail end of my vinyl collecting days, so it was played maybe twice and otherwise served as a display piece, which seems vaguely inappropriate.

While it's cool to hear this early material, I'm definitely with you in that it feels like a low energy pre-amble to their recorded output overall. The songs are there, but the performances aren't dialed in yet and it feels very tentative.

At least the album cover set the tone for what was to come!

 

Love Oingo Boingo. Saw all the Halloween shows at Irvine Meadows (RIP) as I lived (still live) near there. They were a KROQ favorite as well. A funny story...when Only A Lad came out I went to visit my folks in NoCal. My youngest sister was about 11 or so. I had a tape of OAL in my car and said I wanted her to hear a new group "Oingo Boingo". She said oh no there's no such thing as Oingo Boingo.
I played some for her and after she heard it, she said "there is an Oingo Boingo". You can't make this stuff up.

 

Consider me jealous you're in an area to still go see these guys! So how are they doing the shows, is it just 1 designated singer or do people take turns? What do they typically play? Do they recreate any of the old stage outfits and staging? I know many questions but whatever you're willing to share is appreciated! And by the way how cool timing for this thread this week when Danny announced a new album under his own name coming soon and a video posted?

 

I just bought a DVD of 'Urgh' a couple weeks ago, it's one of those DVR's on demand from Warner Archive, but seems to play fine and nice to have an 'official' copy of the movie. 'Urgh' could probably have a thread of its own, if it hasn't already been done on this forum before.

 

They have 2 horn players so they play a lot of the songs with horns. No outfits or staging. 11 piece band. Big sound. Sluggo usually sings "Monster Mash". Brendan sings all the main vocals. Avila comes out to play bass about halfway through the show. Bartek still has the chops on lead guitar, for sure. They mix it up. They have played "Insects", "California Girls" as well as most of the best known stuff. Vatos can still drum his a$$ off. Always a great show!!

 

Thanks for this update!! I'll now have to search Youtube for any footage of these guys, and hope they don't give up on doing these shows once this pandemic gets under control.

 

Richard Blade was promoting a Former Members show this past week on FB.

 

Quick unscientific poll - is everyone on the thread from Southern California, or have SoCal roots? (I do). Those of us from Cali know that Boingo and their Halloween shows were ubiquitous, and they were a staple on KROQ. Easy to understand how we all came to love the band.

I'm very curious to hear the stories of how folks who weren't in California in the 80's/90's became familiar with them.

 

Detroiter here. Radio at the time was AOR with a couple hour block of new wave and punk on Sunday nights. MTV and indy video shows were all over the place too.
This is where I heard Only A Lad, Nothing To Fear and Good For You Soul fairly regularly. Even up against the other new wave bands, their sound totally stood out.
Who Do You Want To Be Today and Nothing Bad felt like their apex to me.

 

VT by way of PA and FL. Haven't been to CA yet.

 

I lived in SoCal in late 70s/80s and was big fan of KROQ. Saw OB at Pasadena Playhouse. Moved to Chicago and don’t think they had much of an impression til Weird Science and MTV

 

Vermont for me too!!!! Been here 37 years.

Relatives & friends in CA, been out there a bunch of times, but the only show I've seen in CA is Dixie Dregs/Steve Morse Band in Santa Cruz. Nothing like a sunset over the Pacific, wish I could get out there more often to see one, along with a future O-B show?