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

People are regularly asking about this one, but I don't have any desire. It's their lowest selling studio album and I believe it is currently held by Warner, but to make it even less attractive is it would require a double LP set and the cost of the product would be a real risk since I'm aware a lot of fans don't like this one at all, and I'm one of them. I tried listening to it online recently and found it painful.

One thing I will admit about Elfman is he's very much an 'in the moment' guy, his albums all fit in with something that was going on at the time. The early albums were Devo-esque New Wave with some Ska vibes (all typical of the early 80's), the later 80's albums added more of a dance edge and 'traditional' Alternative style, and then the 94 album fits into the grunge age. The current solo album does nothing for me because again he goes with the flow of the moment. I find this ends up dating a lot of albums because the artist is trying so hard to be current or modern that in years to come they end up more with a period sound.

For many artists, that resistance to look at their past work and create an album that retains their signature sound while still being modern is often to their detriment. The only band I'm aware of who don't like looking back but still sound like themselves on modern albums is Sparks. Yes, they've done some dated dance albums that are of no interest to me, but their work over the past 15 years is modern but still very much Sparks. But Elfman just seems so put off by his past work and I don't get it at all, he should embrace it and be proud that people still hold those albums in high regard.

People are still always asking me about the unreleased material, and I keep telling them that all we would need is a simple 'yes' from Elfman and we could do it but he doesn't seem remotely interested, despite fan demand. And I can tell you that now looking back at the master tape list, there's loads of stuff from the later albums that never came out, including several 12" mixes that were prepared but remained unreleased. So if people want to petition him for his approval, have at it. I'd love to put together a 'rare and unreleased' package, and there's plenty in the archive to do it, but not an option without 5 seconds of Elfman's time to simply give his blessing and make the fans ecstatic. Artists generally put the music out there for the fans and then move on, but as fans we often look back regularly when the albums become important to us, so when there's hidden treasures in the archives then it can be very exciting to hear, or at least hear in better quality, further extensions of those favorite albums.

 

He mixed in quite a few Oingo Boingo classics in his recent Coachella live set and looked to be having a blast playing those songs.

Shunning his past? It didn’t look like it to me.

 

I saw that, and if perhaps he's starting to warm to his history then that's great. But just last year he stated he can't listen to any of his old albums other than the live material, and in a recent interview he said he had to check out his catalog on Spotify to decide what Boingo to play because he doesn't own a single one of their albums.

 

If you do somehow get the rights to do Boingo '94, I'm positive there would be enough demand to do a healthy pressing. I know a lot of Boingo fans that would kill to have it on vinyl, myself included. I'm sure some would pick it up just to complete their studio collection.

Also, I know people would absolutely love a vinyl release of the Farewell show. I'm sure that would have to be like a 5 LP set, which I realize is no easy task, but I'm sure there would be 1,000 Boingo die-hards willing to shell out whatever it would cost.

At any rate, keep up the good work! Hope you get approved for a few more releases. I'm personally really excited at the prospect of a DMP reissue from you. I have an original and a red Geffen reissue, and man does the Geffen version suck. Noisiest pressing in my collection.

 

from Billboard: 20 Questions With Danny Elfman Ahead of His ‘Edge of Disaster’ Coachella Set

 

I'm in for any CD versions of future OB or his solo work that you put out.

 

So, he’s like an “anti-hoarder”. I can respect that. Always looking for the next thing.

 

I would pay upwards of $200 for Boingo 94. Maybe more.

 

Watching that performance, you can almost see the "a-ha" moment

Same. It'll have to be a labor of love like Total Devo (another album I love) if it ever gets pressed. Didn't realize how long the album was, it would probably have to be a 3LP with an etching on side F or maybe the bonus track "Helpless".

 

Well there are four kinds of people… Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, those who wonder what happened and those who have no inkling that anything happened. With apologies to those who were in the room where it happened. Danny’s Billboard interview places him in the first category - admirable!

 

Just consider the line between Boi-Ngo and everything before it.

 

Is this the case with the entire Waitresses catalog? It seems that Just Desserts was discontinued a while ago. Doing for them what you did for Missing Persons would be ideal. It's weird that people would just want to sit on this stuff.

 

I wish I knew. I had an exchange with Chris Butler, the songwriter for the band, and he confirmed he had tried to get the rights back but didn't succeed, so I don't know if that inquiry threw the catalog into an 'off limits' state. I don't know if it's that one album or the whole Waitresses catalog, they generally don't reply when I try to ask details. I had asked about three different Berlin release ideas before they finally confirmed that whole catalog is now also off limits, though I can't say why. I had requests by The Motels denied and the band management confirmed they are in the process of regaining their rights, and I know a lot of artists from that era have or are trying to reclaim their rights. The majors decide whose catalogs they will try to hold onto, such as when the Go Go's tried to get their catalog back, Universal made a new deal with them to keep it. But then it also meant I got denied to do a vinyl reissue of their album Talk Show.

 

That's just crazy.

 

Hey Scott,

This is a bit of an unusual question (and not related to Oingo Boingo), but I'm actually in the midst of reissuing an 80s band's catalog - transferring the audio from the master tapes and preparing the artwork. If I had some questions, would you be interested in answering them?

Thanks! If you're busy, no problem - just let me know.

 

If you want to direct message me here, I'll see if I can answer your questions. As far as busy goes, I'm nearly caught up on the current Visage LP pre-orders but am preparing to possibly list three new CD reissues for pre-order by the weekend, if all goes as expected. So this is probably the best time.

On the Boingo front, I've been informed my vinyl re-press of Good For Your Soul is completed and Nothing To Fear should be ready before the end of the month, so those may be available in the next several weeks.

 

Thank you very much - just sent a message!

 

Great news that you've put requests in for further Oingo Boingo releases Scott. Guaranteed sale here if it comes off.

It saddens me to see that Boi-Ngo and Dark at the end of the Tunnel aren't well regarded albums. They're actually 2 of my favourites, I can listen to the pair from start to finish and have a really good time. I think they're my most listened to O.B albums from their entire catalogue. I'd Eve go so far as to say Boi-Ngo is my favourite.

Boingo 94...well, that's a tough one. It's so completely different to what came before that it might as well be a different band. Danny certainly used his soundtrack/orchestral experience shine on that. There's a few tracks I like...and I'd buy a reissue of it, but that's my least favourite Oingo Boingo album. Still it would be nice to have it with bonus tracks on.

I've come to the conclusion that I only really like 9 songs off of Big Mess and very rarely listen to it now. I'm glad Danny made it but I just don't like industrial metal. The tracks I like sound partially inspired by the Oingo Boingo vibe. I saw Danny mention at one point he was considering making it a synth album. I'm a big fan of the Synthwave genre and might have liked it more if he'd gone down that road.

Hopefully he's warmed up to his old Oingo Boingo stuff after Coachella. It would be nice to get his nod on this unreleased material. However I suspect he considers it more a matter of convenience. I saw him say he dug out songs he "could still bear to play". Doesn't sound like someone appreciating his past work sadly.

 

Yes I love those two as well. The arrangements have an ethereal like quality and Elfman, who is a great and underrated singer, really let loose on them. I always loved Boingo's diversity. The early crazy screamy albums were great but then they could do lovely and smooth just as well.

 

Rooting for you Scott. Picked up the 4 O-B albums you released on CD, so so so happy to finally have them. They really take me back to the high school into college years, discovering this super cool music that was out there. I hope that you'll eventually get the rights to release their other 4 studio albums (counting So-Lo in that bundle). I'm a buyer on day 1 if any/all of these eventually come out. I'd likely be in for 'Boingo Alive' too. Just so's ya know...

 

Bear McCreary kinda agrees with us lol:

Interview: Bear McCreary Showers Love on OINGO BOINGO on the Eve of Danny Elfman’s Birthday

 

The Boingo LP represses WERE coming soon. I got Good For Your Soul yesterday, and while the color variations came out very nice, there was something that happened during manufacturing that I'm not happy at all about. I've filed a claim with the manufacturer and if they do right then they will have to repress the entire thing. Normally when vinyl is pressed, stampers are to be changed every 500 presses. Logic would indicate that with each color variation of mine being 500, the stampers for each color would be different. Recently, they even started charging us to have an extra stamper set on hand in case something goes wrong with one of the other two sets. This turned out to be a crock because the issue I encountered yesterday was across every copy on both variations, meaning that they never changed the stampers once. So now they can clean up their own costly mess while I have to look at these boxes of useless stock piled in my living room. I'm told it will be 1-2 weeks before their QC team can review the details and audio files I sent over. Are there that many complaints? That should be a wake up call to someone there. In recent months, they've raised the prices several times across all aspects of the product - paper, printing, vinyl, and the (unused) extra stamper sets. Too bad it's not equating to a better quality final product.

Over the last year of doing vinyl pressings, there's only been a small handful I've been entirely satisfied with. There have been some relatively minor issues that I let through, partially because it just seems modern day vinyl pressings generally stink compared to vinyl in the 80's when you could buy anything on Columbia or Epic and always hear a very clean record, even years later. Nowadays, surface noises are the norm and it's just about throwing your hands up and accepting it. But this time I was not going to because it passed the threshold of acceptable. While I do have other jobs still lined up with this manufacturer, I'm going to cringe my way through the rest of them and hope that one of these several new pressing plants that opens up becomes my new vinyl pressing home because I cannot see my current manufacturer getting their act together where I can rely on a great pressing, not just acceptable, every time. And it looks like the repress of Nothing To Fear just completed today, so you can be sure I will be reviewing intently when I get my hands on it to see if it passes. As for Good For Your Soul, I have no idea how long any of this QC and repressing stuff could take but it should absolutely be given priority. They obviously still have two sets of unused stampers on hand, which I've already paid for.

While I know there are those who are on the vinyl bandwagon, and it can be fun at times with the colors and such. But it's such a crap shoot quality wise. I have never received a CD pressing and found a glitch in the audio that made me consider having to do a repress. It's faster, sounds better, and is far less prone to manufacturing negligence. If this vinyl resurgence dies down then it will likely be a blessing, and a result of the shoddy pressings that seem to be so common place.

 

I'm sorry for those immensely frustrating things you've encountered in this batch. It would drive me nuts too with their obvious lack of professionalism. I appreciate your effort and care for quality and continuing to try and get releases to us. Thank you for that.

 

I promise that if I ever buy any of your LPs [I actually want to for the Ultravox and Visage…if I ever get the cash in hand] I will NEVER EVER PLAY THEM! On this you have my solemn word. It will only be my collector's sickness [and admiration of your label] that will drive any LP purchase from you, so I will only ever be delighted at the physical manifestations of the artist' music you produce. Deal?

But I appreciate your intense feelings on the issues at hand. Sigh.

 

Perhaps your and Danny’s fate were meant to intertwine. In both cases, their pain is us fan’s/customer’s pleasure, both cursed to be annoyed at what they’re an expert in. That’s my overly dramatic way of saying your pressings are abnormally good and we appreciate your attention to detail.
But on the subject of your CDs, I picked up the flat (?) HD transfer of Nothing To Fear a while back and while I stand by there not being a single NtF master that isn’t excellent, I think your cd will remain my go to for quite some time.