Boingo
Oingo Boingo’s final album came out in 1994. For the album, they dropped the “Oingo” from their name, leading to jokes about how in another few years they’d simply be “Ngo.” The album moved away from the synth- and brass-heavy sound that had been their SOP, as Danny Elfman applied the lessons he had learned in his side career as a film composer. Songs include the opener “Insanity,” a blast of heavy social commentary, “Mary,” the story of a small-town girl who wants more, and a rocking cover of “I Am The Walrus.” Whether or not it was intended as a final statement, it works beautifully as one. The final track is Oingo Boingo’s magnum opus, their Abbey Road medley, a 15-minute epic called “Change.”
Mowrer and I saw the band in Seattle when they toured for this album, and even in the 100-degree July heat, even though I hadn’t heard the album yet and only knew a couple of the songs, it remains the best concert I ever went to. Mowrer, that rat-bastard, saw Boingo again the next year, when they gave a series of farewell concerts at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, the site of their legendary Halloween concerts.
Between Danny Elfman’s second act as a film composer (he’s done quite a few movies you probably saw), and permanent hearing damage from all those years on stage, it doesn’t look like Oingo Boingo will ever get back together (at least not with Danny at the helm – in recent years, some Boingo alumni have been performing a Boingo tribute with Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McReary on vocals). But if you haven’t seen the concert video Farewell, or heard the companion CD, I highly recommend it. This was a band that went out at the top of their abilities.
Which leaves only Hot Tomorrows to discuss.
One would think that, big Boingo fans that we are, if there’s a whole movie featuring both the Mystic Knights AND Herve “King Fausto” Villechaize, that predates Forbidden Zone, we would know about it. And yet, there I was, reading this Playboy article about director Martin Brest, and practically buried near the bottom I read:
His AFI thesis film grew into 1977’s Hot Tomorrows, a black-and-white indie that transplanted members of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (including Danny Elfman) into a noir dreamscape, complete with musical numbers. The film played the New York Film Festival, Brest’s macabre sense of humor charming critics for the first time (New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael praised the film’s take on life and death, describing the surrealist exercise’s sharp writing as “a good, broad burlesque-house joke”).
I realize that the point of the article is Brest’s falling fortunes, post-Gigli, but I still can’t help but feel like they buried the lede.
On the plus side, there’s nothing I love more than a hunt for obscure media. Why, this’ll be just like hunting for Forbidden Zone in the early 90s, I thought! But with the advantage of the internet! So imagine my surprise when I go to canistream.it, and turn up nothing. I figure if it ever got a release in any form, it’ll be on Amazon. Nothing. Ebay? Zilch. YouTube? Just a handful of clips, of which this is the most substantial.
I’ve found two torrents from the early days of p2p, which haven’t been seeded since the first Bush administration. Even Seattle’s legendary Scarecrow Video doesn’t have it, and there is nothing they don’t have.
So we’re putting out the call to our faithful Sub-Basementeers. If you have a copy of this movie, or know someone who has a copy, or can verify that a copy has ever existed, we need to hear from you. Contact us on Twitter or Facebook, or email us. You’ll be doing a fellow Boingo fan a huge service.
I hope you’ve enjoyed our visit to the Oingo Boingo Treasure Chest Of Lust And Mortal Sin. If this is your first time here, check out the Archive for more fun! And follow us on Facebook and Twitter, to be the first to know when we present our Salute To Mike Nesmith’s Hat!
I love this series, great job you guys!
The only problem is that I’ve had Squeezit the Moocher/Minnie the Moocher on non-stop rotation in my head for 3 days straight days. My co-workers are likely getting sick of me humming, whistling, or singing it constantly. 😉
Not to mention that I’m so used to “Squeezit the Moocher” that the lyrics have supplanted those of “Minnie The Moocher” in my head. Really screws me up at karaoke.
It’s up on Demonoid, fwiw. I haven’t tested if it’s legit yet, but it’s listed.
There are actually two torrents on there for Hot Tomorrows. Trouble is, both of those torrents are several years old. I’ve had them running for a couple of months now, with nary a seed in sight.
Hm; I only saw the one. How recently have you checked? SWIM says that somebody’s seeding the one that’s currently posted there, although the connection is fairly weak and sporadic on one end or the other. SWIM doesn’t want to say how far along their download is for fear of jinxing it. 😛
Hmm, I’ll look into that – thanks for the tip! BTW, who is SWIM?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=swim
Good luck! SWIM says their torrent is still being seeded and promises me that if it completes they’ll let me know if it’s legit.
It’s legit! From a brief scan through though I only see the band as stage performers at a deserted bar in one scene; they’re not main characters or anything. The clip you linked seems to be from the very end, too. So if you’re the completionist type that has all their live concert recordings and their Budweiser commercial and the Forbidden Boingo collection and so on, then yes, they’re there! But it’s no Forbidden Zone. 😉
Well, I do have their live recordings, and the Bud commercial, and I haven’t heard of the Forbidden Boingo collection but I do enjoy the Tender Lumplings and Mystic Knights collections, so…great to hear! We owe you one!
The Forbidden Boingo collection is a three-volume collection of demos, outtakes, live clips, and etc. I haven’t compared it to my collection of their singles and album-outtakes yet though so idk what the amount of crossover vs unique material is.
Having actually watched Hot Tomorrows now, I do recommend it if you like clever, understated, low-budget older movies with a vaguely surreal undertone. The bar sequence is rather long and features singing by Marie Elfman, and Danny sings St. James Infirmary as well as playing trombone and violin with the rest of the band (although it cuts back and forth between the singing and the main characters talking, with the focus on the main characters). Herve Villechaize is great.