ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Off the Clock
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
Man, it's a gas to watch all those groovy hipsters in flicks from the '50s. Could those cats swing! Twisting to the mellow strings of Henry Mancini and Mantovani. Mamboing with the bongo madness of Esquivel! Diamonds and flasks and long cigarette holders!
What's that you say? Squaresville?
Oh, baby get with it! Out is in! I'm talking violins and accordions, sharkskin and martinis. And you better hip yourself to it, 'cause I'm telling you, cocktail space age bachelor pad bongo music is back ... in a big way.
From the deepest recesses of thrift store LP bins comes a broad genre of '50s and '60s ambiance music. Album covers usually sport women in tight sequin dresses, posed mid-mambo, and clean cut men with thick horn-rimmed glasses and dark suits.
Sales of lounge and cocktail music CD reissues have warranted the inclusion of a "Lounge" section in the CD bins at Roanoke's Books String & Things.
You'll find Rhino Record's 3 volume "Cocktail Mix" set. Capitol Record's six-CD collection, "Ultra Lounge," features titles like "Space Capades" and "Wild, Cool and Swinging." These cover a lot of groovy ground.
Lounge music originally sprang up during the advent of hi-fidelity and stereophonic sound. The tunes are chiefly a kind of wacky jazz with the melody often being carried by forgotten step-child instruments like the glockenspiel, vibraphone, hammered chimes, accordion, color-note organ or a chorus of voices intoning "zuh-zuh-zuh" in an esoteric way.
Another common thread in the skinny black tie of lounge music is the use of hefty and totally unrelated sound effects. A helicopter takes off at the beginning of Bob Thompson's swooping string tune "Early-bird, Whirly-bird." Meanwhile, Dean Elliot's "Will You Still Be Mine?" includes the atonal touch-tones of a modern telephone. It's so trippy.
Lounge music has also gotten a lift from several new bands devoted exclusively to resurrecting the cocktail hour. The most prominent of these, Combustible Edison, has even scored the Quentin Tarrantino film "Four Rooms," with their throw-back sounds. Their 1994 release, "I, Swinger," received a great deal of critical acclaim and helped solidify the mondo-movement.
But, the movement is more than just a sound. Combustible Edison preaches a style they call "Fabulousness," in which everyone is dressed appropriately, fashionably late and enjoying frou-frou libations in moderation. "Nobody likes a sloppy swinger," they are fond of saying.
The migration back to the lounge may be, as Goldmine magazine suggests, a reaction to today's noisy pop/punk and alternative music with its "thoughtlessly provocative lyrics that leave the listener agitated but none the wiser." Essentially, lounge music comes out sounding like anything from the soundtrack to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to the odd incidental music on "Gilligan's Island." It's all over the map, man.
But, it's cool daddy-o!
If you're between, say, 25 and 35 years old, I will bet a million dollars you know what a conjunction is.
And, you weren't paying any attention in Ms. Fletcher's English class, either. You know your conjunctions the same way you know how a bill becomes a law, or why three is a magic number.
You know all this because you watched Saturday morning cartoons religiously. And by default you soaked up important grammar, history and mathematical lessons by attending "Schoolhouse Rock."
Schoolhouse Rock was a series of one-minute cartoons on ABC's Saturday morning lineup in the '70s that addressed adverbs and the Revolutionary War, the legislative process and the mysteries behind electricity. And the songs that accompanied the images were darned catchy. You can't forget them.
Now, there's "Schoolhouse Rock Rocks!" a CD compilation with groovy alternative artists like Ween and the Lemonheads, and rappers Biz Markie and Skee-Lo singing your favorite Saturday morning sounds.
The songs hold up really well. For the most part they're kind of crunchier than the originals. You might miss the cheesy '70s sound at first. But, you'll sing along anyway.
Between the lessons about "Interplanet Janet" and "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," you probably took in a lot of cartoons ... and their theme songs.
Well, these have been covered as well on a killer collection called "Saturday Morning - Cartoons' Greatest Hits." Here artists like Matthew Sweet, Collective Soul and Juliana Hatfield rework themes from classic shows like "Josie and the Pussy Cats," "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" and "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters."
You can still taste the Crunch Berries when you hear Joey Ramone sincerely crooning: "Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can." The theme from "Hong Kong Phooey (the number one super guy)" puts you back your cowboy pajamas with the knees worn out.
You can re-learn Elroy Jetson's secret space language with the Violent Femmes version of "Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah (Means I Love You)." You'll recall that this song was originally sung by futuristic pop sensation "Jet Screamer." In a sort of surreal music video he sang:
"Well, now, I took my baby into outer space,
Met a little man with a funny funny face,
He taught us both to wail this way,
And nobody digs a word we say.
Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah."
It's all nonsensical and fun. And isn't that what your music has always been about?
Or, as Fat Albert might say, "Nah, Nah, Nah, Gonna have a good time."
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 3 album covers colorby CNB