Electrical Spectacle >> Krafty twerk

Electrical Spectacle - "Transcontinental"

(self-released, 2001 / 2002; Backporch Revolution, 20__)

Note: I wrote this post on the same day I made my last post, the Paradise Vendors song, July 31st.  The only reason I didn't post this one was the Palestine-vs.-Israel conflict, as well as the rash of beheadings by ISIS.  It just felt inappropriate to post such a fun and flippant song at that time.  Then the Mike Brown fiasco happened, etc., and everyone on social media turned into an idiot, and I ended up spending the summer and fall adjusting my entire sociopolitical worldview to these eye-opening realities.  (Key terms I learned: Cultural Marxism and Identity Politics.)  However, it's now New Year's Eve and this song is the ultimate party jam and this is America, so here you go.

Electrical Spectacle was a New Orleans band consisting of Mike Mayfield and Anton Gussoni.  They made party-friendly electronic dancescapes that answer the question: What would Kraftwerk have sounded like if they had originated in New Orleans rather than in Germany?  Since Kraftwerk literally contains the word "twerk," you know they were a deranged party band in an alternate universe, and New Orleans is an alternate universe, so do the math.  This song sure does sound like it was inspired by Kraftwerk's "Ruckzuck".  That was the theme song for the science show Newton's Apple, which I watched religiously in the '80s.  (Check out this mind-blowing comment about "Ruckzuck" on YouTube by user dabidosan: "Can't believe I'm going to put this out here, but.....This used to be the theme song to the children's show Newton's Apple. Well....when I was little, every time the show would come on......I would take my badminton rackets and flap them on my back while hopping on one leg to this song....it was my 'Mosquito Dance.'")

Mood Modulation EP (CD-R, 2001)

Electrical Spectacle (CD-R, 2002)

I heard this track a lot on WTUL in the early '00s.  I actually have it both on the Mood Modulation EP (CD-R, 2001) and the band's self-titled album (CD-R, 2002).  The mp3 I'm posting here is from the 2001 EP, just because it's surely much harder to find.  Both versions sound almost identical, though the first one was made entirely by Mayfield when it was a solo project, and the second version was made by Mayfield, Gussoni and drummer Louis Romanos when it had become a true band.  My copy of Mood Modulation has cool little pinholes punched into the cover near each corner around the atom design.  "Transcontinental" (even the title has an "international man of mystery" feel to it) is remarkably solid from an instrumental standpoint, down to the snappy drumming and the killer synth attack.  The fact that one person put this whole song together on his own is simply breathtaking.  Some vocals might've helped it to reach a wider audience, but may have also tarnished its aesthetic.  It should've been used in one of those Austin Powers movies, as Fantastic Plastic Machine's "Bachelor Pad" was.

L-R: Gussoni, Romanos, Mayfield; photo from 1/22/02 issue of Gambit

Local indie label Backporch Revolution says this (er, they did back in July... it has now been deleted) about the Mood Modulation EP: "From spaced-out krautrock to space age bossanova, the 2001 debut 4-track EP from Electrical Spectacle is arguably the most-played local release on WTUL in the last five years. It's never been readily available, though, so we're finally re-releasing it on the web."

Local newsweekly Gambit has a great article by Michael Patrick Welch (a.k.a. The White Bitch) which talks about how bands like Electrical Spectacle fit into the early '00s NOLA scene.

I never saw Electrical Spectacle, but I have seen Mayfield live, as a member of ambient droners Liteworks in 2009, and in '80s-style minimal wavers ((PRESSURES)) in 2014.  I don't think I ever saw any band featuring Gussoni, but I seem to remember talking to him about music right outside of the Loyola library in early 2001.  The full-band version of Electrical Spectacle featured amazing Jaki Liebezeit-esque drummer Romanos of chill local jazz/electronic duo Permagrin.  I saw the 'Grin three times, all in 2004, including once at Jazz Fest.

Planets with similar climates: Kraftwerk - "Ruckzuck" (1970), Fantastic Plastic Machine - "Bachelor Pad" (1997), Quintron - "Bug Attack" (1998), Telefon Tel Aviv - "My Week Beats Your Year" (2003), Aphex Twin - "Girl/Boy Song" (1996), Harald Grosskopf - "So Weit, So Gut" (1980).

The Moog Cookbook >> A simple prop to occupy my time

California Month continued, tremor #40:

The Moog Cookbook - "The One I Love"

(1996, Restless Records)

The Moog Cookbook was two guys with way too many vintage synths.  They put out two albums of cheesy synth covers of well-known songs, including this R.E.M. chestnut.  Thank god they (R.E.M., that is) finally broke the hell up this month after being the paradigm of all "bands that should've broken up 20 years ago" jokes.

I didn't realize TMC were from California until just this month.  I downloaded this album, their self-titled debut, a few years back.  The word Moog is pronounced "Moag," as most people hopefully know.  My other two favorite songs on this album are "Evenflow" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit."  Of course, Sara DeBell's brilliant Grunge Lite album beat The Moog Cookbook to the punchline by several years, though TMC's versions are more fleshed-out and party-worthy.  See you later in an elevator, R.E.M., and thanks for all those... er... those 5 or 6 great songs you gave us over those three decades...  This one was definitely your best.

Back cover of their self-titled album

On some Japanese magazine, 1998

1997 press photo

After the Saints' stunning beatdown at the hands of the winless Rams, I went to Voodoo Fest yesterday in hopes of catching some Odd Future, but we got there too late.  (I read that they got into some onstage spats with cameramen, and Chris from the Mushroom told me that they were pretty disorganized / unprofessional / mediocre overall.  Read this.)  Saw most of TV On The Radio, who did "Will Do," "Staring At The Sun," and "Wolf Like Me," among others.  They closed their set with a cover of Fugazi's classic "Waiting Room."  Then saw almost all of The Meters' set, which was the main reason I went; this was one of only a handful of times since the '70s that all four members have played together, so it was a pretty huge deal.  It was kind of funny seeing those old dudes playing circles around their disciples TVOTR.  It was annoying that Cheap Trick were playing at the same time, at much louder volume, on the adjacent stage.  I wanted to strangle them.  The Meters did an epic ten or so minute version of their classic "Fire On The Bayou", which most non-New Orleanians know as the theme song to the HBO show Treme.  They also did "Hey Pocky A-Way," which is the unofficial theme song of Mardi Gras, and "It Ain't No Use" and a few others.  My hour of watching them went by too quickly.  Then it was the Raconteurs closing things out on the main stage (don't you need a hit single to do that?) in a Led Zep-y way, as though the '80s, '90s, and '00s never happened.  I finally met my sister & Vanessa's friend Cecile, who has her own business designing neckties.  Then we saw this techno duo(?) called Soul Clap at a little side stage before the plug was pulled at 9:00.
Then we got some food at Lucy's Retired Surfer Cafe, and Vanessa explained the X-rated meaning of the slang term "Superman that ho," as used in a certain Soulja Boy hit song.  Haha.  She was really on, and the Red Bull surely didn't hurt.  I realized that I might have obtained the explanation for the term "decorate the spine" in that Knapsack song I posted two days ago...  I drove Damion's friend Wessel back to the apartment while this Moog Cookbook song played in my car, so he must've thought I was on crack or that I had the strangest music taste ever.  I swung by the Mushroom right before they closed at midnight and picked up this Joy Division poster (Closer album cover) that I'd seen a few weeks earlier, for my sister.  And got a jazz LP for a buck just because it has Terence Blanchard on it.
This morning I called in a Halloween-themed request of Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" to WTUL, and the DJ girl played it only a few minutes later, which impressed me.

I got an amazing boombox necklace and gold "$" ring today at a Halloween store.  They had at least four different Lady Gaga outfits, and a Mike "The Situation" one.  Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" played over the P.A. system, and a lifesize Freddy Kreuger statue next to the cash registers periodically spat out lines such as "How's this for a wet dream?"  (Yes, there were plenty of kids in the store.)  I felt ashamed to be an American.

Planets with similar climates: Ween - "Now I'm Freaking Out" (1994), Komputer - "Looking Down On London" (1997), Sukia - "Vaseline & Sand" (1996), Add N To (X) - "Plug Me In" (2000), Moonshake - "Exotic Siren Song" - (1996).