Barnes and Barnes - Voobaha
#323
August 1980
Barnes and Barnes
Voobaha
Genre: Novelty Wave
4.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Fish Heads
Gumby Jaws Lament
I Hope She Dies
Something’s in the Bag
There is a comic store in the valley that I used to frequent. DJs Universal Comics. That’s where my pulls were even though I didn’t live near it. Pulp Comics should have been my haunt. But I liked the owner. And he made great recommendations to my wife when she was looking for presents for me. He was the one who suggested The Pro by Jimmy Pamliotti and Amanda Connor and Garth Ennis. A hilarious book, I reached out to Jimmy when we were designing the cover of Throttle Back Sparky’s album and he let us use it! Even while they were negotiating with MTV to turn it into a series!
I was in that comic store one day when Billy Mumy walked in. Of course I knew who he was. How could I not? And I really wanted to say something. Anything. But I couldn’t. And that was my own fault. Not out of being star struck but I knew that Cat, the owner, would say something about me being in a band, since I was always on my way to rehearsal when I stopped in to his store. And that conversation would most likely turn to the fact that Bill was also in a band; The Jenerators. And I couldn’t be a part of that conversation.
See, the drummer for The Jenerators is an actor that I knew. I’m sure he’s a good musician, but he’s a nemesis of mine inasmuch as I have always felt that he was a destructive force to my union. He was single handedly the reason we went on strike in 2000. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with him but at that point it was more hate. The guy was a mentor of mine until I learned just how problematic he was.
He softened when I was in charge of our negotiations, but, after I left, he gained more power and they are, once again, pretty fucking destructive.
So, I didn’t want to have that conversation.
But, dammit, I wish I did.
I’d never heard Barnes and Barnes save for a couple tracks. But this thing is wild, man. Yeah, I know they open with a cover but it’s kind of delicious. Like entry level Residents. Deconstructing The Beatles in a way very dissimilar from Utopia’s take (which is to prove that the Emperor had no clothes, while adorning themselves in the same wardrobe, lovingly) is a brilliant way to start.
And down the line it gets more and more disturbed. “Gumby Jaws Lament” calls to mind Ween or even Bloodhound Gang, though much more rudimentary in its production.
While we all know (and love) “Fish Heads”, I would submit that it’s not even the most subversive song on the album, nor the best. It’s sufficiently weird, yes. But the rest is much more accomplished and horrifying (“Something’s in the Bag”)
A stellar work of subversion at the tail end of a very paranoid era in America.
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