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This Impish and Zany Troupe was at their peak from the years of 1979-1983.
Humble beginnings: Boingo started out with various off-the-wall appearances, including wild theatrical presentations
and an appearance on Chuck Barris' hilariously lowbrow and often depraved T.V. 'talent' showcase,
The Gong Show.
Soon after, the band recorded the Havoc-Filled soundtrack to the grade-Z / Sub-Cult Favorite
The Forbidden Zone,
which was directed by Danny's Brother Richard Elfman. As of this writing, the VHS version of this may still be available, amazingly enough.
Why not visit Richard Elfman's Flashy new Site, and (possibly) grab a copy this Classic and Bizarre Film? The music alone makes the film a worthwhile purchase.
Click the Forbidden Zone cover for a 'Journey Through the Intestines'. (if there is no luck there, try HERE )
As you may have noticed, this film stars The 'Tattoo-Meister' himself Herve Villechaize.
(Tre` Wacky! )
After this release, TMKOB, soon to be condensed into Oingo Boingo, proceeded
to plow through the early 80's with their unique brand of diverse, bouncy, twisted, cartoonish and irony-laden musical mayhem.
Boingo were easily one of the most talented and original of all of the bands of the "new wave" era. With an outstanding repertoire thatincluded songs like Little Girls, Only a Lad, Perfect System, Insects, Wild Sex (In the Working Class), Reptiles and Samurai, Private Life, Pictures Of You, Who Do You Want To Be? and many more,
it's a wonder that their early success was not more widespread.
Now, I draw a line:
(pretty nice, huh?)
The albums they released after the departure of Bassist Kerry Hatch and Keyboardist Richard Gibbs were to me, far below their true level of creativity - proving that you sometimes just DO NOT want to fuck around with the Chemistry.
(this is obviously just my opinion, some people actually prefer the later, more "mainstream" work)
  Meanwhile, Boingo's wild-eyed and psycho-grinning frontman Danny Elfman has turned out to be one of the truly great musician/ composers of our time.
Info on Danny can now be found on the growing Composers section of this site.
Also not to be overlooked, Richard Gibbs and Guitarist
Steve Bartek
are quite the accomplished film music composers in their own right.
Infact, a personal favorite title theme is the one from Clifford - (1994)
which Gibbs composed for a critically-blasted but quite funny and unusual Martin Short romp. Unfortunately, I have never seen this Soundtrack available and the movie itself is out of print. If anyone can help out with this, please email me.
For more on Oingo Boingo:
There are descriptions of some choice Boingo songs on the
Top 1000 (see #'s 12 and 34, so far)
To hear a sample of the above-mentioned Forbidden Zone Soundtrack
- check my Downloads Page.
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