There’s an article in today’s New York Times about the rise of “iCrime"--people being targeted for their shiny, easy-to-steal, status symbol iPods. I’ve actually thought about this before. I sometimes jog through dicey areas of my city, and I’m often lost in my own thoughts as well as lost in a song. My iPod is strapped around my arm. I’m not especially fearsome looking. Wouldn’t it be easy for evil people to trip me to the sidewalk and strip me of my musical companion?
However, then I realized that my car had a “Protected by Auto Theft Alarm” sticker on the driver side window, and that gave me an idea. And now I don’t worry about being mugged at all. I jog in peace, thanks to my iPod’s new decal: “Contains More than One Track by Oingo Boingo.”
Oingo Boingo!
You are a most fearsome iPod owner. I would not trip you for anything.
Haw!!!
That would be enough to scare off most would-be stealers. Well, unless they’re middle-aged and stuck in the 80s. Watch out for THEM.
Okaaaay, are we talking “Weird Science” and....
an extended dance mix of “Weird Science”? That fact that Oingo Boingo has multiple songs that someone knows is strange to me. Do you also have “Men without Hats” Greatest Hits?
I’m not judging, I have Dolly Parton singing “Stairway to Heaven” on my iPod. But, if your theory worked, my car cd player containing Indigo Girls should have been safe, right? I don’t think their fans rob cars much.
Okay, I’m not saying that any reasonable person has to like Oingo Boingo, but I WILL say that you can’t compare them to a one or two hit wonder like Men Without Hats. OB had actual albums with actual thought put behind them. “Weird Science” was the breakthrough hit, but they’d been around for ten years before that and lasted for ten years after that (not including Danny Elfman’s still-in-progress music composing career).
Indigo Girls fans are actually rather thug-like.
Also works to deter females from approaching. Kudos.
Don’t rile an oingo-head folks!
Also, I can attest to the Indigo Thuggery. I was once hostage in a car full of calpirg canvassers that subjected me to a forcible singalong of ‘closer to fine.’ The horror.
I’m not dissing Oingo Boingo! I’m just surprised I can’t name any of their other songs- or in fact recognize them after I googled. I am 34 and was there at the time, you know. Now, Danny Elfman soundtracks would make for a very spooky jog, right?
Actually, some Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice music has been on my iPod. My kids and I have Nightmare sing alongs.
They definitely had no other big hits but I’m surprised that you wouldn’t recognize “Dead Man’s Party” in your age bracket. Not there’s anything wrong with the Nightmare songs.
I went to an Oingo Boingo concert in Oakland in the mid-80s. They rocked, especially considering what was popular at the time. Some moshing. Some lite punkers. If you want to scare people, I’d go with Kajagoogoo - their short-lived popularity scared the bejeezus out of me…
My sticker would read - “Contains Hanson tracks”
Ever since I moved from Southern California to the East Coast 13 years ago, I have never been able to understand the prevailing Oingo Boingo hating/ignorance. Where I’m from, Oingo Boingo concerts were like Phish concerts in New England (which probably explains why I’d never heard of Phish until I got to college, actually). You went at least once every year, and knew the words to every song, of which there were many that were popular. One-hit wonders they are not, and the band is fronted by Danny freakin Elfman for crying out loud. Sure they’re massively overproduced, but it was the 80s after all.
Anyway, my point is, maybe go with Haircut 100.
Of all the myriad reasons I could feel self-conscious (not the least being my overuse of the word myriad)-- what I mean is, I stand solidly behind Oingo Boingo. I was even there back in the 80s, trying to convince Greg that the album with “Elevator Man” on it was kinda cool. I was full of shit, except that the actual song “Elevator Man” is in fact kinda cool. Even more so now. I like hooks and big loud cartoony noises. I don’t know the meaning of the word overproduced. Or rambling.
You know, I actually have a playlist titled “Easy for ME to listen to” because I suspect there are few others who would find a compilation of raspy-throated singer/songwriters (Dylan, Cohen, Springsteen) interspersed with Rat Pack troubadors anything remotely easy to take.
I’ll have you know that Men Without Hats have released 7 albums in their 23 year career. Just because you have never explored the true depths of their musical genius doesn’t give you the right to cast aspersions.
Evie: No Haircut 100, although I do have a solo track, “Kite,” by Nick Heyward.
Donovan: Your memory is way faulty. I was trying to get YOU into OB. By the time “Elevator Man” came out, I was already a slavering zombie.
Adam: I said they were a one or two hit wonder, and they are--"Safety Dance” and “Pop Goes the World.” And having heard both of the albums that contains those tracks all the way through, I not only have the right to cast aspersions, I have a license and degree that says “Certified to Cast Aspersions on Men Without Hats.”