"Who killed the fucking TV ?"
Back in 1992, when Was (not Was) released their last album 'Are you ok?', they were still pretty much every music critic's favourite demented P-Funk band that managed to incorporate David Was's dadaistic streak with 10 years of experience in shaping dance tracks out of his wonky lyrics, a superb trio of soul aces and a cheap drum computer. 'Papa was a Rolling Stone' and 'How the heart behaves' charted pretty much everywhere, and another Was (not Was) album crawled its way into the mainstream's ear.
And then there was 16 years of silence. Don Was discovered fame by producing everybody who had a miff of 'legendary superstar' about him, David Was discovered movie sound tracks and emulated Don by doing some producing of famous artists. There were sporadic appearances of Was (not Was) live and talk of a Bob Dylan cover album, but it wasn't until Rykodisc offered them a contract that the old Dadafunk machine creaked back into business.
Boo! reunites the ficticious Was brothers with their stellar vocal cast of Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens and Donald Ray Mitchell (supported by Kris Kristofferson) and some of the most weird and wonderful lyrics one can imagine. Starting off with Semi-interesting week, it features one of the loveliest patriotic images imaginable:
On Monday I was trying to get my freak on
With a couple twins from Washington DC
One of them wore the American flag
The other sang "Land of the Free"
Me, well, I'm not that patriotic
But the sisters really didn't seem to mind
When the sun rose the following morning
They did a red, white, and blue bump and grind
So far, so good
Things were looking so bleak
But it's been a semi-interesting week
This air of mild to completely wonky eccentricity continues throughout the album, picking up where 'Out come the Freaks', 'Walk the Dinosaur' and I feel better than James Brown' left. Yes , sometimes they are taking it a bit far, but the musicianship and the funk save the album from being the musical answer to Hunter S. Thompson. Don Was's lazy bass is juxtaposed with some Wah Wah's and very Mini Moogish sounding synth licks and jampacked with excellent grooves, killer ballads and -yes- one or two howlers which are nevertheless saved by their lyrics.
Without delving into the indvidual tracks (wich is often a boring and tedious exercise), the whole album is clearly the best they have done in 16 years and well worth getting. Available from Itunes and your friendly local retailers this will satisfy both brain and booty.
Was (not Was): Boo! Rykodisc, 2008