[This article was originally published May 15, 2010 for Suburban Bully]It’s been 6 years since Crash Test Dummies’ last effort, Songs Of The Unforgiven, and seventeen years since their 90’s salad days, brought on mostly by their hit single “Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm” (one of few top 40 song in American history to contain no vowels in its title). Though the fame and dynamic of the band has changed drastically over the almost two decades since anybody really paid them any mind, the Crash Test Dummies still have a lot to say, and in an ever-changing representation.
These days, Crash Test Dummies is less a band proper and more the solo work of frontman Brad Roberts, whose deep, silky smooth baritone voice are the only common denominator between the group’s 8 studio albums. Since the band was dropped from Arista Records after 1999’s Give Yourself A Hand’s poor sales and the band’s waning commercial appeal, the core members of the original lineup started to go their own ways, while Roberts continued to perform and release records as Crash Test Dummies (probably to maintain recognition). He now enlists the help of various session musicians from album to album. The only remaining original member, who has appeared on most, if not all, of Crash Test Dummies post major label releases, is female co-vocalist Ellen Reid. She covered back-up vocals on the band’s albums up until they recorded a cover of XTC’s “Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” for the 1995 Dumb and Dumber movie soundtrack, when she was given her first opportunity to trade vocal roles with Roberts. The single became a moderate commercial hit, and a fan favorite, and since then Reid has been given at least one lead vocal role on every subsequent Dummies album.
Constantly the fodder of nostalgic VH1 specials showcasing “one hit wonders” and 90’s music era celebrities, the Crash Test Dummies have been maintaining a lower profile in the new millennium. Roberts priding himself on the fact that no two Dummies albums sound alike, and making it a point to explore new and unique musical avenues with every release, it’s clear that the band’s popularity likely suffered from lack of consistency as opposed to lack of talent.
“After the success of [the album] God Shuffled His Feet, BMG [Arista Records’ parent company] wanted us to keep making little versions of that record. And that’s just not where we were going.” Roberts says. Their 1996 follow-up, A Worm’s Life, was an obvious attempt to appease the label, as it does sound remarkably similar to God Shuffled His Feet, except that the songs are little harder edged and guitar driven. It was 1999’s Give Yourself A Hand, where the band departed entirely from what had become their signature sound, to produce a darker, more electronic sounding record, stylistically similar to something Portishead would put out. “That pissed off the label quite a bit,” Brad recalls, “they rejected 35 songs we wrote for that album, and after it was finally released we kind of knew that our relationship with them was over.”
Three albums later, Roberts is still continuing to rack his focus all over the musical spectrum. On his newest release Oooh La La, Roberts and producer/engineer Stewart Lerman, explore their infatuation with the 1970’s era toy instrument called the Optigan. Manufactured by Mattel, the Optigan (an acronym for optical organ) looks like a small electronic organ, but projects the sounds of various other instruments using celluloid discs. Like an accordion, it has buttons on one side to control chords, and piano keys on the other side to control individual notes.
“Because we wrote using these discs, we were inspired to do things that we wouldn’t normally have done. I don’t write big band style, but all of a sudden I had this big band disc and I’m writing in a genre I wouldn’t normally be writing in,” Roberts tells. Think of it kind of like digital sampling, but on an antiquated analog system. “We were writing this for ourselves,” He says, “we weren’t aiming at a demographic - but this couldn’t be a clearer case of us just being little boys.”
Don’t let the make-up of the recording fool you - Oooh La La doesn’t sound like something recorded on a wax cylinder, as you might think. For having used such obscure devices to form the framework of the songs, you’d never know it if you hadn’t been told. There is a little claustrophobia in some of the tracks, but others are unexpectedly spacious and even radio friendly. The opening number “Songbird” for instance, sounds easily like it could have been a b-side from the Dummies’ God Shuffled His Feet days of yore. “You Said You’d Meet Me (In California)” and “Now You See Her”, on the other hand, have an obvious sampled sound, but Lerman’s pristine production gives these tracks more “umph” than you would expect.
Lyrically, Oooh La La is kind of lacking - as most of Roberts’ writing has tended to be since BMG left him to his own devices (no pun intended). He’s not as brilliant a lyricist as he once was, but his fans these days have come to rely on him more for his shifting musical creativity, and a vocal identity as distinct as Tom Waits’.
Oooh La La was released Monday on Roberts’ own Deep Fried Records label, and Crash Test Dummies will be touring to support the album through the remainder of May and into the first half of June. They will be performing in Milwaukee at Shank Hall on Sunday, May 23rd.
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