One of the more trifling pieces of rock trivia that occasionally used to surface in music magazines when they're running retrospectives or 'Whatever Happened To?' columns (read:filler) was 'What band did the Lost In Space kid, Billy Mummy, help found and have some notoriety with?' Knowing the answer straight off the bat was probably some indication of high rock-geek-factor, but it was eventually well known that Mummy and buddy Rob Haimer had formed Barnes and Barnes in the early seventies, and went on to cult-ish renown with the Dr. Demento staple "Fish Heads" as the decade was winding down.
Voobaha (which according to Mummy was their standard greeting betwixt each other), was B&B's first disc and this reissue comes with all the digital remastering and bonus tracks that we've come to expect these days from resurrected releases like this.
What's odd is that Voobaha was the first of eight albums for the duo and amazingly not just a flash in the pan vehicle for a bizzaro hit. The "Fish Heads" low-fi promo film has been screened widely on tv and at film festivals, and actually landed a spot in the Rolling Stone Top 100 Videos lineup. Beyond that particular tune, Barnes & Barnes music falls into rock's food chain just to the left of Devo and somewhere to the right of that nebulous region of music that houses the Residents and the broadcasts of the Church of the Subgenius. It's purposely wacky, strange, a touch macabre, but as Mummy attests to in the liner notes, friendly.
Their sonic makeup incorporates everything from Casio-like percussion, to treated vocals, found sounds and cheesy Farfrisa/Wurlitzer licks. The Barnes' took their kitchen sink approach and ladled it liberally over two track, and covered it over with harmless college-prankster type humor. There are tracks about dancing amputees, sleeping in the "sewey hole," and a sci-fi track that recalls an early Twilight Zone episode that Mummy appeared in where he put misbehaving adults into the corn field.
Weird Al, it's not. B&B don't have Al's crass slapstick outlook for one, and what bubbled forth from their collaboration may not warrant much examination but it was more thoughtful. The pair set out to create a severly bent universe designed to entertain whoever haphazardly stopped in for a visit. Mission accomplished: good job, men.
