Talk:Oingo Boingo

Pop Culture References

I know that there used to be a section for that, including some of the references to Oingo Boingo in American Dad, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, and World of Warcraft. Why was it deleted when "soundtrack appearances" was added?

Recent Edits

Danny Elfman did not compose the Spider-man 3 score. Please see the Elfman talk page. Matheson 02:43, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Nobody has mentioned the book written by Kieth T. Breese titled "Clowns of Death". This is a very well written history of Oingo Boingo. 205.69.250.11 14:34, 28 March 2007 (UTC)Jim W.

I made a few edits after my computer had automatically logged me out. Oops! Matheson 09:25, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Oingo Boingo's sound

It might be helpful if the group's sound is expanded on a bit more here. Before adding some comments in the "Only A Lad" area, there was no mention at all of what the group sounded like. -- ZincOrbie 22:23, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

• Heh. I was in the band and never could describe very well to anyone else what the group sounded like. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 01:01, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

The best description I've ever heard was "Halloween Ska". Which worked for me, and I'm a very critical boingoloid.--FACT50 20:07, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure what it means, but I like it. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 03:15, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I really dont think that they should be classified as New Wave. Post-Punk yes but their is not nearly enough electronic sounds to it. I always classified it as World-Punk because of it's obvious World (more specifically Reggae, Ska, Cajun, Mexican, etc.) inspirations and its punk sound. Personally I really feel that Oingo Boingo broke musical boundaries so much that you cant really classify them as any one genre. 71.176.168.42 (talk) 06:30, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree they were hard to classify, but you need to realize the classifications in the article are based upon how they were classified by reviewers and such back in the 80s. --Stacey Doljack Borsody (talk) 07:19, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh well that makes since. no wonder they classify them as new wave. Like I said They are definitly post-punk 71.176.137.125 (talk) 20:06, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone object to removing the ska label? Obviously their sound is hard to classify, couldn't it be stated as such? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.103.121.35 (talk) 11:50, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

There's no mention in the article about the use of the song "Goodbye, Goodbye" in the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", therefore, I'm adding it to the article. That was my first exposure to Oingo Boingo, and frankly, it deserves a mention. --Devious Bastard 16:58, 19 August, 2006 (EST)

Man, this article sucks

It seems so far from the standards of Wikipedia 2006. What nationality is the band? Where are they from? Who was in the band? None of these questions are directly answered. What does it mean to be the band "of someone"? The intro is terrible. The succeeding paragraphs are uninformative. I'll suggest it for peer review unless you shape it up. Moncrief 04:20, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

I can clean it up a bit. What else did you have in mind? Is there another band article that you suggest I could use as an example? --Stacey Doljack Borsody 23:01, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry that was so harsh. I didn't need to be that rude. Take a look at any article that must have been worked on a lot - Led Zeppelin, Eagles, something like that. The intro should be a clear distillation of the essential facts about the band. Names of the members? Nationality? Years together? Style of music? I don't know what it means to be a band "of someone" and who is this person anyway? The article should have a summary intro that introduces the essential relevant information. Moncrief 23:19, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll take a look... I have no idea why the entire article was reverted back. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 03:32, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

A mistake on my part. I only meant to take out the list of some of the members from the first paragraph. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 03:39, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

No worries. Should we make a separate section for members like in the Eagles article User:Moncrief sites or list members under the separate history sections? I don't know who all the members were during all time periods. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 03:45, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

A seperate section might make sense, since most of the members aren't or weren't notable enough to have their own articles. I just didn't think the list belonged in the intro. I don't know if anybody could come up with a list of all the members from all the time periods, except maybe Danny, whose memory seems photographic, but maybe not even him, because he wasn't even in the country for the first few months of the band's existance -- Rick actually founded it while Dan was in Mali and thereabouts collecting musical instruments and malaria. (I figure this is one of the very few places I might rightfully get my own name mentioned in Wikipedia, so I will express no opinion as to whether long-ago members need be listed; but how can one pass up an opportunity to have a mention of Billy Superball?) --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 14:34, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I would suggest two separate sections for the members: one for the Mystic Knights (the theatrical troupe) and one for Oingo Boingo (the band). In fact, it might make sense to have an entirely separate entry for the Mystic Knights. -- Takwish 16:53, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Members

The table is a start. I need to go do some further research to get the full list I'm aware of :) I also noticed that Food For Feet isn't listed under 'Other Projects', but I don't feel that I know enough info about it offhand to add it yet. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 15:54, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

• I've got (somewhere) reviews from Variety and the LA Times of a 1974-ish incarnation, with full cast lists. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 16:42, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

That would help :) --Stacey Doljack Borsody 17:35, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I've transcribed the reviews; you can grab them from [1] and [2]. Let me know when you get them so I can take them off the site again (they are, of course, copyrighted.) --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:00, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I've got them now, thanks. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 04:21, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Awesome intro now. Thanks. Moncrief 17:23, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, in hindsight, the only thing I'd say is that if "The Gong Show" bit wasn't one of the highlights of their career, I wouldn't put it in the intro. I think the best Wikipedia articles should adopt the "inverted pyramid" rule from journalism: articles start with the overall summary and then get into more detail. This new intro, as big of an improvement as it is, seems to cover the early years of the band disproprtinately and could give a broader overview. But still it's much better. Glad this is being worked on. Moncrief 17:25, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with that. I was thinking the Gong Show reference would fit better in the Mystic Knights section. I need to think more about what to include in an expanded intro. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 17:35, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

And did they really win? That was before my time with the band, and my memories are a bit muddled, but I don't recall hearing about them winning, and I think I would hae remembered that. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:38, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

An external site mentions they got 24 points out of 30 and didn't get gonged. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 03:59, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Gong Show Video YouTube to the rescue. Crystalzilla 16:40, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Haha you guys beat me to it. I just got some time now today to add in more member info, with little paper notes in hand and you've all added stuff already! :) --Stacey Doljack Borsody 03:59, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Maybe a table isn't the best formatting device for a large list? I found some details online [3] that included some trivia. *shrug* I feel like the list needs to be organized by group incarnation. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 04:21, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I thing the personnel from the Mystic Knights years who weren't in the band after 1979 should be listed separately, and preferably in a separate article. The Mystic Knights had a lot more members than the later Oingo Boingo band, and their work is much less familiar. -- Takwish 04:32, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't see why a seperate article is needed; Oingo Boingo was a direct descendent; every member of the first incarnation as Oingo Boingo had been a member of the Mystic Knights, as far as I know. And I'm not sure there's all that much that we'll be able to say about the Mystic Knights in a seperate article. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 04:41, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I've divided the 'Members' table into two tables: one for the Mystic Knights and one for the rock band. There's some duplication, of course, with this approach; but I think it adds some necessary clarity. I've made the ending dates for all the Mystic Knights members as 1980, and the beginning dates for all the original OB members as 1979. -- Takwish 13:01, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Someone screwed up that work you did and put 1994 as the end date for many people in the Mystic Knights table, which makes no sense at all. I put it back to 1980. BTW, Stacey (if you read this), fancy meeting you here. We had classes together at UCI -- I forget whether they were art or computer science. -- Dan Harkless 19:53, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Awesome. Your name looked familiar. I think it was the art classes, since I took a lot more of them :) Remember Julie Bini? Maybe it will be best to continue this conversation through private message. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 04:20, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

I'd be for a separate article on the Mystic Knights if there were enough to write about them. I almost added another column to the table indicating if the person was in MK, OB, or both for clarity but the table seemed to get too wide, especially with the column for additional info. Maybe using a smaller font would do the trick? Or the other option is to remove the additional info column, and find some other place for that info. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 14:17, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know if Carol Emmanuel (Harp), Stuart Elster ( Piano) and Dan Schmidt (Synths) were actually members of MKOB, or just session musicians for Forbidden Zone? -- Takwish 21:22, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Images

I was thinking the page now needs spicing up with some images. Obviously most images are going to be copyrighted. Does anyone know what the credits for this Mystic Knights image is? --Stacey Doljack Borsody 21:23, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Red Hot

I just read in Anthony Kiedis's autobiography that the Red Hot Chili Peppers once opened for Oingo Boingo, and the Danny Elfman came onstage and told the band to stop booing when they lost steam after Flea broke a bass string, with Danny being mentioned as a fan of the Chili's. Shouldn't this kind of thing be mentioned in the article? Considering how bog the Chilis are now, anyway.

Maybe, though it sounds more like info that should be mentioned in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' article. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 14:30, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Jon Gold?

An anon added: Jon Gold 1973-1976 Guitar, banjar, sousaphone, baliphones & percussion. Now, I'll admit my memory isn't what it might be, given my extra-curricular activities at the time, but I don't remember anybody besides me playing the sousaphone during that period, which is exactly when I was with the band; and I also played banjar (a guitar-banjo hybrid). Anyone remember better than I do? --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 19:55, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Maybe they mean Josh Gordon and are just messing with ya :) --Stacey Doljack Borsody 20:43, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

See, e.g., '75 --Figsyrup 05:16, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

That picture's been driving me nuts for a while. I think that's me in the front right, but I'm not at all sure! --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 07:38, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Heh. My wife says, "That's your feet. That's your belly. That's your nose." And it looks like my trumpet, too. So it's probably me. Only thing is I don't remember the outfit, but that was a special photo shoot, not our usual show costumes. I think a lot of our Boingitude was ethanol-propelled. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 21:46, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

• I'm thinking now Jon's the guy who succeeded me. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 21:50, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

No doubt about it, that's Jon on the left, holding the Gibson SG. --Figsyrup 08:16, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Damned funny looking sousaphone! (Fragmented memories are a weird thing.) Thanks. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 14:31, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Gong Show

Should there be any mention of thier win on the Gong Show? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTRd1a5MVMw

• You mean, like, where the article says, They gained a following in Los Angeles, and appeared as contestants on The Gong Show, winning the show with 24 points out of 30 without getting gonged? --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 02:55, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Hey, that must have been edited out. 75.48.22.98 (talk) 23:50, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Goth and Oingo

I'm a really old-school Goth from LA. Oingo was important to us. The references to Halloween are not well thought out. Oingo references death a lot and all of the things that Goths were into (Dead Man's Party being only the one that fratboys know about).They were a huge influence on us--more so than some of the European bands (ie, Bauhaus). Most Goths have an affinity for Halloween and the members of Oingo (though this is generalizing) are no exception--that doesn't mean that their band is about Halloween. I'm just saying that their influence on a really huge movement like Goth should be referenced. I was there, it's true. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marcuspierce (talk • contribs) 22:42, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Insanity

Okay so does somebody know who the kids are singing in the song Insanity. I thought its was danny's daughter and her friends but now I learn that he has no daughter. who are they? 71.176.137.125 (talk) 20:14, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Dunno where you heard that from. He has two daughters and recently a son. The kids I think are credited in the album. I don't recall who exactly, but they are related somehow to band members. --Stacey Doljack Borsody (talk) 20:25, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

I KNEW HE HAD GIRLS. I think that his article didn't say anything about them before. But still I could've sworn that I read or heard somewhere that the singers were his daughter/ daughters and their friends I just can't find mention of it anywhere, also the singers appear in either the music video or in a background video used during performance of the song. I think such a big role of background singing should at least be known about. Arkkeeper (talk)

I own Boingo, and I just checked. It says "Cameron and Taylor Graves, background vocals on "Insanity."" Hope that helps. Sitbunnynow (talk) 01:07, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Replaced Post-Punk with Geek Rock

Hey guys, just letting you know I replaced the Post-Punk genre with Geek Rock. I feel Post-Punk is redundant since Gothic Rock is already in the genres and they're basically the same thing. I think Geek Rock is a good way to describe the majority of their music. Ash Loomis (talk) 21:42, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Missing single?

I'm sure I had a single by this group in the mid to late 1970s that doesn't seem to be mentioned here. Unfortunately I no longer have it and all I can remember about it is that it had a blue label and was pressed on stripey multi-coloured vinyl. Does this ring any bells with anyone or am I confusing it with something else? BTLizard (talk) 11:21, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Common Elements

Does anyone else here agree with me that the whole "Common Elements" section is somewhat ridiculous, unencyclopedic, and bordering on original research? If so, let's remove it. --Stacey Doljack Borsody (talk) 15:51, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

• Gosh yes. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:48, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Ska

Hi, recently the Ska genre and category were removed due to a lack of sources. I've taken it upon myself to find a few. The first is an audio interview where Danny Elfman speaks about how he decided to turn Oingo Boingo into a rock/ska band after hearing the 2 Tone music coming out of England. http://synthesisradio.net/2006/10/06/danny-elfman-september-2006/ And here's an interview in which he talks about the influence of important ska bands such as Madness, the Selecter, and the Specials: http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_danny_elfman/ Here's another interview that makes direct reference to Oingo Boingo being a ska band:http://www.uclalive.org/Press_Releases/Fortune%20Teller%20-%20Jewish%20Journal.pdf Some examples of ska songs Oingo Boingo played include "Nasty Habits," "Only Makes Me Laugh" and their cover of "Violent Love." Ash Loomis (talk) 19:19, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for looking that up. I have heard other Elfman interviews in the past too where he mentions that genre as an influence. --Stacey Doljack Borsody (talk) 20:14, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

College Radio

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Oingo Boingo a College Radio staple throughout the 80's? There's no mention of that anywhere in the article, other than in the Beavis & Butthead reference. I'm assuming it's a major reason why Oingo Boingo appeared in "Back To School". --Gobisbay (talk) 15:57, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Feel free to be bold and add it in, try to find a reference to support it first though. Ash Loomis (talk) 18:34, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Genres in infobox

Why is "New Wave" the only genre listed in the infobox? They've worked in more genres than that, and there enough sources to back up additional genres. (Sugar Bear (talk) 16:06, 11 April 2009 (UTC))

Ska genre in infobox?

I'm seeing some kind of selective preference for the ska genre, to place it in the infobox. The cited sources list ska but do not emphasize it.

• LA Weekly only quotes Elfman, who is a primary source for his own music. Wikipedia goes by WP:SECONDARY sources.
• AllMusic says the band is new wave, incorporating an "upbeat mix of pop, rock, ska, and world music". In the prose, the writer compares Boingo to Devo, saying they are both "quirky new wave". The prose review says that the band's first three albums with A&M Records resulted in "some of the early '80s finest new wave releases..." Never once does the word 'ska' appear in the prose review, it only appears in the opening blurb.
  • Why is ska pulled out from that list and brought to the fore, but not world music and the others?
• Scott Miller in Music: What Happened? says "Danny Elfman has had a wild career; from the social conservative jump, jive and ska of Oingo Boingo..."
  • Why is ska selected from this when jump and jive could also be sourced?

Here are some other sources:

• The AV Club calls the band "ska-tinged new wave". Not new wave-tinged ska band.
• The San Diego Reader calls the band new wave.
• Sputnik says the band was "known for an eclectic style of new wave music that often defied any sort of classification..."
• Vibe magazine wrote in 1997 that Oingo Boingo was a "now defunct new wave band".
• Author Janet K. Halfyard writes in Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide, page 7, that Oingo Boingo's output was relentlessly upbeat new wave, with a brass section inspired by highlife music. Halfyard quotes an article from 1980 which says the music of Oingo Boingo "is a bizarre pastiche of quirky new wave rhythm shifts, Motown-ish horn arrangements, Broadway-musical drama, odd melodic changes worthy of Frank Zappa, gamelan percussion ideas, and barbershop quartet harmonies... all the ferocious intensity of some of the best new wave, but none of its musical predictability." Halfyard's only mention of ska music is on page 6 in her description of what catalyzed Elfman to write songs and start a band: he was energized by hearing British ska bands around 1978, the Specials, Selecter, Madness and XTC. She says British ska is a mix of Jamaican ska plus British punk rock. She says Oingo Boingo went in a new direction from these, not following either the Jamaican ska tradition or the British punk style.
• Author Samuel J. Umland writes in The Tim Burton Encyclopedia, page 104, that Oingo Boingo was a new wave rock band.

I think the band's genre should be as general as possible, which is why the new wave genre fits. Binksternet (talk) 23:43, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

Aren't jive and jump forms of dance popular in the original jazz era, rather than musical genres? If you want to list jazz in the genres as well as per that source, I wouldn't be against it because they started out as a jazz performance troupe, before switching to ska after Elfman heard that genre on the radio (a jazz influence was present throughout all their work however, which is likely why Miller used the dance terms "jump" and "jive" to describe the flavour of Oingo Boingo's brand of ska.) The ska aspect of their work was deemphasized by their label at the time, as they decided (probably correctly) that new wave was a more commercially viable direction, but every Oingo Boingo album has at least one or two ska songs on it, and there's a pile of leaked ska singles from their earliest days that the record label suppressed.

It is true that Oingo Boingo was primarily a new wave band (thanks to the label.) However, it's not uncommon to list additional genres in the info-box if a band played an additional genre often enough in addition to their primarily genre. Ska was a consistent element of Oingo Boingo's music throughout their entire career, and the same can't be said of the various other genres they dabbled in, with the possible exception of jazz. Listening them as primarily a new wave band, while also putting ska in the info box is no different than labelling U2 as primarily a rock band, while also including post-punk in the info box. 142.55.48.52 (talk) 00:16, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

I would be more convinced if you were citing the weight of multiple sources. I completely agree that ska was an influential part of the Boingo formula, but it's not what I found in the sources, not as strongly as new wave. Note that album and song genres are not necessarily the same as each other, and not necessarily the same as band genres. The sources you find should be describing the band itself. Binksternet (talk) 01:35, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

As far as I know, we only need one reliable source, and I found one in that Miller book. It clearly describes Oingo Boingo as a jazzy ska band. I agree new wave should remain the primary genre, as it's mentioned more frequently and given more weight. However, ska is consistently mentioned in a secondary capacity and as such, should remain. If it helps, why not also add jazz (perhaps with "early" in brackets,) to the info box? It was just as important an influence to Oingo Boingo as ska, and is cited just as frequently. We could add world music as well for the same reasons. Then it won't read like we're favouring ska in particular. 142.55.48.52 (talk) 02:05, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Let's settle for "new wave, ska" in the infobox. Ska is enough of an influence, though nobody describes the band as purely a ska band. I have not seen people calling the band "jazz" in reviews. Same with other possibilities such as ska punk, punk rock or straight rock. "Eclectic" is the working idea. Binksternet (talk) 19:47, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Fair enough, although I will point out that from the beginning, neither the article, nor anyone on the talk page has ever tried to claim Oingo Boing was a "pure ska band." Just that they were a new wave band who dabbled in many other genres, most notably ska. 142.55.48.37 (talk) 21:56, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

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