Oingo Boingo/Danny Elfman CD reissues now open for pre-order

[Rubellan]

Now available for pre-order, the next three CD's in the Oingo Boingo/Danny Elfman reissue series. The CD's will only be available in a bundle of all three titles during the pre-order period but will be available individually for those only wanting one or two of the titles on the release date, which is Friday, November 18:
https://www.rubellanremasters.com/online-store

[jaybag]

Oooh was I the first to order this?? Very much looking forward to yet another great RR package. Thanks for all you do Scott!

[Glenn]

Ordered. Really excited about these Scott. Curious how you decide what to include and not include as I know there are time constraints. For example, including the Weird Science mix vs the Pain Dub version on Boi-Ngo. Also the decisions on which versions of Out of Control and Flesh and Blood for Dark at the End of the Tunnel. These releases are very welcomed. Thank you!

[Surly]

Ordered, and anxiously awaiting their arrival in my mailbox!

[Rubellan]

Ordered. Really excited about these Scott. Curious how you decide what to include and not include as I know there are time constraints. For example, including the Weird Science mix vs the Pain Dub version on Boi-Ngo. Also the decisions on which versions of Out of Control and Flesh and Blood for Dark at the End of the Tunnel. These releases are very welcomed. Thank you!

I included the Weird Science mix for a couple of reasons. Several people asked why I didn't include it on the DMP reissue from last year, and the answer is because there was no room, so I squeezed it in here. The other reason is the later catalog likely won't have as robust sales as the early catalog and adding a rare mix of one of their best known songs is sales incentive for a more casual fan that may be on the fence about getting this album. I felt a rare mix of a semi-hit single would be more beneficial to the release than a dub mix of a song already included in three versions on the CD.

Regarding Dark At The End Of The Tunnel, it was more about covering the basics. Flesh extended had never been released on CD so that was obvious to me. There was never going to be room for all 6 mixes of Out Of Control so I left it at 2 and added the soundtrack version of Try To Believe to add more variety to the bonus tracks. Aside from two album outtakes that I was not allowed to add, there wasn't much else.

[ABOATES]

Hey Scott...just out of curiosity, which album is your favorite of this batch of releases? I guess also, what is your overall fave Oingo Boingo album in general? Mine is Good for Your Soul. Thanks.

[Rubellan]

Hey Scott...just out of curiosity, which album is your favorite of this batch of releases? I guess also, what is your overall fave Oingo Boingo album in general? Mine is Good for Your Soul. Thanks.

That's tough on all accounts. From this latest batch, I think Tunnel may be my favorite. I know people love So-Lo, and it does have a handful of essential tunes, but about half is just OK to me. Elfman seems to get pretty funky on this one, and that's rarely my thing.

Boi-Ngo has some weak songs, Where Do All My Friends Go is a bit maddening with the repetition, My Life sounds like a bland Tears For Fears outtake. I think the album would have been stronger with some of the outtakes from the reel I got to access for Mama. Elfman seemed to struggle with this album. Someone told me recently they have an old article where Elfman stated the album would be out summer '86, but it didn't happen until 87. Two songs used were outtakes from the Dead Man's Party sessions, so I suspect those took the place of a couple of the outtakes Elfman apparently wasn't satisfied with. Still, I rank Home Again as top tier, Pain has a Devo feel, Not My Slave and New Generation (both are the DMP outtakes) are good as well.

Even though Tunnel has a handful of songs that don't work for me, (Out Of Control is my least favorite Boingo song of the albums I've reissued, while Flesh and Believe are also not near my fave list), tracks like When The Lights Go Out, Run Away, Is This, and pretty much everything else on the album really grew on me in a big way. Certainly not the Boingo of the early days but good stuff nonetheless.

As far as favorite albums, that's tough as well. I can listen to Lad from back to front. Fear has a few songs that don't work for me (Islands, Whole Day Off, Running On A Treadmill), but most of the others are rock solid and bring it towards the top of my list. Soul is somewhat spotty for me. The ska of Fill The Void bores me, Cry Of The Vatos is filler, but most of the others are really good. Wake Up (It's 1984) is super dated, lyrically and musically, though.

Dead Man's Party, aside from Fool's Paradise and to an extent Weird Science, is also very solid and could be tied with Fear as my favorite. I'll never be one of those fanboys you see online who state "I love everything they do", I find those kinds of comments very insincere because no one likes everything someone does. But I'm happy to give credit where it's due. It's a strong catalog.

[ABOATES]

Thanks for the detailed response. I agree w many of your points about individual tracks on certain albums for sure. In particular the "Out of Control" track which I also do not like at all and did not like when it came out. To me it seemed like an MTV/radio friendly grab. Hence I never gave that album a true chance.
One of my fave things about Elfman's lyrics is how he often pretends to be a certain character and then writes the song from their perspective to make a point. Nothing Bad Ever Happens, Private Life, Little Girls, On the Outisde...etc.

[ABOATES]

Is it me, or is Boi-ngo a tad bass shy? I've always thought so and your reissue still confirms it. Don't get me wrong, I think your CD sounds great...much more detailed and the soundstage is certainly wider, but I still feel like the overall mix is rather thin. What are your thoughts?

[Funeral Pyre]

Wasn't there a 7" version of "Not My Slave"?

[oldnewwaver]

great topic and was a hardcore Oingo Boingo fan for many years in the 80's (saw them over 20 times!)

In regards to their music and records, I think after the So-Lo record, their was a transition in their sound, It became more slick and polished, and it may have been from the new label from A & M to MCA, that could have been a factor to make them to create a more pop-oriented sound.
Still a huge fan of their first 3 releases (Only a Lad, Nothing to Fear and Good for Your Soul) and one of their best songs, Good Bye, Good Bye from that same period.
It seemed to me that they took more chances creatively than later efforts, which were hit and miss for me,
Dead Man's Party and Boi-ngo did contain many elements of their previous records in their sounds, but I think when Danny Elfman did his solo record and started composing film music, they turned a corner so to speak after 1984. I was not a fan of their work afterwards, especially of their last record (Boingo) which was really hard to listen to and was more post-grunge than new wave.
My only gripe with their catalog was the "Boingo Live" record which was live in the studio,rather than a true live in concert, which would have been awesome since they were at their peak so to speak when that record was released in 1988.
But there music to me was always best live than on record, sine they were one of the great local bands in the SoCal area and an integral part of my teen years and on KROQ back in the day.

[Glenn]

I included the Weird Science mix for a couple of reasons. Several people asked why I didn't include it on the DMP reissue from last year, and the answer is because there was no room, so I squeezed it in here. The other reason is the later catalog likely won't have as robust sales as the early catalog and adding a rare mix of one of their best known songs is sales incentive for a more casual fan that may be on the fence about getting this album. I felt a rare mix of a semi-hit single would be more beneficial to the release than a dub mix of a song already included in three versions on the CD.

Regarding Dark At The End Of The Tunnel, it was more about covering the basics. Flesh extended had never been released on CD so that was obvious to me. There was never going to be room for all 6 mixes of Out Of Control so I left it at 2 and added the soundtrack version of Try To Believe to add more variety to the bonus tracks. Aside from two album outtakes that I was not allowed to add, there wasn't much else.

Appreciate the response Scott. Agree the Weird Science mix has more commercial appeal than the Pain Dub. Re Dark at the End of the Tunnel, was great to get the Try to Believe version. Thanks again for all of your efforts on all of the Boingo reissues. Never thought they would be reissued after hearing an Elfman interview where he said there was no need to remaster the back catalog.

[Surly]

My only gripe with their catalog was the "Boingo Live" record which was live in the studio,rather than a true live in concert, which would have been awesome since they were at their peak so to speak when that record was released in 1988.
But there music to me was always best live than on record, sine they were one of the great local bands in the SoCal area and an integral part of my teen years and on KROQ back in the day.

I don't know if I am correct about this, but my belief is this album was written into their contract so that MCA could own versions of their A&M-era songs and not have to license those original A&M songs for compilations. I say this because MCA did this to The Fixx - Shuttered Room is owned by the band, so MCA's contract called for a live album that included at least 1 re-recorded song ("Red Skies") and performances of songs from SR. It wasn't clear to the band at the time, which is what caused tensions after the fact between band and label. This is why their 1989 best-of doesn't contain original versions of songs from the first album. With the songs used from the React album, it meant they didn't have to license tracks from the band for that compilation.

Of course, Universal eventually bought PolyGram which meant that MCA and A&M ended up under the same umbrella. Still, the Millennium Collection from the '00s only includes MCA-owned tracks. It was only the Hip-O reissue label that would do a proper compilation with original tracks from both label eras.

[Rubellan]

Is it me, or is Boi-ngo a tad bass shy? I've always thought so and your reissue still confirms it. Don't get me wrong, I think your CD sounds great...much more detailed and the soundstage is certainly wider, but I still feel like the overall mix is rather thin. What are your thoughts?

There was definitely bass added. Home Again and Elevator Man make my walls shake. Bass is an area I always try to balance in these old recordings where they are often lower in bass than more modern music. Although, I do it with caution because some modern music overloads the bass and causes too much of a distraction. I think Boi-Ngo has a better balance of bass than Tunnel, even with the tweaks I've made.

[Rubellan]

great topic and was a hardcore Oingo Boingo fan for many years in the 80's (saw them over 20 times!)

In regards to their music and records, I think after the So-Lo record, their was a transition in their sound, It became more slick and polished, and it may have been from the new label from A & M to MCA, that could have been a factor to make them to create a more pop-oriented sound.
Still a huge fan of their first 3 releases (Only a Lad, Nothing to Fear and Good for Your Soul) and one of their best songs, Good Bye, Good Bye from that same period.
It seemed to me that they took more chances creatively than later efforts, which were hit and miss for me,
Dead Man's Party and Boi-ngo did contain many elements of their previous records in their sounds, but I think when Danny Elfman did his solo record and started composing film music, they turned a corner so to speak after 1984. I was not a fan of their work afterwards, especially of their last record (Boingo) which was really hard to listen to and was more post-grunge than new wave.
My only gripe with their catalog was the "Boingo Live" record which was live in the studio,rather than a true live in concert, which would have been awesome since they were at their peak so to speak when that record was released in 1988.
But there music to me was always best live than on record, sine they were one of the great local bands in the SoCal area and an integral part of my teen years and on KROQ back in the day.

From what I recall reading, Elfman allegedly became annoyed with A&M feeling their lack of commercial success fell on the label's poor promotion, and that's why he pushed to be released from the contract. On MCA, Boingo did change but the contradiction in Elfman's motivation is that Weird Science became their biggest commercial hit and then he quickly dismissed it and hasn't had much good to say about it since.

It doesn't take much to understand why the earlier albums didn't break, they were wacky and weird, and not at all in line with the REO Speedwagon or Journey "hits" that were saturating at the time. Not to mention a band named Oingo Boingo isn't going to easily roll off the tongues of the standard teens of the day. If Sparks had to change their name from Halfnelson because it was deemed too weird, that's nothing compared to a band named Oingo Boingo.

There's absolutely nothing commercial about those first three albums, and I don't doubt that's why they remain among the band's biggest and best loved albums. Even though it may seem that Elfman was trying to be more commercial with the later albums, I don't think he's actually made up of an ability to be commercial, he's far too unique, eccentric and interesting.

Regarding that 94 album, I don't even consider it part of the catalog. And it's maddening that I cannot post a thing on Facebook about the band without someone asking "What about a reissue of the 94 album?" Besides being owned by another label, being their lowest selling album, and having answered the question about the album countless times, I personally don't care for the attempt to be relevant in the Grunge era. I've gotten to the point that if I post something and someone asks about that album, I remove the comment. The question has been asked and answered so many times, it only takes a couple of minutes perusing my previous posts and comments to find the answer.

The Alive album, it seems, was Elfman's passion project. He wanted the ability to license the songs out, he reached the five year limit to where he was now able to re-record the material, and he felt the band live was far better than any studio recording. As a fan, I tend to disagree. While some of the renditions on Alive are pretty decent, none of them surpass the studio versions, in my opinion. Some songs are frankly ruined, such as Private Life. But he wanted a 'live' album without an audience, and in a podcast from last year he said Alive and Farewell are the only albums he can stand to listen to.