By Tim Pratt
Send in the clowns.
Mindless Self Indulgence, those wacky freaks from New York, are stirring up all sorts of trouble with their major-label debut, "Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy."
And how are they causing trouble? Oh, the usual mischief: Acting like fools by running around the stage doing flips, cartwheels and other exercises. Running into the audience, drinking someone's beer and then sprinting back to the stage. Hurling potentially offensive phrases at the fans. Wearing big signs on their backs emblazoned with such inciting words as "Faget" (also the name of one of their songs) and "Fake." And oh, yeah, singing and playing short, bizarro tunes influenced by equal parts hip-hop, punk, metal and electronic music. The band seem to like the term "industrial jungle pussy punk," so who are we to quibble?
Mindless Self Indulgence is composed of Stephen Wright ("Steve, Right?") on guitar; Vanessa Y.T. on bass; Kitty on drums; and James Euringer ("Little Jimmy Urine") as the unstoppable, outlandish lead vocalist and principle songwriter. When these four characters take the stage, you either get the joke or you don't.
Most don't, which is just fine with the band. They're eager to push your buttons, as well as find some new buttons you didn't even know you had. Essentially, the band is vehicle for Urine's faux delirium - a chance to express examples of deranged lunacy in a predictable music world.
The group's songs are just as frenetic as you might think, a mishmash of nonstop time changes, tight-fisted drumming, pre-programmed beats, nifty new-wave electronic textures, Atari-style computer sounds, buzzsaw guitar riffs and percolating bass. Then there's Urine's vocal rants, which vary wildly, from a high-pitched soprano to a guttural scream.
Formed just a few years ago by Jimmy Urine, the group released their debut EP, "Tight,in early '99 on their own independent label, Uppity Cracker. "Tight" got the rocks rolling for Mindless Self Indulgence thanks to such twisted tracks as "Bring The Pain" (a cover of the Method Man song) and "Pussy All Night" (which swerved from gabber beats to a dreamy falsetto breakdown).
No, your mom and dad probably wouldn't appreciate the lyrics Urine spews out, and maybe that's part of the point: Mindless Self Indulgence set out to create a reaction. The group's devil-may-care attitude has helped them score a string of high-profile opening gigs for such bands as Rammstein, Insane Clown Posse, Korn, Stained and the hardcore supergroup Punk Rock Karaoke.
On "Frankenstein," Urine lets the slurs fly, ripping on legendary guitarist Jimmy Page with the hilarious lyrics "I hate Jimmy Page / Get that 'faget' off the stage / Fight the future and fuck the past / That old shit will never last." He pokes fun at the braggadocio of rappers ("Bitches") and everyday idiots ("Cocaine and Toupees") alike.
Despite all of the antics, though, Urine and his bandmates are surprisingly down to earth and intelligent. See, people forget that this is the entertainment business. And love them or hate them, Mindless Self Indulgence definitely know how to entertain.
-Are you happy "Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy" was finally released?
Jimmy Urine: We wanted to release it last September. We had rushed to get it done and we had gone out on all of those tours, like with Rammstein and I[nsane] C[lown] P[osse]. The labels sent out promo copies of it last fall and it was reviewed in a few magazines, but then Elektra decided to hold off till February.
-So what's up with the new album?
It's 30 tracks, all in alphabetical order. I had a lot of material, a lot of short songs, and I was like, "Fuck extending all this shit."
-Did Elektra give you any shit about some of the language on the album?
Some of the promos were bleeped, though not all of them, and certain people were doing their own edits - I heard a version of "Bitches" on a major radio station that was pretty funny. But it's not like a huge fight for me. It'd bother me more if the record company said something. That's the way the world is. I simply happen to curse a lot. I was one of those kids that when I said "Fuck it" or something, Mom and Dad didn't give me a backhand. It's not that big of a problem to me.
-What was it like going out with ICP?
Contrary to what you might believe, they're really nice guys. They know what they're doing and don't take it seriously. They're not out there saying, "We're the greatest rappers that ever existed." Coal Chamber was also on the bill, and people didn't know we were playing, so we would open up and we got the basic "you hate us or you love us." If you're not ICP, they're throwing shit at you. Hell, we made tons of money each night just from people throwing stuff at us, like seriously $30 in change. I still have jars of it. People would throw perfectly good sneakers at us. Once we got off the ICP tour, we had lots of emails saying they had never seen anything like us before.
-Tell me about you getting busted in Detroit.
I got arrested at Cobo Arena on the ICP tour. Of all the people on that tour, I get busted for whipping out my cock and lighting myself on fire. I spent the weekend in jail, actually. They didn't even give me a phone call. And I still had my whole pink outfit and dress on in jail. It was fun.
-How has success been treating you?
It's getting a little scary. I'm a fraud, though, so it's easy. I'm lucky music is so boring right now. Deep down inside, I think this is a no-brainer - I don't think I should be where I'm at right now. But people still want to do that rap-metal thing, which I don't understand. Kool Keith is the only person I would consider a good rapper right now. The problem with rap is you rarely find a whole album that's good. But there's nothing really interesting going on right now. I think I came out with a good record, but it ain't a movement. Everything's been boring and I would assume I'm not the only m.f. who thinks so. I hate Limp Bizkit. And what's with this Staind band? "I'm a poor metal boy who has feelings, but I'm going to be so angry." I really hate it if you're going to be angry and cry - listen to some emo! Why would people even buy that? It's the Alice In Chains thing all over again.
-How did you come up with the album title?
The title of the record is off the cuff. I like things to be non sequitur. It's not like I have a big message behind what I say - anything I say is obviously for a reason,and that's it. Like "I Hate Jimmy Page" - I do hate Jimmy Page, but the rest of it is all non sequitur stuff.
-What's the songwriting and recording process like?
I do the majority of writing and knock it out pretty damn quick. I split it up like we do live, recording a lot of the live instruments and then combining the live stuff with all the electronics. I lay down just the basic song on a two-track and we then we'll play along with it as a band. I was part of the producing team, along with The James Sisters, so I know exactly how I want it to sound. We had a few other people in the studio with us, like [Beastie Boys producer] Mario Caldato, but his complaint about me was that I didn't really need anyone else anyway.
-You had something like 20 labels wanting to sign you, but originally, you were with independent label Roadrunner Records. What happened?
We had this whole deal with Roadrunner, but at the last minute the label head says, "I don't think we can release it." They got scared of it. People are freaky and weird in the music business. The staff was behind us, too. We just ended up releasing "Tight" ourselves on Uppity Cracker.
-You have to understand that some people aren't ever going to understand your lyrics, even in New York.
This whole thing is to entertain myself. You say you like it? OK, I'll do more. I don't care if anybody buys this record. If people end up liking what I do, I'd still write like a stupid idiot. Everybody thinks New York has this great, eclectic music scene but most bands here play straight-ahead boring rock 'n roll. People are jaded and distracted here. When we started out, nobody wanted us: We couldn't play with the punks - they didn't like us; couldn't do the rap shows; couldn't play with the dance kids; and we don't really fit in with the industrial and goth kids. But then we played outside the city and it was great - so different. Personally, I like it when nobody likes (our music) because then I'm just entertaining myself. It takes a lot of work to jump around like a fucking idiot.