Neon Neon

Neon Neon is a collaboration between Welsh Gruff Rhys (of super furry animals fame) and Ohioan Boom Bip, a fairly well known record producer. They released their first and only (ever) album in 2008 with some success. Going with the current "Back to the Future" theme that is developing on Dick Move in the back half of this week, their album "Stainless Style" is a concept album chronicling the life of automotive mogul John Delorean. I kid you not, the record is about John fucking Delorean.  Given the bands incredibly narrow scope they have publicly stated that this will be the only Neon Neon album, although the duo may collaborate together again under a different name.

To say that the record lacks a musical focus would be a huge understatement, as it bounces back and forth between new wave style throwback tracks and several different varieties of hip hop. I really like all of the new wavy stuff and can stomach most of the hip hop as well. I generally don't like modern rappers (but listen to NWA, Public Enemy, Kurtis Blow, etc frequently enough), but Neon Neon manages to even make a song featuring Har Mar Superstar (who I despise) tolerable enough.

Here's my favorite song on the album "I told her on Alderaan" which loosely uses Star Wars references to tell the story of Deloreans divorce following a hugely public drug scandal.  Gruff's voice on this one really reminds me of Colin from Men At Work, which makes me smile. Remember- some times a gear shift is just a gear shift :)




As a counterpoint to that, and to show the album's variety, here's one of the hip hop tracks, "Sweat Shop."



As a bonus, here's an a link to the official video for "I told her on Alderaan/Trick for Treat."  I didn't use the it above, as it cuts both songs off short to mash them together, but the video is well done enough to make it fun to watch.