Great Groove
Quick-name a member of the Bran Van 3000 or LEN. It's OK, nobody can. People couldn't do it even if a member of those bands was actually named Bran Van or Len. The answer can only remain a big mystery on the same level as, say, trying to remember the names of whoever was in Sneaker Pimps.
Let this be a perfectly good reason to see The Go! Team in concert. They certainly weren't the first band to combine catchy '70s rock with snide hip-hop and bizarre pop moments, and won't be the last. The Go! Team, however, will almost certainly be the kind of great band that quickly disappears into the ether as a studio project that was briefly too huge to be contained-much like those racists in Ram Jam.
It would be a perfectly safe guess that Thunder, Lightning, Strike was originally a demo tape to show off someone's arrangement skills. That doesn't make the album any less important. The Go! Team has only been rivaled by Sparks' Lil' Beethoven in finding the funk among repetitive lyrics and uncool musical beddings. The two bands also share a pretty fearless attitude towards being annoying.
A lowlife exuberance makes The Go! Team sound like their idea of nightlife comes from the sickly blue glow of a TV at 3 a.m. There's an instrumental overload (sadly, tough to match in the live show) that pretty much celebrates every dated musical touch in the televised pop catalogue. The sound is ultimately modern swing music for people who weren't in the school band and don't want to dress up in their grandfather's clothes.
Still, it's not a good emotional investment to expect much from The Go! Team's future. The hard truth is that whoever's in charge-give me time, I'll remember his name-is probably already bummed out that he's stuck on the road with what should've been a clever studio party.
This current tour, incidentally, isn't in support of anything more than random EPs with a smattering of new songs. (Also, like every touring band this week, they're on their way to Austin for SXSW.)
That makes for a career move worthy of the Utah Saints-especially considering that Thunder, Lightning, Strike was first released overseas back in 2004. At least this show will let tired rock critics once again invoke Toni Basil for a clever cheerleader reference. I'd go with Rick James and Ann-Margret, but you've probably already forgotten which band I'm writing about.