Crash Test Dummies are best known for their 1993 worldwide hit “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” yet the Canadian band put out six more albums after that before going on hiatus in 2005. CTD is back this week with Oooh La La (Deep Fried) but in a brand new incarnation. Mainman Brad Roberts (now based in New York City) wrote and recorded the album with producer and engineer Stewart Lerman (Antony And The Johnsons, Marshall Crenshaw, Roches) using ’70s musical toys such as the Optigan for the majority of the LP. (The two were joined on Oooh La La by longtime CTD backing vocalist Ellen Reid.) The result is the happiest-sounding record of Roberts’ two-decade career. Roberts will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.
Roberts: In America, the land of addictions, we are now faced with Internet addictions: online gaming, porn, even alternate lives. I heard a girl say the other day, “I can’t look at my Facebook today,” as though she was swearing off of drinking or trying to quit cocaine. South Park did a ripping good job, as they always do, dramatizing the phenomenon in a recent episode where Stan gets literally sucked into cyberspace. Many people get on the Internet to find out interesting facts. Google is great at parties; someone asks Hitler’s birthday, and voila, there it is on Wikipedia or 100 other sites. But when one starts to neglect work to surf on the net finding odd facts, then we find again that, yes, Houston, we have a problem. If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably asking yourself, “Why is this jackass, who hates wasted time on the Internet, blogging?” I’ll tell you why: Because it’s become music industry standard to keep a blog going. Everyone has them. And with a few exceptions, the drivel that appears on these things is very thin gruel indeed. So if you’re reading right now and you want to take action, get out of your chair, stretch your legs and get a breath of air, before you’re so far gone that you wake up one day in rehab, where there are no computers.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5-NuQClh7Q
