Mindless Self Indulgence - if (2008)

Was it fate that drew me to MSI? I had never heard of this band when I got Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy delivered to my mailbox – and I hadn’t even ordered it (the fine folks from Columbia House record club occasionally like to just send out whatever the hell they feel like to see if you’ll pay for it). My initial reaction to that album wasn’t positive – I thought of the band as an amateurish effort at best. They didn’t take themselves seriously, the music was an odd mix of industrial strength dance-electronica, punk and hip-hop that only occasionally meshed properly, and the lyrics? I mean, lead singer Jimmy Urine’s most intelligent lyrics seemed to be about grabbing the microphone with his butt… Really?

So, some 7 years later, why would I subject myself to all those things willingly by listening to their newest debacle, if? As it turns out, all the things I previously mentioned make the band more fun to listen to than should be legal. Besides, no one finds MSI through the mainstream – their music isn’t exactly pop-radio accessible. Which just makes their popularity so much more impressive.

And if might be their best effort yet. It seemed like Frankenstein Girls (2000) was where the band really started finding their sound, but it was a giant collection (30 tracks) of really short songs and skits. The next studio release, You’ll Rebel To Anything (2005), gave us longer songs - but trimmed down to 10 tracks, it felt too short. And now in 2008, just like Goldilocks in some twisted porn version with her three bears, they got it “just right” – 15 songs, no filler.

So what makes if so great? To start, it’s got an infectious beat throughout that makes you want to move like there’s a rabid ferret in your pants. Couple that with lyrics that sound like what would happen if some crossbreed of a genius poet and a tweaked-out meth-head got hold of a mic, and you get the basic idea. While Jimmy Urine’s penchant for self-deprecation shows no signs of letting up - from tracks like “Prescription”, where he schizophrenically debates the need for drugs before going on stage, to “Get It Up”, where he just wants to make some babies but can’t (ahem) “perform” - we see how these maladjusted malcontents can make you want to laugh, cringe and dance at the same time.

But that’s not to say that it’s all crazy nonsense, either. As insane as most of this sounds, there’s some pretty crafty minds stringing it all together. “Mastermind”, for example, was the track that got “leaked” early on the internet, and seems to be the most radio friendly song on the CD – as much as something rhyming “Mastermind” with “Columbine” and “Suicide” could be, anyway. But one of my favorites is the final song on the disc, “Mark David Chapman”. I had to look the name up – he’s the man who killed John Lennon, which just makes the message more perfect. The song talks about the sea of identical bands that are out there right now, with their “Adolph fukin Hitler/ with this swoopy emo-boy dreamy haircut” looks. So, who could solve that problem? According to MSI, Mark Chapman. While I don’t condone wholesale slaughter, it would certainly free up some radio space – and if that’s the only way to get these guys airplay…

(Note - there are multiple covers for this album, the one pictured being from the deluxe version. All the artwork on this edition is by Jhonen Vasquez of Invader Zim and Johnny The Homicidal Maniac fame.)

For more info: http://www.mindlessselfindulgence.com/