Voltaire – Ooky Spooky
Genre: Jazz, Gothic Cabaret
Year: 2007
Year I discovered it: 2007
It's hard for me to pick a favorite album by Aurelio Voltaire,
one of my favorite musicians. But if we're choosing one that changed my life in
some way, I would go with 2007's Ooky Spooky. This album isn’t even what
I would call my absolute favorite (that would probably be Raised by Bats), but it sent my musical tastes into a
shocking swerve for a while, into a genre I had never really given a chance to
before. That would be 1930’s jazz.
Perhaps I should explain how I became acquainted with Voltaire’s
music first. Back in late 2004, my best friend’s girlfriend burned him a CD of
Voltaire’s first album, The Devil’s Bris, and he let me borrow it. I was immediately drawn to his unique style. No other artist out there really sounds like Voltaire or compares to him. I was late in my metal period at this time, but I loved symphonic instrumentals that some metal bands put on their CD's, so it was a little like that for me. The songs "When You're Evil" and "The Headless Waltz" were my favorites, and I
recorded these and others onto a blank cassette because I didn’t have
a CD burner yet. His music is really something different, you kind of have to
hear it for yourself. Typically features violins, acoustic guitar and vocals,
sounds a bit like Gypsy music from the 1700’s (especially his older stuff).
Later on, he branched out into other genres. He pretty much does what he wants; which as I said when I was talking about Mortiis, is something I really admire
as an artist. He's done goth rock, he's even done country. Because why not? Now even though I began listening to his music through piracy, I
later paid for his music. In 2006 I started collecting all of his albums. I still have them, and have even had him sign a few of
them.
That brings us up to 2007. I was finishing up community college, and in the
middle of that transitional period I mentioned in my And One review where I
really didn’t know what I wanted to listen to yet. When Ooky Spooky came
out I bought it within a month of its release. Many of the songs are very
jazz-influenced, as opposed to most of Voltaire's previous work save for the song "Brains!". I saved the tear-off label from the back of the CD
which included a positive review and some words from Voltaire himself, where he
describes it as “a Halloween party in a jewel -box”. I can see that. He later
goes on to say he got his serious songs out of the way on his previous album Then
and Again (I love that album too) so that he could have all his fun songs
on this album. After listening to this album, I developed a new appreciation
for big band, 1930's music and started listening to Cab Calloway and others.
From there, although I always did like classic black and white films of that
era, I began exploring films I hadn’t watched before, from old Max Fleischer
cartoons to Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin. This album kicked off an
interesting phase in my early to mid-20's where I fell in love with the entire
time period of the 1920’s and 1930’s.
The
first track is a very jazzy opening titled “Land of the Dead”, apparently sung
from the point of view of either Satan or Hades depending on your
interpretation; or at least someone else who’s enough of a big shot to be able
to claim to be “the overlord of the underworld”. Could be Osiris or Anubis, but
I think they’re both more humble Gods than this really. The Armenian goddess of
the underworld Spandaramet is something altogether different as well. I feel
like just listening to this song is enough to boost one’s self-esteem, for some
reason. The egotism rubs off on the listener. It’s just a fun song to listen to
and I wish it were longer. There’s an animator I like on YouTube named Daria
Cohen who did a great animation to this song and one other song on this album,
which I’ll embed here for your enjoyment. “Like and subscribe” and all that.
Then we have “Zombie Prostitute”, a predictably naughty song
about soliciting the services of a zombified “lady of the night” in a cemetery.
Yes, I don’t personally identify with a lot of these songs like I have on other
albums I’ve discussed, just so you know. And this song is the other track on
this album that the talented Daria Cohen did a music video for. It’d be great
if she did one of these animations for every song on the album.
Now the next track, “Cannibal Buffet”, is one of the tracks that
really made me want to check out Big Band jazz music. The song is about someone
washing up on a distant shore, and being kidnapped and eaten by a tribe of
cannibals. Not the most politically correct song in the world, but catchy and
full of amusing puns. The review from the CD that I previously mentioned says
of it “Voltaire’s love for Cab Calloway is evident in the song “Cannibal Buffet”
(which seems to come straight from a Betty Boop cartoon)”. So, I had to find
out who Cab Calloway was. And when I did, I grew to love his music. “Minnie the
Moocher”, “St. James Infirmary”, “San Francisco Fan” all made their way onto my
mix CDs and tapes. From there I checked out other musicians of the era, like
Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and even more obscure and forgotten artists. Not
to mention I quickly binged on Betty Boop cartoons, moving onto Popeye and Koko
the Clown and others from Fleischer Studios. The TV channel Boomerang was still
showing classic cartoons at the time (sadly these days they rarely show anything
from before the 1990’s), and I had the wherewithal to record them onto blank VHS
tapes that I still have. This was slightly less of a bizarre act in the late
2000’s. There’s still never been a good DVD release of the old MGM cartoons of
Tex Avery but I have them saved on VHS. In all, Ooky Spooky ushered in a
kind of renaissance for me, really. I still like all of these things by the
way. Maybe by now I feel like I’ve heard all of the old jazz music I’ll ever
really like, but I still put it on when I’m in the mood.
I
suppose looking at the rest of the songs, as influential as this album was to
me, I’m only really into about five of the eleven songs. That’s why I wouldn’t
really call this my favorite Voltaire album, even though I do like it. The next
song is “Day of the Dead”, about a tourist who goes to Mexico on the Day of the
Dead and encounters some freaky stuff. It’s a fun song, very catchy. “Blue-Eyed Matador” is a nice song, but one I never really got into honestly. But it’s alright. “Bomb New Jersey” is a song I imagine was
very cathartic for Voltaire to write from what he’s revealed publicly about his
awful childhood in the state, but I’ve never actually been to New Jersey, I’ve
only heard stories about how sucky it apparently is. So, I don’t really have
anything specifically against New Jersey. If it wasn’t for the fact that I still
have friends living there maybe my version would be “Bomb Pleasant Hill”, the California
town that was the site of the awful and traumatizing middle and high school I
attended, with a sister city in Turkey just to add insult to injury. Just listen to that name “Pleasant Hill”, you know
it’s going to be a sickening suburb full of stuck-up snobs. Neighboring Walnut Creek
is even worse though. When it comes to Contra Costa County, Martinez and
Pacheco is where it’s at. 94553 for life. Anyway, back on topic.
Next
up is the humorous and very dirty song “Cantina”, which is about how the Cantina
on Tatooine in Star Wars is actually a gay bar, and hilariously raunchy things
happen there. It’s a funny song, but again, not one I’m particularly that into. I know this album changed my life and you’d think I would love every single track, but just like with Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Ministry’s With Sympathy, which both also changed my life in some way, it’s kind of hit-or-miss for me. “Stuck With you” is another funny song about a married couple that hate each
other and have visited various over-the-top horrors upon one another, only to learn to love
each other in the end after they die and are buried together. Aw, so romantic.
This one’s a duet with the lead singer of The Dresden Dolls. I’ve liked a few
of their songs. The song after this is “Dead”, which has overtones of survivor's guilt, as the singer wonders why others have died yet they have survived, and asks whether praying does any good in the end. They're interesting questions to think about; why wicked people sometimes have long lives and good people sometimes die young. Or perhaps someone who died young was more worthy of life than yourself, who outlived them. The way I rationalize it is that it's all random, the universe doesn't distinguish between good or evil. These concepts are human inventions. How else has so many awful deeds throughout history (like the Armenian genocide for example) gone completely unpunished? If karma does exist, I think negative karma only affects one if they have guilt; if they truly believe they did something bad. And vice versa with good karma. At age 33, I've lived longer than many people throughout history. Is it chance, or fate? I go back and forth on that. If you believe in the multiverse, as I do, then everything is chance and there's a universe for every single possibility, including an infinite number where I'm already dead, an infinite number where I survive to old age, and an infinite number where I was never born. But maybe fate exists too in some way. I don't know. It's another blog for another time.
“Reggae
Mortis” is one of my favorites on this album, for its catchy tune. It
doesn’t sound like reggae (which isn’t a genre I like), it’s actually another
jazzy track. I’ll sing along to this one when it plays. And finally, we have “Hell
in a Handbasket”, another of my favorites on this album which inspired me to
check out 1930’s music. I wouldn’t mind this song being played at my funeral,
really. In fact, I made a mix tape of songs to be played at my funeral once
(just for funsies) and this song was on it. I’m hesitant to get too deep into
religion on this blog and alienate my potential audience (*tumbleweed blows
by*), although I imagine with me it’s inevitably a topic that will come up,
as will politics, so let’s just do it. The last verse of this song describes my
feelings toward Christianity exactly. “Oh good Lord, I only wish you’d forgive,
the self-righteous who deceive; when your words they twist, we both know Hell
don’t exist, except in the minds of the poor fools who believe.” Hell was just
invented as a scare tactic to get pagans to convert. The Bible doesn’t even go
into that much detail about it from what I understand, the details were
provided by creative medieval priests for their "fire and brimstone" sermons, and Dante, who was basically writing a Bible fanfic.
Anyway,
Voltaire has had plenty of great albums since this one, and he also is very
entertaining to watch on YouTube. I’ve seen Voltaire in concert three times now
since I moved to Florida (the bands I like almost never come to the San Francisco
bay area!), the first time was at the Spooky Empire Horror Convention in
Orlando, and the other times were at the Pegasus Lounge in Tampa. I doubt he’d
remember little old me out of the thousands of people he's met, but I got to speak with him all three times, and take
pictures with him and get him to sign my CD’s. And also my sketchbook where I was
drawing my Loose-Headed Harry comic once. Here’s a picture of my copy of this
very album now:
For me! I of course had to spell my name and explain it to him, like I do everyone.
And here’s a picture of my wife and I posing with the man
himself. It’s always so cool meeting your heroes, I'm very privileged to have done so:
I know, there's some annoying guy photo-bombing in the background. And damn, I'm short.
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