August 3rd, 2009
Sparks – Something For The Girl With Everything
This band consists of two brothers, from what I understand. Precursors to They Might Be Giants and Ween. I have no idea when this video was shot, but it seems to be from the ’70s. Notice the contrast between the stage performance of the vocalist and the keyboardist. One is extremely into the music, dancing around. The other is just absurdly awkward, tensely sitting upright. This is hilarious to me. And I really like the composition. You can read more about them on the Sparks Wikipedia Page.
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So, according to my dad who was a big fan of theirs in the 70s and 80s: the two brothers have a schtick in which Ronald (the keyboard player) hates his brother Russ (the singer) for being more attractive and a better frontman. Thus, he writes songs in very high registers to make his brother look effeminate on stage and to have a harder time performing it correctly.
They have been touring recently playing through every one of their ~30 albums straight through. I’d love to go see them. They’re foundational in the formation of electronic music.
Great band.
“Brothers Ron and Russell Mael grew up in Pacific Palisades…”
I know Carl King knows the Palisades.