Non-Human Music, Part 1: Animal Bands (Episode 97)

Animals and robots might seem like strange bedfellows for rock
albums, but once you know what you’re looking for, they are hard to
miss. There are hundreds of examples of bands who have piped in
animal noises for any number of reasons: to provide atmosphere, as
a story-song plot device, just to add some insanity, or possibly
even something unseemly. Think of all the new-age fodder that
relies on birdsongs, crickets, frogs, and tortured pig wails. Hasil
Adkins, Lux Interior, Ray Stevens, and Raffi would all be out of
work if they couldn’t sing animal noises - and were still
alive. And of course, artist as robot is almost commonplace
now, what with the non-humanoid success of acts like Kraftwerk,
Devo, Man or Astroman, Servotron, Daft Punk, and Michael McDonald.
Fauna and automatons in popular music surround us like we’re all
riding our Tron motorcycles to Coachella during some
post-apocalyptic doomscape.  But what lies beyond this casual
relationship? What happens when bands relinquish some control of
their aesthetic sound to orangutans and toasters or dugongs and
doomsday devices? Are we breaking new ground or just finding yet
another source of novelty? Or both. Over two episodes we will
explore the merger of non-human caterwauling and popular music. How
much of this is simply a gimmick and how much is a sincere
exploration of music outside the influence of mankind? We will be
returning to this topic in a later episode, where we tackle robot
musicians, from player pianos to Terminators. But today, we will
devolve to dance among the beasts.  So, tell Marlin Perkins to
dust off that keytar, St Francis to open the cages, and David
Attenborough to tickle himself some ivories. Get ready for
thrillin’ reptilian. Amplified amphibians. Ambles of Mammals. When
this ark gets to rockin’, be wary of knockin’. This petting zoo is
going to get heavy. Today, non-human bands, part 1: the animal
kingdom.  Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon
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