Teddybears – Fun/Not Fun

Teddybears aren’t as much a band as they are a production team that’s dabbled in everything from grindcore to commercial advertising. They show up wearing large bear masks on their heads, which look crazy and hilarious. They collaborate with some of my favorite people (on this new elpee, Devil’s Music, The Flaming Lips do a cameo, as does the fantastically lovely Eve) and make music that absolutely causes wildly positive neural reactions in young adults, no joking. They study that stuff at Emory University, and Teddybears, just like the goddamned Black Eyed Peas, seem to be privy to the data.

That’s the problem.

Every minute of Devil’s Music sounds as if it’s been crafted for the sole purpose of unit shifting — and it’ll work on most people. If I’m in a bar and ANYTHING Black Eyed Peas comes up on the jukebox, the entire bar will break out in “WHOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!”… and I’ll stick a gun in my mouth. That’s my problem though, and that’s why I cannot bring myself to fully hate this elpee. I have an irritating admiration for people who solve the pop music puzzle of success.

The Flaming Lips collaboration, a track titled “Chrystal Meth Christian” (hawhaw GET IT?) is merely ok, all buzzy with electronic hoohah and nothing The Lips couldn’t pull off themselves on their worst day. Eve works it out on “Rocket Scientist,” but the track is to too cute for its own good, as is “Cho Cha,” featuring Cee-Lo Green and The B-52’s. It’s a song about a cat. Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson (presumably) drop in a strategically placed “meow” several times. It’s good and terrible all at the same time.

So here it is: if you like what you hear on pop radio, you totally need this — Devil’s Music is loaded with music that is specifically designed to entertain. You may have heard some of it on the radio already, I dunno. If yer NOT into pop radio, all the giant bear heads and Lips appearances won’t change anything.