Crash Test Dummies are best known for their 1993 worldwide hit “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” yet the Canadian band put out six more albums after that before going on hiatus in 2005. CTD is back this week with Oooh La La (Deep Fried) but in a brand new incarnation. Mainman Brad Roberts (now based in New York City) wrote and recorded the album with producer and engineer Stewart Lerman (Antony And The Johnsons, Marshall Crenshaw, Roches) using ’70s musical toys such as the Optigan for the majority of the LP. (The two were joined on Oooh La La by longtime CTD backing vocalist Ellen Reid.) The result is the happiest-sounding record of Roberts’ two-decade career. Roberts will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.
Roberts: Who has mice now and then out there? I know I do. Right now, there is a critter scuttling around here somewhere. Looks like I’m gonna have to set traps before the babies start coming. I hate to hurt the little guys, but I’m not going to live with mouse feces. I like animals, but not that much. Farley Mowat, a writer from Canada, went up north and lived on mice until a local native found him and took him in. You can see it in the movie they made called Never Cry Wolf. I warmly recommend it. He’s a great children’s writer as well. I grew up reading stuff like Owls In The Family. Great book. I recommend that one, too. But, alas, I must sign off now and go a-huntin’ for meeses.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB3IQMZm7CQ