The Brainless Wonders - Plloyd Lumpstead

I forget if it was my junior or my senior year. I was attending a show at the Worcester Art Gallery, a somewhat hodgepodge affair as such places will be in Worcester. As the name implies it was an art gallery that let musicians use the space for shows whenever someone got around to making it happen. There was no PA, but the space was so small it hardly mattered. If your amp was half decent people would hear you.

My friend and I showed up on time and proceeded to wait around in this industrial area for 20 minutes for someone to find the key and open the place up. Also there were some local kids who looked like they probably weren’t even in high school. One of them had a broken leg, was clearly hyperactive, and the type of person the others would dare to do stupid things for their amusement.

They proceeded to pry up a sidewalk grate and dare him to jump down. He looked at them. They looked at him. He looked at them holding the grate up, and not placing it on the ground. We all knew if he jumped down they would close it on him. He shrugged, jumped down, and they closed the grate. He stayed down for 15 minutes or so. every few minutes he would say "so, can I come up yet?" Good times.

One inside we found a small room with art on the walls and in the middle of the floor. The exhibit on that day had some kind of media theme because everything involved tvs and cameras. The piece in the middle of the floor was a woman made of tvs, with a tripod above her holding a camera that projected video of the tvs onto the screens. As the first ones in, my friend and I naturally gravitated to this piece as it was in the middle of the floor.

We walked up to it, followed by the kid with the broken leg and one of his friends, united in trying to decipher what the fuck the artist was thinking. Already being an over-educated intellectual elitist, I proceeded to contemplate how the media portrays us as we attempt to imitate media; the role of the feminine in wider culture; whether my assumption that the arranged tvs were depicting a woman was not itself a bold assumption given the lack of details. Then the kid with the broken leg leaned over to his friend.

“Dude, its your mom.”

“fuck you that’s your mom.”

I cracked up.

That show was my first time seeing the Brainless Wonders. they were opening tor another well regarded Worcester staple, the Numbskulls, which many were busy calling the second coming of the Queers at the time.I always liked the Brainless Wonders more. Their music was more effortless and fun. None of those kids were in the band, but their exploits pretty well summed up the show, complete with the kid with the broken leg disinterestedly perusing a girlie mag during the Numbskulls set.

For a variety of reasons I have not listened to this album in a number of years. One of the big ones is the jewel case has no labels on the sides, so I never notice it in my cd collection. The Worcester music scene can also be very incestuous, and some of the band's fellow travelers are less than savory. It should also be noted that I have cooled quite a bit on pop punk in the years since 2004, and this album is as pop punk as they come. With all that noted, I really was not sure if I wanted to keep this album. I was ready for a very painful experience. In many respects the album is all I feared. It is a pop punk album with songs about how all the adults in the singer's his life are alcoholic and lazy, and how he likes to drink and drive, and how there are a number of people he dislikes. and its...a lot of fun. Ramones preserve us. 

 The music is pretty much what you would expect: three chords, fast, basic blues rhythms. On the other hand it is not boring, and at least avoids the song structure that every pop punk band from the late 90s used over and over. Definitely more Ramones than Blink 182. The lyrics are not high poetry, but they are well constructed, avoid all but the most broad clichés, flow well, and are right for the music.Stupid and juvenile maybe, but really fucking fun nonetheless.

The album is probably hard to find. The band is still together but I can't tell how often they play. The fact that the image on the cover of the album is still plastered across their web zones indicates a certain malaise in the band, but I suppose I shouldn't be throwing rocks in the malaise department. Whatever the band's story is, this a fun album. I'd pay a couple bucks for it. Its not gonna change your life but its some good fun. Empty calories maybe, but fun.