BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Bronco
D’Chanel of The Trilambs performs Wednesday at the Whiskey
while being undressed by two other members of the group,
Booby Grande (left) and Booby
Paquito.
By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Senior Staff Who is the joke on? There is a sense that
the real joke that drives The Trilambs is seeing just how many
people the band can get singing its absurd lyrics and how many
newspaper articles it can get written about them. But that’s
OK, because it’s funny. Armed with its new 18-track album,
“It Wasn’t Not Funny,” a famous quote taken from
a “Real World” episode, The Trilambs brings ridiculous
rap lyrics and ideas, sampling corny music and singing like a bunch
of drunken karaoke bar patrons “¦ but somehow it works. Weird
Al, meet absolutely no taste. Songs like “Nobody Likes
You,” a parody of U2’s “With or Without
You,” are directly linked to the cheesy parody genre. But The
Trilambs also shocks with lyrics about homosexuals, girls in comas
and quadriplegics. Led by “rap pioneers” Soon Hey and
Matty Boom and featuring a rotating door of other performers, The
Trilambs brings a sense of drama, irony and utter mockery to the
world of rap. Everything about The Trilambs ““ from their name
to their lyrics to the backup singers (bearing such flattering
monikers as Booby Grande and Booby Paquito) – is tongue-in-cheek.
Soon Hey dispelled and created more myths about the band in a phone
interview, displaying that he is always in character. Or is it
really not a character? Whatever the case may be, the conversation
wasn’t not funny.
Daily Bruin: You are related to Quincy Jones? Soon Hey: No, no,
no. There is weird press that flies around about that.
Oh, because your bio says that you are his grandson. Some people
say that I am Quincy Jones’ mother. And then they say that Ry
Cooder’s brother is in the band. There is a bunch of weird
shit like that.
But none of it is true ““ no famous relations? No. Well,
um, my father though is famous.
Who is your father? My father was the guy on that ““ you
know, it’s been a lot for me to live under; it’s been
hard for me ““ but he was the guy on that surf song, when he
says “HHAAAA, wipeout!” That guy.
That was your father? Yeah. Not that band ““ he was just
the guy that did the voice-over.
Do people recognize you for that? Oh yeah. I mean when I first
moved out here and started getting work, people were like,
“Do the “˜Wipeout’ thing.” It’s hard.
I’ve been trying to get away from it my whole life.
Yeah, I can imagine that would be hard. How do you guys choose
the songs to use, the songs that you… Destroy! Um “¦ well,
it started off with just which ones we really could not get. Like
songs that are not cool to sample for “cool” reasons
and then things that are not cool to sample for legal reasons. The
combination of what is the worst for that.
And then you guys pick those songs. Yeah “¦ so, like,
it’s not cool to sample Simon and Garfunkel and they
won’t let you ““ so that’s a good one. If they
would let you, then we wouldn’t do it and if it was real
“cool,” then we wouldn’t do it.
How do you get around the legal issues? Well, we live in fear
and we sleep night-to-night. I’m not listed in the phone
book.
So, that’s why you had to call me for this interview.
Yeah. Can’t let my number out.
A lot of people don’t get irony. Do you feel that you have
to confront that with what you do? People get it. I surprisingly
don’t have that many people getting mad about it.
When you guys are writing things do you ever think, “oh
man, nobody is going to get this?” We try hard as hell to get
things that people will not even think they could get. Rappers can
just make up words and declare them words. Like, “put the
trills on my gulley.” People think they know what that
means.
Does it mean anything? I don’t know.
So in your song “Smoove Jams” ““ what the hell
is “a chicken ain’t nothing but dogs with teeth?”
It’s just the truth baby. And horses ain’t nothing but
depressed bears.
Ain’t that the truth”¦ what? I mean do you think that
we sat down waiting for someone to get that?
But it is funny nonetheless. For us.
So do you guys think that you are kind of the Andy Kaufman of
hip-hop? I wouldn’t go that far.
But you are doing it for yourselves and you don’t care if
people get it. Oh, we care. But people get what we get. We are
doing what we want and people like what we have been doing for just
us.
What do you hope for in the future with your band? A life of
obscurity. A little bit of press and stuff and then just disappear
and become a trivia question. A novelty band ““ one of the
great washed-up novelty bands. Like, the guy who did the
“Monster Mash.”
And the guy that did the voice for “Wipeout.” Yeah.
Actually, I don’t know what I want with The Trilambs.
But, I mean you are taking the time out of your afternoon to
call me and discuss your band, so obviously you aren’t really
after obscurity. That’s true”¦ oooooooooh, “tough
journalism””¦ Fine, I want to sell a lot of records.
Without selling-out to anybody? I will sell-out to anybody.