San Diego Reader

Fritz Jensen: Bass guitar, Vocals | Hans Jensen: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Vocals | Mike Crabb: Guitar (electric)

Genre: Alternative, Metal | Hardcore, Rock

Sound description: "The Jesters of Rock" -- '70s hard rock with prop heavy multimedia stage show and comedic overtones.

RIYL: Primus, Ugly Kid Joe, Gwar, Kiss, Spinal Tap, Alice Bowie (from Cheech And Chong's Up in Smoke)

Upcoming Local Shows

No shows scheduled | Post a show | View show history

Song Downloads

• Liquor Store

Related Links

• Collage Menage website

• Blurt: "Pig Stickers" · Oct. 4, 2007

• Musician Interviews: "Elaborate Show" · Aug. 10, 2006

• Best of 2003: "Best First-Gig Bar" · Dec. 25, 2003

• MySpace page

Audio clips

Synoposis

Inception: San Diego, 1990

Ex-Band Members: Jay Little, Drums Jenene Lambert, Vocals Jason Cowles, Guitar (electric) Chris Frisbie, Drums

Influences: Van Halen, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Kiss, Spinal Tap, Cheech and Chong

Background:

Billing themselves as the "Jesters of Rock,” Collage Menage has gone through around two dozen members since forming in 1988, with identical twins Hans and Fritz Jensen as the sole constant core. “To fit in with this band, you definitely have to have a strong stage presence and be part of a whole elaborate show,” says bassist Fritz. “It’s like Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd [and] Kiss, but with a sense of humor. We dress up from head to toe, we have props, TV screens and videos we shoot for all our songs…sometimes we wear a different hat for every tune. It’s just as important to fit in visually as it is to fit in musically.”

“We build our stage sets and we make and hand-paint the costumes ourselves,” says singer Hans. “There’s a lot of cardboard, foam rubber, Elmer’s glue, spray paint, and duct tape…we’re going for an elaborate look with a very low-tech budget.”

Collage Menage has self-released three CDs.

They make their own stickers, which they affix all over town. "I put them on cigarette machines in bars and on public trash cans, video game consoles, power poles, places like that," says singer Hans Jensen. "Or someplace where somebody else has already stickered." The group gives out band stickers at their shows.

"[The band's original paper labels] were indestructible and would stick so hard that, to peel them up, you had to shred them with a razor," says Hans. "Then we'd get in trouble when some idiot would stick it on someone's Rolls-Royce."

Several years ago, according to Hans, somebody stuck one of the Collage Menage stickers on a prize-winning pig at the Del Mar Fair. "We were supposed to play there and didn't know anything about the sticker.... They banned us from ever appearing at the fair."

The stickers now passed out by the band are manufactured on easy-to-peel plastic. The most videogenic band in SD - http://www.youtube.com/user/collagemenage has a newly compiled collection of all 19 of their handmade MTV-quality videos.

Discography

Video