Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects have described their music as “lowrider, Latin dub music,” but that doesn’t do justice to how mysterious it is. Trumpet and sax drift in and out of bass-heavy rhythms, while a distant voice sings things like “Jesus was king of the vatos.” A fuzztone guitar will play a nasty lick while a pretty keyboard trills along and the whole band shouts, “They want your money!” In the song “Tryin’,’” the horns are all but lost in echoes, while deep bass and drums lay out a dub reggae rhythm and a world-weary voice sings, “I been wonderin’ what happened to you.”

But the music is just the beginning of the enigma. The official story is that Mr. Tube is actually one Freddie Dillenger (aka Freddie Dillinger, aka Freddie Danger), who led such bands as Freddie Feelgood & the Real Good Feelings in the 1950s before forming the Flying Objects the next decade. (Apparently, there was also at one time an all-female backup band called the Objettes.) The Flying Objects’ debut album Listen Up was released in 2006, but supposedly it was recorded in the ’60s. Mr. Tube now prefers to stay at home while a group of younger musicians play his music under his name.

Some killjoys have pointed out that the official story doesn’t really hold up. They will say that the Flying Objects are actually a side project led by Pall Jenkins of the Black Heart Procession and Three Mile Pilot. I decided to get the truth by emailing the contact address Mr. Tube posts on his website. My email bounced back. That’s okay. I think I like the mystery.