Thumpasaurus
L.A. punk-n-funk rockers Thumpasaurus are the musical answer to the question “What if Pee Wee’s Playhouse had a house band featuring Parliament Funkadelic, led by Captain Beefheart?” Expect a particularly Spielbergian stage show when the sci-fi themed Space Barn Tour hits the Casbah on December 13, in support of several recent projects. Foremost is their debut album, as well as a live dance music opera designed for nightclub performances. They also remixed several of their songs for a collaborative EP with house producer Justin Jay, released on Jay’s own Fantastic Voyage label and currently tearing up gargantuan dancefloors like Miami’s famed Ultra Festival.
For a band with only a couple of years under their collective sparkly belts since making their hometown headline debut, they have a lot of Jiffy Pops in the fire. Founded at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where they honed their chops at the University’s famed underground club Yoni, early singles such as “I’m Too Funky,” recorded with producer Don Was’ son Henry, established their funky format. You can get a taste of their visual flair by sampling pretty much any YouTube clip, but the one for “You Are So Pretty” is probably the best distillation of their social media style. It manically blends internet-sourced images of actress Jennifer Lawrence into a psychedelic collage-turned-barrage, with an increasingly aggressive gang of pop-ups all violently competing for your attention. “Mental Karate” is another made-for-web-addicts clip featuring the band swatting away various memes and texts as they show off their best Elvis-does-karate moves. If only MTV still showed videos, that one could have kicked off a pop dance craze even bigger than walking like an Egyptian.