The director behind Baby Driver and Shaun of the Dead has a new documentary, The Sparks Brothers, in which he makes the case that the LA duo are the most influential band you’ve never heard of.
Their sound has changed, but they’ve consistently projected an impenetrable aura that makes people ask, “Wait, are these guys serious?” Picture two androgynous guys, one with a Hitler mustache, making catchy pop songs about good customer service or Sherlock Holmes.
Wright shared fifteen of his favorite tracks that didn’t make it into The Sparks Brothers with GQ: Some of the best and weirdest deep cuts from one of the best, weirdest bands of all time.
Obviously there were a lot of massive LA bands at that time that were playing live, like The Doors and Love, and yet Ron and Russell were total Anglophiles.
You really feel that they said, “Okay, if this doesn’t work, then we’re done.” Kimono My House starts roaring out of the gate, and every song is just incredible.
“Here in Heaven” is a really hypnotic, operatic love song with Russell doing an incredible falsetto.
Russell, or our lead character and his girlfriend has not gone through with her side of the bargain.
People talk about Kimono My House as the classic album, but Propaganda is so close to being an equal.
It’s basically like, “Don’t get into the car with old, creepy men after school.” But also something that’s not usually the subject matter of a rock song, and also a rock song which has quite an enticing melody.
Maybe commercially that hurt them, but on the other hand, we’re sitting here 50 years later, still unpacking it all.
If you look at a Sparks album now, it just says, “All music and lyrics by Ron and Russell Mael.” But there are songs that Russell has written as well, and on the 1975 album Indiscreet, there is a song called “Pineapple.” Unlike other Sparks songs where it’s like, “What is it actually about?,” this song is literally about the benefits of eating pineapple, and that’s all it’s about.
Sparks are quite androgynous and people are sometimes curious about their sexuality.
There’s a song called “I Like Girls.” It’s funny, is really their attempt to crack the American market with a hard rock sound, so they’re going up against all of the red meat-eating, big-touring rock acts.
There’s a brilliant song called ‘Goofing Off.’ It’s a song about doing fuck all, and it’s delivered with such energy and a blistering guitar solo.
Four of the songs were released as singles, and one of the non-singles is a song called “My Other Voice,” which I think is a really atypical Sparks song because it’s more about mood.
But in trying to commit suicide he disfigured his face, and at the end of the song he is happy, because he got what he wanted.
In Outer Space was another breakthrough album for them commercially because it contained their biggest US hit, “Cool Places.” I’m not crazy about “Cool Places,” actually.
I asked him because I thought he’s exactly the right age to have been in Los Angeles up is, I always thought “Popularity” reads a bit like a Bret Easton Ellis book, or in American Psycho when you have the non-killing chapters, where Patrick Bateman is just talking about his Brooks Brothers suit and his shoes and what restaurant he’s going to.
I remember asking Russell, “Was there any song that you wish was a single that wasn’t?” He said “Let’s Go Surfing” Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins.
We did cover this song in the documentary and it got cut for time, mainly because it is an anomaly on the album itself, but it is one of the great Sparks songs.
I guess that around the time in 2003 is when Eminem is at his absolute zenith, and they said that they created this song when they were listening to a lot of Eminem during the writing and recording of the album.
“Waterproof” is really a song about the resilience that you need to survive for 50 years in the business, sometimes in the face of indifference.
Maybe Bowie managed to make it work in his own way in his last couple of albums, Sparks are a very rare band who are making, and, crucially, want to make, pop songs in their fifth decade.
It is an amazing anthem for when you want to tell everybody in the world to go fuck themselves.
One of my all-time favorite Sparks songs is “Missionary Position.” Ron Mael has this thing where he says “Write an anthem about something that nobody is against.” Most people like the missionary position, but it’s not the coolest sexual position! It is the very definition of vanilla.
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