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Music Monday: Cartoon Bands

by Scott Lydon


Happy Music Monday! For many of us, rock was something holy. And for others, it was something that you could find on childhood TV. Today Scott's exploring the latter, and taking a look at the cartoons who decided to be rock stars.

Alvin & The Chipmunks - Good Girls Don't

 

You're gonna find a lot of Chimpmunk fakes out there today, but once upon a time, speeding things up was real cutting-edge stuff. This honest-to-goodness Chipmunks song was sort of a "Why not" kinda joke from the son of the original Dave Seville, Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. Ross Jr. might have been amazed to learn how many people still loved the Chipmunks, but he was quick to make the most of it. And, today, the Chipmunk empire reigns over all others. I wonder if they ever got that hula hoop.

More to come, and boy, are they memorable.

The Archies - Comes The Sun

 

The story goes that, after The Monkees rebelled, Don Kirshner came up with this animated band so he never had to deal with real egos again. It makes a lot of sense, when you think about it, and The Archies actually DID have a pretty memorable hit. I chose this song instead for two reasons. One, it's nice to prove they had more than one direction. And two, this kinda sounds a little Velvet Underground, doesn't it? Just a few lyric tweaks and some distortion and it could be a John Cale-written song from their late period. For a cartoon, that's pretty edgy.

Josie & The Pussycats - Open Up Your Eyes

 

Long tails, and ears for hats. And for some reason, they were shot into outer space to tour the galaxy. Hey, it's not our place to question the government. All we can do is point out that the Pussycats made some pretty nifty songs as they cruised the galaxy! And, um, does anyone know if they ever got home?

Gorillaz - Stylo

 

Gorillaz are noteworthy because they're in two buckets at once. They're a supergroup made of rockers and rappers, but they're also a cartoon band. You'll note that, unlike the Archies or the Pussycats, Gorillaz can take advantage of modern 3D computer rendering. Good for them.

MC Skat Kat feat. Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract

 

MC Skat Kat had his own record too! It's terrible. Objectively terrible. Sorry, MC Skat Kat. You peaked right here.

Hey hey hey, hit up our Facebook page and you might just win a vinyl record from The Archies! Additionally, let us just remind you: some images come from the corresponding Wikipedia page and are here under fair use. See you next week.