This long running, New York-based band have one of those truly quirky, indefinable sounds that people seem to either love or loathe. Forming back in 1997, Mindless Self Indulgence have released five albums that have covered a whole gamut of musical styles, from punk and rock to hip hop, techno, industrial and all manner of other strange hybrids and experiments. And they’ve delivered it all in a manner that is all their own.
Of course, this means they have gathered their fair share of haters along the way and people who don’t ‘get it’. Their response to this is their fifth album and its typically idiosyncratic title How I Learned to Stop Giving A Shit And Love Mindless Self Indulgence, and according to vocalist, keyboardist and co-founding member Jimmy Urine, it seems to be working, although he is still a little surprised by this.
“We’ve always liked to have really cool titles,” he explains. “That one means a lot to us. One, it’s a Kubrik reference, we’re very influenced by his movies. It’s also sort of a message to people, there’s a lot of people who know who we are, and we’ve been around forever, and they’re just like, ‘Oh, it’s these guys again’. And they reference us and they rip us off, and it (the title) is just a message to them, ‘You know you fuckers love this shit, stop being all uppity and snobby, and admit that you like this shit. Smoke a fuckin’ joint, shut up and enjoy it! We’ve been around a long time, we’re not going away, we think you should just chill the fuck out and like it!’” he laughs.
The album has been out a little over a month, and according to a very surprised Urine, the reactions from fans, critics and even non fans has been overwhelmingly positive, despite the usually divisive inherent weirdness of their music.
“You never know,” he muses. “You can have an older fan being like, ‘Oh, I don’t like the new stuff’, or you can have someone who’s never heard you go, ‘I fuckin’ hate this shit’, or you can have a reviewer be like, ‘Well I see what they’re trying to do, I think they fail’, as well as a lot of people saying ‘I love Mindless!’. But this one I haven’t heard anything bad, which is fuckin’ bizarre! It’s really, really strange, but it’s really cool.”
The new album was actually funded by Kickstarter, a ‘crowdfunding’ initiative whereby fans of a band and others can donate money to fund the recording and releasing of the band’s album. The band smashed their target of $150,000, raking in over $225,000. Urine was very happy with the result, and believes that crowdfunding is an excellent new way for bands to fund their endeavours in this day and age of ‘free’ music.
“Hell yeah, that worked out great!” he enthuses. “I think it’s smart, the reason we did it is that a) we like to have control, b) we like to cut out the middle man, and c) that is the way whereby you don’t have to worry about people stealing your music. We were never really that worried if a kid stole some Mindless Self Indulgence MP3s and music; the thing we’d always say is that if you’re going to steal our music, rip a couple of copies for your friends and get them into it, and then maybe they’ll all come to a show.
“That’s just the way people think,” he continues. “It’s not even a discussion anymore, it’s not even a question anymore, the new generation thinks music is free. Fine. You can’t get the music that’s in my fucking head. If you want that music that’s in my head, you gotta pay me in advance. Which is where Kickstarter comes in, in a really cool way. You pay us the money, we’ll make the record and then you can do whatever the fuck you want with it!”
The band were in Australia earlier this year for Soundwave, and despite sticking out like a knot on a log in that lineup, by all accounts they made a very strong impression on those who witnessed their set. But Urine tells us that he would be more than happy to make a return visit in quick succession, in any kind of capacity.
“I’d like to, I mean, I’ll come down for any reason,” he states. “I’ll come down and do Soundwave again, I come down and do Big Day Out, I’ll come down and do whatever, you know. Whatever is offered to me, as long as it made financial sense, and it pays for the bill to come down there and hang out, we love going down there.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
