New Trends in Music and Cultural Harmony
Popular Underground is a Scandinavian alternative pseudo-jazz-folk band with a socio-nihilistic twist.
The core trio comprises of Gin Frisk, Mink Slithers and Nut (Ross Flake).
The band formed at an unknown date at an undisclosed location due to privacy concerns.
The sonic fabric of PU’s haunting music is sawn collectively by the group in collaboration with Granny winning producer Eric Schmaltz, with Frisk as the lead singer and timpanist, Slithers on backing vocals and kazoo and Nut on the harp.
Popular Underground’s Early works reflected on the band emergence from anonymity thanks to a series of cat videos published online by Frisk. The videos of Frisk’s limping cat collected billions of views and generated trillions in advertising revenue. More than the collective GDP of the whole of Scandinavia.
The cat eventually won a long intellectual property rights legal battle against the band over its performance in the videos and refused to share any royalties and advertising revenue, but the band managed to keep the rights for the videos soundtrack, which eventually featured in PU’s first release – Consumer Satisfaction.
After the Frisky cat saga, the band won the less known Mediocracy Award for Average Achievement (MAFAA) for their second album – Health Benefits Scheme and achieved national attention and acclaim, featuring in numerous medical waiting rooms across Scandinavia.
Due to the healthy state of most Scandinavians and the efficiency of the health system, no one ever spent enough time in a waiting room to listen to a full song of the band, but most were generally supportive or indifferent.
The mediocracy award is commissioned by the local socialist government and created to support fair distribution of ego amongst its inhabitants.
The band’s unique instrumentation and musical individuality, maturity and the innovative use of a cat and AI in the repertoire have successfully caused many people to fall asleep laughing in their Uber Eats bag.
Not unlike the legal battle with Frisk’s Cat, the use of AI for music backfired and the band was sued by the AI in the first legal case of its kind where technology sued humans for exploitation and won.
However, the AI battle and the cat videos caused subscribers to flock to the Popular Underground’s YouTube channel and donations from around the world sustained the prolonged legal battle against AI.
After fleeing to Australia during great obsession in Europe, Gin Frisk, Mink Slithers and Nut joined by the choir of Yorkey’s Knob for a celebration of Alzheimer’s best work.
The once in a lifetime collaboration of music legends presented the work in the Royal Institute for Vegemite Exchange and Recreation Activities (RIVERA)
RIVERA have been a proud supporter of local, original, live music which celebrates the identity of the artists and their connection to Straya, the home of Vegemite.
Frisk heard about the initiative from his agent and immediately jumped on board. Mink and Nut were not too hard to convince.
“Just give them a stage and a sound system, and they will do the rest”.
“And don’t worry about wearing socks, they’re gonna blow them off your feet anyway”.
Some purists say that there have never been a sound system engineered capable of amplifying the nuanced sound of the group’s music truthfully to showcase its full beauty.
Those purists, are often enthusiastic bedroom producers who lurk around sound consoles at music gigs because they feel socially awkward outside their bedroom. They comment on the sound, on the technology and drop names in a sad attempt to generate a small talk.
One can identify the considerate breed of the purist douche when observed patiently waiting for a break in the music only to shout a clever comment about the mix or congratulate the operator on their success of the audio levels.
Those moments of relative quiet between songs are precious space in the landscape of live music. Understanding the importance of silence is one of the keys to the job.
The contempt comes from the basic failure to acknowledge that the person behind the sound desk, uses their ears to do their work, and our purist is actively causing a disturbance.
Various shirts have been printed featuring messages aimed to deter the average Mr Chatty McTalkface. Most of them have proved ineffective due to the intoxicated state of the offender who can hardly read their own name.
One day he will get punched in the face, but the union have been advancing legislation to allow audio operators to carry and use tasers at live performances to address the issue.
However, from the band side of things, over time, and in the absent of any gigs, PU adopted the purist philosophy and went on to play intimate acoustic gigs in remote locations, mostly with the local wildlife as their only audience.
Notably, the band performed in an abandoned asbestos processing factory, a fish market in Fukushima and the Moroccan dunes.
