Renaldo & the Loaf:
The Meaning of W.E.I.R.D.
(A Lesson)



Well beyond their sadly brief recording career, Renaldo & the Loaf have always managed to dazzle those who would listen with their boisterously bonkers skewed serenades and generally off-kilter, twisted musical vision...

For those NOT in the know :

- RatL 101 -



ssignment 1: Imagine an amalgamation all of the weirdest cartoon music you ever heard, combined with snippets of childhood rhymes distorted and abstracted beyond recognition by decades (or even centuries) of age, then add an even more twisted version of a vintage bongo-slapping Andy Kaufman as one of your vocalists. One of your other vocalists can only be described as a 'Psycho-Falsetto from the Capital of Nightmareville'. The next is a clownish, surrealist representation of any given male British 60's pop crooner, with multi-instrumental talents. And the funniest part? They're all the same 'guy'.
Students, Meet 'Renaldo M'.

The next assignment is to imagine what a crate full of world music albums would sound like if you could overlap and melt all of the vinyl grooves together, and then played the resulting slab on a malfunctioning turntable. Add a dash of primitive sampling and tape manipulation techniques, a few conventional (and a a few not-so-conventional) stringed instruments, and finally a hand-picked selection of hardware store treasures and thrift shop detritus.
Now say hell-o to Ted 'The Loaf'.
(I honestly haven't a clue which is which here; just pick and choose)

Did I happen to mention that both of our new friends are proficient 'bouzouki' players?
Hmmm... All of this work, and yet we still have only a crude characterization of what this music actually is.

If you were to walk down a busy city street and ask every person you saw whether they had ever heard Renaldo & the Loaf, you would probably end up walking for many days and getting some very odd looks from people as they whirled a 180 and pinwheeled an additional 360 to keep an eye on you as they escaped, before you ever made a catch.

And now, we have a reader's opinion to add: "It is not very likely that the snooty house wives have ever heard of this group."

errrr... thanks for THAT

Third and Final Assignment: Listen. And listen well.

1. Extracting the Re-Re (excerpt) from: The Elbow is Taboo
2. Leery Looks From Father's Books from: Arabic Yodelling
3. Then At Iona Lanthem from: (the very rare) Olleh Olleh Rotcod

(some MP3s for you, bwah - ha ha ha)


Done? If so, this should essentially alter the way you percieve all music from here on out.
(bwah - ha ha ha)

Now after hearing them first-hand, imagine the looks you would get if you forced the issue and simply walked down that same street with a boombox full of RatL Tunage! ZZOUNDS! Eegads!
They would probably have you locked up & in line for some sort of mental evaluation and high-voltage treatment before you could count to 7/8.

Care to purchase? GO HERE

Care to learn a great deal more about 'the boys'? GO HERE
(^^The old, abandoned-but-absolutely-still-worth-a-look [archived] GeoShitties Site)

Current Site HERE!

Coming soon: more Links!







(all RatL animations by Tangento)

If not in frames:
Tangento.net