David Wu began producing his
Fringemunks project back in 2008 shortly after the FOX
science-fiction television series Fringe premiered
on September 9, 2008. With the project still running in 2014, this
might be one of the longest-running musical projects in the history of
music. The project was originally intended as a joke not to be taken
seriously and also originally intended to be a very minor project
that would only span across an episode or two. The project soon
became a series-long commitment, however, and Fringe fans
such as myself couldn't be any happier about that, since the
Fringemunks project has drastically enhanced my experience as a fan
of the series. The project, inspired by Alvin and the Chipmunks,
involves a song being released for each and every episode of Fringe
(there are 100) that recaps the
plot of the episode using a parody of at least one popular song. Most recently,
Wu has completed his eighty-eighth Fringemunks song which recaps the
Fringe episode
“Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” (3.19) (usually abbreviated to
“LSD”), a song parody which is a medley of “Wouldn't It Be
Nice” by the Beach Boys and “Say You Like Me” by We the Kings,
an interesting medley of parodies because while “Wouldn't It Be
Nice” is a very old song (originally released in 1966), “Say You
Like Me” is much more recent (having been released in 2011), an
interesting juxtaposition of time, which, of course, is fitting for a
series like Fringe.
There
are two factors that make this
particular song parody by Wu's Fringemunks project significant. (1)
The most recent (prior to this one) Fringemunks song parody was a parody of “Everything
in Its Right Place” by Radiohead, which recapped the fourth season
episode of the same title of Fringe; that was released on August 9, 2013, exactly 200 days
ago. The span between that
Fringemunks song and this Fringemunks
song is quite possibly the longest span between two Fringemunks
songs since the formation of the project in 2008. (2) This
particular Fringemunks song was premiered today via radio on WRLR
98.3 FM Illinois, making it one of the very few Fringemunks song to
receive radioplay. I am particularly excited by the latter fact
because it suggests that even well over a year after the series
finale of Fringe,
there are still outlets in which Fringe maintains
survival. I am quite sure that I have said this before, but I will
say it again because it cannot be said enough times; I have been a
part of many different fandoms, including LOST,
Once Upon a Time, and
so forth, and I have never known a more driven and passionate fandom
than that of Fringe.
It is ultimately because of us, the fandom, that Fringe
continues to live; it is because
of us that the series has found a home.
Wu's
new parody begins with the dreamy opening of “Wouldn't It Be Nice” played on the piano but is not as upbeat as the Beach Boys' tune, mainly because Wu's
production is quite stripped in comparison to the original song. It
gives the listener an acoustic feel, which is something that I really
like (and have always liked) about the Fringemunks. Not only does the
project give Fringe fans
the opportunity to experience Fringe in
a much different way, it also gives them the opportunity to
experience songs that they probably know in a much different way. My
favorite Fringemunks song, for example, is the parody of “New
Divide” by Linkin Park, which recaps the episode “A New Day in
the Old Town” (the second season premiere). Instead of the
electronic break that occurs in the original song, Wu uses a dramatic
piano rendition of the Fringe theme,
using that as an ongoing hook throughout the remainder of the song,
and it is simply amazing, much preferable to the original version in
my opinion. While the “Wouldn't It Be Nice” portion of the “LSD”
recap probably doesn't veer away from the original Beach Boys tune
that drastically, it definitely, as I said, gives listeners a
slightly different feeling. What makes it a great choice for the
“LSD” episode of Fringe
is that it features a very joyous, playful, and colorful melody, very
appropriate for an episode that is primarily animated.
Using
the Beach Boys song to help recap the Fringe episode
“LSD” has actually been Wu's plan for quite some time. Nearly
three years ago, he sent me a forty-second snippet of the song, a
very rough cut that is essentially the first verse of the full, fully
produced song that exists now. In justification of using the classic
tune, Wu says that “'Wouldn't It Be Nice' had a good opportunity
for me to rhyme 'fervor' and 'Observer.'” Originally, the second
part of the song was going to use “God Only Knows” (another Beach
Boys song from Pet Sounds,
the same album on which “Wouldn't It Be Nice” is found) instead
of “Say You Like Me” by We the Kings, but Wu felt that since “God
Only Knows” is so short (under three minutes), he would have found
a lot of difficulty in using it to fuel approximately half of the
episode's story, as he “would have had to cram a lot of details
into few lines.” I have, admittedly, only heard the We the Kings
song once, so I can't offer as much insight into that part of the
song, but the original song has a very catchy, summery sound to it
and is not too far of a jump from the Beach Boys song, so it was a
wise decision for Wu to have made, especially because of his
interesting justification: “...the 'Say You Like Me' storyline for
the video also involves a quest to find a lost girl,” a storyline
that parallels the storyline of the episode, which involves Peter and
Walter entering Olivia's mind to find her consciousness and bring it
to the forefront in exchange for that of William Bell.
I
think that my favorite part of the song is during the We the Kings
section of the medley, when Wu interrupts the song to include the “I
lost her” scene from the episode, during which listeners can
briefly hear Chris Tilton's tense and dramatic score. It is a great
scene, and including it in the song surprisingly works very well in
juxtaposition with the We the Kings song. Lyrically, however, my
favorite part of the song is during the Beach Boys segment: We
knew it would be tough to find Liv's ego/In
her mind's projected world, where would we go?
Wu agrees that lyrically, that is probably his favorite part of the
song, as well, and lyrics such as this show that Wu is not only
musically talented (if the Fringemunks project isn't enough to convince
you of that, listen to his instrumental piano album Orbiter)
but is also talented with word usage, able to creatively find ways of
rhyming even within the constraints of recapping an episode of a
television series. Although the “LSD” recap is not my favorite
Fringemunks song to date (that has already been mentioned), it is
definitely some of Wu's finest work. “The song was an interesting
one to process on my end,” Wu comments on his newest Fringemunks
parody. “I set up the arrangement to be in the same kind of
'oldies' theme that I used for the bulk of the Season 3 album... lots
of harmonies and weird bits thrown in.” Those who enjoy the
Fringemunks project still have much to which to look forward, since
Wu still has twelve songs to complete in order to fully complete the
project, but in the meantime, look out for the official “LSD”
release tomorrow, Tuesday, February 25, 2014!
