PREMIERE/WATCH: Oolala, “Falling Out Of The Universe”
Fans of Philly faves Johnny Showcase & The Mystic Ticket will be familiar with a character called Rumi Kitchen, whose stock in trade in that band is that of Showcase’s “spiritual advisor.” But that’s really only the beginning of Kitchen’s cosmic onion: Kitchen, it turns out, is also in possession of a primal-scream-era-Lennon howl both inviting and powerful enough to signal that your whole episode of True Blood is about to go Dionysus-level wild. We know this because Kitchen’s debut single with his new band, Oolala, has been sitting with us for a few days now, and the more we listen, the more we think that its primal yawp might be the only appropriate aesthetic response for these times.
There’s more, of course. The release of “Falling Out Of The Universe,” which you can take in above, has been set to coincide with the visit of Comet 45P (Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková) to within 7.4 million miles of the earth, appearing in the Earth's early morning sky — this, part of a triad of activity in the cosmos that also includes a full moon and a lunar eclipse, all happening simultaneously. This is the kind of thing that Kitchen, and Oolala, don’t take lightly, for here is a band that claims to spawn a golden egg each time they perform, and whose practice space is within chanting distance of the former (and future?) residence of none other than Sun Ra. Even Kitchen’s cape is loaded with portent; it is bedecked with no less than 800 tiny, tiny mirrors.
Perhaps you’re a skeptic. Perhaps signs and symbols mean nothing to you. Fine. Here, then, is but a simple thing: A scorching hot debut single from a refreshingly out-there young band, with a video shot in the Fels Planetarium. It’s got a riff the size of a Famous 4th Street Deli sandwich, but it somehow goes down easier than a bad decision in the heat of the night. Ladies and gentlemen, would you welcome them please, for the first time on Earth, the rock band they call… OOLALA!
