THE OUTHERE BROTHERS – "Boom Boom Boom"

One Saturday afternoon, when this song was already fading from the public eye, a brave soul at St James’ Park took it upon himself to stand up and chant “Toon Toon Toon, let me hear you say ‘Why aye'”. No response of “Why aye” was forthcoming.

If nothing else, I suppose this illustrates the popular culture crossover that “Boom Boom Boom” enjoyed compared with the Brothers’ previous appearance here. For that reason – and because it’s harmless, albeit fairly pointless too – I think I could also stretch to a 4.

Addendum to 2 – Sneaking a look ahead, my memories *really* start to perk up in the autumn of 1995 for some reason and we abruptly switch from the “I remember a few” we’ve been in since about 1993 to “I remember almost all of them” from there on to present day. It’s quite a sudden step-up memory-wise, perhaps because of a bunnied battle, perhaps just because we’re about to reach a run of highly popular and well-played songs and perhaps simply because I’m reaching the age of 7, when hazy childhood memories become slowly but surely clearer. Can’t wait.

Ok so they’ve taken the very catchy and earwormy bassline from “I Like To Move It, Move It” and added some butt filth on it.

Reel 2 Real’s hit was a great piece of Dancehall with a rap that was knowingly, comically sexist. Here the Outhere Brothers remove the “knowingly” and the “comically”. Bleurgh!

whatever credit the catchy title phrase earns is thrown away with monotonous repetition – the rapping is pedestrian at best. I don’t remember it from back then I won’t remember it tomorrow.

Yeah, a bit (if only a bit) less of a non-song than their previous no 1 (although more irritating, because more memorable, in consequence).

Erm…not Robson & Jerome, either.

But…The main (perhaps, really, the only substantive) thing to be said in support of this record is that it really helps one appreciate, in comparison, how VERY superior, how much wittier, more charming and musically and vocally proficient to this, is the bunnied Vengaboys single with with the similar title. Which is quite an achievement, all things considered.

Depraved and horrid, Way-oh.

Did I mention on the other Outhere Brothers entry that they were booked to do a special show at my university’s graduation ceremony? Two songs in, somebody at the front grabbed one of the brother’s legs and pulled him over, and they left the stage in a huff never to return (although who knows, perhaps their set only consisted of two songs). Really, as an act they were an appalling choice for a student graduation ball – if they weren’t going to upset the feminists then they were surely going to upset the music snobs, and if they weren’t going to upset those then a drunken rugby boy was surely going to at the very least heckle them for being naff. As it turned out, they went one further and tried to tackle their dance routine instead.

I have to say that “Boom Boom Boom” seemed to be everywhere in my neck of the woods whereas “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” was rather underplayed, which doesn’t seem to chime with anyone else’s experiences. I found it tolerable then and I still do now, although there’s absolutely nothing you can really get your teeth into.

Seems very unfair that this doesn’t get more than Wiggle Wiggle, when it’s clearly better. I find this one actually enjoyable in the clean version, especially the “Geronimo, look out below” rap.

#7 I Like To Move It Move It was great. It warms my heart to think that the Mad Stuntman is raking in royalties from the Madagascar films because of it.

Around this time a lot of acts seemed to have two number ones in quick succession, even if as the review notes some were not exactly spilling over with promise.
The only other thing I can find to say about the Outhere Brothers is that I don’t ever remember them being referred to by their first names (Clarence and Douglas) at any point during their abrupt 15 minutes. Ultimately the Chuckle Brothers had little to fear. You’ve either got it or you ain’t boys.

#13 Shudders at thought of them playing at university graduation ball. Mind you St Andrews was mostly ceilidh bands…

But it was also my experience that Don’t Stop was (thankfully) played rarely, and this was played too often, also, although in the contex of North East Fife, probably only on the radio in either case, and in fact probably not that much either there. (Radio Tay had a jingle, I thnk not ironically, that boasted it played “every kind of music, from East 17 to Roxette”)

#14 Absolutely agreed re Shy Guy. Fabulous summery record.

Funny how circumstances can cast some records in a positive light. Boom Boom Boom is indeed an immensely stupid song, but in July 95 I found its juvenility positively life affirming. Perhaps it was as others have mentioned the fact that it came directly after 7 weeks of granny music at Number One. But I think it was also that there were so many other great records around that summer that each reflected onto one another. Common People, Shy Guy, Alright, McAlmont and Butler’s Yes, God, even PJ and Duncan’s Stuck On U…Corona’s Try Me Out. UK dance music was still evolving into ever more interesting shapes and there was the revival in guitar pop that around this time began to be codified as, well, you know what.

And perhaps most importantly there was the weather. It’s easy to be positive and see the good in everything when the sun is shining and it’s warm week after week after week.

#21 yes, it was a lovely summer. I bore this no ill will, because I bore the world no ill will.

#14: Knew Shy Guy got to number 2 but couldn’t remember what stopped it. Damn, that was a beast of a song (and Bad Boys is comfortably the best thing Michael Bay will ever do with his life); that’d be about an 8 or so.

This… is better than Don’t Stop in the same way that Neighbours is better than Home And Away. And at least the chorus has something anthemic about it (witness the aforementioned football chants), even if it’s the most half-arsed anthemic in existence. 4 is about right.

Was always hard to make the link between Shy Guy and Bad Boys tho – how did the song get on the soundtrack in the first place?

On the sleeve they look (right one) like Mike Tyson gone “Deliverance”, and (left one) like the man a certain Bolton comic calls Jason Z (OH MY DAYS WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE A BUNNY! NO FAIR!).. gone “Deliverance.” Don’t say it doesn’t warn you.

Quite impressed with Shy Guy – covers a lot of hip early nineties bases especially ragga and New Jack Swing. Bizarrely, as a kid I thought it was the work of a male, bhangra/British-Indian “fusion” act. I don’t know, maybe Apache Indian covered it or something.

They said in an interview (on the Big Breakfast if I remember rightly) that “Outhere” meant that they were different from everyone else. “Like, everyone else is in there, and we’re out here”.

Not sure why ‘brothers’, though.

28: Bad Boys II is indeed pretty bad – and not bad meaning good. Bad definitely means bad there.

If I was being a bit cruel, I could say that Azaelia Banks was the Outhere Brothers’ spiritual daughter. I wondered why I liked the “mothership” bit of Boom Boom Boom and 17 years on she seemed to have picked up the baton (nsfw innit):

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Jv9fNPjgk&t=0m20s

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWjsvYXM9RU&t=2m10s

I do like that sprawling, beyond puerile 212 song, but only because it sounds like Buffalo Stance going to hell. And: what are you going to do when I eat a bear? Or is it a pear? You could write a book on this theory alone. It’s like Eats, Shoots and Leaves gone to hell.

#35. Nah, because “212” is witty and playful, and its aggression is a bit less primal and a bit more personal: (Would all this apply if it had been performed by a man? Good question. But no, almost certainly not – certainly not when you get to the concluding line/pay-off). “Buffalo Stance” surely a better point of ref than this. (Oh. It does a have “way-oh” breakdown though… Still.)

Only a few weeks before this came out Definition Of Sound released ‘Boom Boom’ (not a John Lee Hooker cover) but their double boom proved lacking and it stalled at #59. Other lacklustre booms in 1995 came from Hunter (‘Shakaboom!’) and Benz (‘Boom Rock Soul’), not including its use as part of other words for spoilery reasons if nothing else.

That was ’93 but as an entry tends to be listed as the Nuff Vibes EP so doesn’t show up on a polyhex search for ‘boom’ anyway which could be tres irritating to some pop-pickers.

#14 has mentioned that Alright by Supergrass got stuck at number two behind this. Whatever the merits of Alright (I like it) this is the second example within a few weeks of a Britpop classic getting (and holding) number 2 behind an artistically irrelevant record. 1995 ultimately only had two guitar led number ones but with a few breaks there could have been quite a few.

#43 – “artistically irrelevant”; please define terms, irrelevant to whom, or what, and why. Lot of dance music fans I can think of who consider “Alright” “an artistically irrelevant record.”

#44 – I’d say VERY broadly indeed, in that you still get a fairly decent developmental picture, though its contour is regularly disrupted by whatever fly-by-night novelty fancies British people decide to take to their bosoms.

@46 – One would suppose that a history of popular music could be told through an amalgamation of the singles and album charts.

@43 – ‘Alright’ guitar led? I’d say the song’s hook is the piano intro. Besides, Supergrass (who were sort-of local heroes for me) had far better songs. Had it been ‘Caught by the Fuzz’, ‘Mansized Rooster’ or ‘Lenny’ being kept off number one, I’d see your point a lot better. Suffice to say, as a rather angsty teen, I remember hearing ‘Alright’ for the umpteenth time and thinking “But what if I DON’T feel Alright?’.

@47
I don’t know about the albums. On the rare occasions that I’ve looked at lists of old number 1 albums, they’ve seemed far less interesting than I might have expected, and certainly of a lot less general interest than the singles number 1s.

Probably because…
– The number 1 single: 100,000 people have bought it, most people who listen to much music have heard it.
– The number 1 album: 100,000 people have bought it, most other people haven’t heard it and never will.

And I mean, if I haven’t heard Xanadu or some song like that, I might go to Youtube or Spotify and fill in the gap. If I haven’t heard ‘Home Lovin Man’ by Andy Williams, which is more recent and by a far from obscure artist, I’d have to be a raging obsessive to go and look it up purely because it happened to be number 1 once.

Even in the 70s, where the received wisdom is that the serious artists ignored singles and released only albums and went on the Old Grey Whistle Test, the number 1 albums list is not some kind of thrillingly arcane grown-up counterpart to the singles list. Sure, there’s a bit of Rick Wakeman but a lot if it seems to be best-ofs and late-period potboilers by people from the 50s. Where’s the history in that?