Electric Laser People

Brainy mechanical engineers with a juvenile wit, D.I.Y. punk rock approach, and strong sense of artistic irony, Electric Laser People take on old-school rap style in a whimsical manner by draping absurd lyrics over minimal electronic sound effects and guitar crunches, like a sonic merging of Ratatat and Licensed to Ill. Frontman/bassist Dan Paluska, guitarist Grant Kristofek, and drummer Clark Kemp met in MIT grad school around the turn of the millennium. Paluska, also known under the radio moniker of Six Million Dollar Dan, designed and built a basement recording studio deemed "Flinstonia" due to its cave-like interior in north Cambridge that acted as a practice space for several musical incarnations of the three scholars' bands (including Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Stentorian Effluvium, and the Sneaks). The trio indulged itself by playfully jumping from genre to genre (like Ween) with no real sense of direction or care, and eventually took on the Mellow Gold-era Beck approach of merging hip-hop with other random influences. They recorded a two-song demo titled The Makeout Song EP that included their jovial Beastie Boys homage of streaming lyrical silliness and a psychedelic guitar-based B-side, "High School." This new sound resulted in the materialization of a new project called the Product, a band that the boys cleverly marketed with a press packet that resembled a corporate brochure used for increasing revenue. They started playing clubs and capitalized on their zany image by incorporating a red BC Rich heavy metal guitar, crazy tiptoe marionette dance moves, and odd homemade synth pedals. In 2007 Kristofek found a position as a design consultant making sure that corporate products function properly, but despite his demanding full-time job, he continued to play shows by night. Meanwhile, Paluska kept busy building robots for a living and contributing to "new media" art exhibits when not freaking on-stage. Early that year they changed their name to Electric Laser People (presumably due to confusion over their name on the Internet) and self-released their first full-length album, Straight Talk for Raising Kids, which again featured their "single," "The Makeout Song," as well as other songs about drunken neighbors and mysterious electronics. Months later, Kemp left the band to pursue other projects, leaving the two remaining members on the hunt for a new drummer.