Hollywood Old Songs

Hollywood Undead are about to drop a musical bomb. On their debut album (A&M/Octone), they've concocted an explosive cocktail of hip hop, rock and metal, forging an alternative style that's primed to blow the scene up. They craft incisive, sharp and sarcastic raps that slash the jugular of mainstream pop culture. They aren't your standard rap or rock crew. They're something new, dangerous, funny and alive. Deuce busts out the melodies. Johnny 3 Tears, J-Dog and Charlie Scene lead the lyrical charge, while Funny Man drops rhymes, and Da Kurlzz hypes the fray. Donning individual masks, Hollywood Undead possess a dark aesthetic that's connected to their hometown's depravity. Tracks like "No. 5" dissect the frivolities of Hollywood with witty, catchy choruses. Album opener "Undead," sets the tone, firing off a big melody and buoyant beats. Meanwhile, "Los Angeles" examines the town's evil edge. However, Hollywood Undead has got the gusto to be earth shattering far beyond cyberspace. They're already knocking at your door, and they're about to break it down.

Hollywood Undead’s sound cuts with a distinct hip hop swagger and a brooding, hard rock aggression. The band recorded seventeen songs with production by Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails), Don Gilmore (Linkin Park) and Deuce. J-Dog describes the sound best. "It's different genres mixed together with no holds barred. The rap songs are straight-up club songs. The rock songs are in your face and industrial. It's a collaboration of six people with different thoughts, coming together and not holding back." Charlie Scene elaborates further, "It's the truth about what average, suburban teens are thinking. No one else is rapping about how those kids party and what they go through in life, but we are."

Everything was born from a collaboration by Deuce and J-Dog in 2005. They posted a couple of their songs on the internet, and within a day, they had a slew of friends and plays. They inked a deal with A&M/Octone in 2008, and they're ready to unleash their manifesto. Johnny 3 Tears delves deeper into the band's message. "Our music and lyrics are just a communication of our lives. That's the best way to define it. It's all extremely and explicitly honest about stuff we go through--love, hate and pain. People see that honesty, and they respond to it. I want it to last forever for them. It's not fleeting."

The masks contribute to the band's mystique. Charlie explains, "In order to keep everything a mystery, we didn't want people to know what we look like." That mystery is just as important to the band's identity as the city is. J-Dog continues, "I've seen too many people who just couldn't cut it out here. This city literally chews people up and spits them out. In Hollywood, there are aspiring actors, artists, crack heads, gang bangers, taggers, and homeless people. They all add to the culture. Growing up around so many different people made us who we are. Hollywood was always known for its rawness, and we have that." The world will soon see that Hollywood Undead is as raw as it gets.

This song began life as "Jockin' My Mercedes," and was performed during a couple of festival sets during some of the brief Mutations promotions. The song did change a little from then, but it was basically the same as what you know now.

"Hollywood Freaks" might be the most typical Midnite Vultures track. As the perfect example of the Vultures mood, "Hollywood Freaks" would have been Beck's first choice as a single for the album. "That's the one I would choose because this is what I would wanna hear if I was in a club...you know, on a Thursday night, feeling mildly excited." The song is a catchy and melodic, but at the same time, a bit of a goof, as proved by all the laughing and silly references.

Beck's a master at finding the right words to match the right attitude of the music (and vice versa). There are so many pop references, it's hard to begin! (See below.) Basically, as the title conveys, the song is just full of freakiness: neon mamacitas, tropical oils, twenty-million dollar fantasies. But as Beck put it, it's a riff on all "the pervasive R&B entrepreneurial superstar star-maker man-male '90s machines." I'm not sure how Norman Schwarzkopf fits that description though!

Beck explains his love/hate relationship with Los Angeles, which comes out subtly in "Hollywood Freaks." "I love L.A., but there's certain elements that are repelling to me, but at the same time I enjoy it. I love to hate it. As a musician or somebody who works creatively, you tend to take things from your environment that bug you or disturb you and try to reassemble them the way you see fit. That's one of the licenses you acquire when you start writing songs or making movies. You're able to do odd things and rework the world as you see it. So I took the liberty to do it with Hollywood because it's taken liberty with me. It's a two-way relationship."

Often "Hollywood Freaks" is considered a spoof (as is much of Midnite Vultures), but Beck takes issue with that. He explains, "I don't think of that song as a parody at all. There is a fine line there but it isn't parody. I love the new stuff and the old school. That song to me is just my aesthetic. In my fantasy world that is the kind of hip hop song you would hear on the radio, hear Puff Daddy rapping."