529 & Irrelevant Music Present:
Superbody
BbyMutha
Superbody
Superbody is a tiny indie band with enormous music — and maybe the greatest ’80s pop act to emerge from 21st century late capitalism. The outfit is the Tennessee basement-born and bedroom-produced DIY fever dream of 24-year-old producer and musician Robert McCurry. Until recently Superbody was a duo of McCurry and Caleb Dills who together, out of Chattanooga, crafted two albums of weirdo lo-fi ’80s-inspired disco-pop, deliberately overstuffed with the indulgent synthesizers and pulpy electronic twangs of the post-1878 Billboard charts. Their semi-ironic but genuinely catchy tracks and kitschy-as-hell aesthetics have found them sharing stages with Dorian Electra, Diane Coffee and Shannon and The Clams, and even featured on the New York Times Fashion‘s Instagram.
Now, McCurry has taken Superbody solo. He performs live and in video in the alter-ego of Bobbi Superbody: a faux pop star pastiche that’s equal parts cowboy, George Michael and Napoleon Dynamite. Today, he’s debuted his first effort as a solo Superbody: “Hollywood.” The irreverent, campy video expands the narrative of hapless aspiring pop star Bobbi Superbody, as he sashays around Hollywood, moustached, mulleted and single-earringed, like the clown of ’80s Hollywood on a quest to Make It. He practices his terrible dance moves on the beach, under the pier and on palm tree-lined streets; puts casting directors to sleep; and bribes his way into a role in a soft porno so low budget his partner is a blow up doll. It watches like an offbeat comedy that might’ve been written by Spike Jonze, forcing us to stew in the indignities and excesses of the entertainment industry. However, the track: a euphoric ’80s pop bop featuring a buoyant bassline, beachy guitar, plinky synths and an extra-cheesy clap-line stands on its own aside from the cinematic video.
Frequently collaborating with creators like Dorian Electra and Weston Allen (director of Electra’s “Career Boy” video, and who makes an appearance in “Hollywood”), Superbody’s irreverent comedy and performative grandeur mark them as a member of the renaissance of alt-pop creators using camp and satire to poke fun at the absurdities of our lives — and make sure everyone has a good time.
BbyMutha
Hailing from Chattanooga, TN, bbymutha is a female force of nature. With a soundscape heavily influenced by southern culture, she blends her life experiences into hard hitting raps. Actual mother of four, bbymutha pointedly brandishes her sexuality in the face of respectability politics. Sometimes vulgar, and never shy, bbymutha is always open, honest, and real.
Suede Cassidy
Matthew DeLoach
There’s a muted inertia to Mannequin Lover’s new track which pressurizes the song with dark, brooding energy. Matthew DeLoach’s vocals waft around the sequenced tones and break up the expansive song into neat sectors of danceable magic. Overall, it exposes a more focused side to his surreal acid pop while invoking diverse influences; everything from the early Berlin scene to ’90s French house to DFA contemporaries Shit Robot. “Beat It with Chain” might not break new ground in the world of dance music, but it’s a clever fusion of sounds and evidence that DeLoach’s style continues to evolve in new directions. Mannequin Lover has been his solo project for over three years now and he continues to display a wide variety of inspiration, even though his overall output has been relatively sparse. Listening here, it’s not hard to see how DeLoach made the jump from pop to house, considering the razor-sharp organization behind all his tracks. But compared to the dreamy bedroom jams he was writing just a few years ago, “Beat It with Chain” is a powerful musical statement that begs to be turned up. –Immersive Atlanta