A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BRAN FLAKES
The Bran Flakes were formed in 1992. From 1992-1997 the band recorded on 4-tracks and did not play any shows, putting out hand dubbed cassette tapes and trading through the mail with other like minded music and zine and radio producing friends.
In 1998 The Bran Flakes signed to Ovenguard Music and in 1999 they scored their first radio success hitting the top 200 on the CMJ charts with the album, "Hey Won't Somebody Come And Play". This release garnered rave reviews on college and freeform radio. WFMU was an elemental part in this and helped push the band to a greater audience.
Today The Bran Flakes have released a number of compact discs on various labels and independently on their imprint "Happi Tyme Records". In 2008 they signed on with the Illegal Art label and will be releasing a new full length in early 2009.
In the studio and on releases the band consists of Otis Fodder and Mildred Pitt. For the zany cabaret-induced live performances The Bran Flakes expand to feature Susan DeLint, Th'G'Rd'N'R, Clam Bam, a dancing chicken and gorilla, and the audience... who wear large paper mache heads that they can take home after the show.
THE BRAN FLAKES: QUOTES
"I enjoyed your record very much, it is so fresh, so cool, made for people who have a 'child soul' and at the same time perfectly elaborated harmonically and technically with some funny winks to other composers. Hope you'll continue to make such records, as you are doing."
— Jean Jacques Perrey
"I Like It!"
— Wild Man Fischer
"The guys behind The Bran Flakes have made playful and frenzied use of what turns up in thrift store dumpsters. Their dense layering of samples and sounds transcends the standard DJ style. '50s-era kiddie songs over deep dub... blissful use of aerobic instructions... a hi-fi test record blipped and blooped up... 'space age pop' put to inspirational use... urgent voice-overs stimulate... sex educational warnings to snicker at."
— Ed Polish, Cool and Strange Music Magazine
"This blend of cut-up humour and music does not work well."
— Beat Magazine
"These guys have a really unusual style of music and comedy that is just such fun to be around. Clad in an assortment of stage costumes and even handing out large purple smiley heads to the bemused audience they totally won over what could have been a difficult crowd for them. Part of the act was a comedy segment which was pure cheese and not only do the French seem to be a touch humourless but the guy delivering the jokes suddenly looked very small on the stage. It was hard not to feel sorry for someone doing a virtually impossible job that anywhere else would have been effortless. It goes without saying the humour was American too and as very few people in the crowd would have understood English it was a brave move to do stand up. They had the crowd in the palm of their hands when a large Branflakes purple pinata was lowered into the crowd and two members of the band proceeded to hit it to release all manner of flashing bouncy balls and gifts. The audience was won over by now and everyone seemed to love the blend of frivolity and fun these barking mad Americans delivered with such panache. I have it on good authority that The Branflakes are very keen to break into the UK and to do more Europe gigs, this would be fantastic as there really isn't anything else quite like their blend of insanity here. Have a look at their website and if there is anyone out there to can bring these guys over – please do!"— Bizarre Ingredients (review of performance, Nantes, France)
"The Bran Flakes are my favorite sonic scavengers. Save-the-planet fanatics owe them a debt of gratitude for their imaginative recycling of petroleum-based audio storage media."
— Irwin Chusid, WFMU
"The bran flakes glides through the shattered and banal music scene with an emotional and unbridled landmark. It can be poisonous as it escapes rational explanation. The bran flakes belong to a new era, a new galaxy, a new genre. I find their songs very moving not only for the true nature of the childish, surreal and humorous arrangements but for the evidence that spontaneity can be combined magically with intelligence."
— Mateo Guiscafre, Siesta Records
THE BRAN FLAKES: APPEARANCES
TELEVISION: BBC, Nickelodeon, TechTV, UPN.
PUBLICATIONS/WEB: The Age, All Music Guide, Amplifier, ArtThrob, Below Standard, Billboard, Boing Boing, Boston Herald, Chain D.L.K., Chicago Tribune, CMJ New Music Monthly, Cool and Strange Music, Computer User, Details, De:Bug, Eye, Factsheet 5, Forbes, GQ, The Guardian, Hitch, Il Manifesto, LA Weekly, Liberation, The Martlett, Marvin, Metafilter, Misc Media, Mixer, Le Monde, MSNBC, New York Times, Onion, Orlando Weekly, PCWorld, Philadelphia Weekly, Pitchfork Review, Q Magazine, Roctober, Scram, Seattle Weekly, SF Weekly, The Sinner, Spin, The Stranger, Tablet Newspaper, Tentacle, Telepolis, USA Today, Village Voice, Washington Post, The Wire, Yahoo Internet Life.
THE BRAN FLAKES: RADIO PLAY
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BSR 88.1 FM Providence, Rhode Island, USA Dr Demento Hour Of Slack Canal B Brittany, France CBC Radio 1/2/3 Canada CIUT 89.5 FM Toronto, Ontario, Canada CISM 89.3 FM Montreal, Quebec, Canada CITR 101.9 FM Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada CJLY 93.5 FM Nelson, British Columbia, Canada CKUT 90.3 FM Montreal, Quebec, Canada DFM Enemy Combatant Radio Flirt FM 101.3 Galway, Ireland Indiana Public Radio Muncie, Indiana, USA KABF 88.3 FM Little Rock, Arkansas, USA KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley, California, USA KAOS 89.3 FM Olympia, Washington, USA KBCS 91.3 Bellevue, Washington, USA KBGA 89.9 FM Missoula, Montana, USA KBOO 90.7 FM Portland, Oregon, USA KCRW 89.9 FM Santa Monica, California, USA |
KCSB 91.9 FM Santa Barbara, California, USA KDVS 90.3 FM Davis, California, USA KEXP 90.3FM Seattle, Washington, USA KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA KFI 640 AM Los Angeles, California, USA KFJC 89.7 FM Los Altos Hills, California, USA KFSR 90.7 FM Fresno, California, USA KGHP 93.7 FM Gig Harbor, Washington, USA KGNU 88.5 FM Boulder, Colorado, USA KGRG 89.9 FM Auburn, Washington, USA KIAC Internet Radio KJHK 90.7 FM Lawrence, Kansas, USA KKSM 1320 AM San Diego, California, USA KMSU 89,7 FM Mankato, Minnesota, USA KOOP 91.7 FM Austin, Texas, USA KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley, California, USA KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, California, USA KSDT San Diego, California, USA KSPC 88.7 FM Claremont, California, USA KSER 90.7 FM Lynnwood, Washington, USA |
KSVR 90.1 FM Mount Vernon, Washington, USA KUCI 88.9 FM Irvine, California, USA KUCR 88.3 FM Riverside, California, USA KUGS 89.3 FM Bellingham, Washington, USA KUSF 90.3 FM San Francisco, California, USA KVCU 1190 AM Boulder, Colorado, USA KWCR 88.1 FM Ogden, Utah, USA KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles, California, USA KZSU 90.1 FM Stanford, California, USA LUVeR Luxuria Music Mix96 95.9 FM Montreal, Quebec, Canada NPR Oregon Public Broadcasting Portland, OR USA Radio 100 99.3 FM Amsterdam, The Netherlands Radio K 770 AM Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Radio LoRa 97.5 MHz Zürich, Switzerland Radio Nova Norway Solid Steel Some Assembly Required WCBN 88.3 FM Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
WDBX 91.1 FM Southern Illinois, USA WDET 101.9 FM Detroit, Michigan, USA Weirdsville WFMU 91.1 FM Jersey City, New Jersey, USA WJUL 91.5 FM Lowell, Massachusetts, USA WLFM 91.1 FM Appleton, Wisconsin, USA WMTS 88.3 FM Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA WNUR 89.3 FM Evanston, Illinois, USA WNYU 89.1 FM New York, New York, USA WORT 89.9 FM Madison, Wisconsin, USA WPRB 103.3 FM Princeton, New Jersey, USA WRAS 88.5 FM Atlanta, Georgia, USA WRCT 88.3 FM Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA WREK 91.1 FM Atlanta, Georgia, USA WUOG 90.5 FM Athens, Georgia, USA WVUD 91.3 FM Newark, Delaware, USA WXYC 89.3 FM Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA WZBC 90.3 FM Boston, Massachusetts, USA |