The Complex

Blue Man Group will release their first, full-fledged rock 'n' roll album The Complex featuring guest collaborations with Dan the Automator, Tracy Bonham, Esthero, Josh Haden, Dave Matthews, and others. Within The Complex, the Blue Man Group was able to record as well as build the wide array of unusual invented instruments used on the album. Aided by the help of some of today's most intriguing vocalists, Blue Man Group has successfully moved beyond the instrumental category and has catapulted full force into the rock world. The track "The Current" is heavily featured in the highly anticipated film, Terminator 3, scheduled to be released nationwide July 3. You'll hear their signature sounds, such as the tube instruments, the giant walls of percussion, and all of the Group's other invented instruments; you'll also hear some more familiar trappings of today's music; thrashing guitars, verse/chorus/bridge song structure, scratching, and in addition, a variety of guest vocalists.

Take equal measures of Gallagher and Kraftwerk, mix in a 15-year supply of blue body paint and shake with a double-shot of modern marketing savvy and you might have something akin to Blue Man Group. This ambitious second album by New York performance artists cum entrepreneurs Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink expands their central artistic contradiction--mainstreaming the alternative--with a propulsive cocktail of rhythm, irony, self-invented instrumentation, and bona fide song structures that feature turns from guest stars Dave Matthews (the music hall dirge "Sing Along") and Tracy Bonham ("Up to the Roof," and with Rob Swift, "Shadows Pt.2"). The conceit is vaguely reminiscent of the Tubes' tongue-in-cheek ode to '80s corporate rock, "The Completion Backwards Principle," right down to being so convincing the irony often melts away. Fans of their live performances will appreciate its wall-to-wall rhythmic thrust and quirky textures, while aficionados and newcomers alike should welcome its surprising, seductive melodies and mature songwriting. --Jerry McCulley