the Flops

Release Ooh La La

an uncanny blend of live music, fiction, photography, and video

contact: 612 616 8940
booking: Frank Riley
High Road Touring
415 332 9292 voice
415 332 4692 fax

Ooh La La
Ooh La La is something new: a CD and CD-ROM set that combines the music of the Flops with fiction, photography, and a video, too. Call it illuminated musical fiction, or just call it rock and roll.

the Flops
Matt Wilson and John Munson have joined in many projects over the years, including Trip Shakespeare. John helped out on Matt’s acclaimed solo record, Burnt, White and Blue, while Matt returned the favor on Semisonic’s multi-platinum disc Feeling Strangely Fine.

With the Flops, Matt and John carve out a new sound: live, acoustic rock and roll that combines the urgency of punk or gospel with the melodic charm of Big Star or the Beatles. With soaring vocals, guitars, bass, and the occasional harmonica, the Flops are able to lay bare the wit, the sadness, and the unearthliness in Matt’s tremendous catalog of songs.

Ooh La La presents 12 of Matt’s songs plus two covers (the Faces and Alex Chilton), all performed live in Minneapolis bars before audiences as discerning as they are drunk. The songs appear on the audio CD and on the CD-ROM, where they accompany the story.

The Story
Why shouldn’t a story come illuminated by photographs, enlivened by a video, and haunted by a soundtrack? Especially when the story is about rock and roll. Robert Klein is a music-obsessed graduate student whose world shifts when his ex-girlfriend, now a highflying music editor, shows up in a Minneapolis bar. Next thing he knows, she has hired him to go on the road with Sprawl, an alternative band being chased by major labels. He and Shaw, the bass player, become friends while falling in, out, and back in love with same two women.

As you read their tale, you’ll be looking at the soulful photographs of Chad Folstad, listening to the Flops songs, and watching a Barry Kimm video of the Flops live at the 400 Bar, which, not coincidentally, is where the story begins and ends. The words, photos, songs, and video are integrated in a cunning design by Phillip Koenig. Put it all together, and you get full immersion in the ache, tawdriness, and beauty of rock and roll.

The story was created by Sam Magavern with the help of John Munson. Magavern is an upcoming Minneapolis writer whose work has appeared recently in places like the Partisan Review and the Paris Review. He also wrote the screenplay for The Last Word, the upcoming Firelight Films feature starring Mary Lucia and – you guessed it – the Flops.