Norman, Okla., home of Oklahoma University, "looks like every college town in the country," says Andy Nunez about his hometown. He's the drummer, singer and computer geek for Starlight Mints. "There's a lot of trees and old houses. It's the Gainesville of Oklahoma."
Norman has another feature, one that has stuck to Starlight Mints like lint. The city is also home to The Flaming Lips, a critically lauded cult band that laces its pop-rock sound with plenty of quirk. Thus the Mints constantly get likened to the Lips — without much merit. "Sadly enough, there's not that many bands that come out of Oklahoma," Nunez says. "So for a lot of writers the easy thing to say is, 'Hey, what's in the water in Oklahoma?' I usually say, 'Probably chlorine. And arsenic."
Nunez is not suicidal over the comparisons. He's not even pissed. In fact, he and his mates are friendly with their more renowned neighbors. The bands share a manager. Nunez does computer programming for some of the Lips' recording sessions.
No, it's not about resentment. It's simply that the comparisons don't really fit.
"Both bands are perplexed by it," Nunez says. "We're supposedly so influenced by them. We're both doing stuff that's not normally heard on the radio, but there's no mistaking what [Lips mastermind] Wayne Coyne does."
And there's little mistaking what Starlight Mints do, either. They do quirk extremely well; they may even out-quirk the Lips. The Mints essentially write grabby pop songs and then fuck them up with all kinds of sonic accoutrements — sounds that make the tunes more interesting, more exciting.
The band's terrific current album, Built on Squares (PIAS America), begins with a haughty cello line that builds into a string trio accented by acoustic guitar and a vibraphone lick. It's all a lead-up to "Black Cat," a bouncy number with muted lead vocals, an infectious chorus and lyrics like, "With boomerangs between her toes/ She knock 'em down like dominoes." Near the end, just for fun, The Starlight Mints launch into a few bars of fast cowboy music.
And so it goes: a splash of Mariachi-style horns jousting with slide guitars on "Brass Digger." Big, psychedelic string swirls on "Goldstar." The busy, Zappa-esque instrumental line of "Buena Vista." The creepy string sweeps on "Zillion Eyes." While many of these elements add dissonance, they don't undercut the songs' inherent catchiness.
It's all quite subversive, though, because with these wacky arrangements, Starlight Mints effectively strip the songs of their innate commercial potential. Nunez chuckles knowingly when I float the idea. "When we first started [in the mid '90s], we were wooed by a few major labels," he says. "We were actually flown from Oklahoma to New York to showcase. After we played, we got the same thing from everyone: 'We really like what you're doing, but we don't know what we can do with it.'
"I think that if you do what you do, if it's good and you're persistent about it and work hard, it'll come around. A few years back, would you have expected the White Stripes to break on the radio, or The Flaming Lips? Somehow, it makes its way through there."
For now, The Starlight Mints will content themselves with plugging away, producing and recording their own records, and taking their odd sonic mélange on the road. The core group also includes Nunez's wife, keyboardist/vocalist Marian Love-Nunez, and singer/guitarist/principal songwriter Allan Vest. On tour, they add two players who also sing. The Mints effectively re-create their studio sound with the use of samples. "The technology has definitely helped us along," Nunez says. "People have told us it sounds better live than on record."
Senior Writer Eric Snider can be reached at snider@weeklyplanet.com or 813-248-8888, ext. 114.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2003.