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Ooh la la! Flops flip for a new kind of musical storytelling
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
November 29, 2002

John Munson and Matt Wilson once played together in local alternative rock band Trip Shakespeare. They formed the Flops when a friend asked them to provide the soundtrack for a story he had written. (Image courtesy of The Flops)

And now, a story, about the rock and roll life, on the road, in the bars, and across America.

St. Paul, Minn. — "It all started with a Matt Wilson show at the 400 bar.

It was a Wednesday night in March.

I had vowed to work on my thesis and go to bed early, but instead I watched TV, got bored, called Annie, and convinced her to go out to the club."

An excerpt from the short novel "Ooh La La". It's the story of a philosophy grad student, Robert Klein, who leaves his studies behind to document the hardship, monotony, camaraderie and beguiling charms of life in a rock band.

The entire story can be found on the Ooh La La CD-ROM which is augmented by the music of the Flops.

The Flops are an acoustic rock duo featuring Minneapolis singer songwriter Matt Wilson and Semisonic bassist John Munson, both alums of defunct alt rockers Trip Shakespeare. The pairing of Wilson and Munson seems natural, but according to Wilson, it wasn't their original idea.

"Almost every aspect of the Flops comes back to Sam. He's kind of our puppetmaster."

Sam is writer Sam Magavern, mutual friend of Wilson and Munson and Wilson's former college roommate. About three years ago, Magavern had just finished his tale Ooh La La, and decided he wanted to package it as a multi-dimensional CD-ROM. He needed a soundtrack.

"I had been thinking of using great songs from the past, or songs I particularly loved," he says. "And at a certain point my wife Monica suggested 'Why don't you use Matt's music for the soundtrack?' And that was right around the time Matt was playing some solo acoustic shows and we really loved the way that sounded and it had this sort of intimate feel that we thought would make an interesting accompaniment to reading.

It then occurred to Magavern that John Munson was actually helping him write the book.

"John would come over and tell me stories of life on the road and life in a band," he says. "And so the natural thought was get John and Matt together and have them make music for the book, so that's how kind of where it got started."

The story is filled with vignettes about life on the road.

On our way to St. Louis, we were listening to the radio in the van.

Duke found "Dancing in the Moonlight" on an oldies station.

"King Harvest," said Eric. "Give it some volume, Dukie."

"I can't believe you know it's King Harvest" I said. "Nobody knows that except me."

"This was our theme song in college," I said. "We'd put it on and dance around in our living room. It's like a magic happiness pill."

"It's about sex really, really," Eric Said.

"I thought it was about dancing."

"When a song says dancing, it means sex," Eric said. "It's about a place where everyone gets what they want, and no one fusses over who's with who."

As you click through the text of Ooh La La CD rom, songs from the Flops recorded live at three different Minneapolis venues form a sonic background. There are photographs complimenting the story and a video of the Flops performing live. Magavern says none of these elements directly illustrate Ooh La La, but are designed to add to it's resonance.

"Part of what the book is about is trying get at some sort of feeling of what rock and roll is like and why you would care about it a lot," he says.

"And for me, if you strip that feeling down to it's essence, you can experience it very directly by going to see these two guys play at a show, because you see their relationship with each other and you see their relationship with the audience and you hear this music in this incredibly direct way, where it feels like they're speaking to each member of the audience individually. And that was something that I wanted to get across with the book is, why you would care about it."

Magavern says the notion of a CD rom novel enlivened by music, photos and video takes fiction reading to a new level. John Munson and Matt Wilson believe he's right.

"What I relate it to," Munsen says, "Is the experience of throwing on a CD and reading a book, and you find, from time to time, this synchronicity between the words on the page, and the music coming out of your stereo. And they relate somehow, and you may not exactly be sure how but they create a new experience."

Matt Wilson says it will be a very particular experience.

"I think it's gonna be the kind of thing where you have to be in the right state of mind and have some time, and be near a computer, and then when those things are all in place, at some point you'll put in that story and it'll be just right and the mood of the music will then take it higher."

The Ooh La La CD rom package also includes a separate CD of the Flops soundtrack. Even though they were brought together by somebody else's project, Wilson and Munson say being in the Flops has provided a new artistic direction, which they plan to continue to develop.

Matt Wilson says it was a kind of inspiration

"And after we played our first show," he says, "We were super psyched about it, because it was revelatory to hear ourselves and the audience so clearly and immediately without any big band raging in the background."

John Munsen agrees.

"It's true," he says. "It's presented so sparely and starkly I do feel like it's a cleaner experience in a way musically performance wise, and I think for the audience too I think they feel like they've really seen us. You know it's kind of like as naked as you can do music."

The Ooh La La CD-ROM will undoubtedly be available when the The Flops take the stage areound town.

Munson and Wilson, along with former radio DJ Mary Lucia, are also starring in a locally made feature film due out early next year entitled "The Last Word." The screen play was written by Sam Magavern.

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