Adventures Of The Little Koala

Reverb: Childhood icons inspire DJ Kid Koala

Canadian DJ Kid Koala has always taken a playful approach to making music.

On his debut mixtape, 1996's "Scratchcratchratchatch," the turntablist, born Eric San, twisted a sample of Charlie Brown noting his pitiful Halloween haul ("I got a rock") into a party-worthy rallying cry ("I gotta rock!"). Then, while opening for Radiohead in Chicago's Grant Park in 2001, he worked a version of "On Top of Spaghetti" crooned by Big Bird's gruff pal Mr. Snuffleupagus into his wide-ranging set.

Reminded of this in a recent interview, Koala let out a hearty laugh.

"I was raised on Jim Henson shows," said Koala, who is scheduled to play two shows here on Friday, July 8 - the first as a headliner at La Fête de Marquette, a local street fest where he stands in contrast to the usual array of French-speaking performers, and a second at the High Noon Saloon.

"Some of my favorite records are ‘The Muppet Show' albums and the Monty Python stuff. Listening to those as a kid helped form in my head this idea of what's ‘normal' to hear on a record."

But the larger aim of his music, Koala said, is to make sure it reflects his personality.

"The actual intent is always to tell your story," he said. "It's a form of expression, and when it's done well it can be a very personal experience."

This is particularly true of his full-length debut in 2000, "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome," a woozy, eclectic mash-up of spoken word samples, wrist-wrecking scratches and, on "Drunk Trumpet," woozy horns that wobble and slur.

"As funny as it sounds, that is actually a very personal record to me, and when I listen to it I can remember what I was going through in life and the sorts of fears and trepidations I had about actually being in music professionally," he said.

"I remember one of the little bits of spoken word (on ‘Carpal Tunnel') was, ‘And that is what he deserved for pretending to be a musician when he was only a butcher!' When I heard that, orange juice came out of my nose I was laughing so hard. I was like, ‘That's exactly where I'm coming from!' "

These days, Koala still refers to the album as his "Big Bang moment," noting that the template for all the music he's done since can be heard in that warped recording. This includes both his hard-rock adventures with The Slew, a band he formed with former members of Wolfmother, and the quieter side that emerges on the orchestral soundtrack he recorded for his forthcoming graphic novel, "Space Cadet," which he also wrote and inked.

Adventures Of The Little Koala – Opening Theme | Koala Corporation

@preachcaleb

I’ve seen enough to know that a cheap, throwaway effect like it doesn’t compare to any of the musical numbers in The Lion King, or the smoke and explosions in Akira, or the Rube Goldberg sequence in The Thief and the Cobbler, or the integration of animation and live action in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Or maybe I’m missing something. Maybe you can explain to me what’s so special about it, so I can appreciate it for the wizardry that it is.

Fictional Koalas, Adventures of the Little Koala, Noozles, Paifu, the Kwicky Koala Show, Blinky Bill, the Adventures of Blinky Bill

Television cartoon shows, an illustrated encyclopedia, 1949 through 2003

Koalas

Australian Light Horse, Adventures of the Little Koala

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