Banging toons: why bands such as Bis are making soundtracks for kids' TV
An architect cranks a lever, and suddenly Mr Salmonelli’s Leaning Tower of Pizza restaurant lurches to an angle. As pots and pans fly, a band slide into view, looking and sounding distinctly like 90s Scots disco-punks Bis. “We just can’t understand it / It’s not the way we planned it,” they trill, their colourful cartoon selves shrieking like a tartrazine-addled Dead Kennedys. Weird, yet it has become increasingly common for moderately hip acts to make the jump from Marc Riley on 6 Music to Nickelodeon pre school.
The above scene is from BB3B, a gently subversive cartoon that ran as part of CBBC’s weekend kids’ strand Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow back in 2005. It centres on Louis and Lucy, whose life is disrupted by a baby brother they are convinced is an extraterrestrial. Bis starred as the house band in all 13 episodes, appearing on trucks and rooftops – even underwater. A dream gig, albeit one that has only now found a vinyl release in spite of the Kandy Pop hitmakers blazing a trail.
BB3B’s use of catchy songs to punctuate wacky chases is a nod to classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons; indeed, Scooby-Doo’s Mystery Machine gang were conceived as a band. But cooking up bubblegum to order is a serious business: the original Scooby-Doo theme was sung by Larry Marks, who produced Gram Parsons and Liza Minnelli; and many of LA’s top session musicians earned their stripes scoring scrambles through suspiciously empty amusement parks. In the UK, animation is more often a cottage industry. Literally, in the case of early 70s stop-motion stalwarts Bagpuss and The Clangers, whose creators Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate made the shows in a shed and oversaw the recording of their evocative soundtracks in a nearby village hall.
As a US powerhouse, Hanna-Barbera ensures that its properties move with the times. Recent Scooby-Doos, as well as being winningly postmodern (mysteries are now likely to revolve round a misleadingly edited vlog), have swapped the 70s’ groovy popsoul for shrill pop-punk. The impetus for change could be laid at the door of The Powerpuff Girls. Over six seasons (1998-2005), these kindergarten crimefighters’ exploits inspired a tribute album featuring Devo, Frank Black and Shonen Knife – plus a theme tune from Bis.
With Tim Wheeler writing tunes for the Shaun the Sheep Movie and Best Coast’s recent theme for Scoob!, this knowing but affectionate strain of pop-punk has become the industry standard. Bis will be hoping their animated afterlife reconnects them with audiences a generation younger than those most of their Britpop-era peers play to. But Louis, Lucy and baby brother BB3B are unlikely to mount a similar comeback: those meddling kids are older now than Bis were when they appeared on Top of the Pops in 1996.
Music for Animations by Bis is out now on Last Night from Glasgow