Deep within The Stolen Moans HQ, on the top shelf of an antique bookcase, lives a turquoise-colored hard drive marked “experimental.” This is the Mad Kingdom, a surrealist laboratory, where tunes deemed too reckless for mainstream consumption remain locked in lead-lined boxes like Madame Curie’s notebooks. Oddities with unknown half-lives, pieces to a still-undiscovered puzzle, sitting, waiting.
However, before we can talk about how one of these “experiments” escaped, we first must tell the story of the person who always supported our pursuit of the weird and wonderful, Micheal (MP) Peters, our beloved friend, and the “best-dressed roadie in show business.”
MP was a true child of the sixties and grew up at a time when cults and mayhem found fertile soil in sunny California. The recounting of his storied misadventures never failed to astound and entertain. We were always delighted when he drove up (in his veggie oil-powered Mercedes hearse) wearing impeccably tailored 3-piece suits to help out at shows. He was the epitome of the saying, “it’s the journey, not the destination, that matters,” and encouraged us to always stay open to the crazy magic that happens along the way.
Loud Rock & Roll was one of his passions, but he especially loved it when songs got weird! The first time we played Pu Num Tu for MP, his response was, “Whoa, Mondo!” which was pretty much the highest compliment you could receive from him.
The story of how the companion music video came to be is another bizarre tale of happenstance, but the abridged version is we spent a weekend having messy fun in the dark with fellow artist-adventurers. This, of course, brings us back to the music and why we’ve dedicated the song & video to MP. Tragically he caught the coronavirus in 2020 and passed away within days of becoming sick. He was with us for so much of the journey and would be absolutely delighted that Pu Num Tu’s is finally getting released.
If Surrealism’s goal was to revolutionize the human experience by attempting to find magic and beauty in the unexpected, then Pu Num Tu is a Surrealist Affirmation in the pursuit of joy and freedom. MP buddy, the lunatics are now running the asylum, and YES, this Pu is for you… Rest in peace Michael XO, SM
