RIP OMC

Pauly Fuemana, singer of New Zealand group OMC, died Sunday. He was 40.

All I can write, without a hint of irony, is “How Bizarre.” I can still remember the immense joy I got listening to that song in elementary school. Be it jammed on the bus on the way to school, hearing it blasting on some radio station somewhere… The song was practically everywhere. It’s one of those rare moments when a song seems to fill the air. It really was everywhere. I never thought twice about how I could connect to a song created worlds away.

That’s a testament of a good song: Even some kid somewhere in the world can’t get it out of his head and (even years later) wouldn’t want to anyway.

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A few months ago I found a copy of How Bizarre in the .99 cent bin at Reckless Records and I just couldn’t help myself. Track two, coming in at 3:46, immediately transported me back to the lighter times of childhood upon first play. And here I am, up late before the class day, somehow thinking the CTA bus I’ll hop in the morning will be plastered in yellow and packed to the gills with my old school mates, still in their 90s Nickelodeon-plastered t-shirts and barely above 4 ft., and all because of a song.

How Bizarre, How Bizarre.