Wikipedia: Combustible Edison From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Combustible Edison was a group founded in the early 1990s in Providence, Rhode Island, and was one of several lounge music acts that led a brief resurgence of interest in the genre during the mid-1990s. Unlike other bands with a more ironic take on the lounge scene, Combustible Edison took the music seriously and strove to add to what its members saw as a canon of works, such as those by Esquivel, Henry Mancini, and Martin Denny. Before Combustible Edison, the artists known as The Millionaire and Miss Lily Banquette were members of a band called Christmas.

Originally formed around 1991 to serve as the musical accompaniment to a stage show entitled “The Tiki Wonder Hour,” the 14-piece ”Combustible Edison Heliotropic Oriental Mambo and Foxtrot Orchestra” slimmed down to its five core members, shortened its name, and put out a debut album, I, Swinger, on Sub Pop records. The band put out two more full-length discs, Schizophonic! and The Impossible World – and several singles. The band also recorded the soundtrack to the Quentin Tarantino (and others) film Four Rooms, with music produced by Mark Mothersbaugh.

The main theme for the Four Rooms soundtrack, ”Vertigogo” was submitted for consideration for an Academy Award but was ultimately disqualified from consideration because of its incomprehensible lyrical content, despite the fact that the band submitted a lyric sheet with their best written approximation of the lyrics.

Unlike other musical acts who, to warm up live audiences, employ an opening act, Combustible Edison instead chose to display a short film, ”Dark Night in the Ultraviolet City,” which was billed as ”Combustible Edison’s Opening Act”. Director Guy Benoit described it as…

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• Cover - Impossible World
• Cover - I Swinger
• Cover - Schizophonic