The Beat is Obsolete

Rip It Up, Issue 107, 1 June 1986, Page 6

The Beat is Obsolete

Otis Mace & the Psychic Pet Healers

Otis Mace, guitar ace, having done his “solo thing, tours, some recording, and a dance band stint” decided it was time for his own band — one called, “Otis Mace and

... thought the pseudonymous Mr Mace, picturing the billboard. “Though we tell him what to do,’ smiles Joh the drummer, deflating the alter-ego.

Mace, Joh, and the other two Pet Healers — Sarah Franks, who shares the vocals with Otis, and bassist Dave Major — play pop songs with hard-edged witty lyrics and intricate rhythms. “Jazz, reggae, punk — strange and weird songs,” says Mace. “We're more like like Elvis Costello than the Anti-Nowhere League. It's... power pop.” Mace agrees that he has a tendency for the off-beat in his songwriting. “That’s what we're striving for — it's a protest at normality and boredom.” Humour's an important part, and not just in the lyrics. “My guitar playing’s pretty funny, too," says Mace. He cites his influences: “Monty Python, Thomas Pynchon, the absurdist ideas of the early Split Enz, a lot of the early punk stuff” Like the Pythons, the messages can be very hard-hitting. An example is the gruesome ‘Hollywood Bloodbath’:

“Well | want you to run me a Hollywood bloodbath

With a screamplay conscripted