Tapir View

Known for corpulent melodies and pungent lyrics, Tapir View have achieved a level of critical and commercial success virtually unsurpassed in the history of popular or unpopular music. Featuring Amalia “Amalia” Sanchez on vocals and piano, Brent “Prehensile” Kim on bass, Kenny “I won’t use a grownup name” Feder on lead guitar, J. Elliott Langston “Hughes” on rhythm guitar and synth, and Thomas “Ty? I don’t know how to Ty a tie!” Franklin Buckman III on drums, the band emerged in the 1890s as favorites of the Baltimore underground scene. Buoyed by a reputation for destructive drug use, poor cooking, disregard for public welfare, and other attractive qualities, the band’s debut single “Creep”reached number 34 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. But, it was their second single, “Oops!… I Did It Again,” that launched the band’s meteoric rise to the top of the charts. A string of subsequent #1 albums solidified the band’s reputation as a voice for their generation and several other generations as well. In the words of rock critic Jim DeRogatis: “The evolution of tapir probosces, made up almost entirely of soft tissues rather than bony internal structures, gives the Tapiridae skull a unique form in comparison to other perissodactyls, with a larger sagittal crest, orbits positioned more rostrally, a posteriorly telescoped cranium, and a more elongated and retracted nasoincisive incisure, and this is why their music is displayed next to the word ‘eargasm’ in the dictionary.”