The Red Krayola With Art & Language - Kangaroo? (1981)

The Red Krayola (sometimes spelled Crayola) has been masterminded by Texas-bred weirdo Mayo Thompson since the 1960s, when their quirky, art-damaged sound stuck out from the flower-power crowd. Thompson moved to England in the late '70s, found his spiritual kin amid the more adventurous portion of the post-punk scene, and revitalized the band. KANGAROO? (1981) was the second effort by Red Krayola Mk II, and included contributions from members of the Raincoats, Essential Logic, and Swell Maps (not to mention fellow art rockers Pere Ubu, a band in which Thompson would briefly play). Veteran freak Mayo flies his flag proudly, bolstered by his young accomplices, as angular shards of avant-jazz, post-punk, and art-rock frame lyrics about Jackson Pollock, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky, achieving a perfectly purposeful sense of dislocation.