It was only fitting that Darth Vader’s AI-rendered voice introduced “There I Ruined It Live!” to the stage at Tulips FTW, in Fort Worth, on April 14. The gig would be the fourth live show for the Dallas-based group, spun from frontman Dustin Ballard’s online mashups, which have drawn about 6 million followers across all social media. Right away the band tore into a cover of Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” to the tune of “Heigh-Ho,” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Anna Peña on lead vocals.
The group’s goal is to “lovingly destroy your favorite songs.” Think Simon & Garfunkel singing Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” to the tune of “The Sounds of Silence.” Think Nirvana as a K-pop band. Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake, Lizzo, and Michael Bublé have all shared Ballard’s songs. Snoop Dogg has chimed in with a reaction video to Ballard’s mashup of “Gin and Juice” with “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book.
Not everyone is a fan. Last summer, Ballard’s mashup of Johnny Cash covering Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” was presented in the House Judiciary Committee as an example of the dangers that AI poses to intellectual property and identity theft. Seeing his work in that setting was an odd experience for Ballard.
“I was slightly scared,” Ballard told me before the Fort Worth show. “But I have a lawyer in Hollywood who assists me. His expertise is internet memes and copyright. I knew enough from working with him that all of this is protected by parody [laws].”
Neighborhood Spotlight
Dallas
Despite the live shows, including one later this month at Deep Ellum Art Co., “I have no desire to be famous,” Ballard said. “I’ve never put my picture or name on anything. I like the anonymity of it. Maybe it’s more about my personality. Maybe it’s also just having worked in advertising for 18 years [as a creative director at TRG]. We don’t have our names or faces on anything. But we still make these things we’re proud of.”
Ballard prefers to share the spotlight with his bandmates, though his Western swing background makes him a formidable fiddler. Past the jokey lyrics, past the camp of it all, you realize beneath the spectacle that these are some serious musicians onstage: Peña and Joseph Veazie on vocals, guitarist Max Robertson, Anthony Nagid on keys/synth, trumpet player Joseph Reyes, bassist Beth McPherson, drummer Alan Pollard, and Ballard on violin.
By virtue of the musicianship, the jokes seem to land harder. Looking across the audience at Tulips, one gathers there’s a sense of reprieve from the horrors of ordinary life. And even still, some space to sink into a sacred moment in the show: Johnny Cash covering Taylor Swift with the lights dimmed, a microphone held up to a glazed image of Cash at the bottom of a bowl faced outward. A thought crossed my mind then: “Is this the first post-truth band?” Maybe. But maybe it’s something lighter and freer. The new sound to these so-called aftertimes.
This story originally appeared in the June issue of D Magazine with the headline “Rocking Havoc.” Write to feedback@dmagazine.com.
