BaioWolf’s had a good run. An obnoxious, fun, and downright ludicrous run. The comedic rap/dance music duo, comprised of Sean Wilson and Rob Schulte (and named for their two favorite Scotts), has been flailing about stages, thrashing at house parties, and inserting fart noises into songs for about six years.
But like all good things, it had to end. “I think stuff like BaioWolf isn’t necessarily something that normally has that kind of longevity,” says Wilson, who admits that there will be plenty of opportunities for him to still be cheeky and comical. “As far as stuff like BaioWolf goes, I don’t think I’ll run out of means to be ridiculous and juvenile.”
On Friday, BaioWolf is ending their reign of ridiculousness with a final blowout performance. They’ll be performing at the Eleven Productions anniversary shows, and are the only band to play more than once. In fact, they’ll be playing at every single venue on the bill. Just like their nonsensical lyrics, there really is no rhyme or reason for inserting themselves into every lineup. “It’s kind of going to be pretty epic, even for us. We’ve never done like five or six shows in one day,” says Wilson. “I like the idea of just this big pool of musicians who really like each other taking over a town for one night, and just throwing down. I think everybody who’s involved with the show is going to have an awesome time.”
Going Over the Top
The BaioWolf bromance started when both Wilson and Schulte, who were attending the same community college in Kansas City, noticed a lack of music lovers in their area. The two became drawn to each other through their taste in similar music, and eventually formed a band. “We were actually a five-piece metal band,” says Wilson. “Slowly, we lost our guitar player, then we lost our keyboard player, then we lost our drummer.” While members of the band were dropping like flies, Wilson and Schulte noticed Battle of the Bands events they had booked were rapidly approaching. “We still had to play them, so in a week and a half we wrote this ridiculous dance music,” says Wilson. “We decided to take the silliness of what we’d been doing and really go over the top and not really care about how stupid it was.”
Wilson says they eventually got a knack for what they were doing. “We started sequencing everything so we wouldn’t have to play keyboard, and could focus on taking off our clothes, doing gymnastics and being ridiculous.” After that, it became easy to throw caution to the wind. “I think it started from this notion that most bands or groups of kids aren’t really aware of how silly or ridiculous they are,” says WIlson. “So let’s start the most authentic, insincere band we can think of. So over the top, so ridiculous, so terrible and so hard to swallow at the same time.”
Ridiculous In Their Own Right
The band may have started off pretty daffy, but the next several years were spent nailing down the art of being ridiculous. With growing careers in live music (Schulte works with Pipeline Productions, and Wilson works with Eleven Productions), the slaphappy melody-makers began focusing on creating an experience at their live shows. “I think one of the things that a lot of people lose in live shows is the sense that a live show should be fun,” says Wilson. “It should be unforgettable, it should be an experience, more than just ‘I’m glad I got to see this thing.’ Otherwise, going to a live show is just wearing a band t-shirt.” If you’ve been to one of their shows, you’ll know that BaioWolf has never tolerated a stationary crowd filled with concert-goers who stand with their arms crossed. “It feels like a bunch of psych patients trying not to lose their shit, waiting to break down, but they can’t because there’s people watching,” says Wilson. “Being in BaioWolf is kind of like being in that group of people and shoving them and being like ‘Do something!'”
Working with Eleven Productions helped provide several outlets for the band’s craft. The company is notorious for hooking up local bands with big-name acts, and provided plenty of stages for the members of BaioWolf to express themselves. “That’s one of the reasons that we saw fit that maybe this would be like the magnum opus,” says Wilson, who says the band may have not lasted as long as it did had it not been for Eleven Productions. “It kind of reinvigorated it and reshaped why we thought it was important over the years. It kind of recharges your batteries and you get to play noise crimes for people who are waiting to hear Girl Talk.”
Hip Hop on the Horizon
The noise-makers are parting ways, but not disappearing from the scene by any means. Schulte now makes music under the alias Robocopter; and Wilson has several projects in the works, including a collection called “57 57s.” “Three years ago, I was going back over a lot of the music I recorded. A handful of these songs were exactly 57 seconds long,” says Wilson, who plans to release the collection on an album. “I think it’s really easy to get into or ignore a song for 57 seconds.” Wilson says he’s also working on a solo hip hop project, which (like BaioWolf) won’t run short of obscenities. “I don’t think I’ll be hard pressed to find ways to be ridiculous,” says Wilson. “I’m not sure what my MC name is, but I think I’m going to go with Hot Dick Cop Killer.” His second choice for an MC name was “MC Necrophelic Orphan Lust.”
Wilson’s not ruling out the possibility of a reunion show. “Anymore, it doesn’t really feel like bands end when they do anyway. How many times have most bands broken up and gotten back together,” says Wilson. “We started this back when neither of us were old enough to drink. Maybe we’ll come back to it when we’re super old, and it’ll be awesome again, because it’ll be two middle-aged dudes doing the same ridiculous type of shit.”
See the final round (maybe) of BaioWolf’s ridiculous shit on Friday, November 11th, at Love Garden, The Bottleneck, The Jackpot, The Granada and The Replay.
Lawrence, Kansas
- December 1, 2024
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