Dead-Mowh-Five: One Gimmick After Another

If you follow indie music at all, particularly the dance/electronic music scene, you've probably come across this guy at least once or twice:

Joel Zimmerman, aka "deadmau5" (read as dead-mouse, not dead-mowh-five), has been on the electronic music scene for a few years now.  His first album, "Get Scraped," came out in 2006, and if you go into Hot Topic, you'll now see deadmau5 shirts on one or two of the walls.  You might even hear some of his tracks played over the loudspeaker-- that's the kind of popularity this guy has.  Zimmerman performs live with the above-pictured mouse head helmet, typically atop a huge cube and in front of a huge backdrop of orgiastic lights and insanity:

Unfortunately, last year at Bonnaroo, I did not know who this guy was.  I completely missed seeing him, and it turned out to be a show that a couple of my friends said "made them sure that coming to Bonnaroo was worth it."  I wish I had known about him then-- it looks like a lot of fun, doesn't it?  

Let's look, now, at another electronic act's live setup.  Daft Punk has been around for a few more years than deadmau5 has, having released albums in '97, '01 and '05.  This was taken from one of their live shows: 

Some very striking similarities exist between the two live setups, wouldn't you say?  In both cases, we have the bed of lights behind the very defined geometrical shape, atop which the artist(s) sit(s), strapped in with their headgear.  

And Zimmerman has actually stated in interviews that wearing his mouse head "isn't very comfortable," and at times makes it a little hard for him to see.  So it's clearly not something he does because he likes it, but because it's what so many fans have come to know him for.  Like so many bands that put out one great hit and then struggle forever to outdo it, this very contrived mouse head mask, and really his whole "deadmau5" persona seems like it's going to be pretty hard to evolve from, like it will, for a long time, remain his branding.

But this guy's gimmicks don't stop with his helmet-- the two deadmau5 albums I own are called "Random Album Title" and "For Lack of a Better Name."  Instead of even vaguely trying to capture the feel of his albums in the titles, he decides to pull this dumb little stratagem to seem above conventionality.  And what's more, arguably one of deadmau5's most popular tracks, "Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff," sounds quite a bit in the beginning like it's trying to cash in on the success of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," undoubtedly one of the greatest dance tracks of all time.  "Ghosts" is track two of "For Lack of a Better Name," released just three months after Jackson's death in 2009.  It uses a creepy vocal sample and eerie organ, which sounds exactly like deadmau5 is trying hard to suck the bone marrow out of Michael Jackson's skeleton and use it to kick off his dance track.  But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:

I mean, the guy composes some pretty catchy stuff sometimes, and maybe I'm being a little too hard on him, but really, the whole deadmau5 schema just seems like such a con.