Known for her irreverent act, Saucy Yoda turns to the dark side with new album

Saucy Yoda has a reputation.

The creation of musician Melodie Langer, the songs of Saucy Yoda seem flippant, irreverent and bordering on bizarre.

As a live act, Saucy Yoda lets the good times roll, donning elaborate costumes and inviting the crowd to act as backup dancers. And there's also Langer's stage-diving blow-up doll that makes regular appearances at the shows.

Her show Friday at Tap Root should be par for the course. Her act has elicited numerous comparisons — Le Tigre meets The Moldy Peaches and Punky Brewster meets The Beastie Boys and just two she has heard. Langer describes it as Riot Grrrl doo-wop rap with a garage twist.

But after making her name synonymous with fun and frivolity, Saucy Yoda is taking a turn to the dark side.

Her new material, some of which she will be performing during a two-month tour of the Lower 48 and will release in album form next summer, takes on a decidedly more serious lyrical tone.

It's also a departure musically. After focusing much of her early work on rapping over beats, Langer has picked up the guitar and will sing almost exclusively on the upcoming album.

"It's a totally different sound than anything I've ever done," she said. "This next one is all guitar. Some of the songs are very dark. It's way different. It's not funny. It's way more dark."

Langer, who grew up in Florida and is now based in Anchorage, describes the new sound as "ominous and surreal," a brand of garage rock mixed with other influences.

"This was a different time in my life," she said. "I just write whatever is happening in my life. I'm still a goofball. I just have some darker songs now."

Langer learned piano when she was young and was into dance, performing tap, jazz and ballet. But she didn't truly gravitate to music until she got her first turntable and started to DJ as a teenager.

"Eventually after spinning records for so long, I'd try to make things different," she said. "I'd mix Nine Inch Nails with Devo. I was always trying to make a new sound and I finally just started writing my own songs."

She departed Florida for the Pacific Northwest and started recording.

"It started off as more of a rap type of thing but not your typical rap thing," she said. "I loved the Beastie Boys, Beck and bands like that. I loved everything the Beastie Boys did, even their instrumentals. Beck was a huge influence on my first album."

The tongue-in-cheek humor is a clear parallel between those groups and early Saucy Yoda. The catchiest track on Saucy Yoda's second album, "Dysfunctional Dingus," is "Wonton," stacked with innuendo.

"I just woke up one morning and read a Chinese menu," Langer said. "The first verse is Chinese (food), then Japanese and Thai food."

Langer's sound started to change when she had a computer melt down on her. Before she purchased another computer, she bought her first guitar for $200 and started writing songs with the instrument. It gave her a new outlook on music and a release from creating beats, which she says can be a "tedious" process.

The switch to guitar for the upcoming album isn't a permanent change. Langer plans to go back to more beats, and lighter material, for future projects.

"What people don't realize — it sounds funny but (the more offbeat songs), that's me hiding real feelings that are actually happening," she said. "It's like a cover-up. I'm basically making light of my situation that was happening at the time."

Saucy Yoda's tour will span nearly two months, stretching from Washington and Oregon through Nevada, California and Arizona before making a stop in Austin, Texas.

The backing musicians in Saucy Yoda have revolved throughout the course of the project but Langer is very excited about the musicians who will be joining her on tour. They include drummer Jackson Eli McQuown, bassist Dante Manalo and backup singer/dancer Nessa Marie. The latter two will also be performing solo ukulele sets on the tour.

Although she said she thrives on tour, exposing her music to new crowds and being exposed to different influences, Langer said her Alaska shows stand above all others.

"In Alaska, people like to have a lot of fun and get down and dance their asses off and let loose," she said. "Places (in the Lower 48) are a little bit more reserved and insecure. They just stand there and stare at each other."

Saucy Yoda: Escape from AK Tour kickoff show and gas money fundraiser

With Wrick Love and The Poverty Pimps and Sassholes and the Sax Offenders

When: 9 p.m. Friday at the Tap Root Public House

Tickets: $5 (donations for gas money welcome at the merch table)

You can check out more of Saucy Yoda's work at saucyyoda.bandcamp.com