Line #77 Music/SumoCyco


1	[[quoteright:318:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sumocycoimage_2438.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:318:Lie to me/Let me down/Where do we go now?/Where do we go now?/Lift me up/Let me drown/Where do we go now?/Where do we go now?]]
3	Sumo Cyco are a four-piece rock band from Ontario, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Its members are: Sever (Music/SkyeSweetnam) on vocals, M.D. (Matt Drake) on guitar and back-up vocals, Thor (Ken Thor Corke) on bass and Legs (Ryan Kerry Leger) on drums.
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5	Sumo Cyco have their origins in the solo career of their lead singer. In 2008, Skye Sweetnam found herself at a crossroads: her first two albums (2004's ''Noise From The Basement'' and 2007's ''Sound Soldier''), which were very pop-oriented, hadn't exactly set the world on fire in terms of sales figures. Also, she had just turned twenty, and therefore, could no longer refer to herself as a teen pop singer. As she tried to figure out what she was going to do next, she got to work on writing songs with her longtime writing partner Matt Drake, presumably for a third Skye Sweetnam solo album.
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7	As more and more songs were written, both Sweetnam and Drake realized that Skye Sweetnam's lyrics had begun taking a darker turn. With this, an idea sprung forth: rather than put these songs on a third Skye Sweetnam album, Skye decided that the best way to bring these songs to life was with the help of a band. That way, she could go down a new career path without letting her past get in the way. The idea of an alter ego also was hatched around this time. It didn't take long for Skye to figure out who would be a part of her new band project. Drake joined almost immediately, and soon, Skye and Matt's friends, Ken Thor Corke and Ryan Kerry Leger, rounded out the group. After some brainstorming (or rather, just going to a band name generator website and seeing what results, then combining two of the names that they liked, one of which was spelled differently originally), the four settled upon the name Sumo Cyco.
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9	Sumo Cyco's first ever release was a free download of their song "Limp" on March 11, 2011. Since then, the band has put seven songs up for sale on iTunes and other online music stores, with the idea of a full-length album release continually being tossed around by them. A music video has been made for each song released thus far, every single one of them made by the band themselves on a shoestring budget (with a little help from their friends).
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11	The band got a huge boost in popularity and some much-needed publicity in the fall of 2011 when a video of Sever getting hit in the face with a moving ceiling fan during the making of the music video for their song "Interceptor" was posted on Website/YouTube by the band and ended up going viral, appearing on Ray William Johnson's [[WebVideo/EqualsThree =3 YouTube series]] and the TV shows ''Series/AttackOfTheShow'', ''Series/Tosh0'' and ''Series/{{Ridiculousness}}''. Thanks to the band wisely putting a link to the "Interceptor" music video at the end of the ceiling fan video, many of the people who saw "The Ceiling Fan Incident" ended up checking out the "Interceptor" music video, and as a result, Sumo Cyco's fanbase saw a dramatic increase in its numbers in a matter of weeks. Even over a year after it was first uploaded, "The Ceiling Fan Incident" continues getting hits, therefore, more people are discovering Sumo Cyco and becoming fans of them on a consistent basis.
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13	Since they started releasing music, Sumo Cyco have opened up for the bands Music/HollywoodUndead (this was their first ever live concert as Sumo Cyco, in fact) and Finger Eleven, and have played at NXNE (the popular Canadian equivalent of the also popular American SXSW festival), the annual S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival and on the Toronto stop of the Vans Warped Tour 2012. This is all the more impressive when you realize that Sumo Cyco have yet to be signed to ''any'' record label, major OR independent. They wouldn't mind changing that last part one of these days, of course, but the band does take pride in being self-sufficient. They, without a doubt, believe in a D.I.Y. mentality.
14
15	!Singles Released As Of This Writing
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17	* "Limp" ''Released March 11, 2011''
18	* "Mercy" ''Released March 25, 2011''
19	* "Interceptor" ''Released July 15, 2011''
20	* "Danger" ''Released October 28, 2011''
21	* "Who Do You Want To Be?" ''Released January 27, 2012''
22	* "Loose Cannon" ''Released June 29, 2012''
23	* "Where Do We Go?" ''Released October 5, 2012''
24
25	!!Tropes
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27	* AlliterativeName: Cyco City, where the band supposedly "lives".
28	%%* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The ending to the "Limp" music video and the ending to the "Danger" music video.
29	%%* BadGirlSong: "Mercy"
30	* BreakupSong: "Loose Cannon" and "Where Do We Go?". Sever has some rather morbid metaphors for how her ex made her feel.
31	* CallBack: The "Who Do You Want To Be?" music video features references to the "Interceptor", "Limp" and "Danger" music videos.
32	** CallForward: "Who Do You Want To Be"'s video also features a "Ronnie Roadkill" restaurant. Ronnie is the star of the "Loose Cannon" video.
33	* ChristmasSongs: The band did a [[HardRock hard rock]] version of "Little Drummer Boy" for a charity Christmas album.
34	* Cloudcuckooland: When Sumo Cyco first started releasing music, they would simply state that they were from Hamilton/Toronto/the GTA and that was pretty much all there was to it. But around the time the "Interceptor" music video came out, the band started saying that they all hailed from Cyco City. Sever would constantly refer to this fictional location time and time again, with "newspapers" from the city being shown to fans and a "Cyco City News" broadcast being shown in the actual "Interceptor" music video. Fans finally got a peak into Cyco City during the "Who Do You Want To Be?" music video...and it definitely looks like an interesting place to live. Apparently, in Cyco City, every store and bar has a dark theme to it (for example, the store Sears is known as "Fears"), people use products that only exist in Cyco City (there are billboards for "Sumo Soda" and "Vixen" vodka shown during the video) and and no one bats an eyelash at seeing a girl with a TV for a head walking around or alien mobsters playing brass instruments at a club.
35	%%* ConceptVideo: Every music video since "Limp" has been this.
36	* CoverVersion: "Who Do You Want To Be?" is a note for note cover of a song by Music/OingoBoingo, the band that was helmed by Creator/DannyElfman.
37	** Danny Elfman doesn't scream at the end of the song like Sever does, though.
38	* DarkerAndEdgier: Sever's real name is Skye Sweetnam. You may know her from songs like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFBqbf9QTZE this one]].
39	** M.D.'s other band, dodger, is a reggae/rock hybrid that has a catalog filled with upbeat songs about the good things in life. They certainly haven't gone into the territory that Sumo Cyco have, that's for sure. That's actually one of the reasons why M.D. ended up in the band in the first place; he loved dark, heavy music but couldn't write or perform it as a member of his own band. And as a fan of horror, he dug the horror-themed imagery that Sumo Cyco would soon make their trademark.
40	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: M.D. painted half of his face in the "Mercy", "Limp" and "Interceptor" music videos and Sumo Cyco's first live show, but has since stopped doing that.
41	* EchoingAcoustics: The bridge of "Mercy".
42	* ElectricTorture: Sever is trapped in an electric chair throughout the "Danger" music video. It eventually turns her into one of the aliens (or "Terrornauts" as they are known as in the music video).
43	* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: More than one (otherwise straight) female fan has made it clear that they wouldn't mind spending a night alone with Sever.
44	* EverythingHasRhythm: Mr. Z uses spoons as drumsticks in the scene in the "Limp" music video where he is cooking Sever in a pot in the forest.
45	* FlippingTheBird: Sever directs a middle finger to the camera at one point in the "Limp" music video...[[ItMakesSenseInContext while naked in a pot because she's being cooked by a zombie]].
46	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0I781vEjWg&feature=channel&list=UL There's also a one finger salute to the camera montage in the "Limp" behind the scenes video.]]
47	* FunWithAcronyms: In the music video for the single, "Limp" stands for "Lucid Interactive Mind Project".
48	* [[GenreBusting Genre Busting]] + [[GenreRoulette Genre Roulette]]: One of the reasons why no one, including the band themselves, can quite figure out exactly just what genre Sumo Cyco belongs to is because they've done songs mixing influences from various genres. "Limp", "Mercy" and "Loose Cannon" are all firmly in the hard rock genre. But then there's "Danger", which is a softer tune with heavy synth throughout. And "Who Do You Want To Be?" is a note for note cover of the original, therefore it is very much a ska tune. There's also "Interceptor", which is a combination of [[PunkRock punk]] and [[HeavyMetal heavy metal]]. "Where Do We Go?" is a heavy metal song that has Sever rapping in the breakdown section. This has led to the band being called heavy metal, hard rock, [[NuMetal nu metal]] and [[GothRock goth]].
49	** There is an as-of-yet unreleased song called "My Murder" in which Sever raps the verses over a guitar riff.
50	*** Sever tweeted recently that the band is working on a song that mixes a dancehall beat with heavy guitar riffs.
51	*** Skye Sweetnam once referred to the band on her own Twitter feed as "[[GenreMashup metal dancehall punkrockpop]]".
52	* GreatBallsOfFire: In the "Loose Cannon" music video, pyro goes off behind the band at one point in the performance scene (pyro set up by the band themselves, by the way).
53	* HandOrObjectUnderwear: In the scene in the "Limp" music video where Sever is being cooked by Mr. Z in the forest, she uses her right arm to cover her breasts.
54	* HardRock
55	* HarshVocals: Sever in "Limp", "Mercy", "Who Do You Want To Be?", "Loose Cannon" and "Where Do We Go?".
56	* HeavyMetal
57	* HotBlooded: Sever and M.D. can most certainly scream with the best of them. This is certainly most evident in their live shows.
58	* IAmTheBand: Sever formed the band, is the lead singer of the band, edits the band's music videos, handles the band's social media pages (for the most part), and announces band news in videos she posts herself on Website/YouTube. Gee, I wonder who the leader is.
59	* IWantSong: "Who Do You Want To Be?".
60	* InDaClub: The end of the "Who Do You Want To Be?" music video takes place in a club (in actuality Thor's basement) where Starla King (the "star" of the music video, played by Sever) sings the last verse and chorus with the rest of the band.
61	* IndecipherableLyrics: Just what the hell is Sever saying at the end of "Mercy"?
62	* ListSong: "Who Do You Want To Be?".
63	* MetalScream: Sever does this twice in "Where Do We Go?" and once in "Who Do You Want To Be?". When performing live, you can bet that Sever and M.D. will be doing a lot of screaming throughout the show.
64	* MidVidSkit: In "Loose Cannon", during the breakdown section, we get a profile on Ronnie.
65	** In "Limp", the song is put on pause at the part where Sever thinks she has escaped Mr. Z.
66	** In "Who Do You Want To Be?", when Starla King shows up at the club and has a rather...interesting conversation with the Terrornaut doorman.
67	* MonsterClown: [[RuleOfThree Three of them in the music video for "Interceptor".]]
68	* MoodWhiplash: "Who Do You Want To Be?" is [[OutOfGenreExperience pretty ska-ish]] and [[SurprisinglyGentleSong much less heavy than their other songs.]]
69	** It was a note for note cover of a song by Oingo Boingo. Having said that, if you listen carefully, you'll realize that the song ''does'' contain some cynical lyrics, which might be one of the reasons why the band chose to cover it.
70	*** "Danger" definitely counts, but again, the lyrics of that song aren't exactly cheery and upbeat either.
71	* MsFanservice: Sever.
72	* MusicVideoCreditsSequence: Every music video except "Mercy" and "Who Do You Want To Be?" has had one.
73	* [[NaughtyNurseOutfit Night Nurse]]: Sever is dressed as one throughout the "Limp" music video.
74	* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: The disclaimer appears at the end of the "Loose Cannon" music video with an added "BY US!" graphic, a reference to the fact that the dead, rotting raccoon shown at the beginning of the video was actual roadkill.
75	** [[FanDumb This didn't stop some fans from complaining about the part in the video where Ronnie "runs over" Clutch the dog, though.]]
76	* [[TheOner The Oner]]: The alternative music videos for "Limp", "Danger" and "Loose Cannon" are just a continuous shot of the band performing while a camera spins around them. The alternative music video for "Interceptor" has Sever playing poker with the three murderous clowns who want to make her their next victim while a camera spins around them. Outside of "Danger", the videos come with an onscreen graphic at the beginning [[TemptingFate daring viewers to watch the video without vomiting]].
77	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: "Limp" and its accompanying music video.
78	* PerformanceVideo: "Mercy". Their other music videos always include shots of the band performing the song on a set somewhere.
79	* PissTakeRap: Well, you don't see too many white girls from Canada rapping in some of their songs now, do you?
80	* PrecisionFStrike: "Limp" and "Danger".
81	* RereleaseTheSong: When "Limp" and "Mercy" were first released, all proceeds went to [[UsefulNotes/TheRedCross the Canadian Red Cross]] to support them in their efforts to help Japan recover from the devastating 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A little over a year later, "Mercy" was rereleased, after Sumo Cyco had donated over a thousand dollars from the sales to the Canadian Red Cross. "Mercy" and "Limp" both got new single cover artwork after the donation was made.
82	* RecordProducer: M.D.
83	* RockNRoll
84	* SelfBackingVocalist: Sever employs this sometimes.
85	* ShoutOut: Cyco is spelled the way it is as a homage to the legendary [[HardcorePunk hardcore punk rock]] band Suicidal Tendencies.
86	* SingerSongwriter: Sever co-writes all of Sumo Cyco's songs with M.D.
87	* SongStyleShift: In "Limp", after the second chorus, the song speeds up, leading to the awesome breakdown section. Then, the song just stops for one second, before slowing down, building back up to the chorus.
88	* SopranoAndGravel: Sever is a one woman version.
89	* SpokenWordInMusic: After the breakdown section in "Loose Cannon".
90	* StageNames: Sever, M.D. and Legs all use one. Thor just uses his actual legal birth name.
91	* SubduedSection: "Mercy", "Danger", "Who Do You Want To Be?", "Loose Cannon" and "Where Do We Go?".
92	* SurrealMusicVideo: "Mercy" and "Who Do You Want To Be?" can both be considered this.
93	* TalkyBookends: "Interceptor" has the most glaring example. The song is about 3 minutes long, but the music video is almost 10 minutes.
94	* ThatManIsDead: That Girl Is Gone: Sever absolutely refuses to acknowledge Skye Sweetnam's solo career or reference her past in any way. When the band first started releasing music to the public, a story was concocted that Sever had kidnapped Skye Sweetnam and had locked her up in a cage in her attic. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOD_LHwVZ-4&feature=related A YouTube video was even made by Skye showing her getting kidnapped by Sever.]] Yet, at the same time, Skye would say that Sever would take control of her body at random moments, which she continues to say to this very day. These days, Skye constantly talks about her band on her own social media pages, but Sever just pretends that Skye Sweetnam doesn't even exist.
95	** It should be noted that whenever Sever does an interview, she drops the act and does admit that she is both Sever AND Skye Sweetnam. Or as she said in one particular interview, she decides whether she'll be Skye or Sever based on the situation that she is currently facing.
96	* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xBqe1oVOSQ&feature=plcp This video.]]
97	* ThreeMinutesOfWrithing: The music video for "Mercy".
98	* WholesomeCrossdresser: "Who Do You Want To Be?" contains the line "I might just cross the other line and walk around in drag".

Context Music / SumoCyco