Here comes the sun dude
By Dan Koller
Morgan Taylor plays bass for the Autumn Defense, which includes two members of Wilco. He also has an ongoing collaboration with Duncan Sheik.
But Taylor is really making a name for himself through his work with Gustafer Yellowgold.
Gustafer is a cartoon character from the sun who has a pet eel and enjoys stomping on pies, cakes and other desserts. He stars in a DVD called Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World, which features songs and illustrations by Taylor, who's also Gustafer's creator.
Taylor, 36, performed live at last year's Polyphonic Spree Holiday Extravaganza. On Saturday, he and Gustafer return to Dallas.
"We got such a great reaction, we knew we should come back and do our own show," Taylor said via phone from his home in New York.
His Beatlesesque songs aren't like what you'd hear on a Barney DVD. They include themes not common in children's entertainment, such as death. Gustafer says he'll be buried in the sun, and his eel sings about going away to the "great ocean."
"I think the parents appreciate it, because there's definitely not a pandering note in it," Taylor said. "The way I approach it is from what I think is funny and what I think is cool, and not worrying about what's appropriate or not – within reason."
MORGAN TAYLOR ON...
Why he created Gustafer Yellowgold: "I'd been performing straight rock without cartoons for a long time – you know, I'd been in bands for years – but I just felt like the experience was missing something for me."
Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder: "Because of the nature of the DVD and what it's become, I was kind of forced to look at what else is out there. I don't really feel like it fits in with that kind of stuff. Because there's nothing exactly like it."
His weekly shows in New York: "It's more family-based. It's parents and their kids, and the parents are into it. The age range is really broad, which is really cool."
His December show in Grand Prairie: "It kind of cracked the whole thing open. We got a lot of people responding on MySpace, and the activity on our Web site [gustaferyellowgold.com] went up a lot."
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