From left to right: John, Fernanda and Ricardo.
"Pato Fu has a career that gives us an alibi for doing whatever we want. If we wanted to make a disc of country music it wouldn't be so scary. We have songs that go through that, then it wouldn't be so absurd. But we will not do that."
—John Ulhoa
When a student of Public Relations joins two friends who owned a guitar shop to play Alternative Rock, the result is, according to Time magazine, one of the ten best bands on the planet
.
Founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1992 and named after a Garfield comic strip, in which he practices a martial art called " Duck! Cat Fu", Pato Fu has a sound that goes from the heavier rock to ballads, sung in the gentle voice of lead singer Fernanda Takai. Usually with witty lyrics, full of pop references, written by the guitarist John Ulhoa or the bass player Ricardo Koctus, the only sure thing about the band's style is that... well ... it's awesome.
Other artists joined the group over the years, as the percussionist Xande Tamietti and the keyboardist Lulu Camargo, who remain in the band today, and Dudu Tsuda, who left in 2009.
The albums released by Pato Fu so far are:
- Rotomusic de Liquidificapum (1993)
- Gol de Quem? (1994) - "Who Scored the Goal?" (a Brazilian slang which roughly means "What's going on here?")
- Tem Mas Acabou (1996) - "We Have It But We're Out of It"
- Televisão de Cachorro (1998) - "Dog TV" (the name is another popular Brazilian phrase, meaning an industrial oven in which chicken are roasted)
- Isopor (1999) - "Styrofoam"
- Ruído Rosa (2001) - "Pink Noise" (The Portuguese name is a Stealth Pun on Pink Floyd, as "floyd" translates as "fluido", which rhymes with "ruído")
- MTV Ao Vivo (2002) - "MTV Live"
- Toda Cura Para Todo Mal (2005) - "Every Cure For Every Illness"
- Daqui Pro Futuro (2007) - "From Here To The Future"
- Música de Brinquedo (2010) - "Toy Music"
- Não Pare pra Pensar (2014) - "Don't Stop to Think"
- Música De Brinquedo 2 (2017)
Works on video:
- MTV ao Vivo Pato Fu: no Museu de Arte da Pampulha (2002) - "MTV Live: on the Pampulha's Art Museum"
- Pato Fu Video Clipes (2004) - "Pato Fu Music Videos"
- Toda Cura Para Todo Mal (2007) - "Every Cure For Every Disease"
- Extra! Extra! (2009) - "Extra! Extra!"
- Música de Brinquedo Ao Vivo (2010) - "Toy Music Live"
Pato Fu has examples of:
- Album Title Drop: Tem Mas Acabou, has its title dropped in the track "Água"; Toda Cura Para Todo Mal in "Uh Uh Uh, La La La, Ié Ié!"; and Daqui Pro Futuro in "A Verdade Sobre O Tempo".
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The animals from "Uh Uh Uh, La La La, Ié Ié!"'s music video.
- Audience Participation: The crazy and fast radio stations changes that is "Capetão 66.6 FM"? Nobody miss a word in the MTV Ao Vivo.
- Audience Participation Failure: When John lets the audience sing "Quase", in the same "MTV Ao Vivo", they just sang it wrong.
- Break-Up Song: "Tchau Tô Indo Já Fui".
- Bizarre Instrument: "Música de Brinquedo" features instruments made of toys.
- Cover Album: Música de Brinquedo and its sequel are this because, according to John, they wanted to test out their new "instruments" with better known songs. Among them are a few of the band's own songs.
- Dead Artists Are Better: Not with them, but "A Necrofilia Da Arte" is about it.
- Epic Rocking: The almost eight minutes of "Rotomusic de Liquidificapum".
- Everything Is an Instrument: Música de Brinquedo, performed with toy instruments.
- Gratuitous English: The ones that aren't covers, but are still sung in English: "Rotomusic de Liquidificapum", "Onofle" e "Day After Day". In a minor scale, they have "Gimme 30" and "Little Mother of Sky".
- Gratuitous French: Spoc is sung half in Portuguese, half in French.
- Gratuitous Italian: "Gimme 30" is mostly sung in Italian.
- Gratuitous Japanese: "Made in Japan" is entirely sung in Nihongo. The lyrics were written in Portuguese, and John paid a Japanese teacher to translate them. (Fernanda has Japanese ancestry on her father's side, but at the time had very limited command of the language; she has become much more fluent since.)
- Gratuitous Spanish: Tudo Vai Ficar Bem is sung in Portuguese and Spanish. Porque Te Vas is in Spanish too, but it's a Cover Version.
- Grief Song: "Canção Para Você Viver Mais". When Fernanda discovered that her father was with a disease that would make him die, she tried to write a song about her feelings. However, she couldn't deal with it and only decided the title. Then John, after learn what was going on, wrote the song and showed it to her. (and it's
depressing) - Hidden Track: The answering machine in "Feliz Ano Novo".
- Humongous Mecha: The video for "Made in Japan".
- Intentionally Awkward Title: Try to be taken serious by saying that "Uh Uh Uh, La La La, Ié Ié!" is one of your favorite songs.
- Kids Rock: Musica de Brinquedo has a few children singing backing vocals, including Fernanda and John's daughter.
- Larynx Dissonance: Yes, it is Fernanda growling in "Capetão 66.6 FM". It may be a mic effect, but it's still more awesome than how Angela Gossow usually does.
- Literary Allusion Title: "A Hora da Estrela" is the title from a Clarice Lispector's book.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Not so unusual with them, the examples that best fit for sure are "Amendoim" and "Vivo Num Morro".
- Meaningful Name: Música de Brinquedo and its sequel (see meaning above) are so-called because all of its instrumental parts were made with musical toys. Yeah.
- Metal Scream: A lot of small screams in a lot of songs, but there's a truly Metal Scream in "Capetão 66.6 FM".
- Muppet: The live performances of Música de Brinquedo had two puppets from Belo Horizonte's Giramundo as guest Soprano and Gravel backing singers (it makes sense for an album recorded with toys). They even sing lead in a song off Música de Brinquedo 2!
- Never Heard That One Before: They refuse on answering how they got their name nowadays because of having to explain since 1994.
- Non-Appearing Title: "Agridoce", "Amendoim", "Vida Diet", "Antes Que Seja Tarde", "Tchau Tô Indo Já Fui", "Lá Se Vai"...
- Number of the Beast: "Capetão 66.6 FM" (also, Capetão is a Portuguese synonym of devil).
- Precision F-Strike: The last line form "Boa Noite Brasil".
- Shout-Out: They love it. Just to say a few.
- "Pinga"'s chorus is an old song with lame rhymes with soccer players ("Se eu fosse o Pelé tomava café, se eu fosse o Tostão tirava o calção..."note ").
- "Amendoim" means "peanut" and is a Shout-Out to the Peanuts comic strip.
- "Uh Uh Uh, La La La, Ié Ié!" shouts out to famous medications names.
- "Spoc" talks about some guy named Kirk and a "vulcano"...
- "Made In Japan" has its chorus based in the song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" (popularized by The Muppets).
- And "Mamãe Ama É O Meu Revólver" ("Mommy Loves My Revolver") is about mommy's love for the seventh Beatles album.
- Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Even if you speak Portuguese, almost all the "Gol de Quem?" lyrics are incomprehensible.
- Suicide Pact: In "2 Malucos". "Let's get together decomposing!"
- Textless Album Cover: Rotomusic de Liquidificapum and Tem Mas Acabou.
- Theremin: Used in "Eu". Also, the music video is creator Leon Theremin being arrested by the KGB while Pato Fu plays.
- Title-Only Chorus: "Made In Japan".
- Vocal Tag Team: Fernanda and John.
- Word Salad Lyrics: Many times. For an example, their breakout hit "Sobre o Tempo" has the gem "Como zune um novo sedã" ("how a new sedan hums").
- Word Salad Title: Rotomusic de Liquidificapum
- Viewers Are Geniuses: Nobody gets what "Mamãe Ama é o Meu Revólver" means at the first time. Then, they spend a lot of time thinking about it, and things like traffic comes to mind... then they get it.
