Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band, formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. Oingo Boingo emerged from a surrealist performance art theatrical troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, founded in 1972 and led by Danny Elfman's brother Richard Elfman. Oingo Boingo were known for their high energy live concerts and experimental music, which can be described as mixing rock, ska, pop and world music. This eclectic mix of styles would eventually influence bands as varied as Fishbone, Nirvana and Mr. Bungle. The band's body of work spanned 17 years, with various genre and line-up changes. Their best-known songs include "Only a Lad", "Dead Man's Party" and "Weird Science". As a rock band, Oingo Boingo started as a ska and punk-influenced new wave octet, achieving significant popularity in Southern California. During the mid-1980s, the band changed line-ups and adopted a more pop oriented style, until a significant genre change to alternative rock in 1994. At that point, the name was shortened to simply Boingo and the keyboardist and horn section were dropped. The band retired after a farewell concert on Halloween 1995, for which they reverted to the name Oingo Boingo and readopted the horn section.