So let me get this straight.

They’re a full-fledged band…..and they’re also a mime troupe.

But they sing.

Well okay then, let’s…rock?

This all begins in the 1960’s (because of course it does) with the premier French mime of the time, Etienne Decroux. He posited a theory that you could take talented people from one area of the creative arts and teach them to be talented in another area. He tested this idea with a group of musicians and found they not only learned quickly how to paint, but they painted well. He wondered if he could repeat the experiment with his own chosen art — the art of mime.

Leaving Decroux to walk against the wind, the manager of the painting musicians decided to run with the idea himself and assembled a new group made up of music students from Danbury College in Connecticut. They called themselves The Hello People (later dropping the The).

Wearing the classic white facepaint of their adopted art, the group would mime lyrics and perform sketches in between songs, all the while playing as a normal band with multiple vocalists the rest of the time. It certainly worked as a publicity stunt, and The Hello People appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1968 — and a few months later on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour — performing their anti-war anthem, appropriately entitled, “Anthem.” Unfortunately, this widespread publicity didn’t lead to widespread record sales or hits.

At some point in the early 70’s, Hello People met Todd Rundgren and two things happened: he utilized them as his backing group on a couple of tours, and he produced their 1974 album, The Handsome Devils. Todd emphasized hooks and vocal arrangements and it led to the band’s greatest commercial success.

Released as a single in 1974, “Future Shock” — also the opening track of the album — demonstrated a different sound for the band. Gone were the elements of folk and free jazz from their earlier records. They now sounded contemporary, and thanks to their new producer, played with a pop-inflected edge. “Future Shock” climbed up to #71 in the US (not spectacular, but pretty good for a manufactured band who were told they had to become mimes). Hello People continued to work with Todd and recorded a couple more albums in the 70’s before exiting in true mime fashion, by quietly fading away.