One of the biggest songs on I’m In Your Mind Fuzz was its leading single, “Cellophane.” While the song was released to show off what Mind Fuzz could be, it seems to have taken the band by surprise. Stu said "’Cellophane’ is a segue — a section — and it’s awesome that people have latched onto it, because we didn’t really think of it as a song. It’s always surprising to us the things that people dig!”
The song’s fuzz guitars, motorik drum beat and catchy bassline created an early hit for the band that has continued to be played to this day.
According to Stu, “Cellophane” was the last song of the suite to be completed: “Of the four tracks of that suite, this was the last one to come together. The ‘I’m In Your Mind’ thing was first, and it did really feel like it needed to go to some other place. The song just needed to go somewhere else and then come back.”
The earliest known performance of the song was on 2014-02-09 at St Kilda Foreshore in Naarm (Melbourne). The setlist indicates that there was a song named “Math” which may have referred to this song, “I’m Not In Your Mind”, or a combination of the two. Just like on the album, it was part of a four song suite of “I’m In Your Mind” > “I’m Not In Your Mind” > “Cellophane” > “I’m In Your Mind Fuzz.” The song was recorded by Wayne Gordon at Daptone Records in Brooklyn and mixed by Michael Badger and Stu. “Cellophane” would be included on I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, released on October 31st, 2014.
The track would become a single on September 4th, 2014, with a Jason Galea directed music video on the 15th.
The video, utilizing anaglyph 3D, starts with Stu watching TV. He switches to a channel playing psychedelic colors with the rest of the band performing in red robes with gold jewelry, while the drum kits are covered in red fabric. He is then magically given a pair of 3D glasses and sucked into the screen to play the song before being thrown out of the TV into a park at the very end.
The video description has a link to a Mediafire folder that contains a high quality version of the video, as well as a .zip file containing the single with the B-side of the band’s rarity “The Wholly Ghost.” This single would later be issued as a 7” vinyl single with additional 3D glasses, which have since become highly sought after collectibles. In 2014, Stu talked about the creation of the video: “That song kind of references 3D movies and it’s sort of a silly song, it’s light-hearted, so we thought we’d do something that suited it. It’s mostly his idea – he’s done some 3D stuff in the past, but it’s a total collaboration and he’s the brain. He’s the talented one.”
In 2016 Galea stated the inspiration for the video: “The 3D glasses idea came from the lyrics of the song about watching 3D movies with cellophane glasses. The 3D idea didn't happen straight away, but after trying this 3D stereo effect, it gave an interesting effect, which looked good to me with or without glasses on.” As for the robes, he explained: I’ve been using robes and cultish looks in my videos for a while now. The ideas were present in the Mind Fuzz album artwork, which I thought could be cool to cross over to the video. Mind Fuzz was the first album where the '70s prog and heavier sounds started appearing, which goes hand-in-hand with fantasy imagery like wizards, occult, etc.” He would also express disappointment with YouTube as it compressed the video: “The intensity in video form is hard to match when YouTube compresses the video. I think I could go way further than what I do with intensity, but have to hold back because their bitrate settings wreck anything that’s over-the-top fast, strobe-y, or detailed. The Cellophane video turned out really compressed; hopefully, over time, they’ll give more options for the uploader. Seeing video presented in a gallery or as projections at a show is a much better experience.“
A “de-Anaglyphic” version of the video was later released on May 27th, 2022. In a Reddit AMA that same month Stu named the video as one of the most fun to make. The video would be referenced on the poster for 2019-07-05 as well as the music video for “Black Hot Soup.”
Throughout the years, the song has been included in setlist rotation on and off. The song was played as part of the Mind Fuzz suite extensively throughout 2014 and 2015, with prominent appearances (such as the band’s first KEXP session on 2015-09-02), but would start to change position in 2016. While the suite was played (including in the concert film for Live At San Francisco ‘16 and BOOTLEG HOLIDAY FROM HELL, the band began to introduce the Murder of the Universe track “The Balrog” that year. On the album that song is led into with the suite’s bass line, and in a live setting it was no different. Now it was possible for “Cellophane” to transition into “The Balrog” or stranger yet, for it to be skipped altogether coming out of “I’m Not In Your Mind,” as seen on 2016-07-08. Later in the year the song would begin to transition into “Alter Me II,” such as on 2016-12-09.
In 2017 the suite was scrapped but “Cellophane” was not, with it often appearing coming out of “The Lord of Lightning” near the end of sets. While the song would sometimes then lead to “The Balrog,” (2017-03-18) it was often the end of the sequence. This led to it being the final song of a massive opening medley heard at the end of the year: “Some Context” > “Welcome to an Altered Future” > “Digital Black” > “Han-Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg” > “The Lord of Lightning” > “Cellophane.” It would occasionally go into “I’m In Your Mind Fuzz” but this was rare (2017-11-18). This lasted going into 2018 but would begin to be phased out in August with the band opting for “Digital Black” > “Vomit Coffin” (shortened) > “The Lord of Lightning” > “Cellophane.” The song would also be cut out of the medley entirely at some shows, such as 2018-06-07 where the band chooses to replace the song with “Altered Beast I,” or in the case of 2018-08-22, nothing at all.
The age of “Cellophane” as an independent piece from the suite was over. On 2019-08-14 at SVN West in San Francisco, the song would return to the Mind Fuzz suite where it would remain throughout the year, though some performances would cut out “I’m In Your Mind Fuzz.” The song would be played at two 2020 shows and stuck with the band as part of the Mind Fuzz suite moving forward (though there may be exceptions such as with 2024-03-21, the first “The Lord of Lightning” + “Cellophane” pairing since 2018-10-13).
All of this makes “Cellophane” the most played song from the sequence.