I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PG. 99 Document #8 (2005).

In yesterday’s post I talked about a pg. 99 concert in which they played the entirety of this album.  Since the album is available for streaming (and download) at Robotic Empire, I figured I’d give it a real listen.

While there’s no mistaking that this is the same band, I was surprised by just how nuanced this recording proved to be.  That almost seems like a joke because it is a blistering punishing punk album, but there are a lot of moments where the band is quiet and there’s only one instrument playing, or when you can actually hear lyrics.

The disc opens with a sampled quote about “Playing whatever you want as sloppy as you want.  As long as it’s good and has passion.”  This album is not sloppy at all–it’ s very noisy and chaotic, but the chops are there–the band is very precise.  I also like the unusual guitar sounds in “Your Face is a Rape Scene.”  “The Hollowed Out Chest of a Dead Horse” sounds much better on album than live–you can really hear all of the diverse parts and the interesting tones that the lack of noise produces.  And the ending is really quite beautiful (maybe if it has been in the middle it could have broken up some of the pummeling).

There are two more songs on the album than were played live.  In the concert, the singer said  that they only learned  those seven songs, which may well be true.  I love the title of the one extra track, “The Lonesome Waltz of Leonard Cohen.”  The Final Track, “The List (FILTH)” has a completely different recording style and sound, so I assume it must be some kind of bonus track.  Indeed, some research tells me that these are both bonus tracks, which makes sense as the end of “Horse” does sound like an album ender.

[READ: December 13, 2012] “I Love Girl”

I’ve said before that I really like Simon Rich’s super short jokes.  And I’m a little less enamored of his longer jokes.  This one was three pages and there was a lot to like about it, but something that kind of bugged me as well.

This “story” is about Oog.  He’s a caveman (duh) and he speaks like a caveman (which mostly means leaving the word “a” out before nouns).  Oog is Rock Thrower.  Oog is not too smart–he can’t make words good and although he understands the numbers one and two, he has trouble with three and four.  And forget about five.  But Girl is smart.  And once in school Girl helped him with his math by saying that four was just two twos.  He still doesn’t understand what she meant.

Oog loves Girl.  But Girl belongs to Boog.  Boog is an artist.  He draws pictures of horses and demands respect from everyone.  He also has sex with Girl right in front of everyone.

I enjoyed that Rich portrays Oog (who is just one of several people named Oog) as an insecure guy who would love to speak to Girl but doesn’t have the nerve.  The scene where Boog teases Oog for not “getting” his art is well trodden turf.  The caveman vs sensitive guy trope is done very well.  And the ending is quite funny and very satisfying.

So why did I not love it?  I’m not sure.  It feels like an easy joke, maybe?  Or maybe it went on too long?  Maybe I’m being too critical–it did make me laugh, after all.  Just not as out loud as Rich usually does.