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Archive for the ‘Funny (ha ha)’ Category

Ben Greenman–Superworse (2004)

Posted in Ben Greenman, Books about writers, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, New Yorker, Short Books, Tanakh, The Wizard of Oz on June 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TANAKH-Tanakh (2004) [UPDATE]

I re-listened to this CD and actually changed my mind about my preference.  I prefer the 58 minute song to the 28 minute one.  And, even though I appreciate the duct-tape-as-musical-instrument aspect of “28,” it lacks a cohesion and a song structure.  “58” even though it is rambling and could have easily been 20 minutes shorter at least has the feeling of a song.  “28” feels just like a bunch of people improvising on whatever is at hand.  And while organized improv is great, sometimes noisy improv can just be noisy.

Incidentally, I notice don this listen that at the 54 minute mark of “58” the bassist hits a wrong note.  How much would that suck if the had to redo the whole song after 54 minutes!  I was amused by this quite a bit.  I guess that proves there were no overdubs.

[READ: May 29, 2008] Superworse

After finishing Superbad, I learned that there was a book called Superworse. It is a “remix” of Superbad. The premise is that for the softcover edition, Laurence Onge, the editor of the first book (and completely fictitious I am now certain), decided to reorganize Superbad and to include a Foreward, an Afterward and a Midward.

For the most part the rest of the book is the same. (more…)

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Andi Watson & Josh Howard–Clubbing (2007) [Minx #3]

Posted in Andi Watson, Books about music, BritLit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Consumerism, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Hex, Josh Howard, Marriage Trouble, Minx, Short Books, Supernatural, YA Books on May 24, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: X-More Fun in the New World (1983).

This is one of the first CDs I ever bought. When CDs first starting coming out, I was a freshman in college. There was a woman in a nearby dorm, Anita, who was super cool and had great taste in music. I, of course, had a major crush on her, but never said or did anything about it. Oh well…we’re each happily married now, so all is well. Before college I was big into…the metal. High school was all about getting into as many metal bands as I could. When I got to college, my eyes were opened to all kinds of interesting music. And, even though I liked punk as well as metal, I had never heard X before. Anita had some older brothers and they taught her well, and she, in turn, passed on the joys of X (and, interestingly, Cat Stevens). So, when I got my first CD player, I rushed out and bought a Rush CD and More Fun in the New World. Part of the reason I bought this was because I didn’t want to get something I already had on vinyl. And, over the years it has become a hugely favorite CD for me.

More Fun in the New World is a great bit of Reagan-era punk. I mean how great an opening line is: “Honest to goodness, the bars weren’t open this morning. They must’ve been voting for the president or something.” Or, an even better chorus: “It was better before before they voted for whatshisname. This was supposed to be the new world.” The saddest bit is how relevant the lyrics still are today. This song was recently reintroduced to me on the Pearl Jam Live from Easy Street EP, when John Doe duets with Eddie Vedder and they ad lib “It was better before before they voted for whatshisname (and his dad).”

Some interesting things about X are their country roots (they created a side project called The Knitters, that was much more countryesque than X) and the great duets of John Doe and Exene Cervenka. They brought great off-kilter harmonies to their songs of despair and longing.

Despite the “punk” label, the songs are only punk in attitude, not music. (more…)

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Ben Greenman–Superbad (2001)

Posted in Ben Greenman, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), McSweeney's, New Yorker, Political Humor, Short Books, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Superbad, The Beautiful South on May 16, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BEAUTIFUL SOUTH-Superbi (2007).

I reviewed all of the Beautiful South records a few posts back. This one had not been released in the US at the time, and as far as I can tell has yet to be. But I ordered the import and here it is. Reviewing this is somewhat irrelevant as the Beautiful South have officially disbanded. It’s quite a pity as this album shows no sign of creative drop off. In fact, this album is one of their best.

The variety of styles in songs is really impressive. And each song contains the trademarks of The Beautiful South: incredibly poppy/happy sounding songs with good verses and catchy choruses combined with acerbic lyrics about relationships breaking up, and, interestingly, inanimate objects.

Some songs: “Manchester” is such a wonderfully winning song, with the great line, “if rain made England great it made Manchester yet greater.” All along, with such a great catchy chorus…. Even a bleak song like “When Romance is Dead” comes out beautifully in a striking duet. And speaking of duets, there’s a new female voice added to TBS on this record. Alison Wheeler is number three. I guess the bitterness of Heaton’s lyrics are hard to take sometimes. Wheeler does a great job. She has a strong voice and maintains a continuation of style to the previous women:

Paul Heaton, the singer and de facto leader, released a solo album a few years back under the name Biscuit Boy, and it was much the same, if slightly more dancey. Story is that he’s got a new solo album coming out in July, and I’ll bet its pretty great too.

[READ: April 2008] Superbad.

I ordered this book from McSweeney’s and, as you’ve heard before, I didn’t know much about it. I did know it was not related to the movie of the same name, however. In fact, here’s a pretty funny letter from Greenman to Seth Rogen about the name Superbad. (more…)

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Michael J. Nelson–Mike Nelson’s Death Rat! (2003)

Posted in Adventure, Art Brut, Books about writers, Funny (ha ha), King Missile, Michael J. Nelson, Minnesota, MST3K, Prince, Smarty Pants on May 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ART BRUT-It’s a Bit Complicated (2007).

Art Brut is a really great punky band from England. Their first album contained two great singles: “Formed a Band” and “My Little Brother.” The premise of the band is that they play fast but melodic songs–they’re punk, but not thrash, and the songs are crisp. But the really unique aspect is the singer, Eddie Argos, who basically talks rather than sings, in his strong London accent. In fact, in “Formed a Band” he states: “And yes, this is my singing voice; It’s not irony; And it’s not rock and roll; I’m just talking; To the kids.”

This sets the stage for the rest of that album and this, the successor. Now, a band like this is stuck with two options: continue with this style of speaking/singing and possibly become a novelty or move on to a new style, thereby belying the lyrics from their manifesto. They chose option one. And the good news is that, while not making a better album that the first one–which is pretty fantastic–they come up with a slightly more mature album, which is still pretty great.

When your style of music is almost a gimmick, it’s not easy to get past that. The first two or three times you listen to the record, you are totally sucked in by Argos talking to you. Sometimes he’s yelling, sometimes he’s almost singing, and most of the time he’s being cockily self-deprecating (how you do that, I’m not sure). And you start to think of the band as little more than a spoken word record with backing music. Until you start to listen to the music. Then you gain a fuller appreciation for the band. The musicians are all top notch, playing rhythmic and catchy punk. Some songs have great chugga chugga riffs, others have really catchy guitar soloing type riffs, and all the time, the songs maintain a verse/chorus structure that keeps the songs from being simply rants set to music.

The album is fast and furious. The songs are funny without being twee, or tiring themselves out. The closest band I could compare them to is King Missile. Those of you who remember “Detachable Penis” from the 90s know King Missile. (more…)

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Eric Hoffman & Gary Rudoren–Comedy By the Numbers (2007)

Posted in Dip-in Books, Eric Hoffman, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gary Rudoren, Lush, McSweeney's, Mr Show, Pretty Girls Make Graves, X-Ray Spex on May 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES-Elan Vital (2006).

Every time I listen to this record I think I’m not going to like it, and that is because I really don’t like the first song. I’ve never had a record that rubbed me so badly off the bat and then turned out to be such a fulfilling record overall.

I first heard PGMG when they first came out. I knew their band name from the Smiths’ song, so I had to see what they were about. But I was surprised to hear how unSmithsy they were. Their first two albums were great and then they seemed to go away for a while. When Elan Vital came out I’d read a few mixed reviews of it and it took me ages to pick it up. And, then, as I said, that first song…. I’m not sure what it is about the song that rubs me the wrong way. In and of itself it’s a very generic sounding song, but after listening to the rest of the album I think I figured out what i don’t like about song one.

The rest of the album is very sparse, almost angular, and yet they maintain an incredibly catchy aspect. There’s always at least one interesting part of every song. “Pyrite Pedestal” reminds one of later Lush, but only in the vocals, because Lush has always been kind of smooth and, well, lush. This song keeps the attitude of Lush, but sticks in a very simple melody line and instruments. The simplicity really highlights all of the aspects of the song…nothing is lost. And this is true for the rest of the songs as well. Each instrument, each vocal line, everything is so crisp, it really stands out.

As I’m reliving the record I’m realizing why it’s so hard to describe. It’s because although every song sounds like PGMG, the vocals are very strong and consistent and there’s a punk edge to everything, the styles of the songs vary greatly within the record. “Domino” is practically disco (but angry disco). And yet overall they remind me of X-Ray Spex. Andrea Zollo’s voice is less shrieky and much prettier than Poly Styrene’s and they are clearly post-grunge in their sensibilities, but they hearken back to the 1970s punk scene quite clearly.

Two other things that have changed in the band since their first two great albums: they’d added a keyboardist, who contributes really nice touches, and even carries one of the songs…but the keyboards never “soften” the songs. And, they use horns from time to time. I don’t recall if they did before but it does stand out in the mix now. (They are used to their detriment on the last song however. The main body of the song is quite good, but then it degenerates into a weird 4 minute keyboard and horn jam session. It’s as lame as it sounds. I don’t know what they were thinking ending their album like that.)

Oh, and so why don’t I like the first song? The whole album is clear sounding and immediate. Each song, with its differing styles and sounds is so unique. However, the first song sounds like they threw all of these elements together. There’s so much going on that it turns the whole song into mush. It sounds like a generic 90’s alternative song with layers of noise. But, don’t let that fool you. Skip track one and enjoy the awesome songs of Elan Vital

[READ: February 2008] Comedy By the Numbers.

A sample chapter of this book came with McSweeney’s 23. It was pretty funny so I bought the book. This is one of those strange books that McSweeney’s excels at: It seems like a joke and yet it is quite serious, except when it’s funny. So the premise is that this is a list of 169 comedy tropes that, once you master, will make you funny.

(more…)

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J. Storer Clouston–The Lunatic at Large (1899) [THE COLLINS LIBRARY No. 5 (2007)]

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), J. Storer Clouston, McSweeney's, Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, Paul Collins, Paul Simon, Smarty Pants, Star Trek, The Collins Library, Vampire Weekend on April 26, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: VAMPIRE WEEKEND-Vampire Weekend (2008).

There’s some hype surrounding this record. And of course, I wouldn’t have heard about it without the hype. But I have to say this is my favorite record in a long, long time. It has everything! It’s got really tight, fun catchy songs…some as short as 2 minutes. It has wonderfully pretentious lyrics, and outrageous instruments, like the mellotron and harpsichord. And yet somehow, it manages to avoid all manner of pretension. Rather, it’s just catchy as all get out.

I can’t even pick a favorite song, as they are all great in their own way. I’ve heard that this album is compared to Paul Simon and that it’s being described as AfroPop. I only see the Simon comparison on one song, and I’m not sure what AfroPop is exactly, so I can’t address that. But I will say that it reminds me of many different genres as the record speeds by. There’s even a retro ska feel to a couple of songs, and I do loves me some ska! No song overstays its welcome, and it all seems so effortless and joyful. I finally got to listen to it in the car on a warm night and it was absolutely perfect.

Yet despite all the simplicity and brevity, the album has a lot going on underneath it. The rhythms are fairly complex, the basslines are fantastic–not show offy, just busy–and yet they perfectly propel the songs along. And, since I love smart lyrics, I love these guys for their great couplets. The songs are smart, without being cute and even though they do boil down to basic love/lost love themes, the words within are original and wonderful.

I absolutely love this album.

[READ: April 10, 2008] The Lunatic at Large

This book is from 1899 and was reissued by McSweeney’s in 2007. I bought this book without knowing…anything about it. I’d certainly never heard of it before. I had put it aside with low expectations.

The introduction indicated that this book is a missing link between the humor of Oscar Wilde and P.G. Wodehouse. That was a promising idea, and I’m delighted to say that it is quite true.

(more…)

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John Lloyd & John Mitchinson–The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong (2006)

Posted in Canadian Music, Dip-in Books, Douglas Adams, Funny (ha ha), John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, Smarty Pants, Stephen Fry on April 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG-Chrome Dreams II (2007).

I reviewed some live Neil Young releases a little while back, and now I’ve come to this, Neil’s latest release. Since he stopped making his grunge records in the nineties, he’s been releasing a lot of records that are more mellow (aside from Living with War which was clearly a cathartic outburst for him). Silver and Gold (2000) is a very pretty collection of songs, and Greendale (2003) is a fun, meandering story with some rather good songs on it. So, Chrome Dreams II is a really nice change of pace for the man of so many genres.

There’s some back story about why it’s called Chrome Dreams II, and you can read about it here if you want. But I just want to talk about the songs. The record starts off with another fantastic country-tinged ballad “Beautiful Bluebird” as heartwarming a song as Neil writes. But it’s really song three that is the standout track. At over 18 minutes long, “Ordinary People” is a weird piece of music for Neil. It’s a very simple song: verse, chorus, bridge, solos. It rocks pretty hard, almost like the grunge days of yore, but the horns make it seem less grungey and more classic rocky. The verses are little slices of life, the chorus is about how the folks in the choruses are all ordinary people, and the bridge moves to the solos. What is pretty impressive about the song is that it never gets tedious, even for 18 minutes. The solos are pretty interesting, and they get more frenetic as the song goes on, but there’s also solos from the horn section (yup, the song has horns, too). My favorite part of the song is the seemingly tossed off feeling of it. The backing vocals don’t really keep up with the lead vocals, sometimes they’re lazily behind, there’s even some improvs from them. It just sounds like they’re having a lot of fun. And that’s good. Normally I like my 18 minute songs to have multiple parts and time changes, but this one manages to pass by on charm.

The rest of the album contains a mix of pretty ballads and unusual rockers. “Shining Light” is another strong ballad that hearkens back to the seventies for me. And then there’s “Dirty Old Man,” a totally silly song about being, well, a dirty old man. It rocks pretty hard in the way many of Neil’s classic songs do. The album then winds down with a 14 minute song that’s not quite a thrilling as “Ordinary People,” as it’s a lot more soloing. The album ends with a pretty song sung with what seems like a children’s choir, “The Way,” which is cute and never descends into mawkishness.

It’s an album that’s all over the place, and yet those differences really make the set versatile and interesting. It’s a really enjoyable collection. It seems that with every new release, people always talk about how Neil is washed up. It must be hard to live up to the glory days of the classic period. And yet, I find his newer releases to be very enjoyable, too. I can’t help but wonder, if you’re Neil Young, you pretty much have to recognize that your all time classic songs are behind you. I mean, he has songs that people still love that are over 30 years old. So, it’s probably okay to sit on your laurels a bit. He still turns out good solid records every couple of years. So, is it possible he’s saving up another “Like a Hurricane” or “Ohio?” I was delighted with the passionate outpouring of Living with War, and am delighted with Chrome Dreams II. I just can’t help but wonder if it’s even possible to write a song now that lasts 30 years.

[READ: March 14, 2008] The Book of General Ignorance

Why is it that UK covers (the one on the right at the top of the post) are so much more interesting than US covers?

(more…)

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Paul Quarrington–The Spirit Cabinet (1999)

Posted in Canadian Content, Funny (ha ha), Illusion, INXS, Mike Bullard, Paul Quarrington, The Beatles on March 26, 2008| 2 Comments »

spiritSOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-Let It Be (1970) & Let It Be…Naked (2003).

let-it-be.jpgletitbenaked.jpgI may have mentioned before that I wasn’t a huge fan of the Beatles. This has changed as I get older, but in high school and college I didn’t really want anything to do with them. My freshman roommate in college announced on our first day that he thought that all bands were devil worshipers, and that the only music he was allowed to listen to at home was the Beatles. Consequently, he only had the Beatles on CD (and, curiously INXS Kick). That’s enough to make you hate the Beatles forever.

But I don’t anymore. Sarah was a big Beatles fan growing up, and through her, I have gained an appreciation that I never had. And now when I listen to their records I can’t get over how GOOD some of those songs are (duh!).

So for Christmas, we got Let It Be (for some reason she didn’t have it) and Let It Be…Naked. I had heard a lot about the Naked CD, so I was really interested in listening to it and seeing how different it was from the original.

I’m not going to talk about Let It Be, because why would I add to what everyone else already knows. But what I wanted to mention was Let It Be…Naked and how I feel it is somewhat falsely advertised. The premise is that these are the original recordings from the Let It Be session stripped bare from all of the production that Phil Specter added to the final copy. (Having read a bit more, I see this summary is simplistic and somewhat inaccurate, but if you want to read the complex details about the recording and release of Let It Be, you’ll have to look elsewhere).

(more…)

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Millard Kaufman–Bowl of Cherries (2007)

Posted in Carla Bozulich, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Diamanda Galas, Egyptology, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Geraldine Fibbers, Godspeed You Black Emperor, McSweeney's, Millard Kaufman, Silver Mt. Zion, WMDs on March 15, 2008| 5 Comments »

bowl.jpgSOUNDTRACK: CARLA BOZULICH-Evangelista [CST041] (2007).

carla.jpgThis record comes from the mighty Constellation label. Don and Ian are super nice guys in Montreal who release some fantastic music. I have been a fan for years, and I have all of their releases. I get them sight unheard, because I know they release good, quality music with great packaging. They came to my attention through Godspeed You Black Emperor, a fantastic instrumental band, and their spinoffs (A Silver Mt. Zion, etc.).

Initially, they released pretty much only bands that had connections to each other (to see who plays on each others’ records, you’d need a spreadsheet about ten pages long). They have since branched out to include some really notable musicians like Vic Chesnutt (!) and Carla Bozulich.

Carla Bozulich was the singer for the great band The Geraldine Fibbers. gfib.jpg She has a very strong voice, and sounds not unlike Diamanda Galas, meaning she can hit the high notes, and the powerful notes, and the screechy notes, and tends to be a bit scary from time to time. In the context of the Geraldine Fibbers, it was really an amazing thing to behold.

They were a sort of country-punk band, and they were really tight. Carla’s vocals could scream or soothe depending on her mood. And working together, they were pretty great.

I mention this band because Carla’s solo album is a little too free-form for her own good. She thanks the producers for letting her get out things that have been inside. And I’m sure that was cathartic. However, I find that her voice needs the stabilizing force of a solid backing band. This solo album has very erratic (and very interesting) music, but when combined with her voice, it’s just a little too much chaos. With the Fibbers, the grounding of the backing band and structured songs really made her voice shine. On this one, there’s just so much going on that it’s all a bit of a mess.

The music itself is actually pretty great. It’s very unusual, with strings, and staccato sounds. Her voice also sounds great. After all, it’s been a few years since the Fibbers broke up, so it’s nice that she can still hit the notes. It’s just that the off-kilter music really competes with her off-kilter voice leading to an overall unsatisfying experience.

She has a new one coming out with a full band called Evangelista. I’ve listened through once, and it sounds much more cohesive. I think the solo record was just something to get out of her system.

[READ: March 10, 2008] Bowl of Cherries

McSweeney’s published this book. And the only story behind this book that you may have heard is that the author is old. Really old, not just old for McSweeney’s old, but like nineties old. It’s something of a shame that this was the first (and pretty much only) thing I heard about this book. And yet it is an interesting background in and of itself. (more…)

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Rick Mercer–Rick Mercer Report: The Book (2007)

Posted in Beastie Boys, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Corporate skewering, Dennis Miller, Dip-in Books, Essays, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Jon Stewart, Mercer Report, Nadja, Political Humor, Politicians, Religion, Rick Mercer, The Kids in the Hall on March 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »

rm.jpgSOUNDTRACK: NADJA-Truth Becomes Death (2005).

nadja.jpgSlow and low that is the tempo. Very few reviews of Nadja will quote the Beastie Boys, and that is probably wise. The only reason I do is because the quote is so apt. Nadja plays music that is very very very slow. And the notes are very very very low. Have you ever played a 45 RPM vinyl record (remember those) on 33 and laughed at how it sounded? Well, that’s what this record sounds like. On purpose. There are 3 songs. The first is 23 minutes, the second is 16 and the third is 11.

The sound is generally an ominous drone, punctuated occasionally by high hats. It’s weird to me that someone would have even thought to make music like this.

None of this is to say it’s bad, it is just such a unique sounding record that I’m at a loss when I think about it. Some relief from the oppressiveness comes at the end of the third song, where there are suddenly three minutes of fairly light almost acoustic sing-alongs (this is relative of course, as nothing is light with this band). But for the most part it’s a punishing listen.

I’m not sure when you would play this, but I think you wouldn’t want to be anywhere where this is the soundtrack.

I discovered this album because I was buying records from the mighty Alien 8 Records web site, and they were having a buy 2 get 1 free sale. So, I tried Nadja. It was a worthy experiment, although I’m not sure if I’ll be checking out their other records. You never know though!

[READ: January 2008] Rick Mercer Report The Book

Many years ago, when I belonged to the Plainfield (NJ) Curling Club, I discovered that I could get satellite TV beamed in from Canada. Since I was really into curling, and so many other things Canadian (Kids in the Hall, 1/2 of my favorite bands) I thought I’d see what I could discover with a satellite dish of my own. It was through this dish that I found out about Rick Mercer. (more…)

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