SOUNDTRACK:
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC–Poodle Hat (2003).
I think of Poodle hat as a good Al album. It won a Grammy even (the true sign of quality, right?). But its the only one of his albums (along with Polka arty) to not even go gold! That’s pretty amazing given that he’s usually platinum. I read that stat before listening again and I wondered why this album tanked so bad. Was it the title or the cover or what? And why do I think fondly of the record? Well, it turns out I think fondly of the record because of the final track, “Genius in France” a Frank Zappa style parody (which I assume was not terribly endearing to many people either). But what about the rest of the album:
Couch Potato. It’s a good parody of Eminem, but I never thought the original was that good to begin with–it’s pretty repetitive with no real drama. And while the lyrics are funny, so as a lead off track it’s not that great. “Hardware Store” is a weird song–lots of crazy sound effects and backing vocalists. I want to like it more than I do–the fast singing is great the lyrics are all kinda funny but it doesn’t really resonate–the chorus, perhaps is not that great. “Trash Day” is a parody of a song by Nelly, which I don’t know. I’ll now show off my musical prejudice by saying that a lot of these aggressive R&B/rap songs sound very similar with no real hook, which I think makes the parodies harder to enjoy. “Party at the Leper Colony” just seems like a bad idea (especially for Al’s umpeenth album). It’s a rockabilly type song (a style I don’t like anyway), so another thumbs down.
“Angry White Boy Polka”is the first bright ray on the disc–mixing aggressive metal songs in the polka style is a pretty great idea, especially System of a Down, The Hives and The White Stripes. Twisting the style of The Strokes twist is a pretty great idea too. I really enjoyed the way the angry songs are utterly lightened with silly sound effects. It’s very funny.
“Wanna Be Ur Lovr” is a song I never much liked until seeing him perform it live. It’s a sexy song made up entirely of lame come on lines. It’s petty funny but the live version utterly blows it away. “A Complicated Song” is a parody of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”. It seems like it might be just a silly parody until the first verse turns out to be about eating too much cheese. I laughed so hard to find that the first rhyme was “constipated” The other two verses can’t possibly live it to it but that first one is a big highlight (toilet humor it may be, but it’s good toilet humor). “Why Does This Always Happen to Me?” features Ben Folds on piano (the piano is very good). The song is a series of complaints about minor things within the context of real tragedy. It’s a funny idea but the presentation doesn’t seem to work somehow.
“Ode to a Superhero” is a surprise because it uses Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” as the musical basis for a song about Spiderman. It seems like a sure fire hit after “The Saga Begins.” And it works quite well. “Bob” is a series of palindromes (see the title) done in the style of Bob Dylan. It’s very clever. “Ebay” has been mocked for being so similar to an actual eBay commercial, but I think its very funny. I never liked the original but I find myself singing this every time I think of eBay. “Genius in France” features Dweezil Zappa on guitar, and beyond that it gets so many Frank Zappa things right. It is weird and crazy and spot-on. I love to think that it may have made some Zappa fans out of Weird Al fans. And if you’re a Zappa fan, you must listen to this to see just how many great Zappa musical moments he throws in here (including vocals styles and potty jokes).
It’s pretty interesting how the back half of the album is so much better than the first half (that’s no way to sell albums, Al). I can totally see why this album didn’t sell all that well. And I’m a little bummed that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
[READ: June 19, 2013] Legends of Zita the Spacegirl
I actually read this book first of the two (didn’t realize it was the second book in the series and, frankly from the title, how could I?). But I’ll treat it like I read it second.
So this story picks up soon after the first ended. But rather than Zita, we see a robot crawling through a junkyard. The robot’s box says RECALLED and the name is Imprint-o-tron. The robot sees a poster of Zita and is immediately overwhelmed by a crowd who is rushing to see her. Imprint-o-tron paints itself to look like Zita as the crowd assembles.
And there we see, Piper introducing Zita, the girl who saved Scriptorius. But she is nervous, and intimidated by the crowd and tells the truth, that it was Randy who blew up the bad guys. But they aren’t buying it. She signs autographs, gets exhausted and hides behind a rock where Imprint-o-tron sees her and immediately becomes her (but with circles instead of dots for eyes). Zita delights in this doppelgänger and sends it out to do her singing work while she and Mouse run off to have fun.
But then the ambassador of the planet Lumponia informs them that swarm of star hearts are heading for their planet and they as Zita for help. Robot Zita agrees and when real Zita returns to the ship, robot Zita pushes her away and takes off with the crew. (more…)
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When The Hives released their second album, I, like so many people, fell in love with the punchy songs and cool black and white look.
SOUNDTRACK: ARCTIC MONKEYS-Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007).
I really enjoyed the first Arctic Monkeys CD a lot. Despite the hype from England, or perhaps because of the hype from England, I sought out the first record and really dug the aggressive musical style, the funny lyrics and delivery and the great basslines (which, especially in the last song, reminded me of The Jam somehow). They were part of a group of “garage-y” bands at the time like The Vines, The Hives, The Strokes, and I guess even The White Stripes were lumped in there too. I enjoyed most of these bands’ debuts, but didn’t bother with the follow ups.
I Just Read About That... 