Funniest song(s) you've ever heard.

[Jason]

Well I guess the only way you'd find out is if you asked him and even then he probably wouldn't be forthcoming.

[the captain]

Well, next time he makes it this way, I just might try that.

By the way, what did you think of the Discovered Covered album last year?

[Jason]

I'm not usually a fan of tribute albums, but those bands did exceptionally well with the material. His influence is evident in all of those bands.

[the captain]

Agreed on both counts. Tribute albums almost always suck from start to finish (See: This Bird Has Flown, the Rubber Soul 40th Anniversary disc from this year), but this one was very good. The Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair version of "My Life is Starting Over Again" was one of my favorite tracks from last year. It f@cking* rocked.

f*ck foda.

[dude ll doo]

Dylan "You aint Goin Nowhere" with the alternate lyrics.

[I. Spaceman]

"Pack up your money, pull up your tent, McGuinn"!

[Lester Zombie]

"The Lowly Tourist" by Loudin Wainwright III
Several songs on "Oar" by Skip Spence-though they were probably not intended to be so.

[Jason]

Dinah-Moe Humm by Zappa is funny. Very.

[I. Spaceman]

YES! Lawrence Of Euphoria.

[Boxer Monkey]

Anything by the Rocking Guys, an Arkansas band from the early '90s none of you has ever heard. Their first album is nothing but hysterical mashup garage-rock covers of stuff like "Strawberry Fields" done to the tune of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (The Rocking Guys simply call the song "Fields"; all the songs on the first album have one-word titles) or "Stand by Your Man" to "Paranoid" (called "Stand" -- they even rip off REM). There are also completely irreverent covers of "25 O'Clock" by the Dukes of Stratosphear ("Time"), "Astral Plane" by the Modern Lovers ("Astral") and "White Light/White Heat" (forget what they called this one) that somehow are even more compelling than the originals, given the Rocking Guys' distinctive interpretations. It's a brilliant album, but the Rocking Guys actually got even better with their "Assassination" EP, which spins alternate-universe conspiracy theories about both Kennedy murders and the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. (Sample lyric: "Jackie! Jackie! Hold on to his BRAAAAIINSS!!!") Their Christmas EP might be the ultimate Rocking Guys release, what with "Jingle," which takes "Blue Christmas" to its logical conclusion:

"Think I'll go downtown
Buy myself a gun
Gonna blow myself away
in front of everyone

Suicide, suicide
Laughing all the way
Oh what fun it is to kill yourself
On Christmas Day."


I also love "Dandy" by the Kinks. Laughed myself silly to that one a couple of times.

[the captain]

If we're going with unknowns,

The Brown Flamingos,

a band that existed for a year or two in Minneapolis around 2000-2002. Primarily the brainchild of Nick Pichet and Bob Parins (who now plays around in NYC), the band expanded to a funky, almost Midnite Vultures-style, 12-piece funk-rock band. They also played various bits of country, pop, experimental and anything/everything else. I believe you can get their stuff on iTunes now, and I know Bob links to them on his site (www.bobparins.com). They've also got a myspace site. Look them up. Very funny. (For example, an electro-funk version of Guns 'n' Roses' Mr. Brownstone. Very funny.)

[Boxer Monkey]

If we're going with unknowns

Well, why the focke NOT? Who among us needs to have "Yellow Snow" pointed out at this point in the game?

Sheezus.

[I. Spaceman]

If we're going with unknowns

Well, why the focke NOT? Who among us needs to have "Yellow Snow" pointed out at this point in the game?

Sheezus.

And Hello Muddah Hello Fadduh was gonna be my next choice, oh well..

[the captain]

I wasn't insulting you. Calm down. No need to misspell some people's deities to make amusing expressions over it. I was just reminded of another unknown band by the post.

[Boxer Monkey]

Sheezus IS my god, rhubarb.

[Jason]

This is sort of a long story.

The first time I heard The Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle I didn't know what to expect. I knew they were pioneers of industrial music, but nothing else. I first heard the tune "Slug Bait" and laughed. I spent a better part of my high school days listening to lots of heavy metal, and the lyrics in this song talking about cutting out an unborn child from a mother's womb and killing the father just made me laugh. I couldn't take it seriously. It wasn't until the band began incorporating samples of rapists and murderers and more general chaos into their lyrics that I realized that the joke was on me.

[the captain]

Sheezus IS my god, rhubarb.

Rhubarb?

[I. Spaceman]

That's a very moving song to me, actually. Full of anger towards neglectful parents.

[Jason]

That's a very moving song to me, actually. Full of anger towards neglectful parents.

What song is that, Ian?

[Boxer Monkey]

Sheezus IS my god, rhubarb.

Rhubarb?

"Rhubarb" = "heathen" re: those not acquainted with the gospel of Sheezus.

[I. Spaceman]

That's a very moving song to me, actually. Full of anger towards neglectful parents.

What song is that, Ian?

The Gristle song you mentioned.

[the captain]

Sheezus IS my god, rhubarb.

Rhubarb?

"Rhubarb" = "heathen" re: those not acquainted with the gospel of Sheezus.

Whatever you say--you're the monkey-boxer.

[I. Spaceman]

No, he is the monkey WHO boxes.

[the captain]

No, he is the monkey WHO boxes.

He might box other monkeys. You don't know.

Or do you?

[I. Spaceman]

I don't complain when he boxes my monkey, I'll tell you that.
He's fancy, but he pulls no punches.