BartCop
Entertainment Archives - Monday, 14 July, 2008
http://suprmchaos.com/bcEnt-Mon-071408.index.html
7/15/08 8:20 AM
Fresh Squoze Music
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Squeezing The Rock
For the most part, throughout the history of recorded
music, musicians were serious artists and/or
shameless panderers to popular taste except for the
comedy acts. Orchestras had "unusual instrumentation" (eg Haydn's
Farewell). Dance bands had "novelty numbers" such as Glenn Miller's
Pennsylvania 6-5000.
I've written a lot about comedy and comedy music, often
called "Demented Music", as in "the kind of
music you'd hear on the Dr. Demento Show". Demented
Music artists develop a comedy persona, and
never get serious. Well, hardly ever. Dance bands, in
particular polka bands, often struck a happy medium. The music was interactive
with the dancers, and the musicians were likely rather tipsy. Musicians who
were clearly enjoying themselves are more fun to dance to than a regimented
band.
Those Darn Accordions come from a long tradition of
people making serious music while having fun.
They do rock and roll, among other things. They slip in
rap and yodeling and tv theme songs and novelty
numbers. They are musically tight with some fine vocal
harmonies. The accordions are the lead
instruments and usually sound like electric organs. Most
everybody sings and the two female vocalists add a layer of sound not usually
heard from straight polka bands. But let's get down to it, shall we? I don't
have all their CDs, but I can recommend these four.
No Strings Attached
Those Darn Accordions first CD is No Strings Attached,
from 1996 which skirts close to a true Dementia
Music CD (or cassette, showing how quickly technology
has changed music). They owe a lot to Weird Al
Yankovic, who made accordions hip in the 80s as long as
you loved your material.
The first cut is a nearly-Weird Al rock pean to Mothra;
not the movie, watching the movie. Heavy on the
drums, accordion and backing vocals, the song is about
looking for the singing pixies from the film.
Accordion players are Behind the Bellows; danceable
driving rock. A former "straight arrow" confesses
that Them Hippies Was Right. (And about time, too.)
Almost rap.
The Hotsy Totsy Girl is a straightforward rock and roll
polka, except for the yodeling. Less successful is
their cover of the Baba O'Riley. Accordion instead of
keyboard/fiddle almost works, and the vocal
stylings prevent it from being a mere recapitulation, but
it just made me appreciate The Who more. The
version probably works really well in concert. They get
funk with Citizen Contraire, and admit they faked
the Loch Ness Monster on their Deathbed Confession. They
get annoyed at their billing on the vaudeville circuit and won't be Following
the Puppets anymore.
Weird Al makes an appearance on the answering machine in
the bouncy novelty song The Happy House, which is a bar. For some reason,
everyone wants to cover Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, correctly figuring that the song
is a parody of itself and incorrectly figuring that they cane squeeze even more
parody from their version. After the original and the Chantmania version,
everyone else should stick to doing it in concert.
Weird Al completists will need this CD, Dementia
Musicians will want to flesh out their collection, polka
djs will slip in a few tracks. Not quite as danceable as
Jimmy Sturr, not quite as conceptually odd as Brave Combo, Those Darn
Accordions have made a fine CD with No Strings Attached. They demonstrate a
wide range of style and subject matter. Recommended and iPod worthy (iPw).
Clownhead
Clownhead is darker, with more rap influence. They Came
For Accordions; the aliens that is. Cool jazz
rock, almost techno rap, it'll get all six of your toes
tapping. My favorite cut on the CD is the bouncy pop
Hippy With A Banjo:
Oh have mercy on me
I gotta run it's a hippy with a banjo
It's like torture to me
Kinda like a skeeter in your ear when you camp-o
He's so simple and free
He's gonna play the damn thing anywhere he can so
Please have mercy on me
I gotta run it's a hippy with a banjo
They do a nice cover of Low Rider, where the accordions
add to the samba beat. They return to accordion roots with the mariachi Tex-Mex
Mucho De Nada about a lost love followed by the instrumental tango Lapis Lazuli. Switching accordion cultures back to Wisconsin Poles
is the hearty wish for the First
Bratwurst of Summer, accompanies by beer.
I still haven't made up my mind about Clownhead, a dark
art rock song about a clown reeling under
insults. "Nobody's laughing now." I expect
this from Renaldo and the Loaf or maybe Barnes and Barnes. I dunno. Maybe they
had too many brats and beer.
I also like Dude, another rap-influenced driving rock
dance number with very nice harmonies. A lovable loser is urged to come home
and cheer up.
Clownhead stretches the boundaries of accordion music
without straying too far from tight danceable
music. Another recommended CD with lots of iPw cuts.
Amped
Amped is a 6-cut EP that isn't listed on their web site
and even the CD Universe page only lists four songs, so I'll zip through it
quickly.
They return to their clown obsession with Serious World,
a blues rocker:
But where do you go for kicks in a serious world?
What do you do for laughs in a serious world?
I try to be a sensible guy
But I'm coming off a beautiful high
And I feel like a clown going down
In A serious World
As a student, he didn't pay attention in shop class, but
now he's a working in construction the teacher gets Mr. Slagle's Revenge. The accordions are okay in a faithful 60s rock
cover of Magic Carpet Ride. Few bands would even try to cover Making Our Dreams
Come True (Theme from Laverne and Shirley) but the two women evoke the proper
Milwaukee stubbornness and the instrumentation is faithful to the
original while different enough to justify the update.
Still, my favorite cut (of the six) is Meaning of Life,
a polka that ponders the imponderable:
What is the meaning of life?
Did you ever stop to ponder that question in your head?
What is the meaning of life?
Just gettin' up and doin' stuff and goin' back to bed
Amped is available for $8.95 but all six songs are
available through their store for $0.99. Meaning of Life
is a good introduction to Those Darn Accordions. If you
like that one, get more.
Squeeze Machine
Their latest release, 2007's Squeeze Machine, is their
most ambitious and most successful CD. Steam Punk is a genre that goes back to
Jules Verne -- science fiction/fantasy in a world where the steam engine is
common -- and is getting a resurgence now as writers don't want to be bothered
with quantum physics.
The CD is in a cardboard case with a lyric booklet
insert: A long way from a cassette.
This Song is a bouncy Beatles-inspired pop tune about a
bouncy Beatles-inspired pop hit:
This song's got money written all over it
C'mon and sing along, little children
this song's got money written all over it
Ain't gonna quite 'till it rolls in
Roll on, roll on, c'mon, c'mon
Please please me oh yeah and buy this song
Grabbing another culture that uses them, they use zydeco
to Blame It On Those Darn Accordions. Ever
think about buying a bicycle built for two? Better
listen to the country Tandem Bike. Getting back to
important subjects, Glass of Beer Polka is a fun dance
number.
They show their blues rock roots with Bob and the Office
People. Not as angry as Worm Quartet's Strap On Brain or as sick as The
Smothers Brothers Mediocre Fred, Bob isn't quite fit for the corporate world,
so embezzles money and leaves for warmer climes. It's Now Or Never is a fine
Italian tango and they do a fine version with the Elvis lyrics and an Italian
operatic chorus. The singer gets jealous of Larry's Wonderful Life, a sweetly
sick song about a stalker.
Squeeze Machine is another strong album by a group with
many strengths. Those Darn Accordions
deserve a few bytes on your iPod, if not the full CDs in
your collection. All the songs are available as
single cuts from the Those Darn Accordions store.
Recommended for those who like good, danceable
rock from a variety of musical traditions with a sense
of humor in song selection and lyrics. They have a
nice mix of covers and originals. Spend a few bucks on
some of the individual cuts, then order the CDs
for the higher quality audio and lyric sheets.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of
Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio
Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with
a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave
Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music
recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent
archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be
accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the
air.
--////
"The power of accurate observation is commonly
called cynicism by those who have not got it."
-- George Bernard Shaw
Thanks (again), Baron Dave!
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