Eli Braden Pimpin’ Pop Culture Parody

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin

Eli Braden is turning himself into a master of pop culture parody. From “I Want To Be A Kardashian” to a slough of Howard Stern parody tributes, and his celebrated celebrity Twitter comebacks, Eli is a commentator on the fluffy parts of society.

If you’re a regular Howard Stern listener, then you’ve heard Eli’s Stern tribute parody songs such as “Monogamy” and “Robin’s Gorgeous Melons”.  As with most Stern parodists, Eli’s got a fascination with Robin Quivers’ breasts.  I’ll qualify this section by saying that I’m not a giant fan of parody or Stern.  But the dude is getting plenty of exposure by doing these songs, so more power to him.

Elsewhere, Eli takes on a celebration of fat girls with a song called, you guessed it… “Fat Girls” and an interesting mashup of cultures in “Gay Ray, The Reggae Gay”, which is worth a listen just for the alliteration. “Gay Ray” has a great self-referential lyric that shows Eli knows where he’s coming from on this one… “I’m simultaneously an offensive homophobic cliche and a culturally-insensitive stereotype”  Tray jamming that line into one of YOUR songs. :)

I really like that line because that’s where we finally get a little pick into Eli Braden’s psyche.  It’s the one thing I miss in pop culture comedy.  There’s very little insight into the artist themselves, which can be dangerous because people are attracted only to the songs and not the person singing them.

But I think Eli Braden is taking on one of the more difficult jobs in comedy music.  Pop culture moves so fast that you have to be a really prolific writer to keep up.  And he seems to be keeping up well.  Of course, some things never go out of style, like Fat Girls. :)

Check out more of Eli Braden’s comedy music gems at www.elibraden.com

…and let’s roll the clip, Johnny…

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Katie Goodman – Milf’ing it up with Broad Comedy

Posted on August 15, 2011 by admin

If you’re a 22 year old comedy nerd, you’ve probably never heard of Katie Goodman.  But that’s because she ain’t for you.  Katie has been cleaning up in theater gigs and the biggest comedy clubs with her sketch/music troupe Broad Comedy.  She’s also a frequent contributor to O Magazine (that’s Oprah Winfrey’s mag dudes) and she does national speaking gigs to help uptight corporate types learn to improvise and pull the collective stick out of their ass.

Katie and Broad Comedy do some very funny stuff around what it’s like to be a woman, particularly a woman in her 40′s.  “Soccer Mom Ho” and “These Are The Things I Can’t Fucking Remember” top the list on that theme.

Katie’s doing her solo show now in a variety of venues and festivals.  Here she opens up the theme a little more and gets into social issues with songs like “I Didn’t Fuck It Up” and “Glen Beck Is Bat Shit Crazy”.  As you can see, she’s not afraid of any 4-letter words either.

I like to see someone carving out their own niche like this.  She’s the 40 year old mom doing what a lot of other 40 year old moms would like to be doing.  When you can get an audience to identify like that, you’re golden.

Here’s one of Katie’s tunes that I really like.  It’s called “Saving My Hymen For Jesus”.  And be sure to see more of Katie’s work at http://www.KatieGoodman.com

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Spike Jones – Manic as Manic Music Can Be

Posted on June 27, 2011 by admin

Spike Jones PhotoTo call this blog Manic Melodies and not talk about Spike Jones and his City Slickers would be a crime punishable by having to listen to Justin Bieber on fast speed (sending his already castrati voice into to chipmunk territory).  Spike’s music is as manic as it comes.

Spike Jones, nee Lindley Armstrong Jones, got his nickname from being as thin as a railroad spike.  At age 11 he received his first set of drums, and that percussive, rhythmic attack would be a hallmark of his arrangements for his entire career.  Even in this age of DIY music and production, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone using pots, pans, and kitchen utensils like Spike did.

Spike worked his way up through the radio shows of the 1930′s.  Towards 1941 Spike had started the City Slickers, which evolved out of the band The Feather Merchants.  They signed a contract with RCA in 1941 and recorded a huge number of sides for them through 1955.

Spike is known for both his zany originals, like “Der Fuehrer’s Face” written for the 1943 Disney cartoon of the same name, and for his satire’s and parody songs of popular songs of the day like “Cocktails For Two” and “Ghost Riders In The Sky”.

Unlike now, when most music stars are honored to have Weird Al Yankovic skewer one of their songs, the original authors of the two previously mentioned Jones parodies were not happy with him at all.  In fact, Vaughn Monroe, writer of “Ghost Riders” and large shareholder in RCA, demanded that an alternate version of Jones’s record be released in the US that removed a well-barbed dig at him at the end.

Spike’s best known recording may be “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”.  That whistling ditty that every 12 year old with two missing chompers in December has to deal with the relatives singing at him.  Yes, me too.

Spike Jones also got trapped into that idea that many comedy music artists fall into sometimes.  That of being taken seriously as a musician.  (See Rodney Carrington).  In 1946 Spike built Spike Jones and The Other Orchestra that did orchestral arrangements of dance hits.  Sounds horrible now, but that was the thing then.  And while they were apparently artistically successful, the public wanted to hear the goofy stuff.  And like many of us caught in the love/hate trap with serious music, he started to mix the two like the recording of “Laura” which features a serious first half and a manic hilarious second half.

The 1950′s and 60′s brought a lot of changes to popular music and comedy… rock n’ roll and standup specifically.  Spike adapted with nostalgia movements that take place every so often, and even did some spoken word comedy records.  But overall, none of that had the impact that his earlier work did.

There’s a clear line from Spike Jones to guys like Weird Al and Frank Zappa.  Top notch musicality with a biting sense of humor.

The video below is of Disney’s 1940′s propaganda cartoon of “Der Fuehrer’s Face”.  It was a tough find for a long time, but interesting to watch now.

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Weird Al’s New Video – Lady Gaga

Posted on June 21, 2011 by admin

Weird Al’s new vid is up and gaining plenty of traction.  “Perform This Way” is a take on Lady Gaga’s blatant rip-off called “Born This Way”.  And fortunately Al slips a couple good Madonna jokes in there.  To me it almost feels like a parody of a parody. :)

Also fortunately, we don’t have to see Al himself in the caution tape dress.  He CGI’d his face on a female body.  So glad it’s not in 3D.  So glad.

Weird Al’s new album “Alpocalypse” is very entertaining.  I had a chance to listen to it on Mog’s exclusive pre-release last week.  This Gaga parody is not even close to the best thing on it.  Obvious go-to for the first video though.

Originally the Lady Gaga camp didn’t give Al permission to do the song.  Legally he doesn’t need it, but he always asks anyway.  It was eventually found out that her manager never told her about the offer.  She said yes right away.  If I were her I’d find out what else my manager isn’t telling me about.

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Eric Schwartz – No, the other one…

Posted on June 20, 2011 by admin

The comedy music world is privileged enough to have not one, but two, Eric Schwartz’s.  And besides a name, they couldn’t be more different as artists.

Today we’ll talk about the Eric Schwartz of the jazz/singer/songwriter style.  And the other one next time. :)   Eric is an LA guy via New York and, as his bio says, grew up listening to Dr. Demento and Dr. Ruth every Sunday night in high school.  That’s enough to warp anyone.

I’ve played with Eric many times and the most striking thing about his performances is the sheer musicianship and his ease on stage.  This is a guy who’s been there, done that, bought the souvenir, sold it on ebay, and went back again.  And he has a wickedly funny sense of humor.

And while often dirty, it’s not juvenile.  His song “Clinton Got A Blowjob” illustrates the ridiculousness of worrying about that dude’s hummer with some much other stuff going on.  And apparently the over 1 million people who have viewed that video agreed.  That song also won the 2009 USA Songwriting Competition award for best comedy song.

My personal favorite is a song is one that is often mostly improvised.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do it the same way twice.  Except for the awesome chorus.  And I won’t tell you the name because it will spoil the punchline.  But the video is below.

So, if you want to see some spectacular musicianship, intelligent naughtiness, and hear some stuff you know you’re already thinking, check out Eric Schwartz at www.ericschwartz.com

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