Horses and Grasses

My first CD Baby purchase arrived today: Horses and Grasses by Hard 'n Phirm, "music that sneaks in your back door like a burglar and shoots you while you're cooking." (Didn't happen.) This is the first CD from the guys who released Rodeohead and the Tron rock opera. H&G does include Rodeohead, which is as funny now as it was last year, and divides the rest of its tracks between quirky educational songs, like π and The Carbon Cycle, and style satires. The best example of the latter is American Dinosaurs, sung with the voice of Lee Greenwood singing Proud to Be an American:

I guess Noah had a reason for keepin' you off the ark,
'Cos he knew you'd burrow in the earth and fuel American cars.
And I think about your sacrifice as I power up my rig.
Chosen lizards of this laaaaand...you're just so goddamn big.

El Corazón made me chuckle a lot as well, once I figured out what was going on, and Funkhauser is catchy and happy and hilarious. I listened to the album via iPod as I walked around town today, and when I wasn't grinning I was bursting out laughing (and drawing a lot of funny looks. Not that funny looks are exactly foreign to me).

They go for the easy joke a little too often—there are too many poo jokes, and sometimes they dig for the funny when they don't need to—and a couple of the tracks are a waste. But for a couple of guys recording songs in a one-room apartment, there's a lot of sharp, satiric gold here, as well as some TMBGian charm. And you might just learn something while you're at it.

You can listen to the tunes and buy the album here.

Space birds....

Meme of Chaos

From carpenter:

Analogous to library-fine-amnesty day or tax-amnesty day, this is the Things You Should Probably Know About Me But Forgot amnesty meme. If there are things you'd feel embarrassed asking me to my face the next time you see me, because, "oh, goodness, I really should know that, shouldn't I?", just ask it as a comment to this thread, and I'll answer it. Since it's the amnesty thread there will be zero guilt or embarrassment involved, even if it's something I'd normally give you a hard time about not knowing.

In addition, if it is actually a Thing You Really Shouldn't Know About Me, I will not give you a hard time about thinking you should.

[I tend to think of myself as an open book, and assume everybody who cares to know anything about me already does, so I'm not sure how expository this will be. But we'll give it a go.]