But before I get underway with that, I need to talk about comedy albums. As I was thinking about this, I thought I'd look through my discs and see what I had that was "comedy". It turns out that I have quite a few sort of humorous music artists, such as the Bobs, Tenacious D, The Austin Lounge Lizards, Flight of the Conchords, Three Dead Troll in a Baggie, and Shel Silverstein. Plus all kinds of funny songs. But actual comedy albums or groups? It's a very short list. Firesign Theatre. And I used to have some Richard Pryor on vinyl, back in the day. The problem is that most straight comedy doesn't bear up well to repeated listening. The music works for me because it's got a little more going on. Firesign Theatre works because it's very layered with stuff. And it's real funny. Now I can still watch Monty Python and laugh even though I know every word...so it can be worth having. But it ain't easy.
If I were a fancy-pants writer, I'd call that last paragraph foreshadowing. The short summary for this review is that there are some funny moments here, but my favorite bits are the more "song-like" songs. Let's step through these discs and you'll see, okay?
First up, Opening Band (2005). This disc has 4 types of material. They have a number of funny songs, a repeating comedy bit, rejected ad jingles, and commentary. The funny songs get a mixed grade: Opening Band is quite funny and holds up well to repeated listenings, but Six Guys, Ten Teeth or the Ballad of Eddie Praeger are fairly weak. Buffett Night and Find the Words are somewhere in between. The repeating comedy bit is a series of movie themes as written by Randy Newman, such as Seabiscuit, Passion of the Christ, and Citizen Kane. It's amusing but it gets a little old. The jingles are funny on the first listen, especially for Cheetos and Kleenex. Now that I've heard them, I don't really need to again, though. The commentary is mildly interesting. Once. So, the score here: reasonably funny on first play, 3-4 decent songs on later sessions.
Next up, News to Us (2006). So, the boys perform a lot on the Bob and Tom show. This show supports some great comedy and music, like Todd Snider and Kinky Friedman. This disc is a collection of material that Paul and Storm created for the show, all packaged up. This makes the first big mistake of recorded comedy: do a bit with a couple of guys there to laugh at it so we'll know how funny it is. The premise for a lot of these is that they were going to do songs inspired by the news. In practice, there are a lot of in-jokes, including their obsession with Kristi from the show. Hmm...if you can't say something nice...well, the song, Your Love is (Love Song with Metaphor) is actually pretty decent. And I did laugh a little at Hip-Shop, which is a barber shop medley of popular hip-hop and pop songs. Score: 3 (of 10) + cheese.
Okay, last up, Gumbo Pants (2008) takes us back to the earlier format: some funny songs, a little schtick, and more rejected jingles. The high points for songs: Your Town, which is similar to Opening Band, and A Better Version of You are both pretty funny (and I still listen to them). The Captain's Wife's Lament is really funny live and decent for a listen or two on the disc. The schtick is a little more interesting: some comedy impressions (If James Taylor Were on Fire) and one line songs (Very Two Best Friends) are pretty good and don't get beat to death like the Randy Newman thing. The jingles are similar to Opening Band's examples: funny once, but not much more with Olive Garden probably being my favorite. Final score: Opening Band +2.
So, this review is probably more about my tolerance for hitting the same comedy bits repeatedly than about Paul and Storm's collective sense of humor. Net result? I'd say see them live if you ever get the chance and go to their downloads page and listen to the stuff and pick the songs you really want to buy.
For a pairing here, I'll have to go for the cheap laugh and suggest Long Island Ice Tea with a side of nitrous oxide.
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