OK, nearly caught up on reviews at this point. One more set after this should do it (for now, at least). Lots of funny music this time, but also some sadcore to balance out the scales.
Bonecage – Porcelain Pony (Explicit)
Bonecage’s form of comedy music is without a doubt my favorite type. Most of his songs start off sounding perfectly normal until that one little thing just sorta pops in. And then things get weird. And usually vulgar if you’re talking about a Bonecage song (he has eight songs in some way about penises. That’s a little over a quarter of the songs. Let that serve as a warning if you’re planning on reading the rest of this review…).
Case in point: “Bag-a-Dees” (one of my favorites, actually). It starts out as a perfectly fine, a nerdy love song turned into betrayal, then devolves into insults and, well, there’s no polite way to say it: dick jokes. You’ll definitely want to be alone when you watch the video for that one. Or at least with people who don’t mind spinning, flying pictures of dicks. Or take “Big Purple Dildo” (wait… that sounded wrong…), another song for which there’s a video. I suppose “life” must be difficult to be an inanimate object that only gets used every once in a while, and then in some very specific ways.
Now, not all of his tracks are vulgar in some way. Some are just flat out geeky / fandom-y. Take “Crotch Magic,” a parody of “Magic Dance” from Labyrinth. Er, no, wait, maybe that’s one that fits into the previous category after all… How about “Heisenberg”? Maybe “Saul Goodman”? Well… Yeah, they’re not about penises, but the shows they’re based on are definitely not for kids. “You’re the Man in Black,” then (another favorite)? Yeah, that one’s safe. It’s a parody of the theme song from The Karate Kid about one of the greatest films of all time, The Princess Bride. So I guess it sort of makes it doubly fandom-y.
Actually, I’m probably overstating the vulgarity of the songs for comedic effect (and probably not actually being very funny, unlike Bonecage). Sure, there are plenty of them, but many are not. There are songs about Game of Thrones, Fallout 4, and The Walking Dead, among other fandoms. And generically geeky tracks, too, like the duet with Kyle from Kirby Krackle, “You Ruined My Favorite Shows” (which I got to hear an early demo of — yes, I’m bragging, because how cool is that?) or “King of Making Cat Memes” (a parody of Go West’s “King of Wishful Thinking”).
Now, if you’re easily offended, you should be careful with this album, though there are many tracks that are perfectly safe, so don’t let it stop you from picking and choosing. And if you’re not, you’re really in for a treat with this album. It’s some funny stuff!
Dino-Mike – ANALBUM
And speaking of funny stuff, the newest album from Dino-Mike also has plenty to entertain you. He’s a bit more on the PG-13 side than the R-rated Bonecage, but there’s a definite similarity in the senses of humor of both.
In fact, it starts right there with the name of the album. I didn’t actually make the connection until he mentioned it on the podcast, but the title has two different readings: An Album and Anal Bum. I’ve basically taken to referring to it in the latter way in my head. This cleverness and wordplay also shows up in many of the tracks. Take the opening track, “Unexpecting the Expected,” for example. There’s probably a good reason why there aren’t many songs about abortion (especially in comedy music), but I’ll give Dino-Mike props for making one that will make you feel horrible and uncomfortable for laughing so much. Or if you’re looking for a little less uncomfortableness in your music, there’s one of my favorites, “Fight the System.” I love the idea of fighting against all kinds of systems, from the TSA to the number to the circulatory to the limbic (still haven’t looked that one up, actually. Maybe I should get on that someday).
Dino-Mike also takes on pop culture with tracks like “(She’s On) Pinterest” (a parody of Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance”) and “Urban Dictionary” (the Logan Award nominated parody of Billie Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” which also happens to feature Bonecage). And there’s the Netflix / streaming video / binge watching track, “Are You Still Watching?” (a parody of Andy Grammer’s “Honey I’m Good.” Ya know, I had no idea that some of these tracks were parodies until I started writing this review. Maybe I should listen to more mainstream music every once in a while… Nah, I’ll just stick to the independent stuff).
This was my first introduction to Dino-Mike’s music, and I have to say I’m impressed. I’ll quite definitely be exploring his back catalog as well as keeping an eye out for new stuff in the future.
Pulled from Panels – VS. (“The Piano” is explicit, but the rest are not)
Speaking of artists that are new to me, Pulled from Panels was recommended to me by TheFifthSister just before they contacted us at Fandomania. Their fantastic debut EP, THWP! THWP!, is all about Spider-Man, while their newest, VS. (to be released on March 25), adds in more superheroes to the mix.
Pulled from Panels’ rock sound particularly shines on “Winter Soldier,” the penultimate track on this six-track EP. I’m sure most Marvel comics / movies fans can guess what the track is about. “Old Man Logan” is another great track about Wolverine. As much as I like songs about comics, though, the stand out for me is the final track, “Time Flies,” which departs from the main theme of Marvel comics to bring us a track about The Doctor. The drums toward the end are a particularly nice touch.
If you’re a Marvel fan, you’ll definitely enjoy this EP as well as their previous one. It’s a short EP at only six tracks and just under 25 minutes, but well worth your time and money. I’m really looking forward to the growth of this band in the future and hearing what’s next.
Mikal kHill – it’s alright to hate your f***ing life. (Explicit, obviously)
And let’s round out this fun, mostly upbeat list of music with Mikal kHill’s newest sadcore EP. It seems somehow appropriate.
Actually, it’s not as weird as you might think to have comedy albums with kHill’s music. There’s a pretty fair amount of humor (mostly dark, but still) on this EP. For example, the opening track of the album, the “Summer Breeze”-sampling “Get Served,” is, quite literally, about making pancakes. Silver dollar pancakes, in fact. OK, it’s an obvious play on the idea of “getting served,” but, yeah, pancakes. And the second track, “Who Are They?” (featuring Sulfur) has some humorous lines about the two rappers, most of which aren’t really appropriate to print here.
The final tracks, however, are closer to the type of lyrics we’ve come to expect from kHill: “Leaving” (featuring Red Jesse), a track about missing someone who’s leaving a relationship, and the title track (I’m pretty sure you can guess what that one’s about. Oh, and try not to sing along with the chorus at the top of your voice. You just can’t resist, can you?).
It’s great to get some new Mikal kHill while we wait for Human Disaster and whatever’s coming from the ThoughtCriminals. In fact, the more music we can get from him the better as far as I’m concerned.
