Oh, man, it’s been a good couple of months for geek music! Expect more reviews and a list (or maybe two!) of videos and songs in the next week or two as well (assuming that work doesn’t interfere too much!).
Marc Gunn – Pirates vs. Dragons
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been a fan of Marc Gunn since before I even knew that “geek music” was a thing. It’s also well known that I love albums that tell stories. Add in steampunk pirates and dragons, with a Celtic twist, and it is an absolutely perfect album for me. Well, for any fan of any combination of those elements (and who isn’t a fan of at least one?).
The basic premise of the album is that Marc Gunn was kidnapped by the infamous airship pirate Captain Black Jack Murphy (yes, the same one from Pogue Mahone Means Kiss My Arse). Black Jack wants Marc to create songs about the pirates of the Lady Jean’s exploits finding dragon’s treasure. But Marc is sympathetic to the dragons and subversively inserts his opinions into the music.
Along the way, we learn about the crew as well as their airship, the Lady Jean, and the truth about dragons. Standout tracks include the opener, “Come and Be a Pirate,” a recruiting song for Captain Black Jack; “The Shining Lady Jean,” a song about his airship; and “Keep Them Soaring,” which rather boldly displays Marc’s bias toward dragons (I wonder what Black Jack’s reaction to this track would be; certainly not good…). But probably my personal favorite is “Do Pirates Taste Better.” I’ve always enjoyed “Do Virgins Taste Better,” the Brobdingnagian Bards’s parody of “Irish Washerwoman,” so this is basically a parody of a parody by Marc’s previous band.
In addition to the album, you can also read Marc’s journal for just 99 cents. And, if you purchase on CD Baby, you can get a Deluxe Edition if you email Marc your receipt (details on the SaveDragons.com web page). So cool! Be sure to get your copy of the album and help to save the dragons!
The PDX Broadsides – Something’s Rotten
I’ve been aware of The PDX Broadsides for a while now but haven’t mentioned them enough. So I’m glad to have their upcoming album, Something’s Rotten, to review. If that title reminds you of Shakespeare, you’d be completely correct: there are a couple of songs about Hamlet on the album. And there are some other tracks that are about being “rotten” as well.
In fact, the opening track, “The Girl Who Couldn’t Even,” could easily be a description of something being rotten with Millennials. I mean, she, like, literally almost died because she couldn’t even! Yeah, I think you get the idea. It’s a fun introduction to a really fun album.
I particularly love “The Ultimate Riot,” which takes the Internet meme of deliberately misattributing geeky quotes to the wrong character to a whole new level. One which I could almost see myself doing if asked to present at a con…
Speaking of Internet memes, there’s also “Nopetopus.” Will you have kids soon? Will you finally start dressing like an adult? Will you finally get a “real” job? Nope! Just invoke the Nopetopus as your Patronus, and you, too, can answer all those dumb family questions!
Oh, and there’s also finally a “proper” studio version of the wonderful Firefly-inspired “Nathan Fillion (Please Take Off Your Pants).” Which, I guess many people wouldn’t consider to be “rotten” — quite the opposite, really — but it’s not really something I’m into…
Ah, but I promised Hamlet, didn’t I? The title track, his “lament,” is his song in which he expresses his tragic flaw, his hesitancy to act, including plenty of allusions to actual lines from the play. Also, the rhyme of “daughter” and “water” has probably never been more appropriate than this song. We also get Ophelia’s response (also using the title “Something’s Rotten”), or rather, her “retort,” in which she finally gets a chance to tell Hamlet to just kill the king already.
Oh my gosh, I could gush about every single song on this album, but I want to leave something for you to discover when it’s released to the public on August 30. But, yeah, suffice it to say you should quite definitely get on the pre-order right now!
