I guess it's because my birthday is August 15th, but I have to say I find Earles & Jensen's Just Farr A Laugh Vol. 1&2: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever! to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard! I appreciate a good laugh, and you don't always have to go blue to be funny--if you use a subtle touch, you can produce a ton of laughs. That's why I didn't care much for Jerky Boys--the humor was just too obviously stupid. What Earles & Jensen have done here is produce a series of calls that are occasionally obviously a prank (Bleachy comes to mind), and a number of calls that aren't.
There are fifty-eight calls and two and a half-hour's worth of material here, so I'm going to focus on one call in particular, "Bedroom ETA:A Jermaine Stewart Cover Band," because it's my favorite. Having been tangentally involved with the music industry for a while now, I can attest to the validity of the scenario of "Bedroom ETA." In its heyday, Mundane Sounds received a ton of records that could best be called, well...crap. A lot of these people believed in themselves so intensely, it was painfully obvious that they were disturbed. I appreciate believing in yourself and if I don't like your band, I don't like your band. But there are people who exist in this industry who are insanely happy in beleiving in themselves, much like you'll hear. I played this track to a friend of mine, someone who hasn't been involved in 'the biz,' and their reaction was a blank, "So?" I played this to a fellow music writer and concert promoter, and they exploded with laughter, because, well, there are a lot of people like "Roger." They're sincere, but they're sincere in a way that makes you wonder if they're sane. I have a feeling Cosloy appreciated this track as well. Some of the less-sane characters in these calls are funny to me, because I've found some of these characters coming into my office on a daily basis. Other calls are equally as funny, many are often music-industry related, and overall,Just Farr a Laugh is a 58-track laugh-riot! And if you don't laugh at some of it, that's okay. If you don't laugh at something in it, then you're an idiot.
Listen To: "Bedroom ETA:A Jermaine Stewart Cover Band"
Just Farr a Laugh is available now on Matador RecordsLabels: Earles and Jensen, Matador Records, Reviews E and J, showing the blogosphere we love good wholesome comedy |
