Jun 06, 2011
By Matt Fink
Les Savy Fav
Despite the fact that musicians and comedians appear to share a healthy respect for each other’s crafts, it’s still rare that an established artist in one art form makes a serious attempt to cross over into the other. Rarer still is the artist who can do both well, an exclusive group which includes Tim Harrington and very few others. As the lead vocalist and kinetic focal point of art-rockers Les Savy Fav, Harrington and his bandmates have earned a place in the indie rock panoply with a series of increasingly ambitious releases, but in 2008 he took a considerably larger risk. He started Beardo, a sketch comedy show for Pitchfork.tv where he writes, arranges, and performs in skits that range from the absurd (a vampire whose sexual conquests are foiled by flaccid incisors) and the satirical (an indie all-star charity song to benefit the rich) to the darkly cynical (a man ghostwriting a suicide note for a friend who uses it to score points against his ex-girlfriend). In so doing, Harrington has proven that with comedy, a little bit of audacity goes a long way.
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Jun 01, 2011
By Matt Fink
#36 - Music vs. Comedy
Of all of the comedians who traverse the landscape stretching between the music and comedy scenes, it’s possible that none has become more synonymous with that intersection than Neil Hamburger. Wearing a tuxedo and a greasy comb-over, the alter ego of Gregg Turkington emerged in the early ’90s and became a curiously cranky counterpoint to the sardonically detached underground comedians of the era, delivering question/answer jokes in poor taste and with bad timing.
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May 30, 2011
By Lauren Barbato
Web Exclusive
Having a conversation with Akron/Family’s Seth Olinsky is a lot like listening to one of their albums unfold in its entirety. It swells and builds from one vaguely connected thought to another, all the while working on a seemingly higher level of consciousness that Olinsky swears is just an effect from an absurd amount of coffee consumption.
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May 27, 2011
By Kenny S. McGuane
Wild Beasts
Kendal, England’s Wild Beasts have just released their third album, Smother, to what is pretty much worldwide acclaim. Known for their elaborate but spacious arrangements and the flabbergasting vocal techniques of the male alto Hayden Thorpe, Wild Beasts make music where the weird meets the gorgeous, the creepy meets the sexy and the devastating meets the inspirational.
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May 26, 2011
By Hays Davis
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones was a master of musical economy from the start. After settling in as a studio musician for Stax Records in Memphis, Jones formed Booker T. and the M.G.‘s with fellow Stax players in 1962, and the instrumental group enjoyed hit singles of their own while serving as the label’s house band.
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May 26, 2011
By Matt Fink
#36 - Music vs. Comedy
The late Andy Kaufman once bristled at the suggestion that he was a comedian, contending that comedians told jokes while he was simply an entertainer, an artist who would use whatever he had—songs, props, characters—to make you laugh. As the 2006 winner of “The Andy Kaufman Award,” Reggie Watts is also an entertainer for whom the word “comedian” seems insufficient.
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May 24, 2011
By Kyle Lemmon
Josh T. Pearson
Country-folk singer/songwriter Josh T. Pearson (ex-Lift to Experience) slurs his words like a true Texan. This spring he is back from wandering the wilderness with his first suite of songs in 10 years, Last of the Country Gentleman. The record touches on such old pop music themes as love, despair, and regret, but the 37-year-old artist’s delivery is labyrinth-like and truly haunting. It’s a spartan record that stays with you for quite some time. As such, we called up the son of a preacher man about his life over the past decade and trying to surmount past woes through cathartic music.
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May 20, 2011
By Matt Fink
Superchunk
As one of the few artists who can legitimately claim dual citizenship in both the music and comedy worlds, Jon Wurster has witnessed firsthand the evolution of the relationship between the two scenes. Having kicked around the indie rock scene for nearly three decades now, ending up with fulltime gigs drumming with both Superchunk and Mountain Goats, he is also one-half of the team behind The Best Show on WFMU, the long-running radio program hosted by writer and comedian Tom Scharpling.
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May 19, 2011
By Matt Fink
#36 - Music vs. Comedy
Looking over the history of musical comedy, from Vaudeville to Monty Python and “Weird Al” Yankovic to The Lonely Island, one would get the impression that having a Y-chromosome is a prerequisite for being able to write and sing funny songs. But don’t tell that to Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome, the duo behind Garfunkel and Oates and the stars of an upcoming HBO series that will bring to life their delightfully twisted slice-of-life observations. With sugary sweet harmonies and lullaby hooks prettying up songs about handjobs (“I Don’t Understand Job”) and getting medical marijuana prescriptions (“Weed Card”), their music is as playfully charming as it cleverly subversive.
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May 17, 2011
By Laura Studarus
#36 - Music vs. Comedy
It’s best to verbally engage
The Stepkids with a drink in your hand and plenty of time to chat. The Connecticut-based trio of Tim Walsh (percussion), Jeff Gitelman (guitar), and Dan Edinberg (bass/keyboard), (plus touring member Fred Dileone and projectionist Jesse Mann, who creates psychedelic light installations, projected directly on the band as they play), love music and can speak at great lengths about it, be it their ultimate guilty pleasure Steely Dan or collective favorite George Clinton, who they lovingly call George as they talk over each other to expound upon his genius.
