Here Come the 123s! (And Erran Baron Cohen Goes to Eleven)
There’s a blog post below on a different topic, but first I have to ask: did anyone else hear Erran Baron Cohen on Fresh Air Thursday night? Oh man. If you liked Spinal Tap, you’ve got to hear it.
EBC thinks of himself as a keen musical talent who breaks new ground by weaving cultural influences into something new and “transformative.” His pitch for his having a diverse musical background? He played trumpet in high school band, lived in Tel Aviv for a while, and has seen both Miles Davis and Afrika Bambaataa in concert. (By that standard, I am committing a great crime by hiding my blinding beacon of euterpean prowess beneath a bushel basket.) And the music! Clips from his band ZOHAR (“world fusion beat scientists”) would have sounded interesting — but not more than interesting — in 1998. Today they sound like a Garage Band demo. And the album he was there to promote, a collection of original and “reimagined” Hannukah songs, is unintentional self-parody at its best. Witness (the rap begins at about 1:24):
Either that or Erran Baron Cohen is an even more dedicated comic genius than his brother.
Here’s what I set out to post: we have gotten a whole lot out of the They Might Be Giants “Here Come the 123s” DVD. (Thanks for the tip, KT!) Sg likes it a lot, and asks to watch it. The thing is that the songs are mostly pretty good, and I find myself humming them during the day. Below the fold (click “continue reading” if this looks like the end of the post) are a couple of videos from the related podcast, along with the song on the DVD that is (I think) better without the video.
(I’ll go ahead and tell you that there is such a thing as a triops. Now you don’t have to look it up—the triops is not as cute as it is in this next video. But here’s a picture of a tripod, as also featured.)
And here’s a song that involves an ichthyosaur with a pet snake:
Nine Bowls of Soup
by They Might Be Giants
from Here Come the 123s!
Counterfactuals are problematic, but I do believe I would be happy to own the CD (that comes with the DVD) even if I didn’t have a kid.