The World According To Carl

I’ve always enjoyed every Demento Society Basement Tapes CD (did I mention it was a CD and not a tape?) that I ever received and have always felt the quality and selection to be outstanding but the Dr. Demento Basement Tapes #16 CD is, in my humble opinion, the finest collection of novelty songs and comedy thus far. From top to bottom each song is a winner.

It starts off strong with “Cellular Degeneration” by Sudden Death which is a song about the most advanced cell phone ever made that has one minor issue.

I actual laughed out loud (“lol” for you texters) multiple times while listening to the wonderful words of wacky wisdom (how’s THAT for alliteration) found on “The Verb To Be” by The Mrs. Ackroyd Band featuring Les Barker. Barker is a comedian whose style reminds me of a British version of Steven Wright (or is Steven Wright an American version of Les Barker?).

There have been songs about Dr. Demento and the Dr. Demento Show before. Add “Dementia Revolution” by The Great Luke Ski & MC Lars to the list which effectively chronicles, via rap, the history of the Dr. Demento Show and the vast array of artists featured on the radio program. Great job!

“Count To Ten” by Paul & Storm is a tune that approaches Sesame Street counting lessons in a more…er…mature…manner. Not obscene but a creative application of counting to ten on a definite non-kid level. As I was listening to this song I thought that it would be amusing if it were made into a music video in the style of the animated counting segments that I remember from Sesame Street and The Electric Company shows aired on the local PBS TV station. I don’t know. Perhaps someone has already done so. I’ll check on YouTube.

One of my favorite groups, The Bobs, is represented on the CD with their a capella tune “Never Date A Musician”, advice for the forlorn. Or perhaps from the forlorn?

If you are a fan of Electric Light Orchestra, you’re out of luck because they aren’t on the CD but “Hold On, I’ve Got To Take This” by Power Salad is definitely in the style of ELO. A fun take on call waiting.

Not much to say about “Butt Floss Girl” by Project Sisyphus other than it is about what the title suggests and it’s quite funny, worthy of repeat listenings. This is a parody of “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel who apparently doesn’t have a sense of humor concerning parodies of his songs (“Weird Al” Yankovic wrote a song parodying a different Billy Joel song and as is his gracious custom, Yankovic asked Joel for permission to record the parody and Joel was one of the few at the time to refuse permission so Yankovic never recorded the parody on any CD although he has performed it live and one of the live performances appears on an earlier Dr. Demento Basement Tapes CD and has been available for downloadable mp3 as well.).

The Presidential elections are long over but if you lament the fact that you had to hold your nose while voting, take solace in the song “The One That Doesn’t Suck Too Bad” by Barry Mitchell. This should be a song heard before every local, state, and federal voting cycle.

Speaking of elections, with President Obama now in office many feel the country is going to go from bad to worse. The Austin Lounge Lizards advise that “We’ve Been Through Some Crappy Times Before.”

And then there is “99 Words For Boobs” by Robert Lund. ‘Nuff said.

All funny. All entertaining. All greatly created. And of course ALL DEMENTED!