I am starting to write this before heading out to see Leonard Cohen, and I’ll likely finish after I’m back. That will be a strange experience, given what the next review is.
Let’s just say that it isn’t exactly Leonard Cohen.
Disc 213 is...Hooray For Boobies
Artist: The Bloodhound Gang
Year of Release: 2000
What’s Up With The Cover?: Apparently a celebration of ‘boobies’ of various sorts, with photos of the Bloodhound Gang interspersed. This cover is silly, but could have been so much more clever at being silly – much like this album.
How I Came To Know It: I saw the video for the song, “The Bad Touch” – you know, the one where the band runs around an urban environment dressed in monkey suits? Anyway, the video is pretty funny, but the song is funnier, so I bought this album based on one song, and over the subtle objections of the good folks at Lyle’s Place, who definitely warned me off.
How It Stacks Up: This is my only Bloodhound Gang album, and is likely to be my only one in future as well. It can’t really stack up on that basis.
Rating: 2 stars
I wasn’t sure how to file Bloodhound Gang after giving it a couple listens in the car. Their music is the punk/pop sound of Green Day mixed with the empty-headed hip hop of the early oughts. However, a lot of their songs shamelessly steal the licks of other songs, including everything from “Rock Me Amadeus” to “Another Brick in the Wall”.
They do all of these things in an effort to make you laugh, since the songs are all some kind of crude humour, so I tagged them as comedy.
Musically, they don’t do anything special, except maybe demonstrate how easy it is to write a catchy hip hop beat. The lyrics aren’t the greatest – most of the songs relate in some way to sex or bodily function, which I have to admit is a legitimate source of a lot of adult humour. The biggest problem with this version is they have too many contemporary pop culture references (Tool Time, X Files, etc.) that haven’t aged well ten years later.
The record has eighteen tracks (a heinous CD Odyssey crime right there) and it is mostly filler, but there are two clear winners.
The first is “The Bad Touch” which represents the Bloodhound Gang’s fifteen minutes of fame. In addition to the video I mentioned earlier, this song is damned funny. Yes, it suffers from the same faults as all other Bloodhound Gang songs (dated references, obvious hip hop beat and shock lyrics about sex acts). It is just that it does all these things better than any other track. The beat may be obvious, but it is also infectious, and gets your head bobbing. As for the lyrics and outdated allusions to popular culture – let’s just say they manage to turn Siskel and Ebert’s signature expression into a sex act.
The second is “The Ballad of Chasey Lain” which is a song that details a series of letters from a demented fan to porn star Chasey Lain that is the comedy album’s response to Eminem’s “Stan”. The Bloodhound Gang song is rude to the extreme, but unlike “Stan” at least no one dies, and after it is over, there is a bonus track of Chasey Lain giving an exposition of just how uninterested she is in the fan's advances.
In the end, this is a pretty weak album, and often the Bloodhound Gang come off as nothing more than smart but slacker losers sitting around their parent's basement making fun of the rest of the world. I suspect this is an act, since you don’t get a record made just sitting around watching cartoons and eating Zesty Mordant chips.
Listen to this for a couple chuckles, but don’t expect it to stand up to a lot of repeat plays.
Oh and on the other side of the musical spectrum, Leonard Cohen's show tonight was awesome as always. Thank you Mr. Cohen, for all you do.
Best tracks: The Bad Touch, The Ballad of Chasey Lain
Let’s just say that it isn’t exactly Leonard Cohen.
Disc 213 is...Hooray For Boobies
Artist: The Bloodhound GangYear of Release: 2000
What’s Up With The Cover?: Apparently a celebration of ‘boobies’ of various sorts, with photos of the Bloodhound Gang interspersed. This cover is silly, but could have been so much more clever at being silly – much like this album.
How I Came To Know It: I saw the video for the song, “The Bad Touch” – you know, the one where the band runs around an urban environment dressed in monkey suits? Anyway, the video is pretty funny, but the song is funnier, so I bought this album based on one song, and over the subtle objections of the good folks at Lyle’s Place, who definitely warned me off.
How It Stacks Up: This is my only Bloodhound Gang album, and is likely to be my only one in future as well. It can’t really stack up on that basis.
Rating: 2 stars
I wasn’t sure how to file Bloodhound Gang after giving it a couple listens in the car. Their music is the punk/pop sound of Green Day mixed with the empty-headed hip hop of the early oughts. However, a lot of their songs shamelessly steal the licks of other songs, including everything from “Rock Me Amadeus” to “Another Brick in the Wall”.
They do all of these things in an effort to make you laugh, since the songs are all some kind of crude humour, so I tagged them as comedy.
Musically, they don’t do anything special, except maybe demonstrate how easy it is to write a catchy hip hop beat. The lyrics aren’t the greatest – most of the songs relate in some way to sex or bodily function, which I have to admit is a legitimate source of a lot of adult humour. The biggest problem with this version is they have too many contemporary pop culture references (Tool Time, X Files, etc.) that haven’t aged well ten years later.
The record has eighteen tracks (a heinous CD Odyssey crime right there) and it is mostly filler, but there are two clear winners.
The first is “The Bad Touch” which represents the Bloodhound Gang’s fifteen minutes of fame. In addition to the video I mentioned earlier, this song is damned funny. Yes, it suffers from the same faults as all other Bloodhound Gang songs (dated references, obvious hip hop beat and shock lyrics about sex acts). It is just that it does all these things better than any other track. The beat may be obvious, but it is also infectious, and gets your head bobbing. As for the lyrics and outdated allusions to popular culture – let’s just say they manage to turn Siskel and Ebert’s signature expression into a sex act.
The second is “The Ballad of Chasey Lain” which is a song that details a series of letters from a demented fan to porn star Chasey Lain that is the comedy album’s response to Eminem’s “Stan”. The Bloodhound Gang song is rude to the extreme, but unlike “Stan” at least no one dies, and after it is over, there is a bonus track of Chasey Lain giving an exposition of just how uninterested she is in the fan's advances.
In the end, this is a pretty weak album, and often the Bloodhound Gang come off as nothing more than smart but slacker losers sitting around their parent's basement making fun of the rest of the world. I suspect this is an act, since you don’t get a record made just sitting around watching cartoons and eating Zesty Mordant chips.
Listen to this for a couple chuckles, but don’t expect it to stand up to a lot of repeat plays.
Oh and on the other side of the musical spectrum, Leonard Cohen's show tonight was awesome as always. Thank you Mr. Cohen, for all you do.
Best tracks: The Bad Touch, The Ballad of Chasey Lain
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