Battle of the Bands 10.20.09: Bowling for Soup vs. Flight of the Conchords
Posted by Adam Battagello on 10.20.2009
Escape from the depressing pull of Emo music, with two groups ready and willing to make you laugh.
Greetings to all lads and ladettes out there in the cyber world, that special time of the week has rolled around again, it's just like Christmas except noone is forcing you to be nice to people for the sake of the season. It's Battle of the Bands.
Before the blow
In some non-battle related news, word came through the wire recently that music lovers will likely be looking at a late November release date for the debut album from the MIGHTIEST super group to form since sound was invented in the 1950's, Them Crooked Vultures. Needless to say Dave Grohl is always money on the drums, and Josh Homme, as good as he is, reaches another plain when paired with Grohl, now add to this mix a Mr. John Paul Jones, bass player for one of the greatest hard rock bands in history. If you still have no desire to buy this album, then you sir are a communist. There, I said it.
Can anyone say sneak peak?
Anyway, onto today's face-off
This Week:
Bowling For Soup- No Hablo Ingles vs. Flight of the Conchords- Hurt Feelings
After checking out the latest single from Texas rock group Bowling for Soup, who are renowned for their fun loving antics, I decided to make this a slightly more comedy themed battle. Since their debut self-titled album saw release in 1995, the pop punk band have made a name for themselves as four guys who are more than willing to forsake the serious side of the rock and roll attitude in favor of a good time. It must be said, in an age where melodramatic emo music and taking weirdly angled pictures of yourself for Myspace seems to be the popular scene, these four men and their good time pop music should be more in demand than ever.
But what of their competition today? Since their TV series took off in mid 2007, folk-comedy group Flight of the Conchords have defied their roots as a cult band, undergoing a whirlwind of mainstream music success, releasing one of the few genuinely funny albums around today in 2008, as well as picking up a Grammy for their compilation ‘The Distant Future'. Now the group, comprised of the duo of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement is preparing for the release of their newest album, the title of which I shall forever use as a catchphrase, ‘I Told You I Was Freaky'. Will the album's lead single ‘Hurt Feelings' be able to pull out the win for the over achieving New Zealanders? Or will we see Bowling for Soup, the masters of the tongue in cheek, come out on top? Here we go..
Bowling For Soup- No Hablo Ingles
This latest track from Bowling For Soup is perfect proof that, while a majority of modern pop music tends toward tedium, this doesn't necessarily have to equate to all pop being dull and monotonous. ‘No Hablo Ingles' is about as simple as you can come in terms of musical virtuosity, and yet, that doesn't take away one bit from the track's entertainment value.
The subject matter of the song itself, simply shirking all of life's responsibilities with the excuse ‘no hablo ingles', is damn entertaining, and if the phrase "What do you think of my band? No wait, don't answer that," doesn't draw a laugh from you, then your heart must be stone dear reader.
Clearly Bowling For Soup's greatest strength is their ability to make fun of themselves in an industry where we have so many Kanye West types who believe their own hype. While they may not be on as high a level in terms of musical ability as many other groups, listening to the dry wit and self-depreciation of Bowling for Soup is, quite frankly, refreshing.
Just like past hits from Bowling For Soup such as the mega-hit ‘1985', it would be an accurate assumption if one was to predict ‘No Hablo Ingles' getting some major airplay in the very near future. Living in the land down under where we will very soon be heading into the summer months, this reviewer has a sneaking suspicion that this undeniably catchy song will be flogged by local music channels, much like ‘1985' did before it. So while the track is funny and entertaining now, let's give it a couple of months shall we and see how enjoyable it is once hitting constant radio repeat.
Moving on!
Flight of the Conchords- Hurt Feelings
The Flight of the Conchords 2008 self-titled album, which was largely a collection of tracks from the first season of their tv show, has surprisingly turned out to be one of the long distance players in my CD collection. Tracks such as ‘Think About It' and ‘Inner City Pressure' seemed to solidify that the two New Zealanders were not only good comedians, but also solid musicians with a sharp wit for lyricism.
To be perfectly honest, if the pair's next album ‘I Told You I was Freaky' is to be based largely around the tracks from their show's second season, I may be a little skeptical. While watching the latest season I gained the impression that several of the songs weren't really up to par with work the Conchords had done in the past, and this seemed to be a worrying sign.
Luckily, with ‘Hurt Feelings' Bret and Jemaine have gone with what is perhaps the strongest track from the new batch of material, and when listening it really shows.
Rap is notorious as a genre whose proponents take themselves very seriously, I guess when you run with the whole ‘gangsta' attitude you are kind of required to keep up appearances, and ‘Hurt Feelings' plays off this general attitude seamlessly. The line "it hurts our feelings when you say we're not rappers," plays so well of the serious side of hip-hop, that it's hard not to instantly like this song.
As is the norm for Conchords song, we have Jemaine singing his part in such a deadpan manner- "I feel like a prize asshole,"- which is the perfect match up with Bret's feigned attempt at sounding macho- "Give Me A Small Man's Wetsuit Please." Few songs come together as well in this new grouping of tracks as ‘Hurt Feelings', and it really shows, leading to one of the strongest singles on the album.
There can only be one!
This week, I'm going to side with the Conchords. While I believe that Bowling For Soup will likely have a stronger album over all when it is all said and done, the Conchords single defies what I believe will turn out to be a relatively weak grouping of tracks, and is undoubtedly one of their most solid single efforts to date.
