Mock stars: The rise of comedy on the indie music circuit

The News Review:

- Mock stars: The rise of comedy on the indie music circuit
- How one Southern church forges unity through voice
- East Bay Express | Movies | I’ma Stranger Here Myself

Mock stars: The rise of comedy on the indie music circuit
Denver Post – May 27, 2008
“People think indie comedians are weird but then you find out about early Woody Allen and Bill Cosby and Steve Martin. Our incarnation now is called ‘indie rock’ but it’s just a response to something that was predated by something else. ” True – but Woody Allen never signed with a death-metal label. Funny nerds Comedian Brian Posehn a veteran of “Mr. Show” and “Just Shoot Me” recently released “Live In: Nerd Rage!” on the metal label Relapse. His humor deals with an unabashed love of comic books and sci-fi movies among other topics. His origins include sketches with Maynard Keenan lead singer of Tool which melded his love of metal with a twisted sense of humor.

How one Southern church forges unity through voice
Christian Science Monitor – May 28, 2008
The church interior is unadorned. Plain metal fans and naked bulbs dotting the pine ceiling. Feet keep time as well. Everything here is about time. Man’s journey through life… The songs culled from an 1844 hymnal The Sacred Harp were updated in 1991. The music is a style of shape-note singing also known as fasola in which the notes are printed in special shapes that help the reader identify them on the musical scale. The songs center around death and resurrection sin and repentance minor keys lending a sad poignancy. Despite the name there is no instrumental accompaniment. “Sacred harp” refers to what followers say is a God-given instrument ? the human voice.

East Bay Express | Movies | I’ma Stranger Here Myself
East Bay Express – May 28, 2008
Just when the going gets especially rough the needle-drop changes from soft rock to Merle Haggard’s country oldie “Mama Tried. ” What a bracingly bizarre choice. It’s as “wrong” for the Gillian-Welch-fan yuppie couple as the killers’ thrash metal was for their classical-music-worshipping victims in Funny Games. If you want to make these characters and their audience nervous hit them in the face with unfamiliar music. Maybe something by Aerosmith. A further nice touch: the two Mormon kids who ask “Are you a sinner?”.