Episode 132 — Occupy Thanksgiving

[carloswingarlos 0]

My ridiculous cage t-shirt is an American Apparel product. The tag says it's the track shirt. Is this some kind of joke?

[Butt Park 85]

I haven't really been digging the live performances either, but I always at least give them a chance before fast forwarding. It's the Garfunkel and Oates and Sarah Silverman songs that I just can't stand. (I think they're all funny people but their music...)

[Shepherd 0]

Just FYI: there's an open thread in the CBB forum to discuss live (unfunny) musical guests: http://www.earwolf.com/forums/topic.php?id=1799

I have a differing opinion about the guests, but I can appreciate Brian's point that this is a kind of recurring conversation -- maybe that space is a good spot for people to discuss live musical guests and straw-poll the for/against folks instead of having this talk every time we have a live guest on the show?

Re. the show: my distaste for Dov Charney runs so deep that I find it hard even to listen to Dov Charney parodies, but despite that, this one was a standout for me. The improvised song was awesome (better than the prepared material!), and I actually liked Grant's being super game for What Am I Thinking?

Bring back the keyboard!

[CrustyDustReceptacle 154]

I actually found it a bit jarring to hear David trying to be so open and genuine here. I'm a huge fan of his work, and I'm so used to him doing either a version of Stella David or the persona he used on the WHAS reunion episode (which was fucking AMAZING, by the way) that it was kind of weird just to hear him be himself. It was an interesting change, even if his more relaxed delivery hurt a few of his jokes ("I do the same thing with a chocolate chip frappuccino." *silence*).
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I think I've already stated (and then promptly backed down from) my opinion of live musical guests elsewhere, and while I agree that the performances (and the non-comedian musicians themselves) can hurt the momentum of the comedy, it doesn't bother me all that much. Where I would differentiate guests like Nick Lowe and Grant-Lee Phillips from ones like Reggie Watts and Don't Stop Or We'll Die, however, is that the music of the latter two is at least partially geared toward comedy. I think that fits in better with the rest of the show. That's not necessarily always the case though, as I absolutely loved Matthew Sweet and Suzanna Hoffs' episode (their cover of "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" in particular).
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I hope this isn't interpreted as me shitting on the show, because I still love it as much as I did when I first heard it over a year ago. Still, as someone who's heard at least one episode of the show every single day for months now, I feel invested in the show's success and wanted to throw in my opinion for whatever it's worth.

[Jefro 63]

Whenever I've heard the Don't Stop Or We'll Die stuff, I haven't gotten that it's music geared toward comedy at all, just people who happen to be involved in comedy making extremely earnest (that's the magic word for this discussion, right?) tunes. And what Reggie does is flat out mesmerizing, whether there are sometimes humorous elements or not. If every show was 100% comedy bits, zero music comedic or earnest, not everyone will enjoy every joke and character so it's all kind of irrelevant. I am glad I heard that Bangles' in-studio Hazy Shade of Winter, I know that much.
Anyway, who else thinks this all might be leading up to an entire episode, or more, of non-comedy-based music? Ska Talkerman is totally capable of doing that, in kind of a Scharpling-esque fit of obstinance, but I guess I'm leaning more towards the earlier posted sentiment that if he's even aware of people's complaints they'll just roll off him and he'll keep doing what he's doing. It's worked so far. We'd ALL rather have What's Up, Hot Dog? take back its rightful place at the top of each episode, but he's willing to relegate it to memorialization in a segment that predates it. We just have to be thankful we get that much.

[robotpants2000 0]

the music in this episode was great + didnt hurt the show neither. i reckon.

[SeveralCircles 426]

Errrr... Ragnar, speaking of embarassing posts: Doug hasn't worked for Earwolf in kind of a while. I think you mean Dustin?
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Meanwhile, why do people act like having to fastforward through a musical segment is a big deal? I've fastforwarded through some if it wasn't my style of music (both live and recorded), and lived to tell the tale. For the people who put the show together, getting to sit in on private studio sessions of their favourite artists is one of their biggest rewards, so asking them to stop is asking a lot.

All this talk about breaking the momentum makes for a really thin argument when you look at it logically - the musical break is happening either way. If you really want to hear a Don't Stop Or We'll Die song, press pause on the episode and go play a song of your choosing.

[SeveralCircles 426]

PS Yes to more Wainboard.

[TheSean 2]

Margaret Cho almost made it one whole sentence without talking about her heritage. There are other things. Also, she is not funny. Neither am I, but I sell insurance, not laughs.

[CaseyRafter 42]

I must have replayed the Asian Adjacent segment about ten times. LOVED that song!