Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Debussy: Mer No1-3; Mendelssohn: Symphony No3
Music: In My Head [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
Freq Nasty Presents Y4k/Next Level Breaks [Import]
Essential Selection Summer 1998 [Limited Edition] [Import]
Heat of the Moment [CD-single]
Eric Ruske Plays Romantic Horn Concerti
Evil Pt.2 [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
Amazon.com
Merriam Webster defines kitsch as "sentimental, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts," but there's a certain sincerity and refreshing absence of hypocrisy in the current, decidedly kitschy "lounge music" revival that at least partially explains the genre's appeal to a modern audience. Mono Puff's John Flansburgh, formerly one half of mid-'80s geek-rock band They Might Be Giants, seems willing to embrace the theory, anyway, as his band gleefully tears into the material on It's Fun to Steal with a goofy, unaffected eclecticism. The absurdity is rampant, with songs about dashikis and bomb making, funk jams that rhyme "New York City" with "extra crispy," or a monotone voice saying "this song is called creepy" in a song called "Creepy," just for redundancy's sake. Mono Puff succeed in taking Webster's "pretension" out of the kitsch equation, and grab onto a silly vibe that may just continue the revitalized popularity of piano bars and questionable clothing decisions into the third millennium. --Matthew Cooke