New Zealand

Rodney Anonymous vs. the World

by Rodney Anonymous

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSIO

Artist: Flight of the Conchords

Album: Flight of the Conchords

Country of Origin: New Zealand

"There's a man on the street. Someone's chopped off his head. And I'm the only one who stops to see if he's dead."

We are currently living in a Golden Age of Television. If you are unaware of this, then you're probably the sort of motherscratcher who doesn't watch TV, so why don't you do us all a favor and just skip on over to the personals to see if your ad ran this week. The rest of us know that one episode of The Wire contains more insightful social commentary and artistic value than Bob Dylan's entire catalog.

HBO's Flight of the Conchords, which will soon begin airing its second season, is part of the new wave of brilliant TV series that couldn't have survived ten years ago, when sitcoms existed for the sole purpose of convincing us that we loved Raymond. The Flight of the Conchords are a Kiwi novelty music act whose only fan is a stalker, and whose manager makes the duo start every band meeting with a roll call.

While Flight of the Conchords the television show is still funny after repeated viewings, Flight of the Conchords (Sub Pop — yes, Sub Pop) the CD, despite being packed with truly funny material, is one of those CDs you'll laugh along with once and never listen to again, as Flight of the Conchords the CD suffers from what musicologists will one day term Dr. Demento Syndrome: which is to say that even the best novelty music eventually turns into Disco Duck.

Jemaine and Bret, if you're clever enough to pack this CD with hilarious lyrics and tight song structures, then you should've been clever enough to include at least one song that isn't a joke. Remember; both Camper Van Beethoven and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir started out as novelty acts (for a brief period, the MTC's "If You Could Hie To Kolob" was poised to replace the "Chicken Dance" at weddings). If they can grow, so can you.

(r_anonymous@citypaper.net)