Gotta put XTC's Andy Partridge in here. He has a natural eye for a great pun. Some of his songs (Dictionary / We're All Light / Church of Women) are close to genius: witty and thoughtful at the same time. Oddly, his crappest song (The Viz Buster Gonads single) was supposed to be funny yet failed miserably, imo.
Lennon had a good ear for words too.
Have to agree with you there SlagA.
XTC are the biz and lyrically very sound. Anybody wanting a treat should listen to Nonsuch (brill) and Apple Venus Vol 1 (one of my all time fav albums)
Sharp as a tack and great songs too.
Half Man Half Biscuit. They had such classics as Trumpton Riots; Rod Hull is alive, Why?; and the classic 99% of gargoyles look like Bob Todd.
Classic lines like-
In debt I owe someone a fiver
Maybe I should try my hand at brag
James Dean was just a careless driver
And Marilyn Munroe was just a slag
Following on from my error on the other Funny bands post. Carter USM always amused me. Funny and clever little lyrics. There songs were littered with puns and play on words
Sealed with a Glasgow kiss
24 Minutes to Tulshill
The Road to Domestos
The taking of Peckham 123 ... to name a few
They kind of started to go down hill after the 3
rd album, but I have fond memories of crowd surfing to them, and my mate breaking his arm whilst doing so. Great times.
Also, anyone remember The Sutans of Ping FC? Wheres me jumper? And give him a ball and a yard of grass, a great song about Nigel Clough!
If anyones into Hip Hop and you haven't heard him, MC Pitman is hilarious. He's an angry Yorkshire Miner rapper, who smokes fags and drinks a lot of tea. His first album, It takes a Nation of Tossers, samples a lot of exsisting hip hop tracks and re works them in his own style - a highlight being Witness the Pitness (sampling Roots Manuvas Witness the Fitness). His angry lyrics often mocking "Bling rappers" and the MTV cribs generation, people in it for the money, manufactured pop, you get the idea.
Worth a listen
Carter - yes. Great band
I forgot Splodginessabounds too.
Brown Paper is a class song. And they did "Two pints of lager ..." but don't hold it against them.
Blenkinsop: XTC's Nonsuch is the album that should have made them megastars - The Disappointed is gorgeous and Partridge always seems to gets the tone right because he lumps himself in with the disappointed. They are the one "should've been" stadium band.
Here's a link to Andy Partridge segments when he hosted MTV's Post-Modern. Very funny.
I would have to go with The Smiths. Moz is a witty old bastard. One of my favourites (from The Queen is Dead):
"So, I broke into the palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said : "Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing"
I said : "That's nothing - you should hear me play piano"
XTC, definitely a great choice. Nonsuch and Apple Venus 1 are two of the best albums of all time, as is Skylarking.
My vote goes to Ween. Albums like The Mollusk, Quebec and Chocolate and Cheese are increbile musically, but also have so much brilliant, strange humor in them.
side note: your system won't let me spell humor the American way. Does this also happen with color and favorite? I guess so.
Crash Test Dummies were a bit quirky too.
Yes, XTC's Skylarking - Summer's Cauldron has some of the nicest sounding word montages ever. In fact, I'm digging it out for another listen.
Id put in another vote for Moz, and pulp could be funny too.
Recently been getting some Bonzo Dog doo-dah band stuff, great weird songs.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 25, 2007, 7:05 PMRecently been getting some Bonzo Dog doo-dah band stuff, great weird songs.
The Bonzo's are out there on their own. What I shame I never said it first.
And then there's The Rutles, of course.
Neil Hannon - The Divine Comedy. Extremely witty with great observations. And good tunes too.
The Smiths have already been mentioned, but I second that. Some songs with very wry lyrics. Some songs with great juxtaposition of jaunty tune and dark lyrics (Girlfriend in a Coma). What could be funnier?
A big vote also for The Who, basically for the album "The Who Sell Out" - a great pop-rock album with brilliant songs that often include weirdly hilarious couplets ("She ripped her glittering gown, couldn't face another show, no; her deodorant had let her down, she should have used Odorono"). All tied together with sixties radio ads/jingles.
I also have a fondness for Billy Bragg. His version of Walk Away Renee is a terrific pastiche of Kevin Rowland. At least that's how I read it.
Agree with the Pulp comment. "A Different Class" had some great moments on it. Nice to see Jarvis returning actually, fingers crossed he can reproduce some of the lyrical gold he used to.
Althought not a band, Leonard Cohen does some very funny lyrics.