The Roundest Pickled Egg
February 4, 2015 8:28 PM   Subscribe

A song about a pickled egg, by British comedy musician Elliot Mason, which devotees of Devo, Information Society, the Tiger Lillies, the sketch show Jam, and/or vintage Dr. Demento may enjoy.
posted by gusandrews (14 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Also remniscent of the Normal; e.g. The classic TVOD
posted by lotusstp at 9:03 PM on February 4, 2015


I did! Enjoy it, I mean. I think there should be more space for goofy songs like this.
posted by JHarris at 11:10 PM on February 4, 2015


It has a theme and sticks to it. I believe Beethoven operated along similar lines.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:43 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Lyrically, it teminds me most of early Human League, in particular The Black Hit Of Space, but it's a canny pastiche of All Of That Sort Of Thing. Isn't that a chunk of Enola Gay in the middle with a quick burst of Are 'Friends' Electric? Last couple of shots - the empty mains socket, the knowing glance - is particularly nostalgic for the 79-81 TOTP generation.

If I were to criticise - and I were, being that bloke - then it's that it conflates the New Romantic with first-wave electronic, which may seem the same things through the Quantel of fading memory but really weren't. Even bands like Ultravox, which straddled the two, were quite different before and after (Foxx/Ure).

Why, yes, I have been watching Synth Britannia. Why do you ask?
posted by Devonian at 4:31 AM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


I think you missed out Landscape there, Devonian, but yeah, pretty much.

Dude has wig troubles.
posted by scruss at 4:58 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


He also has troubles remembering where he parked his car or staying on topic.
posted by I-baLL at 10:04 AM on February 5, 2015


Things like this are why my son sneaks up behind me on his fat little padded feet. That was like Yo Gabba Gabba on drugs. We'll be talking late into the night. He hates pickles and just recently started liking eggs. The conflation...
posted by Mr. Yuck at 6:44 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


So perfect. I certainly also thought of Adam Ant. And Pop Muzik by M.
posted by geeklizzard at 8:08 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Here for your enjoyment, the sort of non-parody, sort of non-comedy, Pop Muzik. Best bits are where the audience is just standing there looking unsure what they should be doing during this deadpan moment.
posted by geeklizzard at 8:11 PM on February 5, 2015


Well, Landscape. I was in a band in 1983/4 (we did just one gig in front of around 10 million people, but that's another story), and one of our keyboard players was an absolute Landscape nut. He generally went on about how their second album From The Tea-rooms Of Mars To The Hell-holes Of Uranus, ho ho, was the first time that all the components for proper electro-pop had been put together, with this or that drum machine and this or that sequencer. But for me, and obviously most people, they were a one-hit wonder with Einstein A Go Go, and I don't think I listened to the album more than a couple of times. (I was and am far more a fan of the dystopian oblique end of things.) I'd put them in the same mental category as Buggles, Kissing The Pink and Freur, in terms of having a more interesting back-story than musical career.

There was a lot of enjoyable, quirky, innovative and strange music in the charts back then, and even more out of them. John Peel shows (UK) and The Anesthetic's Wearing Off compilations (US) are rich seams to mine, although you may have to search hard and work dirty to obtain that which you seek.
posted by Devonian at 8:51 AM on February 7, 2015


Teacher was late today and I was asked to stay in the 3rd grade classroom for a bit. I couldn't get the morning work up on the big screen, so I improvised.

The kids were shocked and didn't get the joke until Mason started talking to himself on the TV.

None of those kids know what a chip shop is but they loved this video so much that I played it five times and we danced around like idiots. Professional teachers were asking me if I had things under control and I lied. But I did educate them about chip shops and pickled eggs and wigs and unplugged keyboards.

The kids had the lyrics and the gestures down pretty quick and I guess that is going home with them. I doubt I will be asked to sit a class again. Which kind of sucks. I bet that was the most fun they will ever have in school.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 6:21 AM on February 11, 2015 [3 favorites]


" Professional teachers were asking me if I had things under control and I lied."

Hahahaha, that's a great sentence.


Also:

"But I did educate them about chip shops and pickled eggs and wigs and unplugged keyboards."

It took me 3 views to notice the unplugged keyboard which explained his look into the camera. I initially thought it was just a look but then I realized that, oh yeah, the keyboard's not plugged in. It's the look of "so what? It works for the video!"
posted by I-baLL at 8:07 AM on February 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Went better than I expected with administrators and parents. Several people asked me to sit tonight because it is Valentines' day. I'll have a full carload in a bit and we are going to a wig shop to try on wigs. Then 30 miles out to a remote gas station/diner that pickles eggs well. Called ahead and it was hard to explain, but they are rounding eggs for us. Then on to the only place that serves proper chips around here.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:31 PM on February 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


"That's what I've been going on about for the last five minutes" has become part of the vernacular around here.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:20 AM on February 27, 2015


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