Music - You Will Definitely Miss Music

July 20, 2008 8:24 PM

Not much is know about Bobby Gaylor, aside from what can be gleaned from his "songs," actually spoken word pieces set to music worlds apart from either Henry Rollins or King Missile. His official webpage now redirects to Google, and he has no wikipedia entry. His sole album, Fuzzatonic Scream (2000), was a buried treasure for anyone who could find it, with good music backing a born storytelling everyman from Massachusetts giving sometimes gentle, sometimes harsh, insights into life through the details of his own. Now, the only songs you may find video for are "One Moment," which discusses his first kiss, and "Suicide," the closest thing he had to a "hit," but his full (sadly bleeped) work may be found here. Personally, I recommend "Smelt," "I Hit a Guy With My Car," "Masturbation," and "Business End of a Gun."
posted by Navelgazer (13 comments total)

that you, Ray Liotta?
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:40 PM on July 20, 2008

His track on "Suicide" is my favourite. Whenever I get all emo and and depressed, I listen to that and I can't help but laugh myself into happiness.
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:51 PM on July 20, 2008

Other cool spoken word with music artists:

Ken Nordine

Ivor Cutler
One example is here (YouTube)
My personal fave is Jammy Smears

And of course, Joe Frank (if his voice sounds like you've heard it before, narrating History Channel shows...you'd be right).
posted by foonly at 9:06 PM on July 20, 2008

Duncan Wilder Johnson is pretty good too, although his Destruct-A-Thon disc is a mix of his band, and his spoken word stuff. Pretty good, though.

I'd give my left nut to see OZZY! And then, when I was with a woman, and she screamed "OH MY GOD YOU, ONLY HAVE ONE NUT!" I would reply, with stunning poise ... 'I gave it. To Ozzy!'
posted by Dark Messiah at 9:13 PM on July 20, 2008

No wikipedia entry?! Good god, navelgazer, are you sure this person really exists?

Ah, upon exploring your other links, I see that yes, he exists. I'm not terribly crazy about his stuff based on these links, but anyway, I always like to see folks who are trying to do something a little different, following their own instincts. Thanks for the post.

And I'd second foonly's endorsement of the wonderful Ivor Cutler. He's great. I was think of doing an FPP on him a while back, but found someone had beaten me to it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:17 PM on July 20, 2008

Nice find, Navelgazer. It's a good mashup of storytelling, standup, and unobtrusive background music.
posted by not_on_display at 9:30 PM on July 20, 2008

It's a good mashup of storytelling, standup, and unobtrusive background music.

Now see, that's kinda what put me off a bit: the unobtrusiveness, the background-ness of the music. It's just like a guy telling a story in his living room, with the stereo going in the background. I'd like to see a little more interaction with the words and music happening in something like this. As it is, I just kinda feel like, why have a live band? Why have music at all?

Don't get me wrong, navelgazer, I'm not dissing your post... I just think this guy could've done a lot more with this concept.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:56 PM on July 20, 2008

Here's his IMDB entry (he's currently a writer/voice actor for "Phineas and Ferb").
A clip from his short film Nick Fit Extreme.

posted by gubo at 9:58 PM on July 20, 2008

I have his first album at my parent's house. I got it when I was in college.
posted by parmanparman at 4:06 AM on July 21, 2008

As it is, I just kinda feel like, why have a live band? Why have music at all?

Why not? I kinda liked that effect, of just this dude sitting on his sofa, telling me stories or ranting about whatnot, with the stereo on. This strikes me as much more stand-up (sit-down?) comedy or monologue, and not strictly a musical venture.

For another example, Mitch Hedberg's whole first album of standup, Strategic Grill Locations, he had a double-bassist playing throughout the entire show, just in the background. Sometimes he would interact with him, tangentially. It was a great atmosphere Mitch created, an inviting one. The music totally gave the whole thing an identity of its own.

This stuff strikes me in the same way, but with a different tilt. Bill Hicks Lite instead of Stoned Steven Wright.

This can be interpreted as schticky, I can understand that. I just happened to like it; it struck me as a good balance. If it were just the music, or just the standup, I don't think I'd have liked it half as much. (Actually the music by itself would kinda suck, but as support for this, it's more than passable.)

Also, I like when his Boston accent appears in places.

I'd like to see a little more interaction with the words and music happening in something like this.
There are parts in "Suicide" where the music builds up or mellows out depending on what he's saying. I think the comedian and his band pull it off well.
posted by not_on_display at 8:25 AM on July 21, 2008

Another similar artist/group that has more of a heightened interaction between the spoken word and the music backing is Enablers. Mp3s are on the site, I recommend "Pauley's Days in Cinema".
posted by FatherDagon at 8:41 AM on July 21, 2008

Why not?

Why not? WHY NOT?? Hey, I'll tell ya why the fuck not!! You wanna know why not? ... Is that what you wanna know??

Well, it's... uh... you know, it's...

Hey, you're right. Why not?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:13 PM on July 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Hey Flapjax! Yeah! You!

First of all... you always crack me up. glad to have you in the thread.

Secondly, if you go to the rhapsody site (which feels kind of like a necessary evil to me, though I can't explain why I feel like it must be evil somehow) and check out "Smelt" or "Hit a Guy with my Car" (which dovetails oddly well with this post from today) you might get more of the interaction with music thing that you're looking for. Then again, it still might not be your cup of tea.

Thirdly, thanks for linking to the Ivor Cutler video, which was bizarre to my eyes ad ears but entrancing nonetheless.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:49 PM on July 21, 2008