Singer/songwriter/guitarist Dan Mudge founded Loathsome Wind to combine rock music and comedy. He rounded out the band with Chris Bauer (guitar/vocals), Brian Chafin (bass/vocals), and Gokhan Oldugugibi (drums). The six-track Loathsome Wind EP is their debut release.
“Messages on Dating Apps” starts the disc, with a spoken intro that tells us what’s coming, so to speak. The band kicks into a funky, danceable track with just enough chorused guitar to evoke a ‘70s porno. The lyrics--delivered straight--reminded me of a game my friend Christian used to play in college. He and his roommates would read passages from Penthouse Letters to each other, deadpan, and see how long it took for someone to crack up. It was sophomoric (they were sophomores, after all), but it was good for a few laughs then. Dating-app denizens should chuckle here. Comedy records are a tough genre. To me, the gold standard for comedy albums is Weird Al. His lyrics are deliberately over-the-top, and lampoon his subjects. The music underneath adds to the humor with odd instrumentation and funny percussion sounds. Further, many of his songs are parodies of well-known tunes, giving him a big leg up with the audience. Loathsome Wind, however, takes a tougher path. They play it straight all the way through. Their music--all original--is regular guitar/bass/drums rock, competently executed. The band touches on a few different feels (James Brown, Blues Traveler and Wild Cherry are clear influences), and each track features a nice guitar solo. Oldugugibi has some nice drum breaks as well. That leaves a lot of comedy weight for the lyrics to lift--the words have to provide all of the humor. Mudge talks a lot about payloads, but do we get the payoff? In many cases, yes. For instance, there’s a few good zingers in “Boy of the Week:” “We didn’t even last as long / as the flavor in your gum,” or “Our courtship died faster / than my phone’s battery.” Double bonus points for rhyming “bourbon” with “sermon.” And my kids got a real kick out of “Don’t Touch My Butt.” There are some misses, too: “Connoisseur” as an example loses its lyrical shock value fairly quickly. It’s not easy being funny! Loathsome Wind gave themselves quite a number of challenges on their debut, and they met many of them. I look forward to them honing their craft further.
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