Foxworthy, Jeff - "Have You Loved Ones Spayed or Neutered"

Foxworthy, Jeff - Have Your Loved Ones Spayed or Neutered
2004, Warner Bros.

1. Have Your Loved Ones Spayed or Neutered
2. Airport Security and Rental Cars
3. TV and its Side Effects
4. Oreo Generation
5. I'm Next in Line
6. Grocery Stores
7. Courtesy Sniffs
8. I Believe

Here's the biggest problem with this disc - if you've seen the Blue Collar movies then you've pretty much heard everything on this album. So when I got this one I was a little disappointed but only because I've heard much of the material before. Still it helped me keep my sanity on long car rides and it's still pretty amusing even though it doesn't produce any gut-busting laughter. The bit about interpreting his wife's dreams always gives me a chuckle.

Useless Fact: Larry the Cable Guy helps out on the encore track with their new thing called "I Believe."

Foxworthy, Jeff - "Totally Committed"

Foxworthy, Jeff - Totally Committed

1998, Warner Bros.

1. Introduction

2. You Can't Give Rednecks Money

3. Sophisticated People vs. Rednecks

4. Faded Genes

5. I Still Don't Know...

6. The Rules of Marriage

7. Protect Our Stuff

8. Every Single Hair On Her Body

9. I Don't Want to Be Single Again

10. Encore

11. Totally Committed

I think Jeff was on fire here. This is a hilarious set from start to finish. There were times driving that I laughed so hard I was afraid I was going to yank the car off the road. "Blue stingray boots!" "How do you get 300 people on a bus?!" yeah... great stuff. Probably my favorite out of all the comedy albums I have.

Useless Fact: "Totally Committed" is a mash-up country song with Jeff's stand up material over it.

Foxworthy, Jeff - "You Might Be a Redneck If..."

Foxworthy, Jeff - You Might Be a Redneck If...

1994, Warner Bros.

1. Introduction

2. Words in the South

3. You Might Be a Redneck If...

4. Life as a Father

5. Single Life is Just Too Hard

6. I Love Being Married

7. You Might Be a Redneck If...

You might be wondering why I'm putting up comedy albums on a site that's almost all music. Simple really... the stuff is on my ipod. I've got a lot of fond memories of listening to this stuff driving back and forth between Elmira, NY and Ft. Wayne, IN when I was in college. Finally... it's my blog and I'll do what I like... and you'll like it!

*AHEM* Anyway, this is obviously the album that started the whole "redneck" phenomena. I think a lot of people will be with me when I say that ship has sailed. Thankfully most of Jeff's comedy isn't even about redneck stuff. It's just about life and relationships and what not. It's also pretty funny. To this day even after hearing this disc a million times I'm still amused by the party stories ("Hey Officer Mitchell! I though you said you didn't want to come back out here again tonight!) and the single life stories. While I've long since gone past the point of laughing out loud anymore - I STILL like this. I think that's saying something.

Useless Fact: Jeff's actually got a few tapes and CDs that came out before this major label deal. You can usually find them at truck stops. I am not making that up.

Tourniquet - "Crawl to China"

Tourniquet - Crawl to China
1997, Benson

1. Claustrospelunker
2. Crawl to China
3. Enveloped in Python
4. White Knucklin' the Rosary
5. If I Was There
6. The Tell-Tale Heart
7. Bats
8. Proprioception: The Line Knives Syndrome
9. Tire Kicking
10. If Pigs Could Fly
11. Crank the Knife
12. Stumblefoot
13. Imaginary Friend
14. Going, Going...Gone
15. America

For me 1997 was one of the worst years in music. I honestly cannot think of one good album (in the Christian scene) that came out. Crawl to China is no exception. I'm not sure what was going on here only to say that they must have been trying to appeal to a wider audience. Problem is nothing here is really done well. There's a few cool songs like "Crawl to China" and I love the silly "Bats" but other than that I'm just in awe that a such a great band like Tourniquet could put out such an terrible album. I would have liked it better if they would have just sold out completely and done hookier-hard rock songs but man... there is nothing here to hold on to. Nothing's really metal, but nothing's really radio friendly either - except the ballad. The cover pictured is the new reissued one and I picked it because the original cover art is crap.

Useless Fact: As I understand it the band had no say in the original cover art. It was something that Benson dreamed up. Benson. Like... the label that Carman was on. Yeah... definitely a low point for the band.

Lavigne, Avril - "Under My Skin"

Lavigne, Avril - Under My Skin

2004, Arista

1. Take Me Away

2. Together

3. Don't Tell Me

4. He Wasn't

5. How Does It Feel?

6. My Happy Ending

7. Nobody's Home

8. Forgotten

9. Who Knows

10. Fall to Pieces

11. Freak Out

12. Slipped Away

Here's the funny thing about Under My Skin, some people were saying this was a "darker" and "more mature" Avril. That is a load of pure horse-hockey. Under My Skin is just about every 14 year old girl's journal set to music. Every song is about some boy not being nice to her or whatever. The songs all sound the same - a quiet intro/verse with a loud chorus. There are a few flashes of what could possibly, maybe, be considered "mature" if we used the loosest possible meaning (mainly in "Nobody's Home"). I will say, however, that I like the message of "Don't Tell Me." I can't even consider this forgivable, guilty pleasure fun like the first one. This is just teenage moping. Heaven knows we don't need any more of that.

Useless Fact: Did you know that Avril covered Metallica's "Fuel" around this time? Yeah, it was about as bad as it sounds.

Lavigne, Avril - "Let Go"

Lavigne, Avril - Let Go
2002, Arista

1. Losing Grip
2. Complicated
3. Sk8ter Boi
4. I'm With You
5. Mobile
6. Unwanted
7. Tomorrow
8. Anything But Ordinary
9. Thing's I'll Never Say
10. My World
11. Nobody's Fool
12. Too Much To Ask
13. Naked

Not a huge fan of Avril, no sir ree. My wife likes her though, not as much as she used to that's for sure. Truth be told Avril's first album isn't really terrible and at the time it was a nice break from all the slutty pop princesses that dominated the pop scene. You just have to appreciate it for what it is - young teenage girl music. Not great - not crap just sort of there. Neither me nor my wife really listen to this ever, yet here it sits, on my ipod taking up space. Oh well...

Useless Fact: At one time "Complicated" was the most played song on the radio...like... ever with something like over 9,000 plays. That's crazy! It's not THAT good of a song!

The Swirling Eddies - "Outdoor Elvis"

The Swirling Eddies - Outdoor Elvis

1989, Alarma

1. Outdoor Elvis

2. Driving in England

3. Urban Legends

4. Tiny Town

5. Attack of the Pulpit Masters

6. Mystery Babylon

7. Arthur Fhardy's Yodeling Party

8. Hell Oh

9. Blowing Smoke

10. Hide the Beer, the Pastor's Here

11. Hold Back the Wind, Donna

12. Knee Jerk

13. Don't Hate Yourself

14. All the Way to Heaven

15. Rubber Sky

16. Coco the Talking Guitar

17. Yer Little Gawd

18. Billy Graham

19. Potential

20. Strange Days

21. Elimination (The Band That Won't Go Away)

It's amazing that the Eddies have been out all this time and I had no idea they actually wrote songs. Let me explain. The first and only Eddies album I've heard was Sacred Cows which was funny, but nothing that I really want to listen to regularly. Well, I saw this on Mike's Blog over at In Defense of His Hands (link at bottom) and I thought I'd check them out. Holy Crap! I didn't know the Eddies wrote songs, let alone such awesome ones! Really the Eddies are just Daniel Amos with a few guests (like Gene Eugene from Adam Again) so it shouldn't surprise me so much. Imagine Daniel Amos with a bit more craziness and you have a good idea of what the Eddies sound like. Some of these tracks like "Outdoor Elvis," "Mystery Babylon," and "Rubber Sky" became instant favorites. Ol' Camarillo has a way of fusing deep spiritual meaning with silliness. Again, special thanks to Mike over at In Defense of His Hands for providing me with another band to add to my growing CD want list!

Useless Fact: "Hide the Beer, the Pastor's Here" is a protest song of sorts against some bible college's rules against drinking and R rated movies. Several colleges are mentioned in the lyrics including Taylor University and Fort Wayne Bible College. I graduated from Fort Wayne Bible College (though it was called Taylor University when I went there).