Power Salad

Our new friends at Meep Morp Studios are planning a splendiferous celluloid feast celebrating not only Dr Demento, beloved purveyor of Mad Music & Crazy Comedy, but also Barry Hansen, the mild-mannered and hugely knowledgeable music scholar and author. “Under The Smogberry Trees” is now Kickstarting and needs your dough to get to the finish line!!! Please visit their Kickstarter page, like, NOW at http://kck.st/XXXg30 and pledge pledge pledge! They’re offering TONS of special goodies for backers of the movie, up to and including Dinner with the Doc and an Associate Producer credit in the film! (Don’t worry, there’s also kazoos, whoopie cushions, tophat-shaped thumb drives containing the finished movie, posters, all kinds of STUFF! Pretty soon to include autographed Power Salad CDs!!)

There are going to be tons of Demented luminaries involved with the film, so far including Barnes & Barnes (“Fish Heads”), Bill Frenzer (“Dead Puppies”), Richard Cheese (aka Mark Jonathan Davis, “Star Wars Cantina”), and many from the New Breed of Dementia like the great Luke Ski, Insane Ian, and even yours truly! There’s gonna be archival footage, new animation, a totally Demented soundtrack, all kinds of wild wacky stuff and a totally fun ride!!

Please visit them NOW at http://kck.st/XXXg30 and pledge your support, there’s just under a month to go, and SO many have said “You know, it’s About Time someone made a movie about Dr Demento!”…well here’s your chance to make it happen! Thanks much and See You At Da Movies!

Buy Buy Buy!

Here it is! The newest release from Power Salad, a compilation of FuMP tracks mixed in with some lost tracks from old dead formats and a few that have not seen the light of day. Whoa!

Track listing:

• The Table Near The Band
• Warcraft World (parody of “Computer World” – Kraftwerk)
• The Chemical Engineering Song (live at ALCON ’98)
• Stuffing Mix
• A19 (with Carrie Dahlby)
• Grapes
• Orchestral Manouevers In My Socks
• Laser Ablation
• Neanderthal Man
• My Cat Is Afraid Of The Vacuum Cleaner (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Style)
• Electric Razor Blues
• Lost Without My LOST (parody of  ”Lost Without Your Love” – Bread)
• Co-dependency (Cough Syrup Mix)
• Sorry Clint, Obama’s Not There (The Good, The Bad and The Invisible) (parody of “She’s Not There” – The Zombies)
• Hot Dogs In The Sink (original 1981 version)
• Cellphone en la carretera (parody of “Pocket Calculator” – Kraftwerk)
• The Fire At The Old Diploma Mill
• It’s Its
• Hi, I’m a Racist! featuring The Jones Jukebox
• That Time of the Month
• Charlie Sheen (parody of “Shaving Cream” – Benny Bell/Paul Wynn)

So sidle on up to the table and fill yer plate with a few leftover Snibbics!

My gosh it’s been a while…well you know, stuff to do, the dishes and all that…But Power Salad is back with a new collection of old crap and another triumphant appearance at the grooviest comedy music collective anywhere, the comedy music track at Marscon! Spent the past weekend in Minneapolis hanging out with comedy buds the great Luke Ski, TV’s Kyle, Insane Ian, and many more including the Music Guests of Honor, England’s very wonderful Flat 29! As usual it was a Zing Happy kind of time, with lots of performances, general hanging around, merchandise sales courtesy of the equally-wonderful Table 27 volunteers, and a drink named after me! If I recall correctly it was white sangria, a fruit schnapps of some sort, and some…fruit salad! Hence the Power Salad!! The fact that I can’t remember is a testament to the drink Conspicuous by their absences were Devo Spice and ShoEboX of Worm Quartet, miss those guys and hope to get together with them again very soon. Marscon highlights (photos as credited):

Marscon also saw the droppings – er, Drop of the new Power Salad compilation CD “Snibbics!”, a collection of FuMP tracks not appearing on Power Salad studio albums as well as tracks released on otherwise dead formats and a few things that have never seen the light of day, for better or worse You can order a copy for $10 plus $3 for shipping (yeah, good old USPS) right here.

The album contains parodies of Kraftwerk, The Zombies (and Clint Eastwood), James Bond music, Steely Dan, Bread (and LOST), Benny Bell (and Charlie Sheen), plus lots of other head-scratchers. Not to mention perhaps the only recorded solo on my webmistress Sara Trice! Not of, on!!! It’s not pretty, but it is hilarious. There’s even a parody of myself! So why not pick up a copy, like, NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for reading in, and see you in 2015!!! (no, wait…uhhhhhhh…… tile?)

Here’s your chance to be on a Power Salad track! I am resurrecting a silly old tune I wrote when I was about 15, and recorded at 16, it’s just too dumb to be lost to time! Part of our performances of the tune at various parties and get-togethers was a lengthy solo section including solos on various musical and non-musical items. The first recorded version includes solos on Cheez Doodles, wallet, baritone saxophone MOUTHPIECE, aluminum serving platter, Reader’s Digest, etc…you get the idear. So I have put out a call to friends and colleagues to submit short silly solos to be included in the new 2012 recording of the song, which will post on the Funny Music Project website on September 4th.

How can you get involved with the madness? Listen to a portion of the original 1980 (overdubbed in 1986) recording to get an idear of what I’m after. Download the short backing track you will solo over. Pick an item to play and set up yer recording (I’ll take recordings from most any device as long as it’s clean), listen to the track in headphones while you record your thing. Save it as an mp3, 128k mono or 256k stereo, and email it to me at power dot salad at powersalad dot com. Let me know what you are playing and how you want to be announced on the track. Yay. Simple.

Here are the links:

The original 1980 portion: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16907563/SillySample.mp3
The new backing track: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16907563/SoloBackingTrack.mp3

‘Ave fun wiv’ it! I’d like to get solos back before the 13th of October, otay?

Whee. and Thanks!

Just a quickie note that the first ever Power Salad West Coast show will be happening this Wednesday night July 11th starting at 8pm, I will be headlining this year’s Kahnmanapalooza comedy music festival, happening at DiPiazza’s on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. Also appearing will be TV’s Kyle, Dino-Mike and the Chris Waffle Experience. Make plans to tune in for a simulcast of the show, either on Dementia Radio http://dementiaradio.org:8027 or on Ustream if all goes well, http://www.ustream.tv/channel/powersalad – Hope to see you there!

I’m thrilled (look, see?, I’m thrilled!) to be performing alongside many of my FuMPy brethren at DeepSouthCon50 at the Embassy Suites in Huntsville, AL June 15-17. I’ll be performing a Salad show as well as joining up with the rest of the nuts in Cirque du So What? for a nice family-friendly Sunday afternoon show (um, NOT!!!!!!). Lots of other funny music folks will be performing, the 2nd annual Logan Whitehurst Memorial Awards ceremony will be held, and the special Media GoH is none other than Dr Demento! For more info, go to www.dsc50huntsville.com.

Then in July, I will be heading West once again, this time to headline Kahnmanapalooza 2012, a comedy music extravaganza being held at DiPiazza’s on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, CA. I’m humbled to be performing with many luminaries from the West Coast Dementia contingency, including Throwing Toasters, Dino-Mike, Raymond & Scum, and TV’s Kyle! Wednesday July 11 at 8pm is the time! Hope to see you out there!

We’re re-upping our efforts to expand the FuMP channel on YouTube with more videos, ultimately our goal is to fix up every song on the FuMP with a FuMP-branded video with purchase and artist information (unless the song already has an artist video). Devo Spice and Jared Ringold of Possible Oscar brainstormed a groovy template that can be used over & over to generate videos for the FuMP tunes, and they’re rendered directly to YouTube. So keep your eye on http://www.youtube.com/user/FunnyMusicProject as it grows and re-grows with more & more funny! Please link to it, mention it on your blogs, and by all means partake in all the funny! WooHoo!

Hey, nearly forgot! The other project I’m involved with, sketch comedy group Cirque du So What?, has also released its new album at Marscon 2012…it’s called “Stupid Cowboy Thing, Volume 2: Additional Squid” and contains over an hour of funny, strange, and often obscene comedy. Check it out at www.CirqueDuSoWhat.net or www.BaconNipples.com!

Ah, yet another triumphant Marscon hath come and gone. This year’s Dementia track was fantastic, with the Music GoH the Consortium of Genius, otherwise known as The COG (“COOOOOOOOOOG!”), holding forth with a tremendous chunk of science rock and a ton of fun. Saw many friends again, both performing and fan, and met/hung with TV’s Kyle and his goil Lindsay. Of course the Dementia Radio crew was well represented, and much time was spent brainstorming ways to get the station where more people can enjoy the Dementia alternative!

My digitized self lasted quite a few rounds in the 2012 Dementia Smackdown Battle Royal devised by Jered “Mayor JP Tuesday” Perez, who also took the video of my and everyone’s comedy concerts on the main stage.

Another tradition was upheld when nearly everyone dispatched to Khan’s Mongolian Barbecue in Minneapolis following the con on Sunday, and there was much rejoicing. (yaaaaay)

Also, Cirque du So What? came together yet again for another wild show, performing many sketches off the new album “Stupid Cowboy Thing, Volume 2: Additional Squid”. Yes, there was a bit of tile.

Here is the video of my set on Sunday afternoon, courtesy of Jered Perez. Lots of dry mouth, so please excuse the first few notes and the lack of breath on “My Cat Is Afraid of the Vacuum Cleaner”.

So thanks are due to the great Luke Ski for making it happen, JayeKiity aka DJ Phoenix for loaning me her guitar, Davroz for taking many promo photos of Cirque du So What?, and everyone for liking what I do. Cheers!

Check out the Tour Dates page for where Power Salad will be performing this year!