Daniel Johnston
Fun
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Terminally flip, gene and Dean Ween (not really brothers! not their real last names!) think everything is a giggle. Musical maestros of the free-floating irony that signifies slacker humor, Ween spoof disco, folk, '70s funk and even bathetic college-radio earnestness (the priceless "What Deaner Was Talkin' About"). They also assay ludicrous spaghetti-western balladry ("Buenas Tardes Amigo") and extend cautionary advice ("Don't Shit Where You Eat"). Zappa is their ultimate papa, and while they can't match his virtuoso chops, Ween's loopy smarts and the dizzying variety of their parodic targets make Chocolate and Cheese the rare joke album that repays repeated listens. Loads nuttier
Read More and more beguiling, however, is Daniel Johnston's Fun. Recalling the spirit of the prelapsarian Pee-wee Herman, it's an aural dada playhouse wherein "Kool-Aid flows like wine." In a daffy lisp, Johnston spins crazy tales – "Sad Sac + Tarzan," "Circus Man," "Psycho Nightmare" – his persona a cross between Chaplin's Little Tramp and every weirdo 8-year-old. Parlaying fake blooze, snappy '50s kitsch rock and sugar-shock ballads, Johnston and his motley playmates (Butthole Surfer Paul Leary on guitar, Willie Nelson's sister Bobbie on piano) are the cat's pajamas in some surreal cartoon. (RS 698/699) PAUL CORIO |
