On Dan’s Turntable: Think About It / Flight of the Conchords

Think About It, Flight of the Conchords

Always entertaining but often forgotten, this post presents to your turntable the glory that is Flight of the Conchords. I’ll let them, in characteristic Australian accents and self-effacing style, introduce themselves: “We are Flight of the Conchords, formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody duo… Unfortunately another folk parody duo’s just slipped above us in the charts… Like of the Conchords, a tribute band. They do our songs just slightly more popular than us.”

The guitar-playing lyric-geniuses are as hilarious as they are humble. An instant classic of a contemporary comic duo, Bret and Jermaine make up Flight of the Conchords. The smaller of the two, Brett, a scruffy, high-pitched, baaaad mutha ucker, plays seven instruments: guitar, bass, piano, omnichord, xylophone, ukulele, and drums. Jermaine is more of a buck-toothed burlesque baritone with big beautiful black bushy eyebrows, which he tends to bounce around. Their songs are often situated in every day situations gone absurd, and the targets of their parody range from the hip-hop game to David Bowie.

In Think About it, the duo assumes a groovy style of smooth concern for serious societal issues similar to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” but instead ask trivial questions that derail all consequence. Like Woody Allen interrogating, “Why does man kill?” and expounding, “He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage,” Bret and Jermaine lament, “They’re turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers. But what’s the real cost? Cause the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper. Why are we still paying so much for sneakers when you got them made by little slave kids? What are your overheads?”

Despite asking the tough questions, Flight of the Conchords never forgets to break it down and keep it light. Indeed, it is in their unique ability to put heartwarming wit to catchy melodies that makes this band worth a turn on your table.