For me, comedy and music are two great tastes that should generally stay the hell away from each other. But like all ironclad rules, there are those exceptions that either prove the rule or expose its hollowness. Like my love for Personal and the Pizzas, whose recent Burger Records tape Raw Pie, collecting the band’s various singles, may end up one of the year’s best releases.
On the band’s MySpace page, these allegedly-from-Jersey guys offer a shorthand take on their formula for pop hits: “ONE RAMONES RIFF + ONE STOOGES RIFF + REALLY DUMB WORDS”. It’s an apt if self-deprecating description, as songs like “I Can Read” and “Nobody Makes My Girlfriend Cry But Me” lovingly skewer The Ramones’ many sides–mopey, belligerent, goofy, and not-very-bright, but always catchy as hell. I highly recommend you take a listen to the band’s performance and interview on WFMU last year, slightly surreal given the station’s Jersey City, New Jersey location and the band’s Hoboken goon characters.
[audio:http://www.transparentblog.com/file_download/82/Personal+And+The+Pizzas+-+I+Dont+Feel+So+Happy+Now.mp3] Personal and the Pizzas – “I Don’t Feel So Happy Now”Personal and the Pizzas will be at the The Stork Club this Saturday, April 3rd (8pm, $tba), with The Dutchess and the Duke and The Moore Brothers.
