Liam Lynch - Fake Songs
(S-Curve)

Calling Fake Songs the best rock & roll novelty album since "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1985 magnum opus Dare To Be Stupid--if not ever--might be too reductive. Whatever label you give it, this album seems like little more than an amusing trifle at first, but it withstands so many repeated listenings it's almost disturbing. The animator/director responsible for MTV's Sifl & Ollie does remarkably keen musical parodies of Bowie, Bjork, Pixies, and Depeche Mode, as well as forays into metal and angry-white-boy rap. Then there’s the accompanying DVD Fake Movies, which clocks in at 90 minutes of material, much of it very entertaining. All that, and it contains the most punk minute-and-a-half that rock in 2003 has to offer, the Jonathan-Richman-meets-Jim-Carroll demi-classic "United States Of Whatever."

YEAH YEAH YEAH, 2003