Biting Humor Set to Music
By NEIL STRAUSS
LOS ANGELES
Songs of protest or advocacy are not the only means for musicians and their audiences to respond to national crises. There is also comedy. Outside vaudeville and the musical, however, songwriters who invoke laughter in times of economic or political duress have received little respect. But now a new crop of talented singer-comedians has emerged with hopes of changing this.
What distinguishes most of these performers is that although their humor can be crude, their music is not. Many have honed their skills through weekly residencies at nurturing clubs. Among these are the band Tenacious D (with the actor Jack Black), the music-comedy duo Naked Trucker, and Andy Prieboy's musical about Axl Rose, "White Trash Wins Lotto." These acts grew out of the Los Angeles lounge Largo, which books musicians and comedians as if they belonged to the same genre.
As several of these performers make their way from their local clubs to the national mainstream, they are facing a challenge: do they market themselves as a band for music fans or as comedians with television and movie potential?
Today and next week this column will profile several up-and-coming performers who straddle the border between music and comedy. One is Stephen Lynch.
People often say that Mr. Lynch could have been another heart-rending singer-songwriter like Pete Yorn, Jack Johnson or even Jeff Buckley. He has a sweet, beautiful voice; he is a talented songwriter; and he can strum an acoustic guitar with sensitivity. But that is not the path he chose.
"You know this one?" Mr. Lynch asked the audience during his first Los Angeles performance at the House of Blues on a recent Saturday night. There was a chorus of cheers.
"Well, don't sing along and mess up the punch lines, all right?" Mr. Lynch admonished.
Where some singers see themselves as writing lyrics or even poetry that they are only too happy to have an audience recite, Mr. Lynch sees his words as setups and gags with a comic timing that cheers or accompaniment can ruin. His songs tend to start out as sensitive ballads and then suddenly take a 180-degree turn toward the insensitive.
A song describing how "life will be strange" and how his "whole world will change" when his grandfather dies ends up as a plea for his grandfather's demise and the ensuing inheritance. "I love you to death," he goes on to sing, "but I've got bills to pay." As the song continues, it only gets worse. "I'll jam with the Stones, I'll dine with the queen," he sings, dreaming of his share of the will. "So what's say we unplug that machine?"
After 45 seconds a lullaby to a daughter turns into a father's confession of his problems with gambling, drinking and general perversion. And let's not even discuss his tribute to the Special Olympics or his love song by a Roman Catholic priest.
Can't this guy ever write a serious song? "I tried it once," Mr. Lynch said during an interview before his concert. "But it just didn't work for me. When I got to that crossroads, I always followed the devil down the other side. I sold my soul every time."
At the House of Blues, for example, Mr. Lynch was joined onstage by his friend Mike DeNicola. Together they decided to sing a tribute to the personal differences that make a true friendship work.
"I have fine taste," Mr. DeNicola sang.
Mr. Lynch responded, "And I like things cheap."
Mr. DeNicola sang, "I wanna stay up all night."
"I just wanna sleep," Mr. Lynch answered, and then added, "with your sister."
Because of songs like this, Mr. Lynch has become one of the only musicians to master the art of appearing on obnoxious radio drive-time shows.
"He's radio gold," said Greg Hughes, also known as Opie of "The Opie and Anthony Show," after the concert. "When you do a show like ours, to have someone like him is a rarity."
Mr. Lynch is to perform on Saturday night at the Bottom Line in Manhattan; his Comedy Central special is scheduled to be rerun on April 18 and 19.
In the mouth of just about any other singer, Mr. Lynch's songs would be merely sophomoric, detestable gross-out humor. His taboo-breaking songs can get so extreme that even his audience stops laughing. (Though his funniest songs, like "What If That Guy From Smashing Pumpkins Lost His Car Keys?," are often his tamest.)
But somehow his clean-cut all-American looks, choirboy voice, songwriting chops and one-step-ahead-of-the-audience comic timing make his material work. After all, his biggest influence is not the ribald songster John Valby (also known as Dr. Dirty) but Joni Mitchell.
"A few things make Stephen's stuff work," said Rob Gordon, who released Mr. Lynch's latest album, "Superhero" on his label, What Are Records? "One is the fact that he's writing lyrics that are very catchy and intelligent. His songs are not just one joke. The second is that his songs really are well-written songs. If you think about the melodies, the melodies will develop every time he repeats a progression."
Mr. Lynch, 31, grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., and got his start in musical theater. But in college he saw the movie "This Is Spinal Tap," and it changed his life. He realized that the goofy songs he enjoyed writing could be turned into funny, interesting rock 'n' roll. Soon he was the only person arriving at comedy open-mike nights with a guitar.
"It's hard when you do this sort of thing to give up your rock-star dream and call yourself a comedian," Mr. Lynch said. "But when you get down to it, sure I have a guitar and I'm singing, but I'm telling jokes. My goal is not for people to cry and swoon and relate. It's for them to laugh."