Customer Reviews

Yeah: Essential Barnes & Barnes

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Barnes & Barnes represent first and formost; QUALITY. There is possibly nothing more satisfying for the ears than listening to a recording that is crisp and clear, and this is true not just in novelty records but in any genre. Barnes & Barnes (Bill Mumy and Robert Haimer) produce their own records and make it seem so easy to co-ordinate their vocals and instruments into pure musical clarity. They produced all of the fine records by 'Wild Man Fischer' on Rhino Records, somehow making him actually listenable. O.K., now many believe that their technical skills are lost on the actual music they produce but you must at least be somewhat aware that these guys are sublimely demented and so have never had any pretentions that their music will ever make in onto the Billboard top 40 charts! You will not be disappointed in any of the three Barnes & Barnes CDs available. To ensure you get your moneys worth they are each packed to capacity and they each have well-written and informative booklets by Billy Mumy . Their first album, Voobaha has the original 14 tracks plus NINE excellent bonus tracks including the controversial, Vomit Song and the Dr. Demento favorite, Three Drunk Newts. Their second album, 'Spazchow' has the original 14 tracks plus EIGHT excessively mind-warping bonus tracks. All 22 tracks are sewn together with actual recordings from their phone answering machine which gives a unique touch and a glimpse into their lives as actual people. On this CD, Yeah, 18 of the 24 tracks not available on the other two CDs (the tracks 5-10 are on the Spazchow CD). Three of the cuts (18, 23 & 24) are from their long out of print CD on Rhino records, Loozanteen.

Oglio Records rereleased Barnes & Barnes first two albums on CD. Those must not have sold well enough, because they didn't rerelease the rest of their albums. Instead, the third Barnes & Barnes release by Oglio Records was this "best of" CD. It features material from all their released albums and unreleased albums, plus newly recorded songs. Ten of the songs have never been released before. It's a good overview of Barnes & Barnes recorded output, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Fans of Art & Art need this CD. Yeah.

I first heard their collection called Zabagabee: The Best of Barnes and Barnes in the early 90's and immediately fell in love with their music. If you can find that it would be worth your while. What I really don't understand is that this collection has about twice as many songs as that one did, and hardly any of the same songs. About 4 of the 24 tracks on this collection were on Zabagabee.

Bill Mumy and cohort are lost in space playing astronauts who are Residents of the planet Zappa. Raising families on an ex-child actor's salary isn't easy, so they say necessity is the Mothers Of Invention. They've done a crude spin on pop tunes that come off somewhere between Frank and those eyeball-headed creatures from San Francisco; middle of the road instrumentation and melodies on cliche rock instruments with raunchy lyrics that are good for a guffaw or two, and sure to make party guzzlers expel beer through their noses. Like all comedy or novelty albums, though, after you've listened to the joke once, it's not so funny the second time. You might just want to buy a copy for a single listen, then pass it on to your sophomoric friends, or take it to the party for a listen,...and leave it there.

The only thing wrong with this CD is that it doesn't have the "Three Drunk Newts" song on it.

Other than that, it's definatly a must for any fan of sillyness.