Insane Debate About Clowns (The 25 songs of Christmas Part 21)

Today, I received the following email from my friend Matt Voigt; the other person emailed was none other than Judge John Hodgman; the email reads:

well Hello...

My name is Matt and I humbly submit this dispute for Judge John Hodgman to consider. I feel as if there is an obvious answer, and while this is not a dispute that causes consistent friction...it is something that legitimately makes me think differently of one of my friends due to his musical preferences....

The Insane Clown Posse. By all accounts my friend (also named Matt) is a level headed, creative, and artistic individual. I go to him for music suggestions frequently and he has a finely attuned musical palate. He's a writer, musician and film-maker, not to mention one of my best friends. I usually default to him on educated opinions when it comes to entertainment. Except for this. Matt STRONGLY believes that the Insane Clown Posse are in on the joke and are awful on purpose. He thinks this is brilliant. He compares them to Andy Kaufman anti-humor. This is obviously not the case and it bothers me that an otherwise intelligent individual could think this way.

Now i'm usually tolerant of people who are wrong....but when we go on extended road trips (which happens semi-frequently) this argument begins anew and is worth at least 5 minutes of me screaming.

This is a dispute that must be settled for the legacy of ironic-semi-full-of-themselves comedians and our friendship.

Respectfully yours...

Matthew

now hopefully we'll get on the show and you'll get to actually hear my debate; but my opinion is that no one can honestly be serious when they write lyrics like "I met Milinko he gave me three wishes/That night i fucked three fat bitches" or "I'll cut your finger off and shove it up your butt... then glue it shut".

Anyway, fingers crossed that I'll have a chance to prepare songs and such in my defense (and that I win the case)

That being said (and on a completely unrelated note) song #21 on the 25 songs of Christmas is No Use For a Name's cover the Pogues christmas classic "Fairytale of New York"; enjoy the song and this video which contains a cute picture of a dog (among other things)

Blink 18Who?

So perhaps I’m simply turning into a 13-year-old girl but it’s looking like 2009 is going to be a whole lot like building a musical time machine that’s taking us back to 1998-1999.

It was already announced the No Doubt was having a reunion show (which as long as Gwen doesn’t Diva out and they don’t play anything post-Return to Saturn). In other news Get Up Kids are planning a summer tour for the 10-year anniversary release of Something to write Home About

Oh, and apparently some band called Blink 182 is recording a new album.

For those of you who don’t understand why this is big news let me explain something. Perhaps this is my shortcoming but I really don’t care about the No Doubt reunion, and even Get Up Kids I can take it or leave it. Granted I think Something to write home about is the greatest pop punk album of all time, everything else by Get Up Kids seems just… meh.

Blink however, is the band of MY childhood as well as thousands of other kids. I don’t think there is a punk/pop punk/powerpop/emo band out there working today that hasn’t been influenced by the songs that appeared on Dude Ranch, Enema of the State, and Take your Pants off and Jacket.

A lot of people feel like Blink ended on a sour note musically. Granted while their self-titled album is no-ones favorite Blink CD, it’s still better than anything that 75% of the punk bands of today have been spewing out.

A blink 182 reunion gives me some bizarre form of hope. Granted, I think a lot of people are doubting that Tom can keep his ego in check long enough to not become super controlling. Either way, between this and the new Green Day album in May, I feel like I’m high school all over again. Except you know this time I won’t spend my time getting my ass kicked (well as much).

Perhaps this is a little insensitive but I’m almost glad that Travis Barker almost died now. (and I just signed my ticket to hell)