To: Randy Newman Re: Your Brains

Yes, those true geeks among you will already know will know where I'm going with this one. I had the privilege to go see Johnathan Coulton last night at the Paul Gleason theatre in Hollwood. (You can see my friend Rude Morgue's excellent review of the concert here).

(note: this entry took me several days to write due to suddenly being so busy at work.)

Until recently, I mostly knew Coulton as the voice behind several You Tube do-it-yourself World of Warcraft music videos. He seems a popular musical choice for the fan-film set. Rude Morgue had been preaching the gospel of JC for some time, however, and so I also became acquainted with such greats as "Re: Your Brains" and "Code Monkey" (itself a subject of a brilliant anime fan made video found here.) And let's not forget "The First of May".

Happily, all of these songs and much more made it into Coulton's Hollywood show. He's a great performer, and his set consisted of not only his quirky humorous songs, but also some heartfelt "serious" music and some great covers. (His folksy cover of "Baby Got Back" must be heard to be believed.)

Coulton's opening act was a duo called "Paul and Storm" and they proved to be just as talented as he was. Lots of funny songs--starting with the apt number "Opening Band".

We are the opening band
We are here to do five or six or seven songs
“Don’t go too long, and get the hell off the stage”
We are the opening band
We’re probably not the band you came to see tonight
But it’s alright, ’cause soon we’ll go away

Well, okay, it's funnier when you hear it.
Their act was spiced up by a hilarious set of "Rejected Commercial Jingles" and "Randy Newman sings the Theme song to (Insert Movie Here) ". And truly, any movie would be better with a Randy Newman theme song.

Trying to explain how great these guys are is tough to explain in mere words. The best way to find out is to listen yourself.

www.jonathancoulton.com

www.paulandstorm.com

Ink Gorilla gives these guys four thumbs up.