Jeffrey Lewis - It's The One's Who've Cracked That The Light Shines Through

This is another classic from Rough Trade Records - a truly inspired piece of antifolk hilarity. Folk music is rarely linked to New York City, and when on the rare occasion it is, most people remember Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and little else. Jeffrey Lewis on the other hand, alongside bands such as the Moldy Peaches, is a Lower-East Side kid playing hysterical punk-folk songs on a battered acoustic guitar, and then drawing comics of his songs alongside them. In fact, Jeffrey Lewis is primarily a comic-book artist, who has since moved onto writing songs and performing live with his brother Jack.

It's hard not to imagine little cartoon people running around when you listen to his lyrics. If You Shoot The Head You Kill The Ghoul makes me imagine Shaun Of The Dead, only acted out by hyperactive Myspace 'zombie' scene kids on acid trips, being drawn as a Pinky And Perky cartoon. Yeah, picture that. Ouch. I Saw A Hippie Girl On 8th Ave could equally be almost any Robert Crumb comic ever drawn, and No LSD Tonight is almost anti-drugs but isn't quite convincing... Jeffrey Lewis has created a masterpiece of hyperactive tongue-in-cheek teenage anti-folk songs, complete with every underground horror movie, Nintendo game and 80s punk band reference he could possibly squeeze in. I love it, and I don't think anybody can listen to "that Dawn Of The Dead song" without singing along, or at least cracking a smile. Every song on this album is brilliant - I picked it up cheap on Amazon. Make sure you get a copy because it will have you jumping around and singing along to songs about dinosaur names and pizza before you know it. Well, it's late, better get some sleep. Work tomorrow morning, or this morning should I say? Enjoy!

No LSD Tonight
If You Shoot The Head You Kill The Ghoul
I Saw A Hippie Girl On 8th Avenue

Expired