The Parentals don’t care. Because they don’t care, neither do I.
Look, who else is going to make to make “music” like this, huh? Other
Californians who like to get high? You think this is funny?
Actually, I do think this is somewhat funny. I warn that you should be
stoned out of your gourd in order to enjoy Big
Bear Jam-Bor-Ee to its fullest potential (and great title by the way, more
on that in a minute), and since I’m an illicit substance teetotaler, I’m not
the target audience. Actually, you probably need to be massively stoned to get
any enjoyment out of this at all.
That doesn’t mean I don’t get it. Twenty-some years ago I too embarked
on a home-recording journey with a friend of mine (and some other friends who
happened to be around sometimes), and we basically tried to cover the entire
music-genre spectrum in our output, recorded totally Ween-style to a Tascam. We
weren’t stoned then, either, but we were hopped up on sugar, like big time.
You don’t want to hear that though, which is why that last paragraph
didn’t go on longer than it did. (I could go on, if you want me to.) The
Parentals gang – Thomas, Lawrencio, Victor, Estela, and Monserratt – decamped
to a cabin in Big Bear, California (hey, title!), and recorded weird little
snippets of “songs” and released them on tape. Probably good that there’s only
forty copies – if they have forty friends, there goes the pressing! No need for
a redo.
What makes Big Bear Jam-Bor-Ee remotely
interesting as an artifact is that clearly some thought went into its manufacture.
Take the song titles, for instance. The tape starts off with “Personal Hotspot
Part Deux,” followed by “Personal Hotspot Part Hoo,” but there’s no “Personal
Hotspot Part Un”! Those crazy kids. The tracklist is scrawled on the back like
an old Beck or Grandaddy tape, and other funny song titles include “Hip Hop
Harry” (which is forty seconds of awful), “Hoo Hee hoo Hah,” “Hee-Haw BBQ Pep
Rally 2009,” and “Indian Bernie Sanders.”
The front cover has features funny review blurbs, which are
entertaining. Donald Trumpets says, “This is my favorite album of 2015!” The Onioner says, “Just listen.” Read
into my definition of “entertaining” what you will.
The songs on the other hand? I’m giving more thought to this review
than the songs were given in their creation, and that’s being generous, I
think. The further I listen down the tracklist, the more unlistenable it gets. I
got as far as “Hoo Hee Hoo Hah” before I had to turn it off. Joke’s on me. But
hey, again, target audience and all that.
The Rolling Stoner says,
“Children’s music for dumb people.” My tagline? “Dumb music. Not for children.
Or people.”
The Parentals
--Ryan Masteller
Posts
