To pop fans in 2007, keeping up with the Barenaked Ladies is as embarrassing as monitoring Corky and the Juice Pigs tour posters on eBay. While some do fancy the Canadians’ improvised raps and witty stage banter, most of us in the States consider the Ladies a novelty import that died long ago (sometime in the late ’90s, that is).
But like vultures circling a corpse, Conan O’Brien, some hungover Peach Pit patrons, and perhaps a few dozen Phi Beta Kappas have been following the band’s recent return to its own Desperation Records label. And believe it or not, this activity has sprouted another U.S. tour.
Barenaked Ladies Are Men, the group’s latest, was released last February. Although mainstream media largely ignored this happy little disc, its giggle-inducing, fast-singing, lyric-slinging ways are forcing only the most flighty music fans to relive junior high, when they would ride the bus home and sing along to “One Week.”
This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.
Dear David-
What’s wrong? Did some mean BNL fans beat you up and take your lunch money? Is that why you didn’t listen to Barenaked Ladies Are Me? Reviewing “One Week” and pretend it’s a review of the new album won’t work. Those awful old fans will notice that your adjectives don’t apply. Or maybe you did listen to it and thought that songs about relationship problems, negativity, shallow people, disillusionment, infidelity, the war in Iraq, depression, the downside of fame, abandonment, and fighting are “giggle-inducing”. You must be fun at parties!
Next time, just be honest with your editor and tell them you didn’t have time to listen to the album. They’ll be mad, but they probably won’t fire you.
If you need to get hold of me I’ll be down at the Peach Pit watching Conan O’Brien and playing with my Phi Beta Kappa key while I scour eBay for Corky and The Juice Pigs posters.
Love, Rena.