Published on Jun 21, 2000
In the interest of fairness, I feel it is my responsibility to
announce to our Faithful Horde O’ Readers that my sister sings lead
vocals on one track on this CD. Therefore, in order to avoid any
charges of nepotism, I called in a Guest Reviewer, my roommate, to
listen to this CD. Said roommate’s knowledge of filk music (the
genre that Bob Kanefsky both belongs to and parodies with malice
aforethought on
Roundworm) is encyclopaedic rather than my own competent,
anyway. I put
Roundworm on, gave it a spin, and watched said roommate
closely for reactions.
After about the third time he started laughing so hard that we
considered administering oxygen, I realized that nepotism or no, we
had a winner on our hands.
Filk music, for those who haven’t explored it before, is the
folk music of the SF/fantasy/SCA/gaming/other forms of geekery
community. While not all filk songs are about these topics, it’s
safe to say that most people who self-identify themselves as filk
artists will be able to catch your “Star Trek” and Monty Python
references and make some of their own. Kanefsky, on the other hand,
takes this
even further, writing (but not performing) parodies of filk
songs, which are sometimes parodies in and of themselves, and then
pulls off the sheer audacity of getting the original filkers to
perform the parodies in most cases. If this seems excessive to you,
discard your linear thought patterns and start again, because
Roundworm is just a whole hell of a lot of fun, whether or
not you get the songs that are being parodied.
Properly said, this CD
should be credited to “Bob Kanefsky And Friends,” because to
the best of my liner-note-reading-knowledge, Kanefsky doesn’t
perform on it anywhere. Instead, his production staff brought in
some of the heavy hitters of the filk/Celtic community, including
Heather Alexander, Cat Taylor, Julia Ecklar, Leslie Fish, Kristoph
Klover, Margaret Davis, Jon Berger (the former fiddler of Celt-rock
band Tempest), and the bands Annwn and Ookla the Mok. (Note to
self. Review Ookla the Mok’s
Less Than Art on here sometimes. Damn good CD.)
I admit to only recognizing about half the songs parodied on
here. Even so, I spent a lot of time laughing pretty darn hard.
Special note should be made of “Mutant Generations”, a pretty
incisive look at the homogenity of “Star Trek”; “Eternal Flame”, a
filk paean to computer language flamewars; “Wise Men Fear To
Tread”, a good argument for not longing for the Age of Mythology;
“Threes: Take 3”, a funny twist on the works of Mercedes Lackey;
and “Black Flag”, for all you folks who need to clean the kitchen.
I also congratulate Kanefsky for “December Of Cambreadth”, even
though you
really need to know the original tune (“March of Cambreadth”
by Heather Alexander) to get all the jokes. Our Guest Reviewer also
confirms all the Julia Ecklar parodies are evil. (I don’t know
Julia Ecklar’s work. I think I’ll need to repair that
oversight.)
Finally, I have to congratulate Kristoph Klover for his
engineering on
Roundworm. It’s easily one of the best sounding filk CDs
I’ve ever heard, crisp and elegant.
In short,
Roundworm comes strongly recommended for parodists, filkers,
and people who just like to laugh. Good show, Mister Kanefsky et
al.
(Oh, and sis? You were pretty damn good, too.)