I love silly music, the sillier the better. I like to be able to sing a song and smile the whole time because it’s ridiculous. Here are some of my favorite silly artists:
The Presidents of the United States of America
The Bloodhound Gang
Primus (Southbound Pachyderm, anyone?)
Lords of Acid (It’s impossible for me to listen to Rubber Doll with a straight face)
Anyone want to add others?
“Hocus Pocus” by Focus actually made me laugh out loud when I heard it on the radio recently.
Bowling For Soup. Basic kiddie-punk-pop, with some of the most fun lyrics.
They Might Be Giants.
Barenaked Ladies
Spinal Tap
Tom Lehrer
Weird Al Yankovic
Trout Fishing in America
PDQ Bach
Heywood Banks
The Arrogant Worms
King Missile.
especially a song of theirs called “The Commercial”.
Bonzo Dog Band. Very silly.
Neil Innes, a former member of the Bonzos, who has carried on their tradition, including writing songs for Monty Python.
Meryn Cadell: A Canuck, who’s probably a little too talented and a little too smart to be labelled silly. I can’t help but note her ability to put a smile on my face. My 1000th listen to her songs ‘The Sweater’, “Job Application” and the rest of the ‘Angelfood For Thought’ album were as entertaining as the 1st time I heard them.
Mojo Nixon: Preferrably with Skid Roper, as opposed to ‘solo’ or with Jello Biafra (Allow me a second to hijack myself: Come to think of it, the DK’s did alot of silly stuff themselves).
The 1st songs that come to mind: Stuffin Martha’s (Quinn of MTV) Muffin, I Wanna Dig Up Howlin’ Wolf, Don Henley Must Die, Elvis Is Everywhere, I Hate Banks, I’m LIvin With A 3 Foot AntiChrist, I Wanna Race Bigfoot, Jesus At McDonalds
From the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
If you’re familiar at all with middle-north of the United States (or, if you’re not!) this group will tickle yer funnybone.
Tenacious D!
Southern Culture on the Skids
It’s all about Moxy Fruvous, baby!
The Residents — I am not too familiar with this band but I heard them cover Prince’s 1999 and it was totally silly! and awesome!
MC Pitman – you have got to hear this 40 year old real life coal miner from England rap! Witness the Pitness, You’re all whack bitches. Good hip-hop though, when it comes down to it, just really amusing lyrically.
And the silliest group of all time
the Left Rights
you have to go to the link and listen to the sample clip of track 1, “parkin lot.” and the funniest track title ever could very well be, “figure this out and we’ll suck your dick.”
Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s (punk covers of pop songs and showtunes)
Shonen Knife (a cross between Hello Kitty and The Ramones)
Uncle Bonsai (hyper-literate, satiric folk, including The Doug Suite (five songs about a guy named Doug), the Doug Trilogy, etc.)
Innes also wrote for The Rutles (another great silly band). His songs were so close to the Beatles that one of their songs ended up on a Beatles bootleg recording!
Wow, and I’ve only ever heard of Mojo Nixon, Southern Culture on the Skids, and Uncle Bonsai (and a couple others)! UB broke up, did you know? Terrible.
The Dead Milkmen also have some very silly songs. “If You Love Somebody Set Them On Fire” among others.
I grew up and went to college near Seattle, so I should have been a big Uncle Bonsai fan, but I didn’t really discover their music until after they broke up. They’ve gotten together for a few reunion shows in the last few years, and I’ve been to a couple, and even put out more recordings (some old stuff, some new) than they did when they were officially together. If you liked them, it’s worth finding the side projects; Electric Bonsai Band (Andrew Ratchin solo) and Mel Cooleys.
I’m still sorry I missed them during their heyday. I’m told that their performance of Visible Panty Line was excellent.
