Three Tune Tuesday・Jonathan Coulton

in #hive-1932123 months ago

Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Three Tune Tuesday post.

As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.

Today, let's dive back into humor music.

I first became aware of Coulton about 15 years ago. He has one of those unique raises to fame that never would have been possible before the internet. He was a software engineer who hated his job. Think Office Space. In his frustration with work, he started posting a humor song every day to his blog. His idea was the same as mine in doing my haiku every day: he wanted to make a hard limit so that he would actually get things out in the world instead of working on them forever. Some were crap, but some were really good. They were all free. Enough influential people found his blog and enjoyed his music that his popularity started to grow. Encouraged by this, he compiled some of the most popular songs into an album and released it. It sold out almost instantly. Having done a song everyday, he had plenty of material, so he released another album. Sold out. Seeing the way the wind was blowing, he took the chance and quit his job to do music full time, and the rest is history.

While he hasn't achieved Weird Al levels of popularity, he has enough that he makes plenty of money to support himself and his family, and he does what he loves. That sounds like success to me!

I thought today we'd look at three of his best songs. Unfortunately he's managed to keep most of his newer songs off Youtube so we won't look at those. But he has plenty of older stuff, so let's dive in there, starting with....

Skullcrusher Mountain

This is a great one to start with. With a crazy name like that, you know you are in for a wild time. Imagine if Dr Evil combined with Scorpio and wrote a love song to one of his victims. 'Nuff said. Listen on!

Best line: ...maybe I used too many monkeys...



Ikea

I remember the first time I went to Ikea. I never got around to going to one when I lived in the US. I don't remember if I didn't have one nearby or what. Maybe it hadn't become popular in the US yet? Hmm. At any rate, they seem pretty popular in Japan and my wife convinced me to visit one once. I wasn't sure if I was in a store or some kind of housing theme park. I still don't think I know the answer to that even when I visit them now.

Everyone has a home, but if you don't you can buy one there. Universal truth in that line. What a damn fine song here.



Creepy Doll

And this one just about sums up every creepy movie you've ever seen...



Bonus: Code Monkey

I think this is pretty much his biggest hit back in the day, and probably his signature song. To anyone who has ever worked in IT or coding, you will relate to this song.

So what's your favorite?

Hi there! David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.
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I never really got into too many of these comedians. I know people who used to listen to Bob and Tom all the time and they always had funny guys on with unique songs. Great stuff here.

Creepy doll was pretty cool! I wasn't familiar with this guy but he's hilarious! It's always nice to get some laughs. The Ikea song hits the nail on the head. These days I avoid the place like the plague. I started listening to this a couple days ago, promptly forgot to come back and finish. I'm glad I did, we need more humorous singers out there!