Fun Videos From An Internet-Based Singer-Songwriter

Some time ago some moron/geek linked this video. I love it. Some of you may be saying, "Oh God, not another stupid World of Warcraft video," but it's really not. Jonathan Coulton is a singer-songwriter who's gotten a lot buzz from his internet-based distribution system; someone just used World of Warcraft to make a video for a pre-existing, stand-on-its-own-strength song. (I happen to think the video is pretty cute, too; I'm just saying, it's not a WoW fanboy song.)

It's about an evil genius who has kidnapped a woman to his secret lair on Skullcrusher Mountain, and is frustrated that his attempts to make her love him -- such as "making a half-monkey half-pony monster" for her -- result not in a kindling of her affections, but of increasing terror.

It's kinda funny. There are levels -- yeah, it's a silly song about an evil genius, but it really sums up, comically, the absurdity of male crushes. Guys really think like this when they're smitten, alas. If we had a Doomsday Squad with which to "ignite the atmosphere," we totally would brag about it to impress a girl.

Another funny one is "Re: your brains," a song in the form of an interoffice memo from zombie-infected office worker writing to his former co-workers demanding they let him eat their brains.

This one -- "Code Monkey" -- seems to have spawned a cartoon series on G4. Could be a good idea, except they decided as part of their gimmick to use 8-bit (archaic, Atari-level) graphics to illustrate the show, which I'm pretty sure just ain't gonna work.

I was reminded of this by the Missing Pants Lawsuit Judge, which had recalled his silly Bruce Campbell-ish song "Mr. Fancy Pants (under Thing A Week IV).

Basically he's pretty similar to They Might Be Giants, only dorkier, if you can imagine such a notion.

More of his songs here. The damn guy's getting press from New Yorker magazine and NPR. And I think he just may be getting rich playing corporate shows for the deep-pocketed tech industry, which adores him.

posted by Ace at 11:20 PM

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