February 16, 2016
Hello, blog readers, this is Neil again. This week's assignment is to defend a musician or band I like from hypothetical haters, or just talk about a musician or band that I like and why I like them. Someone that I've recently become interested in is an internet comedy musician named Allie Goertz. Her music is usually quiet and understated acoustic rock, which actually compliments the humorous nature of her lyrics surprisingly well. The YouTube channel that all of her videos are on is called Cosbysweater (it first started a few years before October 2014, so this was just an innocent mistake). Some of the subjects of her songs have included the infamous so-bad-it's-good cult classic romantic drama that was later re-billed as a black comedy made by Tommy Wiseau called The Room, Milhouse from The Simpsons, and Dungeons and Dragons.
What really drew me to her was how she made a five-track EP of songs all about my favorite TV show, Rick and Morty. On the EP, called Sad Dance Songs, she mixes up her usual style of music to work with, in addition to acoustic and alternative rock sounds, both electronic dance music and rap. The lyrics, while usually humorous, all reflect some of the deeper dramatic and even existentialist themes that Rick and Morty has, unlike most other adult animated comedies before it. Some of the songs include "Look At Me", a song about the bizarre race of characters named Mr. Meeseeks and how they only exist to fulfill specific tasks, are immune to all forms of bodily harm and can only die once their task is completed, are driven insane by their very narrow reason for existing, and will become more dangerous and psychotic the longer they are left alive without their assigned task being completed; "Jeez Rick", a song sung from Morty's perspective about his frequent frustration with Rick taking him on all of the adventures through space and the multiverse that he does and constantly putting him in deadly situations throughout them; and my personal favorite on the album "All I Wanted", a song that could be interpreted as being about any of the five members of the Sanchez-Smith family- Rick, Morty, Jerry, Summer, or Beth- and how they feel about any other members of the family- specifically how even though they are unhappy with each other, they would most likely be more unhappy without each other, and how it's best to just live with what you do have rather than dwell on what you don't.
Goertz's musical style has been compared to comedy musician Bo Burnham, though it's rarely as dark as Burnham's music. This prompt is about defending your choice musician from haters, which is made fairly ironic by the fact that one of her songs is about haters. The song is called "An Open Letter To Myself", which is about not being elitist with your tastes, a problem she admits to having. Whether it's people liking something she doesn't like or not liking something she does, Allie has often tried to overcome her instinctive behavior of taking entertainment tastes personally. Of course, she ends the song on a deliberately and facetiously hypocritical note, saying that if someone doesn't laugh when watching Seinfeld, then "say something hurtful and never take it back". Occasionally, she does go into more serious songs, such as in her song called "To Mom", which is about how she still cares about her mother despite the fact that she bore the brunt of Allie's bad attitude as a teenager, a song I'm sure many people can relate to.
So will Allie Goertz gain more success from here? Sad Dance Songs seems to suggest yes, though only time will tell. Bo Burnham has had multiple stand-up comedy specials/concerts and briefly starred on his own MTV show called Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, a mockumentary comedy-drama starring Burnham as the title character, a recent high school graduate who spends the series chasing internet fame. Despite only lasting one season, it was critically acclaimed by most news sources for deconstructing the formulas of similar shows on MTV and showing how the blind pursuit of fame is often just a cover for strong emotional insecurity. Could Allie end up doing something like this? Maybe somewhere down the line, if she got a few Netflix comedy specials first. I expect a guest appearance on Rick and Morty Season 3 as a personal thank-you from series creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for paying tribute to their show with the album before anything else, however. Go look her up on YouTube to hear some of her songs, or buy them for yourself on iTunes or Google Play Music. Thank you for reading, and I'll see you next week.
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