Liam Lynch Fake Songs

Novelty rock is always a dodgy subject. Electric Six are a good example of how to pull off the old silly rock routine. No one can take a song like Gay Bar seriously, but the sheer audacity of the subject matter and the brash chorus, make it a beautiful anthem for drunks everywhere. Tenacious D are another fine example. They happen to be comedy before rock, unlike E6, so the fact that Jack Black and Kyle Gass can even play instruments is astonishing. Their friend, film co-writer/director and video producer Liam Lynch also uses his keen sense of humour to aid his tunes.

Imagine if you can, Weird Al Yankovic, if he was cool, had cool musician friends and talent. It's hard to, but that is Liam Lynch. Hailing from the sunny beaches of California, Lynch somehow studied school at Liverpool's Institute for Performing Arts with Paul McCartney, where he supposedly left quite an impression on Macca. Late last year, a song called United States of Whatever blasted onto the radio, catching everyone's surprise and forcing the question, "What the hell is this? It's so stupid, yet so brilliant!" Unfortunately though, the brilliance is short-lived.

The whole idea behind Fake Songs is obtuse. The songs aren't really songs, and if they're meant to be there, the title couldn't be more convincing. While Lynch has displayed plenty of witty moments in his comedy, namely Tenacious D's video for Tribute and his Top Ten hit, his material here is beyond Jackass in stupidity, but not nearly as funny. What will certainly grab the most attention is his feeble attempt to write parodies for five artists he admires. Bjork, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, Pixies and David Bowie are all targets for Lynch to try and mimic. I'll give him credit, he pulls it off for the most part, but he makes the songs so over the top lyrically, that the wonder passes almost instantly. The sheer idea of doing something so asinine is hard to absorb, but the fact that we're talking about a grown man here really boggles the mind.

There really isn't any saving grace with Fake Songs. You get what you'd expect out of tracks like Still Wasted from The Party Last Night and Rapbot and even less, trust me. Even an appearance by Jack Black himself fails to ignite any spark, as his contribution, a duet called Rock and Roll Whore, does an annoyingly terrible job at taking the piss out of Black Sabbath. Liam Lynch is about as funny as the plague, and even that had its moments in Monty Python. This doesn't have any.