Last night, went to Club de Ville for a party promoting The All-For-Nots, an internet video series (a “scripted web docu-comedy”, quoth the ‘about‘ page) from the Michael Eisner-run Vuguru. Therefore, I like to imagine that my three Lone Stars were ultimately paid for by a man who I inexplicably visualize as Phil Hartman in the ‘Of Mice and Men with Two Lennies’ SNL skit from many years before.
Anyway: I haven’t seen the show in question, and the six-year-old iBook I’m typing this on is not so good with the streaming video, so I won’t be able to evaluate the whole thing until I get back home. All I have to go on here is how the band sounded live, and my take on things there was somewhere around ‘underwhelmed’. On paper, it looks OK — energetic pop with literate lyrics — but the result never quite worked, to these ears. Think of a much less interesting version of We Are Scientists’ With Love and Squalor or Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’ Hearts of Oak and you’d be in the right ballpark.
Now, like I said, I haven’t seen the show, so I’m not sure if that’s the point — that certain things that seemed odd (such as the leggy blonde in a party dress) were meant to be that way. But what I saw didn’t really impress musically and didn’t click as entertainment. More to come when I’ve seen an episode or two.