The Ultimate Jerky Boys Collection

The Jerky Boys

(Select Records)

Is your refrigerator running? Well, better go catch it.

Compared to the antics of the Jerky Boys, such a joke is merely the work of amateurs untrained in the finer art of prank calling. The Jerky Boys—John G. Brennan (aka Johnny B.) and Kamal (Ahmed)—have perfected crank calling into an art. Unfortunately, it does not necessarily follow that this art belies either good taste or talent. This Grammy-nominated duo’s latest release, The Ultimate Jerky Boys Collection, is their third compilation, a two-disc set consisting of fifty-one of their supposed best recordings of prank calls.

The Jerky Boys exist as the result of two New Yorkers capitalizing on shared amusement of recording crank phone conversations and too much free time. Their 1993 debut album, The Jerky Boys, was the first of its kind and a best-seller. Since their debut, the Jerky Boys have released four more albums, two other compilation albums, two movies, and a book.

Fans will delight in the Jerky Boys familiar characters, like the abrasive Frank Rizzo, voiced by Johnny B., whose defining characteristic is an unnecessary overuse of a four letter word rhyming with “puck,” the memorable Sol Rosenberg, an annoyingly shy, neurotic, Jewish man, á la Woody Allen, and the hilarious transsexual Jack Tors. Kamal’s participation is comparatively limited to infrequent characters like Tarbash the Egyptian magician and Ali Kamal.

Beneath the explicatives there is little to find amusing. However, when not cringing to Frank’s language, a few chuckles may unwillingly escape while listening to such notable calls like “The Gay Model,” where “Jack” tries to find work as a disfigured model whose act includes setting himself on fire and pulling chairs out from his nether region. Still, the majority of the prank calls are like “Pet Cobra,” a mixture of offensive stereotyping (in this case a man with an over-the-top Indian accent who’s bitten by his cobra while charming it with a flute) and an overall difficulty and aggression.

However, it must be conceded that the reactions of the prank callees are somewhat amusing. It is unfathomable how the Jerky Boys were able to convince a woman that her son frequents a nude beach in “Sol’s Nude Beach.” Equally jaw-dropping, but hardly side-splitting, is that a lawyer stayed on the phone for upwards of two minutes listening to a foreigner sob about being beaten for delivering a pizza to the wrong door in “Pizza Lawyer.”

But the only people more gullible than those who are the butts of these prank calls are those who buy this CD.

—Emily Ga Wei Chau

DFA Compilation #2

Various Artists

(DFA Records)

This week saw the coinciding arrival of two promo compilations of distinctly different bents. One was a Warner Bros. compilation of popular songs from their back catalog remixed by current artists called What is Hip?; the other was a three-CD package called DFA Compilation #2, containing remixed tracks from the New York’s independent DFA label. One of these two label-oriented discs held remixes of such “classics” as Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and Devo’s “Whip It;” the other remixes of bands such as Black Dice, the Rapture, and DFA’s house band LCD Soundsystem. One of these CDs was deemed relevant to today’s rock soundscape; the other found its content position in the throw-away bin without much fanfare. Needless to say, the youth brigade of the DFA won the day, and “What is Hip?” was proven a rhetorical question, if not with the answer its distributors intended.

Modern independent rock today has found an unsteady position vying with modern dance; as the independent audience begins more and more to regard dance in a serious light, rock bands have benefited from the help of dance labels and club remixes of their songs. It is onto this scene that Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy have become so prominent for their stable of dance-rock artists and their production work as the DFA. Their vinyl remixes have been club fodder in NYC and around the world now for more than two years, and DFA #2 marks a milestone in their careers; two discs longer than their first compilation, the set reveals their increasingly prolific catalog at a glance, and the outstanding nature of their production at a listen.

Familiar names don the tracklist of this recent compilation. The Rapture’s profile has boomed after the DFA-produced Echoes, and the Black Dice have long been favorites in the art-rock subgenres. The DFA’s own group, LCD Soundsystem joins these bands and the Juan McLean for the lion’s share of the three-CD set, but the shine of the duo’s production gleams over all of the 30 tracks. Their trademark sound of funky bass with skronky guitars, ’80s keyboards, and subtle synthesizer unites these discs to such an extent that the artists themselves are in a definitive back seat: this is all about drawing out the songs and flaunting their skill behind the dials. No song lasts less than four minutes, and vocals are sparse, giving way to slick instrumental above all else.

The ultra-relevant blend of rock and dance this music has its most sophisticated, engaging, and above all else, intelligent producers in the form of the DFA. Their new release saves a lot of vinyl in its wake, and is an electrifying jolt from the most relevant rock genre of our day and its foremost spokesmen.

—Christopher A. Kukstis

Deja Voodoo

Gov’t Mule

(ATO Records)

There are a handful of iconic figures in the music industry who seem unstoppable; guys like Santana or James Brown who at once cut live and studio albums and record tracks with other artists while watching their sales and recognition rise. Warren Haynes, the mastermind behind gritty blues-rock icons Gov’t Mule, is the latest of these musical renaissance men. Apart from his work in Mule, Haynes has cemented his legend with a burgeoning solo career and the contribution of his inimitable guitar style to tours with The Dead, Phil Lesh and Friends and The Allman Brothers Band.

Gov’t Mule began as a power trio comprised of Haynes, bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts. Following Woody’s death in 2000, a sobered Haynes and Abts started a project called The Deepest End where some of Woody’s favorite bassists (John Entwistle and Victor Wooten, among others) were invited to play on two studio albums and one massive five-hour live show, recorded both for CD and DVD. Deja Voodoo, the Mule’s 11th overall release, their fifth on ATO and their first with new bassist Andy Hess and keyboardist Danny Louis, doesn’t attempt to reinvent the band’s hard rock-based sound, still emphasizing razor-edged riffing, slower rock numbers and Haynes’ trademark voice. This album is less jam-oriented than The Deepest End, although Haynes’ love of power riffs (“Lola Leave Your Light On”) is clearly still alive and well. Unfortunately, blues number “My Separate Reality” sounds so much like the Allman Brothers original “Desdemona” and blues standard “Worried Down with the Blues” that Haynes’ songwriting capacities are brought into question; overall, the songs on this album impress less than those on The Deepest End. There are still ferocious moments on many of the tracks where Haynes’ gruff voice can make your hair stand up or where his guitar playing is especially emotive, but many of the songs are difficult to tell apart and thus the album feels slightly ambiguous. Chord changes are relatively predictable as are many of the guitar riffs but the Mule plays this music with such verve and emotion that it’s impossible not to enjoy this album.

Haynes, often considered one of the leading guitar virtuosos of the 21st century, is in fine form on this album. He’s so much better than almost all of the guitarists on the rock and jam circuits these days due largely to his innate feel and strong fingers; his playing really makes some of these songs sing, as on “New World Blues.” However, anyone familiar with the latest iteration of the Allman Brothers Band knows that Haynes is capable of much more when paired with young virtuoso Derek Trucks. When the two play, Haynes seems to leave his pentatonic comfort zone a bit to combat Trucks’ sheer ingenuity and natural sense of rhythm and melody. Alone, Haynes and the Mule still impress, but don’t experiment with tempo, feel or melody as much as they could.

—Nathaniel Naddaff-Hafrey