Album Reviews

Travis Petersen
Bernell Dorrough

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
Come Poop With Me
Warner Bros. Records
Grade: B-
Final Word: Worth one listen and that’s all.

The problem with all but the greatest comedy albums is that the novelty wears off after the first listen. No matter how funny it is the first time, remembering how funny it was the first time is often better than listening to it again. That is the case once again with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s “Come Poop With Me.”

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, for those who don’t know, is a tiny rottweiler puppet voiced and maneuvered by Robert Smigel, who became famous on the Conan O’Brien show. Classic Triumph moments had him humping poodles at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, accosting people waiting in line outside of the premiere of “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones,” and getting into an altercation with Eminem at the MTV Video Music awards in 2002. Hiding behind a silly puppet, Smigel was able to get away with the type of insults that no one else could, and a lot of the appeal was knowing that there was a man there just off camera, basically insulting people to their faces with a stupid looking puppet.

A lot of that appeal is missing from “Come Poop With Me.” While there are funny moments-including welcome insults of nearly every figure in pop culture along with numerous “poop,” “ball licking” and “bitch” jokes-nothing matches seeing Triumph in action. When he told a pregnant woman at the Star Wars premiere that birth was going to be the last time her son ever saw female genitalia, it was a classic TV moment that could be seen over and over again. “Come Poop With Me” does not bear the same repeat business.

Thought Riot
Sketches of Undying Will
A-F Records
Grade: B-
Final Word: More guitars, less politics, please.

Thought Riot’s second album, “Sketches of Undying Will,” is a perfectly serviceable mix of old-school punk and Bay Area hardcore. The young band puts across an enthusiastic, sincere performance, and has crafted a number of catchy songs. But this music is neither as important nor as groundbreaking as it would like to be.

Predictably, the album is political in nature, having been released on the pseudo-insurgent band Anti-Flag’s A-F Records. The young Bay Area punks in Thought Riot have inherited the left-wing banter of the Dead Kennedys and the guys who run their label, though they don’t sound much like either band. Instead, they sound like pre-major-label AFI, another group of Northern California kids who grew up playing anthemic hardcore. With lots of shouted choruses, “Whoa-oh-oh” backing vocals, and crushing half-time breakdowns, Thought Riot sound almost exactly like AFI before the goth/industrial/pop makeover.

When Thought Riot stick to this template, they do just fine. The first two tracks on the disk, “With Love, the Underground” and “You’re Gonna Die,” are simple examples of good, straightforward melodic hardcore, equally formatted for fist-pumping in mosh pits and singing along loudly at home. When the guys slow it down, giving more opportunity for their political slogans masquerading as lyrics to sink in, the album is less enjoyable. It’s much easier to enjoy pretentious music when the pretentious elements are pushed to the back-but on their slower tracks, Thought Riot put their wordy lowest common denominator leftism on display.

While it’s nice to see bands still trying to make punk political, the music of Thought Riot is best as a mindless distraction. When they get too smart for their own good, it proves their music isn’t smart enough.

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