The Barnyard Playboys
Corn Dog Love
Rubric
Ironic novelty-music sucks! Always. No exceptions. Not to say that you can’t be funny and make good music too, but you’ll really, really need to surpass the joke and make something that warrants repeated listening. The Barnyard Playboys only halfway succeed in doing that.
Their shtick is combining the pub grunt of the Faces with classic George Jones-ish country, and at times the end result is fine, beer-swiveling cowpunk, while other songs merely fall flat on their face and into the gutter, ending in shame and dull parody. The dramatic spaghetti western of “Steps to the Altar” is splendid, as is the swaying “Whiskey Dick Mountain.” “Turd in the Mail” is a slab of delightfully gross country punk, and “Last Round” offers up some filthily yearning old-fashioned country wrapped in ridicule and grit.
Listening to this at home while not drunk, it’s only so-so. But that’d be completely missing the point. The Barnyard Playboys are the ideal pub-rock band, and Corn Dog Love is best appreciated with full kegs and your scruffiest friends around.
Rubric Records: http://www.rubricrecords.com/
