I work at a brewery a good friend of mine owns. The tanks and such sit in a building across the street from a local teen center, and on Friday and Saturday nights you can see the tragically hip and angst-ridden teens of the area converge for a night of live music put on by their peers’ bands.

One night there was a freakin’ tour bus and trailer out in front of the teen hole.

“Who the hell’s playing there tonight?” I asked.

I ventured over to see, and the flyers outside the venue said that Green Jellÿ was playing there.

Green Jellÿ ?

Really?

The Green Jellÿ of that “Little Pigs” animated video?

At a teen center in Connecticut?

Hmm. Okay. That’s cool.

Well, I guess they were on a pre-release tour for this, their new album.
Take some Gwar-esque theatrics, some Muckey Pup humor, and a metal-ish sound, and you got it. Pure and simple. The tune “Gefilte Fish” takes a big-handed swipe at Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People,” and “Stabby The Clown” is worth sitting through the intro. “The Ballad Of Swing Low Scroty” offers up nothing more than a tune to highlight a new character….that ride his own scrotum. Hey, if you are a one-trick pony and you know it, work your trick.

The music works just fine: hard and snotty. The humor is hit or miss.

Eh. Just eh.

(Rotten Records, PO Box 56, Upland, CA 91785)