Road Trip Album Picks: "Death of the Party" from Kyle Kinane

WHAT: Kyle Kinane's first comedy album
LABEL: A Special Thing Records, 2010
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Quality modern comedy albums, the world's finest bathroom joke
WHERE TO FIND IT: Online or bust
LENGTH: 65 minutes

AST Records is fast becoming everything Comedy Central Records really needs to be. Which is, you know, relevant and cheap. While releases like Kyle Kinane's Death of the Party are unquestionably awesome, even on the label's home turf in Los Angeles, you won't easily find these recordings.

We've often pointed to an album's ability to be easily heard as what makes it good for the road-- which this is-- but this also has that awesome "you must play this for everyone you visit" aspect. "The House Is Rocking" (track #3) is one of these tracks, and it's a marvelous tale of using a strange bathroom and the chaos that ensues shortly after, we presume, one gets the poop sweats. While not exactly what you would call high-brow, and the sort of thing that we're probably supposed to roll our eyes at, we found it gutbustingly fantastic and surprisingly quotable.

The crazed mindset of insomnia is explored in new and exciting ways, plus you get the usual wonderment by way of Kinane's head. Like Thin Pig this is one of those albums you really ought to be ashamed of yourself for not having heard yet. While we haven't yet had the fortune of seeing Kinane in person, we hope to change this soon. Get this album.

Road Trip Album Picks: "R.O. Magic: The Best of R.O. Manse"

WHAT: Comedy album with music and sketches
LABEL: A Special Thing Records, 2008
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: 80s music, novelty albums, fighting
WHERE TO FIND IT: Online or bust
LENGTH: 63 minutes

The novelty record is experiencing something of a revival. Every few years "Weird Al" Yankovic puts out something new that burns up the charts, and the Conchords had a great run on TV. Rather than go with parodies, R.O. Manse has some sketches, some faux interviews, some songs, and more to make what basically amounts to a pretty great CD of character development. We learn who this guy is, we hear some highlights from his career, we meet his ex-wife... this is a fleshed-out guy.

With numerous special guests and all sorts of gags, this album is pretty all over the place. With 26 tracks spanning a variety of styles, there are a surprising number of great gags here-- the suite of 1980s movie theme songs, for example, are pretty fantastic. The album has a couple of songs which qualify as "hit singles" of sorts, awesome little ditties that work really well outside the context of the album. "Ladyboy" and "I Have a Synthesizer" are clearly the two shining stars of the album, were you to play them for a friend, the former of which is a surprisingly catchy song that-- unlike many novelty songs-- manages to play it straight. (As it were.)

If you can pick up a few tracks odds are you'll enjoy this-- it's a few steps beyond the recordings from various tunesmiths you'd here on Dr. Demento, and while pretty goofy, tracks like "Ladyboy" take comedy songwriting in a direction where it's funny without being overtly jokey-- that's quite a challenge. Well done! Pick this up if you're looking for comedy mixed with 1980s synthesized new wave songs, because it manages to pull it off nicely.

Album Announcement: Paul F. Tompkins' "Freak Wharf"

AST Records confirmed the new PFT album will be out December 1, 2009. AST's releases are widely available online via their own record label or via digital distribution, but finding them at retail is, of course, somewhat difficult.

The label has a news post on this new release, which we expect to be nothing short of awesome. (After all, the man can do no wrong.) Pre-orders to start soonish. We cannot wait.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: A Doug Benson Interruption CD Recording

At the UCB Theatre in LA this week, Comedy Death Ray deviated from its usual format. Rather than a normal Comedy Death Ray (a series of comedians perform with a host), this week's was the second part to an ongoing recording of a "The Doug Benson Interruption" CD to be released on A Special Thing Records in the future. So unlike most Comedy Death Ray shows, you may actually be able to hear this one. It's worth noting that the evening lasted about two hours, and since this was the second recording of comics for the album, odds are it's going to get trimmed down. (Unless someone's really cool and makes it a mega-MP3 download or a quad-CD set.)

So which famous or soon-to-be-famous faces did you miss by not going this week?

• Doug Benson was host and master of the mostly not-fawkward show. As usual, he had fresh material and kept the show moving despite the ever-looming deadlines. Since this was part of his big CD release party, he seemed to be high on his new album and everybody seemed to have a great time watching him interrupt other comics perform for the CD. It's a really amazing format, so many comics have to rewrite their material to awkwardly fit the talk show couch format and this lets a host interact with the comedian in a much more natural (and funny) way. This would be a good format for a TV show, if any network still airs stand-up these days.
  
• Paul Scheer of Human Giant and 30 Rock had a marvelous set focusing largely on the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego. I've never had the fortune of seeing Scheer perform before, and he did a wonderful job letting us know about all the free crap he picked up at the show, which, as someone who does exactly that, I can assure you is a marvelous bit.
  
• From Last Comic Standing is Amy Schumer. She ranked slightly higher than Doug Benson on the season they appeared on the show, and she worked her way into a bit about her time at the Special Olympics after a night of partying that, if given the chance, you need to hear. (So if it makes the cut on the CD, we'll remind you to buy it.)
  
• Curator of Comedy Death Ray (and CDR Radio), former Mr. Show performer, and I presume some sort of future talk show host Scott Aukerman brought us a great set with even more top-notch Comic-Con material and much, much more.
  
• The infamous Andy Dick showed up without a set so much as a segment which was a good mix of comedy, an interview, and a prank call to Dr. Drew, which is really a sort of amusing comic trifecta. He also introduced us to his ankle bracelet, and apparently he had a whole setlist which he didn't get to tackle yet. And he's been sober for over a year, if you were curious.
  
• The always wonderful Chris Hardwick finished off the set and he was clearly hurried along as the previous sets ran over. Despite having performed at the same venue mere weeks ago, he had completely different material which slowly burned into more of a fight on if his set should end or if there's time for one more bit. Awesome. You never fail to entertain, former host of Shipmates.

We're not sure what will make the cut for the disc(s?), but one recurring theme was that people kept getting up, walking around, and distracting the comedians who addressed the audience but those watching the show didn't have the courtesy to acknowledge the performers. Are UCB patrons now officially too cool to participate in crowd work? It looks like it. As always, we're less about spoiling the whole show and more about making you mad that you weren't there. It was fantastic and it's your own damn fault that you missed it, so be sure to go next time.

Road Trip Album Picks: Doug Benson's "Professional Humoredian"

WHAT: Stand-up album from one of Twitter's favorite sons, host of the "I Love Movies" podcast, the dude from the movie Super High Me, and VH-1/G4 gadfly
LABEL: A Special Thing Records
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Laughing
WHERE TO FIND IT: Pretty much nowhere, so try iTunes or the label (mail order)

Here's an album from someone you'll probably love on a label that's so obscure you can keep your comedy snob cred even after someone else tells you about it. How's that for awesome?

Doug Benson is generally known as a pot comic which is actually pretty unfair. Sure, his star shot up thanks to the Marijuanalogues, a live show that's... well, you can figure it out. This is a great place to start following his career, particularly because he's a prolific guy. Between his podcast and TV specials, you might hear references to these jokes again and again. As such, starting here will probably make you feel better about buying this album, rather than recognizing bits of it from his many hours of free funny.

This album is absolutely worth listening to if you can find it. Benson's next release will be on Comedy Central Records, which means you might find it in stores unless they pull another digital-only release out of their backsides.

Road Trip Album Picks: Jen Kirkman's Self Help

WHAT: Stand-up album from young comedienne you've never heard of before
LABEL: AST Records
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Maria Bamford
WHERE TO FIND IT: AST Records, iTunes

Rather than pick it apart, we'll keep it brief: Jen Kirkman recorded a reasonably short but very funny album called "Self Help." And when we say "funny," we mean "if you're a person of discriminating taste, you'll probably really love this." (Our apologies to the oeuvre of Jeff Dunham.)

In it, she discusses various superstitions and defecating one's pants. There's also material involving airplanes here that won't inspire groans, which is no small feat. The only downer is that it's a little short. But if you're going on a summer road trip of any significance, you'll need a few things to fill the silences. "Self Help" should be on your playlist.

UPDATE: Ms. Kirkman will be appearing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 23 at Comedy Death Ray.