A/V Club asks comedians about music

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 15th, 2008

This article is an ideal timewaster (and we don’t mean that in a bad way). The Onion A/V Club assembled a list of 2008’s best albums. They solicited responses from “truly important people.” (This is how the “cutting edge hip” refer to those they deem to be “bleeding edge hip.” Did they call them “albums?” Is this an ironic reference?)

It’s very nice that many of those whose opinions were sought were standup comics. Which is why we direct your attention to it in this publication.

Tim Heidecker of Tim & Eric Awesome Show chose:

David Byrne and Brian Eno’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

“This is such a happy record, with lots of pretty melodies and great-sounding guitars. Byrne is so optimistic, and Eno is strumming acoustic guitars, but there’s still lots of funky weirdness. Maybe I’m getting old myself, but these two old-timers made the most interesting and listenable pop record of the year, in my book.”

On this we concur. We had the privilege of getting into Byrne’s show at the Borgata’s Music Box in October (when the Male Half’s was performing in that same venue that week) and we enjoyed many of the selections from the Talking Heads frontman’s newest collection.

Around here, we tend to dig up releases from years past and beat them up pretty good. (We’ve never been susceptible to hype, preferring to let the commotion subside and then, with vague, hazy memories of what was said by whom, we stumble across this CD or that vinyl disc and we digitize it and run it into the ground.)


A constant soundtrack over the past 12 months. It is, to use an overused phrase, Dave Brubeck’s Sgt. Pepper’s. (And, it led to our downloading of some of Paul Desmond’s stuff. Priceless!)


We already had Kronikles, but this one contains still more that wasn’t included in that collection. There are 44 songs on here! Picked it up at a yard sale.


It’s a two-fer– two great artists in one package. The Bakersfield Sound is lovingly curated by Dwight Yoakam. Dwight’s obviously busted up about Owens’ passing, which makes all the songs that much more poignant.


We found a pristine copy in a thrift shop and immediately digitized it. Some of the songs found their way onto The Male Half’s mp3 player– “Oddly enough, it’s great music to run to!”