BOB LOVES YOU, BUT YOU’RE ALL TERRIBLE! THE BOB’S BURGERS MUSIC ALBUM (VOL. 1?)

In the tradition of MacFarlane and Groening, Loren Bouchard makes music the focal point of Bob’s Burgers. So why not put out an album?

A while back, when the Cartoon Network used to show the original Adult Swim, there was a cartoon called Home Movies. Home Movies started the careers of not only Brendon Small of Metalacalypse fame (fleeting as it was, he also has an Epiphone guitar, the Snowbird model I think) as well as Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, but the biggest name to emerge from the Home Movies role of Coach McGurk, the Arby’s chef, Carl the mini mart clerk on Family Guy, Archer of the same name, and countless voice overs for Seth MacFarlane, is none other than H. Jon Benjamin.

Benjamin plays burger joint owner Bob Belcher. His wife Linda is played by John Roberts who also does a convincing Michael McDonald, and the Belchers have three children. Tina, played to the deadpan max by Dan Mintz, son Gene played by the multi-talented comedy veteran Eugene Mirman, but the stolen star of the show HAS to be Louise played by the pre-adolescent voice of adult actress Kristin Schaal.

The voice cast overall is extremely talented as this ‘jersey-shore’ family seems to find the most remarkable circumstances not only to get themselves into, but to (of all things) sing about!

All the times I heard Coach McGurk, I never thought he could sing!

Music, as it turns out, plays a large part of Bob’s Burgers, so naturally a music album makes sense. My headline has volume one with a question mark. This album covers the first six seasons (sit down, there are 107 tunes being reviewed!) and while it IS a double CD set, these songs are sometimes just seconds long blurbs. Things that played in the background, or songs that were in the show that are elongated here, closing credit songs, etc. But there are even a handful of covers by artists like Nena (99 Red Ballons), Eddie Money (Baby, Hold On To Me), Blondie (One Way Or Another) and even the Cars (Just What I Needed) to name a few.

A little something for everybody! But with 107 tunes, there’s gotta be something for just about all. With that in mind, let’s get right at it.

DISC ONE

“The Bob’s Burger’s Theme Song” starts the disc. Naturally, right? But here’s where my biggest gripe with Loren Bouchard and his instrument of preference begins; the goddamn ukulele. When I hear it I think of gutted squirrels having their intestines strummed by the likes of Don Ho, Tiny Tim, and don’t even get me started on Todd Rundgren allowing it to occupy his hands. But the predominant instrument on this fairly festive song makes it commercial, acceptable. Remember, this needs to appeal to everybody, so forgive my prejudices. Otherwise, the jaunty bass under the fairly orthodox horns and tremolo guitar segue into the opening of the show nicely from week to week.

Hey, if you’re looking for me to write tomes about each of these tracks, what the hell? Are you fucking nuts? These songs BARELY run two minutes, I’m lucky if I can come up with a cogent thought by the time they are over!

Admittedly there is some surprising musicianship at the end of the piece that you usually don’t get to hear as the show has started. Most likely this shows up under closing credits or scenes somewhere as the jam was too good to waste.

Next we go into one of Roberts many nods to McDonald for “Lifting Up The Skirt Of The Night”. May as well address this now. For a show that sought acceptance, it loves to broach the naughty. This song addresses Bob’s foray into moonlighting as a cab driver to pay for a special party for Tina. Bob picks up transdressing crossgender types (or however you say it) as fares and near the end of his moonlighting tenure admits to possibly having tried crack cocaine. Then fully admitting he did.

For the kids?

The track itself is also one of many nods to Motown, Funk, Soul, and other culturally misappropriated musical genres. Hey, Bouchard is an equal opportunity lampoonist! A willowy synth leads over a tight, funky rhythm track while Roberts as McDonald details all the glory of an overnight cabby in a deserted shore town.

They repeat the verse twice but at the end of the second, you hear someone say ‘night pants’ after the ‘pulling down the pants of the night’ line.

For the kids?

They break the song down for more slickery synth and Roberts vocal adlibbing and slipping briefly into Linda Belcher before the track runs out. Made for that scene.

Next up for the kids is “Butts, Butts, Butts” about the nightmares that haunt the Belchers after Linda’s sister Gail (played by Will & Grace star Megan Mulaley) hangs her animal posterior paintings in the restaurant to aid Bob in defying the crotchety judges of the Art Crawl.

Picture dancing animal anusued to the merry, jolly tune with a chorus of deep voiced males repeating ‘butts butts butts butts’. The music is very carousel-like. Demented, but carousel-like. All the way up to the crescendo ending as you hear Linda screaming ‘anus, anus, anus’!

Now sleep tight kiddies…

In one episode, Bob and Gene bond over an old favorite TV western of Bob’s, Banjo. So naturally the music for “Theme From Banjo” is very dusty, western, clip-clop style. You can picture a horse and rider clomping along a dusty, tumbleweed filled road.

As the harmonica fades in, and the whispery background vocals threaten the listener (‘he’s coming for you’) until they rise to one lone vocal at the end threatening you with a clop!

They aren’t all gems, mind you. One particular track, “Da Ding Ding”, brings out the annoying in Gene. Preoccupied with the Triangle, eventually Gene tries to cheer up his perenially dispondent dad with some Triangle jams. Eventually, in the song, Bob is not only won over, he proceeds to ding-ding jam his way out of the song/episode.

The track is Casio-swing, with a live rhythm track taking over with the dog sample continuing the Casio feel. The real instruments and whistles are clear as hell. The TV lines converted to lyric lines are fitted perfectly or played to perfectly.

Fortunately, even the irritating ones are short, like “Pirates Of Panache”. Linda OCDs herself into liking a dinner theater production knock off of Pirates. As Linda has a penchant for making the mundane musical (as is the basis for most of these songs in this set), this would be her imaging herself in said musical. Oy!

It features Benjamin and Roberts as the players attempting the off-off-off-off-off-off-nowhere near Broadway production. Nothing is tight, Benjamin and Roberts do NOT end in a like key, it is purposely awful.

As a musician myself, I can tell you, it’s not easy to be purposefully awful. You have to work at it.

One of my personal favorite short take songs is “Weekend At Mort’s”. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the Belchers must evacuate their home/diner, for some fumigation work. Ever benevolent neighbor Mort the mortician (played by Andy Kindler) takes the Belchers in. This is their walking music to the neighboring mortuary.

Quick, no?

Well the set version loops that track three times, adds a reggae track behind it (a pretty irie one at that) with Andy Kindler as Mort interjecting ‘what?’ But the best part of this track HAS to be Schaal dropping a triplet of ‘uh’s’ in there at the appropriate points.

To further the point that this show has adult themes and situations, the episode ends with the kids

WIth those adult themes and situations, perhaps one of the most used music ‘stings’ (if I may use an industry term) is “Sex Music”. Any time there is an illusion to the act, this funky, wah-guitared XXX movie music pops up. If you’ve ever seen porn, you’ve heard this track.

Only Bouchard and company add ‘ooh’s’ and ‘oh yeahs’ of the lascivious nature. Again, on the soundrack you get more of the quality musicianship on the show.

The cool part about the track “Wing Man” is, I don’t have to explain it here, just listen to the album. Ron (Ron Lynch) and Hugo (Sam Seder) do it for you in dialog leading up to the heroic sounding song. Ron sings of Bob’s efforts to try to hook Hugo up with town floozy Gretchen. Orchestra and synth swirls as Ron repeats ‘wingman’ well past the music.

At this point we get into some celebrity parody with “Taffy Butt”. Basically it’s Cyndi Lauper rewording “Good Enough” from the Goonies soundtrack to fit the plot of making the acquaintance of a man made of taffy with a literal heart of gold. This one, I think I’d like to be a little vague on. Makes you want to see the episode to hear the song. It’s a closing credit goodie, if you will.

Give me some Taffy Butt…

The musicians do a great job covering “Good Enough”, but they really rock out with “Getting Out Of P.E.”. The song is about faking special studies to bail on gym class.

I liked gym class, so long as it wasn’t basketball or football.

But Bouchard likes the upper vocal range. Here he sings with Nora Smith, Holly Schlesinger and Chris Maxwell and they are all in upper range or falsetto to emulate kids on the run from their guidance counselor Mr. Frond (Dave Herman).

The pop-rock track will haunt you, and you will become ear-wormed with the lyric line ‘…we say goodbye to Mr. Frond, now we’re in, a nail salo-oo-on’. At least it did me. That rhythm track is jangle pop gold, by the way. Somewhat reminiscent of some vintage Miracle Legion stuff.

I wonder if Mr. Ray’s a fan?

Abruptly, we go from the sublime to the ridiculous with “Groping For Glory”. This is one of those tracks I’m going to disassociate the song from the show because I most likely enjoyed the episode but NOT this particular track. It’s an amalgamation of every stadium rock band, with Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger” jammed in there to make it extra annoying. Roberts does his best cock-rock impersonation, but, sorry, it’s like if LInda fronted Bad Hair day, you know?

But it would have an appeal to the current administration, with Roberts yelling out ‘Gropin’!’ at the top of the fade-out…

While their are covers on this album, there are lots of ‘tribute’ tunes. You’ve heard bastardizations of Michael McDonald, and even heard Cyndi Lauper bastardize herself for “Taffy Butt”. But they reach deep for a take off on Tori Amos for “Oil Spill”. Once again Mulaley channels Amos via Tabitha Johansson, pink haired, pit-haired piano player who straddles the piano bench and takes exaggerated breaths between lyrics. From what I hear, Amos is good with it. Are you?

It’s not subtle…

But I do enjoy the subtle digital delay on her vocal that repeats every held lyric. You don’t hear that with the ambient show noise. Noisters!

Mulaley must love working on this show. One minute she’s taking off on Tori Amos, the next track on disc one is her, or rather Gail’s take on the Blondie tune “One Way Or Another”. The instrument track, again, is damn near dead-on. But the lead vocal is nasal, slightly tone deaf and rhythm challenged Gail’s take. With altered lyrics where Gail is infatuated with Bob. The ukulele is again unnecessary as are the horns, but deep down I don’t give a shit if they trash Blondie, Debbie Harry is a spoiled twerd who thinks the world should bow down to her.

So go ahead, Loren, this ain’t no sacred territory, let ‘er rip, Megan… right up to the creepy point where it’s just bass and Mulaley in her best Gail I’m-gonna-stalk-ya-stalk-ya-stalk-ya voice ruminating about driving past Bob’s house (even though Gail doesn’t drive), etc. But Mulaley doesn’t hold it together and they trail off to have the song pick back up to fade out.

For “The Prince Of Persuasia”, Rob Huebel doesn’t so much sing as talk. He is reciting his patter for picking up women as POP is the make-out king according to Belcher family dentist Dr. Yap (Ken Jeong).

The track is 80’s synth pop made sick. I mean not one but TWO synth drum sounds. Your basic synth snare drum WITH the falling bing other stale sound from synth drums.

Remember Linda Rondstat’s “Blue Bayou”?

But while Huebel tells you everything you DO NOT NEED TO PICK UP WOMEN like ‘Be one of the tallest guys in the bar, and brag about how long your butt crack is’. All the while, you hear Mintz interspersed as Tina listening and absorbing all this wrong information.

As you will come to learn, Tina, at age 13 or so, is a hyper-sexual being.

Part of Tina’s hyper-sexuality causes her to make bad choices. The lyrics of “Bad Girls” detail Tina’s hanging-on to the new girl in school, Tammy Larsen (played by sexy comedian Jenny Slate). Tammy makes Tina do all sorts of bad girl things. All because Tammy has Tina’s sexually charged friend-fan-fiction stories, in her possession. Tina writes sexually chraged fiction about everything. Most often involving Jimmy Pesto Jr.,(played in all sorts of pre-pubescent glory by Benjamin) and Tina must do bad girl things with Tammy to keep JPJ from finding out about her sexually charged feelings for JPJ.

Picture some Joan Jett action.

Heading back to funkytown, there is the end theme from the show featuring Gene, with a newly acquired Sasquatch mask over his usual full body burger costume and coming to life as Beefsquatch in “You Got Beefsquatched”, where Gene for some reason finds need to ruin Bob’s attempt to further his career or the restaurant.

That is a disturbing theme throughout the series. Fans of the show will see that on several occasions, members of the family (most often the kids, but Linda is often culpable) sabotage their own best interest. Most neurotically Bob is most often his own worst enemy. Sad for such a likeable bunch.

More funky times come with “Milkin’ The Cow”. A strange mother-son duet with Roberts and Mirman making grunts and other noises over a horn driven funk track repeating ‘milkin’ the cow’. It is an extended end credits jam and we’re just gonna leave it at that.

“Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!” Is simply two verse structures, a full chorus structure then half a chorus structure to an end of heavy surf style music with lyrics repeating the title lyric over and over. This all a part of the kids summer of fun which played under scenes of the kids having misguided attempts at fun.

Bob has fired the kids for the summer after being reminded of his own crappy, slave labor childhood. So while the kids find summer work at a pot plantation (I mean some of these plots are too killer juicy not to share), Bob hires ex-con, former hostage taker Mickey as cheap temp labor in exchange for some room and board in the basement.

Turns out, that room and board for cheap labor is Mickey’s ruse to bust through Bob’s basement wall and tunnel to the bank he tried to rob in Bob Day Afternoon. Whilst covering up the pickax against cinder block sound, Mickey plays a Calypso instrumental but makes up some silly words to go along with the Calypso melody. Thus is born, “Parakeet In Your Hat”.

The first section has voice over interrupting the music (dialog between Benjamin and Bill Hader’s Mickey) pretty much detailing the above exchange, then they edit into the closing credits until the music falls apart after Hader ad-libs that the Parakeet built his house.

That there was a two-fer…

They naturally do holiday songs, and “Kill The Turkey” is one of my more favorite ones. They take one of Linda’s inadvertent sings-the-situation songs and expand it to include instruments and more elaborate arrangements.

The lyrics are the best part, Linda sings thanks for the meal, and the affections of her loved ones, all over an upright bass-led jazz track. All while Bob implores her to stop doing so. They cycle the words twice, with Bob screaming ‘Lin’ shortly after Linda delivers her best line ‘the whole world’s thanking us, for thanking you, kill the turkey’.

Makes an insufferable holiday tolerable for that one line… Made even better with the ad lib at the end. Get the set and find out.

As Bob and Linda arrive late for a party, Linda is not bashful as to why they were late, claiming Bob had diarrhea. They take LInda’s little impromptu song (again, singing about nothing, situations, or things that shouldn’t be sung about) and with another upright bass track, some fart samples, and some fading instruments in, “The Diarrhea Song” takes shape. They even have Gene confessing his love for his bawdy mom.

With the next two songs, we are introduced to the Wheelers, Courtney (David Wain) a classmate of Gene’s, and her father, Doug (Moby) Wheeler (played by John Michael Higgins). Courtney’s dad, a jingle writer, waylays Gene’s attempt to break up with the annoying, self-lauding Courtney. After all, Courtney had railroaded Gene into the relationship. On his way to terminate said forced relationship, Gene stumbles into Mr. Wheeler’s studio. In a bid to win a recording contract (?) from the jingle writer (?), Gene writes a love song to be sung at a party in honor of Courtney. Gene begins his career pitch of “Silent Love” (get it? He wants Courtney to be SILENT) only to have the song circumvented by Courtney who overtakes the performance and frustrates Gene into that inadvertent break up. Actually, Courtney has a freak out and is rushed to the hospital.

Gene is convinced he killed Courtney by yanking his love away. But she just had an infarction and the family and doctors torture Gene with practical jokes. But in the end, they do make Gene pay for his cruelty. How so?

They enact on him the initiating act of stealing his song “Silent Love” for Moby Wheeler to use in a muffler commercial, in the form of “Silent Muffler”. Slicker than Gene’s, replacing the word love for muffler and so on. We can hear Gene lament Doug Wheeler’s theft.

In an episode about over-parenting, Linda details to another neurotic mother her hair-combing timing device. You know, like you are supposed to wash your hands to the tune of Happy Birthday, Linda brushes Louise’s hair to the tune of “The Harry Truman Song”. For the end credits, they toss up some instruments but the lyrics are still quite dark to sing to your child while brushing their hair.

For the kids…

The next trio of tunes features temporary Food Inspector Tommy Jaronda (played by someone who is showing himself here way too often, Fred Armisen, who you read about here as the drummer for Devo at a gig they played recently) who takes over when Hugo takes leave of the position and his senses to be a nude decathalete (a contrived story of he and Bob in a battle of the nudists is a branch to the story line). Jaronda is a failed musician who writes inappropriate songs and sings them in the restaurants he blackmails with pre-packed rat feces he drops and then he subsequently fails the restaurant if they refuse to let him play there.

I need to get me a racket like that…

But I would never be able to write the songs of the caliber of Jaronda.

There’s a touch of dialog in the beginning as Jaronda introduces the song “Daddy” with an elementary guitar and words about abandonment, drug sales, physical abuse, you know, typical dad stuff. The best part is when Jaronda admonishes Teddy (played hilariously neurotic by Larry Murphy) for singing along with ‘Daddy, you are my enemy’… So identifiable.

It melds right into “The Itsy Betsy Stripper”, hence the reason they are listed as the same track. Again, a rudimentary, rambling acoustic guitar plays under Armisen’s obnoxious Jaronda, twisting the words to the fairy tale to those about a stripper wrapping legs around his soul.

For the kiddies…

As the guitar part meanders, as does the ‘soul’ vocal ad-lib, a keyboard sneaks in and brings with it an entire orchestra! All for the red light version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider”.

But Jaronda’s masterpiece has to be the sultry “Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex”. With lyrics that detail Jaronda’s bedroom prowess, and the lack of it in some of his partners. The record version here is the expanded, end credit mix. After interspersing some quick dialog from the show, where Jaronda weasels his way into Jimmy Pesto’s restaurant, the full mix version plays (disgustingly) on.

“You’re The Best” is another cover, if you remember, it’s the song from Karate Kid by Joe Esposito. Only this version is done by inspector Hugo, in all his screechy falsetto. I gotta give it to Sam Seder for keeping a straight face for the vocal takes. They just SOUND funny. Especially if you’ve heard the original version. The musical accompaniment is adequate, you can tell it’s a drum machine, but who cares? It was not the focal point of this track, that hysterical vocal is!

We venture back into funkyville with the sleuth-funk jam “Mad Pooper”. The short of it is, Tina gets the journalism bug and tries out for the school CC News show while someone is mysteriously leaving excrement in various locations throughout the school.

The bass heavy track bubbles behind some guttural vocals interspersed with the phrase ‘The Mad Pooper’ with appropriate horns up until the track stops when Tina’s teacher addresses that Tina has the scoop on the poop.

A personal favorite of mine is “Buckle It Up”. A short A cappella number about automobile safety. Listen up!

A jivvy, swinging, ukulele and whistle tinged “Love Mission” is quick, listing some date foods, and ‘On A Love Mission’ right to the speedy end.

A slow, almost Dixieland jazz tune sung by Linda, “Two People”, is one of the sickest love songs you’ll ever hear, with words of encouragement repeated twice, with the second go ’round finishing with ‘…such a lonely existence, I’d kill myself’ all over a happy, jaunty tune! Ending on a hold note with Teddy saying to Mort, the lonely existence reference is describing them.

Yeah, Bob’s Burgers is comfortable with potty humor, dark humor, adult themes, all in a Sunday night cartoon. (Who we foolin’, this show is on almost daily in syndication where I live. So there’s plenty of opportunities to corrupt your youth.)

Speaking of corrupting the youth, the next song wound up to be used a couple of times in the series, the” disco-lousy “Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Woman Stuff)”. Replete with open and closed high hats on the quarter notes, slippery strings, and falsetto vocals. Congas, hand claps and vocal ‘huhs’, landing just short of a Bee Gees parody (but not by much).

High hat and rim shot clicks into the speedy tongued “Funky Finger”, where Tina finds another crush in the diary fridge counter at the grocery store where Linda has taken a job. “…Woman Stuff” was played during the store’s ‘disco minute’ and “Funky Finger” plays during the search for the mysterious boy who reached for some chocolate milk with a Band Aid on his finger. Hence the funky finger.

Picture that track as the backing track for a James Brown song, just without Brown’s vocals. Funky organs, bass, guitar, and the funky finger choir.

After discovering the joys and sorrows of a two-income household, “This Is Working” is the broadway-ish style tune duet between both Linda and Bob as they go through their slog alone.

Next up is the Eddie Money cover of “Baby Hold On”. Only in this version, Roberts pulls out his almost Michael McDonald alongside Bouchard for a respectable cover of the late Money’s hit.

Except for the Ukulele…

They do a couple of verses, a couple of choruses, a bridge, but not the whole song. They don’t need to, it’s TV. A scene, end credit, yada yada.

Another true highlight of the disc is “Electric Love”. The short of the episode is, Louise is thwarted by a substitute science teacher who loves Thomas Edison. So Louise recruits her brother, sister, aunt and landlord to “Milli Vanilli” their science fair presentation. The resulting song goes a little like this…

This clip excluded some key dialog that explains some things, but you can see the show, YouTube, streaming outlets, it’s one of the better episodes.

The disc version leaves too much dialog in between the end of the first part of the song, and before the reprise during the credits comes in, but it’s worth the wait to hear Kevin Kline’s Mr. Fischoeder and Mulaley ad-lib out.

Flexing their musical muscle, they go with a mellow, vibra-jazz tune featuring the lisping vocal of JPJ (Benjamin) doing a sunny take on “T-I-N-A”, with the traditional ‘T is for…’ lyric. It’s just the way Benjamin slurs his way through the track, I wouldn’t want to be the PA who had to clean that windscreen on the recording mic after that session…

A mislead in the intro, a sultry, pseudo Egyptian themed into yields to the uber bouncy rhythm that is “The Snake Song” sung by Gene. On a mission from their Grandparents neighbor in Florida, the kids are sent into a nearby patch of swampy woods to find the woman’s dog Bitsy. While the girls dangerously explore the woods for the dog, Gene cowers in a tent at base camp, singing this jaunty shanty about the utter deception and terror that is snakes.

I share Gene’s terror.

The endearing part of these lyrics are the detailing of everything that is evil about snakes. Where are their arms and legs? The first time is Gene solo, the second time Gene is joined by an invisible Pirate choir, and as some Snakefinger guitar takes us out, a cameo by Bitsy’s owner!

In one episode, the family car (a Dodge Monaco Wagon) breaks down. Desperate for transportation, the Belchers compete on the game show Family Fracas. Anytime a contestant loses, they get foamed. With, of course, “Fracas Foam”.

A funky track, with tease backing vocals about the rigors of competing on a “Double Dare”-style game show. Killer drumming on this track, if it’s a machine, great job! The track ends with the deep vocal spelling the results of the Belcher’s efforts.

Much in the style of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”, “The Kids Run The Restaurant” features Linda hopping right along on vocals in great Broadway fashion about the kids having to run the restaurant after blood sick Bob gets too queasy after cutting his hand open.

Rather than run a restaurant, the kids open a speakeasy gambling casino in the basement of the restaurant. With Mr. Fischoeder taking Louise for $5,000 in winnings. Bob takes on Mr. O in a game of Rock Paper Scissors (remember, this is a kid’s casino) and wiping the kid’s debt clean in the most graphic way possible.

Like Linda wails, “what more do you want, when kids run the restaurant”… Swinging clarinet solo in there.

An integral part of the show’s storylines is a boy band by the name of Boyz For Now. While you might expect Tina to be the one with the abnormal crush, this time it’s Louise who has a violent infatuation for one of the Boyz. This song is “Coal Mine” and is sung by Scott Jacobson, Steven Davis and Kelvin Yu. Your basic slickly produced, over-compressed, quantized, digitized, harmonized, computerized pop ditty with ironic lyrics.

*insert joke about popular band here*

Thankfully, it’s short.

But there’s another BFN song, “Whisper In Your Eyes”. Yes, that sounds as disgusting as it is, especially since you can catch Corona through your eyes. But this is piano led, drum machine basics with some uproarious lyrics about unusual points of human contact… “So that your eyes can see your lips, and your lips can kiss your eyes…”

Seriously dude, what the fuck? “See the moon with your lip eyes”… ?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Okay, let’s take BFN, and mash them with South Park’s version of the Jonas Brothers, and that results in “I Wanna Hear Your Secrets”. Boy band vocals with guitar driven pop.

Ugh, but those lyrics, “You just went to the bathroom, number one or number two”. Invasive doesn’t begin to describe it. The track is catchy but, oooohhhh. The ending is funny, after repeating ‘details’ and some more invasive inquiries, the track just loses power, and grinds down.

As has my patience for BFN.

Thankfully, we have Linda with her Union-rally cry of “I’ve Got A Yum Yum”. With some outro dialog from the end of the episode, where Bob accompanies Louise on her field trip with Gene, while Linda rallies the striking museum worker where the kids and Bob have gone. Fortunately, this version has some added funk instruments on it. Another smooth-as-Nile-Rodgers-produced funk track. Some great bass and wah-guitar work on this.

Sounds harmless enough except the ending vocal call and return of the lyrics were all euphemisms for genitalia. “Wiener wiener wiener, wiener wiener wang”.

For the kiddies.

A drum and vocal track featuring Tina and some other Thundergirls (Tina’s not Girl Scout equivalent) chanting the title to “Rain, Rain, Flash, Flash” while Tina sings the Thundergirls code.

On a misguided exploring the woods, Bob thinks he’s nature master and gets he and Linda separated from the kids. When the kids come looking for the folks, “We’re Comin’ For Ya” spells country shenanigans with the kids rafting, dealing with survivalist swingers, and Tina using her afore-mentioned Thundergirls skills to spring Bob and Linda from the amorous couples’ clutches.

High pitched vocals and whistling over acoustic guitar and simple bass, and lyrics about underwear flying in the air.

In a lot of ways, it IS as disjointed as I make it sound. But when you jump from episode to episode, moods can repeat, disjoint, cluster, so song order leaves much to be desired, but if you find yourself in one mood, that mood won’t last long before you’ll laugh at something. LIke Linda ending the song saying she ate an ant, and they weren’t bad.

Frilly strings arpegiate upward in a dreamy sequence to yield to some drums and a pop tune that has to be the stupidest track ever done on the show, “Quickie Kiss It”. A daydream sequence about an island off the mainland where people go to make out. A local pilot has taken Linda to Quickie Kiss It Island under the rouse of giving her flying lessons only to fake an emergency landing and land there to make out with his ‘students’ (victims). Tina is daydreaming about flying through the air, kissing all the boys laying on the island awaiting her sweet kiss.

The joys of adolescence…?

I hate the mwah mwah mwah kissy sounds, ugh!

The music is great, tight band, but yow.

“Prankin'” Is up next and if memory serves me (and trust me, it doesn’t) this was from the episode where Gene and Louise’s prank war lands Bob glued to a toilet.

Like I said, high brow stuff here.

The track is gospel boogie woogie style with the vocal ad lib of a-prankin’ prankin’ prankin’ over and over. Another tasty music track with a super snappy rhythm guitar. It just grinds to an end with a ‘hey’ tossed in there.

At one point, Linda is called to assist her friend Gretchen with the sales of her marital aid home salparty goods. “Sneaky Pete” is one of those goods. More high falsetto voices over a disco track. But the repitition of the lyrics will cause an earwig. Sneaky Pete is sneaky. Apart from Linda’s dialog from the episode, vocals feature Nora Smith, Bouchard and Ken Jeong.

A sisterly duet forms “Gravy Boat”. Roberts and Mulaley sing about a gravy boat in this Casio keyboard classic. Right down to the show stopping ending with the lyrics ‘sailors in your mouth, sailors in your mouth, that’s what Thanksgiving’s all about. What more can I say?

The next three songs are from the infamous reunion of the battle of the talent show bands episode. “We Won The Talent Show” features vocals by the Silverman sisters, Sarah and Laura (who had a role on Home Movies if I am not mistaken, but I probably am) as singers from the band who kicked Linda’s band’s (The Ta Ta’s) ass in a High School battle of the bands. Dialog in the beginning introduces the rival band Bad Hair Bay. Bad Hair Day rocks metal in a repeating riff into a chorus bragging about winning that talent show.

The last two lines of S. Silverman’s vocal are shrieking shrill and impossible to understand, right into the crazed three finger maniac ending. Silvermans then announce they are done and over, leaving the Ta Ta’s to relive High School one more ‘gain.

Gayle sings the moody ballad to her high school crush, “Derek Dematopolis”. Wanting to make a reunion of their own, Gayle caterwauls with Linda for a vocal ad lib while the spare, high school slow dance song dwindles on under the yowling. But it’s funny yowling. As usual, Linda over does it.

A snappy drum beat opens “Not Bad For Havin’ Three Kids”. It was end credit music with hilarious lyrics about still having two out of five sexy parts left. Roberts and Mulaley rock out in this final Ta Ta’s song. The music kinda reminds me of Talking Heads.

As part of a Christmas episode (that featured Bobcat Goldtwaite as a lonely trucker looking to bang Bob’s ass), Gene phones in a radio request to hear his favorite Christmas song “Jingle In The Jungle”. It’s standard fare musically, pretty much like anything you would hear on Dr. Demento’s Christmas shows. Bongos and jingle bells. I’ll just leave it at that.

After Linda’s ill conceived sleep over for some of Louise’s schoolmates, once the chaos of the episode concludes, the end credits featured the full version of “Slumber Party Fashion Show”. More Talking Heads into disco rhythm track features the sleep over guests and the rest of the Belcher kids modeling their outfits on the runway. High pitched vocals, disco strings, bright rhythm guitars, more Nile Rodgers stuff.

After Tina sabotages JPJ’s dancing magic routine, they do a boogie woogie number about the rigors of love between a dancing magician and an eager, willing and very pliable magician’s assistant (Tina). “It’s Not Magic It’s Tragic” has zippy lyrics about mixing romance with magic. The second verse through the piano and horns really wail, daddy-o.

Some synth pop rock from Gene from his fantasy of being teh rebel musician who utilizes sampling technology to get his message out to the school-wide masses. That message being “The Fart Song” with the underlying theme ‘farts are liberty’. There are even surf guitar stings, with the very Godspell like rhythm track. At the end Linda cries for her heroic, flatulent son.

After Mintz’s Tina announces it’s time for the Hora, they break into the middle of the bridge of “Hava Nagila” with Mintz handling the Hebrew masterfully. They also brought in an authentic clarinet player for the authentic overdub.

The end dialog between Mintz and Benjamin (Tina and Bob) segues in the “Equestranauts Theme”. The TV theme from Tina’s favorite cartoon about super hero horses. Tina is swindled out of a rare character doll from the show. Bob goes through literal hell to get it back. Once they argue about Tina continuing to play with the horse doll Bob just retrieved, the end credits roll over the theme. The whole family and Teddy sing the theme of freindship being a force greater than all.

The last three songs on disc one are from the two part episode where Fischoeder’s brother Felix (Zack Galfinakis or however you spell it) talks Fischoeder into turning Wonder Wharf into high-end condos so Bob can have a gourmet burger restaurant in one of the nice buildings. He is pleading with the senior Fischoeder to listen to his brother Felix and go through with the deal. At this point, “Nice Things Are Nice”. In the elegant, dainty musical number, Bob details how good life can be if they all go in on the deal.

Kline counter-melodies negatives. Felix’s girlfriend sings a verse with Linda about things getting nice. Tina interjects a bridge about being bike locked to a carousel soon to be torn down to make way for the project, but we go right back to Bob plying Fischoeder and Fischoeder starting to come around.

After Fischoeder finally rejects the plan, Felix takes Bob and his older Brother and ties them to a pillar under Wonder Wharf. As the tide comes in, the epidsode break leaves them waiting for the tide to come in and drown them, while Felix continues with the plan. “Wharf Of Wonder” is a very Bond-sounding track, like you are waiting for the whole ‘looking-through-the-eye’ thing that is synonymous with the Bond franchise. Linda does her best chanteuse lyric with band, symphony sound and reverb behind her.

Naturally that segues into the next and final track on disc one, “Bad Things Are Bad”. Fischoeder and Bob think about their impending deaths at the hands of greedy Felix and how Linda will be stuck with the kids (as she alluded to in the bank robber episode with Mickey). Verse two features all the kids, Zeke, Andy, Ollie, Regular Size Rudy, JPJ all have a line.

Teddy handles the bridge about needing Bob back, and a snack.

Then Felix gets a remorse verse, his girlfriend gets a line, then the hook lyric, ‘Oh, bad things are bad’.

And as Bob and Fischoeder have one last forlorn line, the water is licking at their faces, they change the last lyric before a dramatic symphonic stab “Oh, things are bad”.

Yes, Bob. They always are.

Louise (Kristen Schaal), Gene (Eugene Mirman), Bob (H. Jon. Benjamin), Tina (Dan Mintz) and Linda (John Roberts) Belcher L-R

DISC TWO

Disc two lands us right in the middle of some school yard drama. It seems there are two different ideas for the school musical. When the school powers that be reject Gene’s proposal of Die Hard, he puts on a shadow production in the basement. At some point the two parties are called into the office to discuss their situation. What we have here is an amalgamation of the two in “Die Hard/Working Girl Medley”. Linda starts off with a dialog about her son’s bootleg show. We then begin the track which alternates between the above ground Working Girl rendition put on by the mainstream actors, and Gene’s more primative, one-man version of Die Hard.

As the music alternates, we start to hear dialog about Louise charging Bob and Linda five dollars each to get into the basement show, and we hear Louise charging people to get into the show who perhaps don’t belong, and that’s how we end up in Mr. Fond’s office discussing the situation.

Continuing in the episode, it is established that the best way forward is to join the shows. The next track,”Work Hard Or Die Trying, Girl” is the agreement of both parties to whip up a quickie combo of the two shows. Gene introduces the track, which has a bouncy rhythm, where all the characters from both shows introduce themselves, i.e. ‘We’re a bunch of secretaries being held hostage in New York in the Nagatami Tower’ or some shit like that. The best part is, after the rhythm track takes up and the drums kick in, the Silvermans introduce themselves each as Det. Johnson from the FBI, in Andy and Ollie Pesto’s voice. They’re just hilariously not believable.

As each of the characters has their line, regular size Rudi, Jocelyn, and the track then breaks for Tess Macgill and John Gruber, brought to life by on-again-off-again sweetheart of Gene’s, Courtney Wheeler, and Gene’s Gruber. Which then strangely leads to Daryl (played by Aziz Ansari) to announce he’s cracked a code to get into some bearer bonds. They mysteriously celebrate with hip-hop. And the track accommodates with a very legitimate beat and bass! It’s all funkadelic until Gruber is pushed off the tower. Dramatic orchestral stabs punctuate the drama, until Tess (Courtney) asks if there was a place where they could all get along. Which leads us into the track’s NEXT musical direction, big musical closing number.

Kinda prog for a cartoon soundtrack…

It bleeds right into the outro episode music which is full production with singers.

It’s tough to describe a girl who needs to conjure up ridiculous stories to establish her street cred. Tina has found a reason to create a fake ghost named Jeff to create a mystique about herself. You need to picture those 60’s and early 70’s European commercials for the scooters, with the girls smiling and riding around to zippy jazz music. Now put that under the words ‘Jeff’ with some nondescript French muttering next to it. There you have, ghost in a box, “Jeff (Il Est Mort)”.

a quiet slick bass intros the fairly raucous number, “Your Best Friend”. The episode details how Bob feels guilty for stuffing Teddy full of artery hardening, delicious burgers. So Bob agrees to go to a stunt man training camp with Teddy. Bob laments his commitment, and within the episode questions whether Teddy is indeed a friend, or if he just a good customer. Linda assures Bob that Teddy would do anything for Bob, like, help him pee when he has that thing. I swear, those are the lyrics! This is one of those tracks you have to hear, it’s a riot and it will earwig you. It did me.

“Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)” is the Quincy Jones, Merria Ross and Rod Templeton funk song. Benjamin has the lead vocal on this track. The musicians handle the cover just fine. The super surprise is Benjamin’s handling of the vocals.

“Christmas Magic” is a new holiday treat for the season. A snappy, bell-laden number featuring a duet between Linda and Teddy, although Linda is the lead on this, Teddy mostly just adds the ‘Christmas magic’ refrain. The lyric ‘people are cold and dying in the street, that can’t be good’ breaks the song down for Linda so she can rub it in that she and her family will be warm tonight. The track just cranks up to wind down for the ending.

In order for budding gardener Bob to secure a spot in the community green space, Bob must take on Lousie’s achnemesis Logan as an intern, to appease the head of the green space and Linda’s nemesis, Logan’s mom! “Happy Crappy Place” take two distinctly different perspectives of that scenario and bounces back and forth between the two (Bob’s happy place is the green space for his fledgling garden, Louise and Linda’s crappy place is now their everyday workspace as Logan and his mother have laid claim while Bob is gardening.

The song itself is really quite quaint, jaunty if you will. My favorite line has to be, Bob singing ‘I’m like a British lady in her garden…’. You’re a regular Hyacinth Bucket.

At one point it becomes necessary for Tina and Darryl to fake a romance to impress each other’s respective true love interests. Darryl commandeers the DJ’s microphone at a school dance and once prompting the DJ to set him up with a cool beat, “Darryl’s Slow Jam” ad-libs into place. ‘Girl, I wish you were in all my classes, and when we kiss, we hit out glasses’. Classic. The ultimate is when Darryl attempts to vocal ad lib on the word molasses. He is sharp on all the notes, but, miraculously, he does manage to follow the overall melody, even into the rather gorgeous ascending chords near the end.

Then there was the time Jimmy Pesto Jr ran for Studen Body President. “I’m Jimmy Jr. Pesto” has a Randy Newman-esque feel, his Ragtime era, and inane only-a-kid-would-think-of lyrics, ‘I’m Jimmy Jr. Pesto, better than the resto, you know I am the best-o…”. The music can be considered authentic ragtime style, but the slovenly, slurring lyrical style Benjamin asserts in Pesto Jr makes the words sometimes indecipherable. But Pesto Jr is sometimes indecipherable just when he speaks.

The next three songs are part of a show about the kids imagining their Aunt Gayle (Megan Mulaley) in various situations. The most pertinent one to the next bunch of songs is how Gene and Linda started a country singing duo. Linda found low-rent stardom and leaves Gene (or Jo-Gene in this case) leaving Jo-Gene to find teh barmaid (Gayle) has a lovely voice and they become a bigger act than Linda’s solo country career.

“The Sheriff Had A Piggy” is bad, OK? It’s just bad. Linda’s voice is sqealchy (and not in a good way) and the lyrics about cops and pigs biting off weenies, it’s time to put this down for a while…

“Lipstick On His Pickup” is a lovely palate cleanser after that last one. Gayle’s forlorn, melancholy delivery is the definition of country music. When the band picks up behind her, it’s really lovely. That is, until Gene says ‘Well pinch my loaf, that girl can sing’. But you knew this was brown humor going into it…

Linda’s country character turn evil, as she instructs the stage girl (Tina) to put a snake in Gayle’s guitar. We then go into another sharp Linda performance (her notes being sharp, not the quality of the singing) of “I’ll Trade You These Tears” which then blends into Jo-Gene and Gayle doing “I Won’t Go Solo On You”, which, while the lyrics are a dig at Linda, the snake in Gayle’s guitar is also another knife in Linda’s back as the snake has joined Jo-Gene and Gayle’s act! Shaking it’s rattle at appropriate breaks in the song.

Naturally as is the case with these animated shows, Jo-Gene, Gayle and Snakey win the talent show and Linda ends up miserable. How miserable? Watch an episode. That brings me to a point, for all you hardcore fans out there, I apologize as characterizations are getting hard at this point. From my perspective, I have to remember the characters this way, for example, Gene: Voiced by Eugene Mirman, portraying Jo-Gene in this episode, and so on with the other characters.

You’re also asking why don’t I put the episode names and numbers here? Because this review is about the music. If you want to know about the show, check out the many Bob’s Burgers websites or places like IMDB for that information. At most I will describe an episode’s plot to justify the explanation of the track, that’s all.

Some funky jungle-jive comes your way via “Shimmy Tap”. A glorified explanation of how to bullshit your way through an oral book review. Some big band Dixieland takes over the track while Linda scats and jives her way through telling Tina to more-or-less showboat her way through her book

This is another one of those songs you just have to hear to ‘get’. Especially Linda’s offbeat vocal ad-libs at the end of some of these lines in “Date Night”.

“Don’t You Love Cotton Candy” is a spoof on the Simple Minds song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” with sickening lyrics, ‘Sticketey sticky, lickity licky’ and so on. Roberts does a fair job a melding the vocal delivery to half original half McDonald. The music is a quite a serviceable cover I might add.

Our next series of four songs are from one of my favorite episodes, where the kids form a band. It begins with Gene and his long-suffering Casio keyboard, and Tina and Louise have straws in cups through plastic lids that make scraping plastic sounds to the beat. As more kids join in, the band grows bigger.

The first song picks up where Darryl comes aboard as a singer. So far, “Jam With Darryl” seems to be going OK. A keyboard, two straw players, a drummer and a kid blowing a recorder through a kid’s toy megaphone. From Genesis to Residents?

In “His Name Is Lenny”, one of Gene’s early songwriting attempts, his rudimentary language skills start to stir trouble in the band. I guess I missed my calling, I should have been writing for Behind The Music all this time. More of the disjointed band sound, with Darryl singing those juvenile lyrics over top. However, when Darryl suggest changing the key, the dynamic of the whole band changes. The band no longer needs Gene. Despondent, he retires from the music game. This leads us to the fully produced musical number “I Don’t Need Music”.

Gene is led through an imaginary instrument land while horns lead his words of musical abandonment through a showstopping number befitting Lawrence Welk in his prime (if he ever had one).

The culmination of the episode results in a mega-jam on the original theme Gene, Louise and Tina started with in front of the restaurant. The end credits to the show feature the gang in full-on Gene-fueled fantasy performing the now-classic “I Want Some Burgers and Fries”. Check it out!

We return to the potty humor with “Bm In The Pm”. While searching for a lost Linda after the family sends her out on an errand to get her out of the house to prep for her birthday, the family finds that Linda leads an interesting solo life. Including sharing way too much personal information with a local hotel’s staff.

They all can’t be winners. “I’m Fallin’ For Helen”, despite a great performance by Larry Murphy as Teddy, isn’t one of my personal faves. The music is tuba-heavy old tyme jazz/vaudeville/circus and the lyrics are about a love interest of Teddy’s named Helen. My dead mother-in-law’s name was Helen, so no points there either.

“99 Red Balloons” is exactly what you think it is, the cover of the Nena song from the 80’s. Benjamin does a rocking vocal take as you hear Kline talking about seeing the outline of his wiener if you get his white pants wet. Overall, a rocking cover with a fairly impassioned vocal by Benjamin. The end fade comes much too quickly as I at least want more.

The Bob’s Burgers crew don’t need covers to manage catchy, ear-wiggy tunes. Every time the episode where the kids speculate as to how their lives would alter if Bob never had a mustache, and the end credit song plays, it winds up in my head for DAYS! They took one of Tina’s lines and set it to music. The creative forces behind the music of this show warrant an Emmy of their own for each season they have made the music so damn important to this show. The particular earwig tune I am referring to is “It’s Called Fate (And It’s Great)”. Naturally it is a Tina song as they based it on her speaking line.

A pretty funky tune kicked off by Ron and Hugo discussing their fate, with Tina, Gene and Louise reprising various lines from the episode. The high pitched backing vocals add a level of hip the song would suffer without having. Necessary falsetto…

Yet another insufferable Boyz 4 Now song, “I Love You So Much (It’s Scary)”. To make matters worse, it’s from a Halloween episode. So with those two strikes against it, let’s listen to the inane intro chatter about being scared of love, or some crap like that. A giant crescendo builds and wipes out the noodley keyboard intro into a more concise funk tune. The bouncy bass synth isn’t enough to detract your attention from the rhyming of ‘zombie’ and ‘prom-bie’.

More inane lyrics roll by, into a bridge for a canned monster laugh (I swear it sounds like something you’d hear coming out of a prop on somebody’s lawn while your trick or treating, real cheeseball, but fun!) and they cut into a bridge where I guess they fully commit to assaulting the English language with more out-of-the-box rhymes like “girl it’s freaky, …you make my heart weaky…”. Then we are treated to ‘rap time’ where the lyrics are then rapped, but the best part is Linda speaking over the song asking if one of the Boyz is a different… Boyz…

Once Bob advises everyone not to spill those beans to Teddy, who’s favorite B4N member is the one that swaps out every now and again, the song goes into a break after some nifty programmed drum rolls (quantize is a bitch, isn’t it?) describing trick or treating at your mama’s house, along with some other vague double-entandras about candy and such.

The chorus comes back, with the great line ‘my teeth are extra sharp, my body’s extra hairy’… Juvenile but hilarious! Also in this verse is a pop-radio ready synth/sequencer/arpegiator line that’s oh so tasty. Again, the musicians behind these songs are top notch. What’s not top notch is the ‘ugh’ after the music dies off. Actually kinda creepy, and not in the halloween way…

We need to lighten this mood, and let’s leave it to Linda to bring out the best in the harvest holiday. Sing along with Linda for “It’s Thanksgiving For Everybody”. She intros the festivities at the end of the episode leading into this jazzy number with the whole family picking apart the kids under-cooked Thanksgiving offering. As the song revs up we hear Gayle prompt Bob into a scat intro (I flashback to the Home Movies episode where Jason and Brendon have a scat-off and one of Jason’s offerings was the repetition of ‘zip’ over and over to the jazz beat).

Once Bob falls into the rhythm, Linda and Gayle duet the lyrics of how everyone but Europeans get to enjoy Thanksgiving. Hey, we’re not here to learn sociology, international studies, what have you, we’re here to laugh at the sisters’ impaired sense of American entitlement. We get two verses with some xylophone jazz and we’re out, daddy-o.

OK, you guys have been so patient, reading all this, so here’s a treat! A BouleBlog exclusive for this review, the full length, official video for the Christmas song from Bob’s Burgers, “The Spirits Of Christmas”!

 

I can’t wait for winter. Light a fire, pour some Bourbon, listen to Kevin Kline do this song over and over…

That was the opening number for the medley that presents itself in the form of “The Nice-Capades”. You see, in this blockbuster Christmas episode, the kids piss off their local mall santa (voiced by The Fonz, Henry Winkler) who informs them he has a direct line to the real santa. After Louise has some fevered dreams of coal for Christmas, she and her siblings devise the Nice-Capades to try to impress the mall fonzie by utilizing the ice rink at the mall to put on their show.

During a piano build-up, Schall’s Louise hypes the Belcher kids accomplishments in the field of goodwill toward men with the following tunes… Gene sums up his single act of heroism by passing on Tacos and eating burnt chicken nuggets so another kid could have them (omitting the fact that Gene loves burnt chicken nuggets), Tina sings a jaunty number about helping a spazzing horseshoe crab back into the ocean after landing on its back on the beach. Barely mentioning that it has more or less the right number of legs when it left her.

Oh, and did I mention that Linda made costumes for Teddy and his Jewish hockey league members to portray the nuggets AND the horseshoe crab?

But Louise can’t go through with her portion of the narcissistic medley as her conscious overwhelms her.

I’m a decent writer, or so I am told. But I just can’t for “Amor Por Favor (Me Llamo Tina)”. The kids are trying to dissuade Gayle from dating Mr. Frond, here you figure it out…

“It’s Valentines Day” features coy vocals by Mirman’s Gene. It stars out as part of the morning announcements at Wagstaff school. Gene and Courtney (you remember annoying Courtney) start by making their usual rhyming Casio-augmented announcements. But when Gene is ‘handed’ an emergency update announcement, it is actually a love song/poem, from Gene to Courtney that mixes down the Casio and mixes up some strings and legit piano and synths. The melancholy, romantic mood is broken by Zeke proclaiming that Gene’s words have moved him. ‘These are tears, boys’ as the strings die away.

A funky track with slithery bass and manic hand percussion steam up my speakers with “Hot Ham And Cheese Day”. There isn’t much to the song other than (what sounds like) Courtney lasciviously anticipating lunch, and that hellafunky rhythm track.

After a quickie dialog between local holistic healer Gyro and Bob, the soulful “Cease And Desist” featuring Roberts again holstering up his mighty McDonald style pipes. Roberts McDonald sings some pretty obscure lyrics to the outsider who hasn’t seen the episode. Bob walks by Gyro’s storefront and slips on some oil Gyro has thrown on the sidewalk. Conventional medicine says Bob needs a sizable deductible for an operation to correct an injured wrist he suffered in the fall. Gyro offers to holistically heal the wound in exchange for Bob not suing to have the operation. Gyro eventually heals Bob (even getting a high-five, informal approval of the doctor who diagnosed Bob) and no legal matters are needed. Except the kids who scarf a letterhead from the lawyer Bob visited for his free consult about suing Gyro. They’re issuing cease and desist orders everywhere. Playground, lunch line, other students/kids…

The music is, well, picture if McDonald sat in with Parliament Funkadelic on a Marvin Gaye number.

Another one of those earwig numbers, is “Muse Dance”. The earwig part is Linda ad-libbing along with the synth lead line. UGH! The music itself is not bad at all. At times it’s very disco, but at certain times I hear hints of Talking Heads, especially the larger band era-Heads. Happenin’ hand percussion on this too. The end is funny with Linda’s line and the guitar line ending the song.

Further emphasizing the musicianship on this set, I submit the following, “If You Love Something” from the episode where getting a new couch means keeping the old couch. An earworming jam if ever there was one…

“Fart Stools (For The Gifted)” is kinda misleading. Not to be confused with the episode where Gene sang ‘Farts Are Liberty’… Different fart song. This one is the machination of a jazzy marching band rhythm track with fart sounds coordinated throughout. The episode was about Bob finally being able to upgrade his diner counter seats with new cushions. Only, the new vinyl makes fart sounds each time someone sits on them.

Hilarity ensues.

We’re gonna drift back into some 50s-60s doo-wop structure and car hop feel, feelin’ the now, feelin’ the wow, it’s “Do The Dirty Pidgeon”. Picture background music for American Graffiti with the titular lyrics sung over them. Hilarious break where Benjamin interjects in a British accent ‘Guilty as charged’ and back into the slick rhythm. As I listen on, this could also be a great tune for the old school, 7-piece Tubes to do. High vocals, embellish the guitar part to make two, the keyboards already sound like the strings they used to use… Very danceable, I give it an 8, Dick.

As part of a local legend, Gene leads a contingent of kids to seek out the storied “Two Butted Goat”. The rhythm track is right off the football field and into your living room with Gene and Zeke chanting the title to the marching beat. ‘Two, two, two butted goat…’

Family friend of the Belchers, and local bike gang leader, Critter, finds himself at odds with the law. More specifically in jail. In order to get help with his bail, Critter must reach out to the Belcher family. Of course, he has to do so via the “Butt Phone”. The track is silky rock and funk, the lyric line ‘Talking on the butt phone, on the butt phone’ is used repetitively but to great effect to enhance the punch of the track. A great hooky guitar break leads back to the verse with embellished guitar but a too fast stop end.

Tina has (even more) delusions of being the break-out star of the school players (get this) The Hormone-iums with her daydream feature, “Breaking Out”. Replete with a Vegas show-style intro to the show stopping, high stepping, toe tapping song about… acne. The joys of puberty.

Instead, Tina finds herself indeed the star of the show (after the regular lead drops out) in time to play the host character to “Mononucleosis”. The production stinks of something out of Little Shop Of Horrors but then again, I’m sure that’s no coincidence. The short of it is, Tina must subvert the play’s script, or forever be associated as the girl with the kissing disease. I mean we’re talking full out Fox News production with fatalities, misinformation, fake news and everything…

Here’s another small token of my appreciation for reading all this, their version of The Cars “Just What I Needed”!

When Bob’s old school chum Warren drops by for a visit, he likes what he sees in Bob’s Burgers, the restaurant. So he decides to invest. Only, he wants his investment to flavor the decor of the restaurant. Specifically Tiki. Those who know me, know Todd Rundgren made me hate Tiki. Well so does Bob. But for the money, Bob tolerates it. They entertain Warren with games and food and beer. At one point, Warren uses the bathroom, and starts to sing this little ditty to motivate his stream. So it’s no surprise that “I Love Charades” (another script line lift) would be set to a calypso kind of beat. Calypso meets Farfisa meets pee on the seat.

Dramamine up, people, it’s time for Boyz 4 Now former runt kid to ride the Wonder Wharf roller coaster. So let’s have a boy-band style song about being tall enough. Let’s call it “I’m Tall Enough”. Let’s use roller coaster innuendos for rides and love and underage sex. The lyrics kind of sound like a drug commercial. You know, those commercials that talk like this; “Do not take this drug as your eyes may explode”. Yeah, I want to cure my acne at the expense of my vision. I’ll look good to YOU though… Repeating lyrics about being tall enough to ride your heart (A-HEM), keeping your arms and legs inside his car. That shit there sounds kinda stalker-y.

So when does the Boys 4 Now CD come out? After a couple more episodes featuring them, they HAVE to put out a CD of their stuff. Old, new, that doesn’t matter. But we want full length versions of some of these songs. Yeah, I was kinda down on the Boyz, but the stuff is still funny as hell. Of course it doesn’t appeal to me, I’ve never had the preferences of a 13 year old girl.

Tina’s continuing fetish over horses rears it’s head when she gets wind of a semi-local horse camp. But in order to prep her head for riding a real horse at camp, she must say goodbye to her friend Jericho, the imaginary horse. “Yat Dat Dat Da” is a snappy, broadway jazz kind of song with moving orchestrations behind the scatting of Jericho the horse in a bid to entertain a depressed Tina as she preps to say goodbye and leave for horse camp. Plucking bass strings and horns back up Jericho with organ and guitar building up the second and final verse.

The last listed song on the disc is “Bad Stuff Happens In The Bathroom”. Rather than try to explain the lovely duet between Benjamin and Schaal, here it is:

 

The rest of these songs are not listed on the packaging. They are part of the Bob’s Buskers series.

We get to flash back to the sixteenth song on the first disc of this album. The original take of “Bad Girls” by St. Vincent.

After that we get the buskers take on “Electric Love” by Stephin Merit and Kenny Mellman.

The next is the buskers revisit of “Gravy Boat” by The National.

The fourth bonus track, or buskers track, is “Christmas Magic” redone by The National.

Finally we have “Bad Stuff Happens In The Bathroom” as is done by The National and Lapsley.

I’m not going to go into full on review depth with these Bob’s Busker tunes as, they are bonus and I have gone into quite a lot of detail, perhaps more than a reviewer should. So I want to leave these as enticement for you to go and buy your own copy and hear these versions for yourself. I want to promote the discs, the package, the music. But I also want to convey some of these songs to the public who may not be aware of what’s going on here.

What’s going on here is good old fashioned family fun. Some of the topics might be much for the younger kids, but if you and your kids watch the show, there’s very little going on with these discs that they don’t already know about. Get it, have some fun.

Tags: Andy Kindler, Bill Hader, Blondie, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Brendan Smalls, Cole Porter, Cyndi Lauper, Dan Mintz, Dave Herman, David Wain, Debby Harry, Devo, Don Ho, Dr. Demento, Eddie Money, Eugene Mirman, Fred Armisen, H Jon Benjamin, Henry Winkler, Holly Schlesinger, James Brown, Jenny Slate, Joan Jett, Joe Esposito, John Michael Wiggins, John Roberts, Jonas Brothers, Kelvin Yu, Ken Jeong, Kenny Mellman, Kevin Kline, Kristin Schaal, Lapsley, Laura Silverman, Linda Rondstat, Loren Bouchard, Marvin Gaye, Matt Groenig, Megan Mulaley, Michael McDonald, Miracle Legion, Mr. Ray Neal, Nena, Nile Rodgers, Nora Smith, Parliament-Funkadelic, Randy Newman, Ron Huebel, Ron Lynch, Sam Seder, Sarah Silverman, Scott Jacobson, Seth MacFarlane, Snakefinger, St Vincent, Stephen Merit, Steven Davis, Survivor, Talking Heads, The Bee Gees, The Cars, The National, The Tubes, Tiny Tim, Todd Rundgren, Tori Amos, Zack Galifinakas