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92Y Blog
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Harry Shearer and Songs of the Bushmen

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Check out the Q&A with Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap and Simpsons fame (not to mention a million other projects) on New York magazine’s Vulture blog.

You’ve merged music and comedy with Spinal Tap as well as your own albums. Is it difficult to keep it rooted so it doesn’t veer off into Dr. Demento “Witchdoctor” comedy territory?
No, my wife polices me strictly. She’s a very talented singer, songwriter, and musician, and she said, with typical British disdain, that it was okay for me to dip into funny music, but it damn well better sound like music.

To quote AC/DC, “Rock ‘n’ roll is just rock ‘n’ roll.” But judging from High Level Detainees’ album Songs of the Bushmen, it appears you think it can be much more. How does your music prove that AC/DC is just plain wrong?
Well, first of all, most of the music on Bushmen isn’t rock and roll, so maybe they’re still right. Also, when you’re that loud, who cares if you’re wrong? I do think music can be an effective form of satire. I was raised on Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg and memorized most of their stuff, which I didn’t do with the spoken-word comedy I loved at the time. So, just from the standpoint of colonizing brain cells, music seems to be an effective way of making a point.

In the last few months, an oft-bandied-about thesis is that this is the most important presidential election ever. Your feelings are clear, but are you just pulling for your guy or do you agree with that?
I’m not even really pulling for “my guy.” I said at the beginning of this year that my vote was available to the first candidate in either party who said something substantive and cogent about the failure of the federal levees in New Orleans and the need to rebuild the coastal wetlands. That offer still stands. As to the importance of this election, I’d put 1860 up against it.

Read the full article.

In a very limited tour supporting Songs of the Bushmen, Shearer will be performing with his band, The High-Value Detainees, at 92YTribeca this Saturday. This is the band’s second CD (their first was nominated for a Grammy), and only the second time they’ll be performing songs from Bushmen live—and the first time in New York City.



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