Craig Jensen of BookNotes:
Okay, so the Mozart experiment didn't work. What can I say? Today I'm trying PopCanon's The Kingdom of Idiot Rock. Who knows, maybe 'eccentric literate weirdness' is the key to getting smarter. (I am totally digging The Reason-Acoustic. Love that big fat horn sound. The lyrics really resonate for me too.) Hmm, I wonder what Al thinks?

Al(wyn) Hawkins of View From The Heart:
I've been holding off on this until Craig got his CD and took a listen. Here's my take on The Kingdom Of Idiot Rock, and a band that is (sadly) no more. Think Frank Zappa meets They Might Be Giants, with a generous topping of slightly whipped XTC. Not afraid of complexity at the expense of a little accessability, these folks lay down a thick, chewey texture of lyrically rich melody. A lot has been made in other reviews about the highly literate allusions of the words, but I enjoyed it also on the level of good musicians playing 'out of the 4/4 box'. This is fun music, made by people who like playing--and playing around. Recommended.

And later, Al issued this PopCanon Update:
I received a nice email from Ned Davis of PopCanon. The band is no longer together, but they still write to folks who order the CD and listen to feedback about the band. How very cool, to use the 'net to sustain sales and maintain a fan base even after the band broke up. He also had kind (and well-deserved) words of praise for Craig's BookNotes -- You see, I listed it as the source for the order of the CD, and he went to see who was giving him the business...

[Neditor: And that's the magic, Borgesian interconnectivity of the internet in action, people!]

PopCanon wins 2000 Hogtown Music Award for Favorite Pop Act and d'art wins Favorite Local CD!!

And a big shoutout to our competition in these categories: pop bands The Pawn Rook Four and Crashpad, and CD artistes Chad King and the Know How. Fellow TriTone Mgt. buddies Squeaky won Favorite Rock Band--congratulations!

PopCanon wins 1998 Hogtown Music Award for Favorite Pop Band!

(this is the wax seal on the back of the awards envelope--medieval, no?)

And a big shoutout to our competition in this category: Slack Season and Crustaceans.
Fellow TriTone Management buddies Crustaceans went on to win the Hammy for Favorite Overall Band--congratulations! (Then, tragically, a few months later they broke up.)

UPDATE: In 1999, Slack Season whupped our ass in this category!

Frank would have liked this. 

Man, your guitarist is crazy!! 

[Neditor: For those of you who don't know Dr. Chadbourne, this means very little--for those of you who do, you can well imagine my pride.]

Yo! Your Kingdom is idiotically awesome.

'The best gift of all is the gift of ROCK! Thanks for making our ears happy. '

The remarks of Mr. J. Stokley Grimes, Esquire, and his band of Thomas Pynchon admirers known as the Berkeley Pynheads.

Highly edited and proofread comments of Chris Weingarten,
mastermind of The Chris Weingarten Basement Funk All-Stars

There's a pain in my d'arteries. I might have d'arteriosclerosis. I could eat a d'artichoke. What I'm trying to d'articulate is that, without any d'artifical emotion, I'm crazy about D'art. I rocked so hard to your collective of d'artists and d'artisians that I needed to go on d'artificial respiration. The record sounds phat. You guys will be big rock stars while I'm still putzing away on stupid art-rock beat-off funk-metal, obnoxious coffeehouse experiments, bullshit home recordings, and useless and lame-o articles in the Alligator. (or are they d'articles? more like f'articles). D'art rules, Pricksongs is fun, and my t-shirt fits me quite comfortably. If only you would drop that dogshit atheist attitude...though i was just listening to 'Ballyhoo' one more time, and Fuck you for making blasphemy so damn catchy. Keep bangin'. I'm a D'artist and you're an asshole. Chris

PopCanon is Advanced Rock!

Rusty Valentine,
fantastic drummer and Sideshow Bob lookalike

Don't take this the wrong way, but
this is as awesome as insane gets.

From the tour diary of
Idiot Savant Garde, a band from State College PA that, along with their sister band Holy Mary, Mother of Bert, is in many fun ways like evil twins to PC...

Day 7 (Friday, May 14) Gainesville, Florida Common Grounds coffeehouse

Fuck yeah! This is what rock is all about, baby.

Common Grounds is 20 percent bar and 80 percent coffeehouse, the kind of place that can only exist in a college town (University of Florida, in this case). Red brick walls, hippies dispensing strawberry Italian sodas, pinball machines and a subdued ochre glow. Yes, there are people here to hear us (finally). Yes, both ISG and Bert are well-received.

But this night isn't about us. It's about PopCanon. They're a perfect cross between ISG and Bert and the parallels are stunning: Don Undeen, the PopCanon saxophonist, reminds us of Bert violinist Nevin (it's the uninhibited ethnic-flavored dancing that does it), and we find out that PopCanon wanted to call themselves 'Idiot Savant Garde' until they decided the name was too pretentious. Heh.

And wow, they are so, so good, blending country and funk and math and great vocal harmonies in a way that keeps the energy and interest levels high for a full two-hour set, including a six-song encore ending with a blistering version of 'She Blinded Me With Science.' Everybody dances (well, except Tim).

It makes the tour seem worthwhile --- just having the chance to meet a bunch of guys so committed to what they're doing. We all go to the Waffle House after the show. Don mingles at our table, tossing around the names of friends' bands: Less Than Jake, Hot Water Music, Blinder (from New York). He's toured Europe. Bastard.

[Neditor: we have determined that Don has NOT toured Europe, but why spoil a good story?]

And hell, why not go look for alligators at 4:30 in the morning? It's not like we need sleep or couldn't deal gracefully with a sucking chest wound or two. Don taunts the gators: 'We have no claws or shells,' he yells. They lurk under the surface, apparently not hungry.