Score: 99.205  100 means excellent.  Scores range from 0 to infinity, infinity being best.
Date: June 9 2001   From:
As our CD has thus-far escaped the attention of most critics (in fact, though it sells really well at shows, it's release was totally ignored by all in-town music critics!  Ahhh the travails of a musical comedian...) How 'bout you post a review of our CD in return for one of these spiffy-keen videos?
As you can see, my journalistic integrity might have been corrupted under this arrangement, but now I have the video and can modify or delete this webpage at will and they can't delete my video.  Me bow to The C.O.G.?  Never!  MWOOWAHAHA!  *poof*  Hey, what? Where'd it go?  How'd they do that?  www.consortiumofgenius.com

Comments This album is somewhere between comedy and serious.  The sound quality is top notch professional all the way through.  The music style varies, with several creepy gothic heavy metal songs like I don't normally review, plus pop, rap and whatever.  Most of the songs have at least a little humor, a pun, sound, spoof, or a little freep (2 points).  About half of the songs are worthy of comedy music show play.  Some of the dialog between songs is the funniest part, particularly the voice of "Filbert".  A great amount of talent went into the album.  It would have scored higher if only more funny ideas were thought up during the planning stage, or some of the tunes were catchier.  Not that it isn't a fine album.  I'm just saying it's possible for some cheesy K-Mart synth album to come along and score higher here based on comedy rather than sound quality.  The other songs could still be suitable for background music or wrapping fish, or might appeal better to other audiences.
The CD materials seem to be a black playing-side CD-R.  Printed inserts could pass as mass production stuff except for the flat not-glossy inner booklet pages 2 and 3.
This is the 'limited edition' version of the album, of a run of less than 400, all made by hand!
The standard professionally pressed version coming out later this summer will be a conventional silver disc, and its contents will be quite different. (Different sketches, couple of different songs)

The characters:
Dr. Milo T. Pinkerton III (Lewis D'Aubin)  R-rolling, unconvincing Euro-Esperanta fake-accent fake-country James Bond movie technovillain wannabe turkey to a high degree.  Has this thing about taking over the world.  Yells "Filbert!" as often as David Seville yells "Alvin!" Black furry animal lives or died on his head.
Filbert Snodgrass (Chris Flattman)  Sounds like a well done Professor Frink character from The Simpsons, Frink loosely based on the Jerry Lewis Nutty Professor character.  Not as smart as the nerdy Frink, only attains geek status, possibly at the insistence of the oppressive Dr. Pinkerton who does not wished to be overshadowed.
Dr. A Pentatonic (Jeff King)  A Brooklyn-accent gangster kind of guy.

Date: May 8 2001  Lewis D'Aubin writes:  We're working on a new video as well, as we've had a lineup change recently.  'Filbert' is no longer our bassist, and now makes only brief video appearances during our show, due to his commitment to his own band.
On the other hand, Filbert's replacement, Dr. Z, is a total unabashed 'Apu' knockoff.
The name Filbert is probably ripped off from the geeky turtle in Rocko's Modern Life.
The character of Filbert was named by Chris's girlfriend at the time (~1997).
You've really gotta see one of our live shows.  The CD has >NOTHING< on a live performance... total sensory overload.  I will have to send you a video.
So Lewis sent me a video and Yeah, what he said.
Alas, the old video doesn't show off Drumbot much at all.  We're featuring him much more as a character these days, even giving him speaking parts.  (He talks like a Canadian, in the South Park sense of the word.)
As a style parody band, we pull from an endless roster of influences.  Examples:
Bow 2 Me: Korn, Limp Bizkit
I Scream: Rammstein, NIN
Brain Wrap: Kid Rock
Android Woman: Grand Funk Railroad, KISS, Styx, etc.
All I Wanna Do: Meatloaf!!!
Morally Wrong: Elvis, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin, Mojo Nixon
Bite Me: Sisters of Mercy, Tea Party, etc.
March of the Skeletons: Spinal Tap!!!
Death: Dokken, Pantera, Ratt, etc. etc. etc.
Science Party: I'll let you guess this one (hint hint, same as Al's 'Mr. Popeil')

The songs in order from approximately best to approximately medium.
Best
track         SONGS, The talk things
number
19.  SCIENCE PARTY  (plus intro 18. Partying with Pentatonic)
    Most of the songs have trouble targeting an appropriate audience, but Science Party scores a bulls eye on the geek rock target.  Plus it's a nearly perfect style parody of The B52's.  An equal in the Demented Dance category to "Radio Shack" by Guns And Moses.
17.  THE BLACK PLAGUE  02:42
    Black plague topic always good for a few laughs.  The music style here reminds me of the German heavy metal band Accept.  Here's a quote from the P.R. package that I must pass along: "this also makes use of an orchestra for the sole purpose of belittling Metallica's entire 'S&M' album."
05.  intro to Brain Wrap
    I say intro because I like the rap slang used by geek Filbert.  The rap song itself is more serious music than it is comedy, so it doesn't quite meet my expectations.
This is deadpan comedy, where the humor comes mainly from the incongruity of a gangster rapper trying to lecture on The Brain.
04.  I SCREAM  04:34
    The darkest creepiest metal song about ice cream.  Goes well with the visuals in the video. (batteries and video not included)
07.  M.I.L.K.  02:41
    Heavy metal.  But to make it screwy, the song subject is the benefits of drinking milk.
This song is not metal at all, but rather Punk Opera.  Listen to that 'Ramones-style beat.  The lyrics are not mine, but rather are translated from an ancient Viking text written by the fierce warlord, 'Lactarre the Intolerant'.  Apparently this tribe of Vikings would guzzle MILK in their great MILK-HALL before the heat of battle.  The entire tribe was eventually wiped out in 1090 AD by an outbreak of Mad
Cow disease...
OK, so it's Punk Opera like what a metal band (like one with a drumbot?) might play.
11.  IT'S MORALLY WRONG  03:32
    Good quickie spoof of "Whole Lotta Love" in here.  Mainly it's a screwy Meatloaf-style song.
No, the Meatloaf song is 'All I Wanna Do Is You'.  This one's our rockabilly tribute to Mojo Nixon by way of Elvis and Dred Zeppelin.
I say "It's Morally Wrong = Meatloaf."  Eric has spoken!!!
For more info, check the lyrics: www.consortiumofgenius.com/lyrics/
20.  Unoriginal gangster  02:07
14.  That's no way to treat an android  00:48
Mediumest

<PINKERVOICE: ON>
And as you are so interested in the current whereabouts of Filbert, I would like to inform you that Filbert W. Snodgrass, Jr. Scientist in Training, is NOT DEAD, (despite his recent appearance on the sides of MILK cartons everywhere) but was abducted by aliens in December, ONSTAGE, DURING OUR LECTURE (!), and is now being held captive in their flying saucer 40 million light years away, and is being BRUTALLY PROBED with an ALIEN PROCTOLOPOD, even as I write this!
<PINKERVOICE: OFF>
And the guy who used to play Filbert has had it with being mistaken for Filbert in restaurants, and is now completely caught up in his own (serious) Easy Listening Goth Band.  I'm not kidding, I just did sound for them when they played this weekend!

Thanks for the quite positive review!  As usual, everybody I talk to likes something different... that's why our styles vary so widely.

Tracks listed in track order
01.  A word from Dr. Pinkerton  00:55
02.  BOW TO ME  03:16
03.  Cryonics chamber  01:46
04.  I SCREAM  04:34
05.  BRAIN WRAP  04:12
06.  Breakfast at Pinkerton's  00:28
07.  M.I.L.K.  02:41
08.  Brunch at Pinkerton's  00:24
09.  SO CONFUSE  03:20
10.  Great God in a box  02:08
11.  IT'S MORALLY WRONG  03:32
12.  What a doll  01:05
13.  ANDROID WOMAN  05:10
14.  That's no way to treat an android  00:48
15.  ALL I WANNA DO IS YOU  03:56
16.  Enter: The Archer  01:41
17.  THE BLACK PLAGUE  02:42
18.  Partying with Pentatonic  01:44
19.  SCIENCE PARTY  02:58
20.  Unoriginal gangster  02:07
21.  DEATH TO THE ANGEL OF DEATH  02:51
22.  The C.O.G. Neck Protect 2000  01:47
23.  BITE ME  05:40
24.  Secret forwards message  00:43
25.  MARCH OF THE SKELETONS  04:27
26.  The end of science as we know it  01:41
27.  Secret backwards message  00:54
28.  You're still listening?  02:49
29.  Färgenärgle  00:03