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2008-02-13

Artist Spotlight: The Kazoo Funk Orchestra

Today's featured artist is one that absolutely defies categorization. Seriously, I lack the vocabulary to even begin describing this band; a band that describes themselves (via the Genre tags in their MP3s) as Magical Lofi Pop Rock, Old School Hip Pop, Alt Pop, Boomshop Pop, Carnivale, Other, Half Assed Funk, Sushi Time Pop, Scuffle Rock, Dixie Yodel Pop, Moon Jazz Rock, Sodium Pop, Semi Circular Interchangable Improvisational Pop, Retro Moves, Melodica-Go-Go, Acousto Pop, Hump Rock, Hangman Pop, Old School Pop, Slap Dash, Melodic Plop, and Scotch & Frost Polka.

The band I'm talking about is called The Kazoo Funk Orchestra, and, as is likely already apparent, they are no ordinary band. Formed in 2005 in Glasgow, Scotland during a finger painting session attended by the group's chief songwriters (known as Little Beard and Big Beard), The Kazoo Funk Orchestra has been churning out a delightfully wacky blend of Beatles-like psychedelia, Beastie Boys-like hip hop, Iggy Pop-like punk, and Beck-like general insanity (all with more kazoos than one would have thought legally possible) ever since.

To date, they have released an album (Midnight Finger Painter) and an EP (Adventures in Fuzzy Felt Land), and are in the process of releasing their second full-length album, This Album is Self-Titled. The first two releases are available from their own website and also from Jamendo. The latter album is being released in a rather unique way: one song is made available for download every week; currently there are 21 songs available, with spaces for another 20 on the Music page. And in case you've been wondering, the songs on the new album are the source of most of those genres listed above; so far, each of the new songs has its own unique genre in its MP3 tag.

If I had to describe The Kazoo Funk Orchestra in one word, it would be "fun". Whenever I listen to them, I can usually be found with a big grin on my face. It's not often that one comes across music that is such a joy to listen to - which is why I'm going to end this post here so that you can head on over to the band's website and begin experiencing their music for yourself. Happy listening!

Special thanks to Ray for recommending The Kazoo Funk Orchestra to me in the first place.

URLs:
http://www.kazoofunkorchestra.com/
http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/kfunk

1 comment:

Dorota said...

Hi Jeff,
Nice to read about jamendo.com on your blog! Thank you.
You may like to know that we released brand new music widgets - have a look at our widget factory : http://www.jamendo.com/widgets/create. You can either pick ready-to-use widgets (by genre) or turn any album, playlist or track into your own widget. Here is a sample: http://img.jamendo.com/sample/
Enjoy!
Dorota