Biscuithead & The Biscuit Badgers - Dinosaurs Ate My
Caravan
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| Biscuithead & The Biscuit Badgers - Dinosaurs Ate My Caravan |
Digital Release - 25th August 2014
Physical Release -
29th September 2014
Yorkshire chaps Biscuithead &
The Biscuit Badgers write what you might call comedy tunes and I usually
approach that genre with a certain amount of caution but half way the opening
track of this 16 song collection I was already smiling and chuckling. That
opening track is 'My Mysterious Uncle' which tells the tale of a unusual family
member and introduces the recurring theme of digestives for the first time.
'David Attenborough' is up next with a beautifully English ode to our greatest
nature documentary maker while 'Dinosaurs' is a child-like look at a world
where the extinct giant lizards had hung around to live in harmony with humans.
By the time 'Tweed Jacket' rolls around to sing the praises of this most
English of clothing items, you are firmly aware that this is music in the great
traditions of the Baron Knights, Monty Python and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
with a nod to more recent artists like Flight Of The Conchords.
'Snow!' is a joyous number while
'Jellyspoons' is a glimpse in to the more surreal side of the bands collective
psyche...I mean, they actually play jelly with spoons and record it.
Delightful. One of my favourite tracks on the album is 'Soy Milk', a tribute to
this modern development in dairy substitutes, which features the line
"There's nothing to spoil my enjoyment, cause when you were made no cows
were exploited". 'I'm A Triangle' is a geometric love song but the
outstanding tune is The 'Tea's Made', possibly the most English song every
written about making a cuppa and with that Digestive biscuit theme recurring (along
with pink wafers, jammy dodgers, doilies and sugar tongs).
The animalistic love song that is
'The Duckling Of Our Love' contains the slightly obsessive lyric "If I was
a turkey I would climb in to your oven and it would be okay for you to eat me
because I'd be a turkey". 'Our Dog' is an affectionate if slightly bonkers
song about man's best friend featuring plenty of backing howling while
'Andrea's Arms' is the kind of song a serial killer might write as a relaxing
pass time after a busy night's work. Revisiting the surrealist portion of their
brains via a wartime piano melody on 'Never Going Back', the band paint a Dr
Seussian picture in vibrant Technicolor. The last new track on the album is
'Queen Of The Roller Derby' during which is a gently countrified ditty and
possibly the most sombre of the collection.
The album closes with two
re-recorded songs, the first of which is the educational and infectious 'Land
Hermit Crab'. The second of these closing tunes is my new theme tune in the
form of 'Cheese' which does what it says on the tin in terms of singing the
praises of all kinds of cheesy delights. The lyrics "I don't bet, don't do
ket, I try not to work up a sweat, I haven't broken these shoes in yet but I
won't sneeze at a nice piece of cheese" is sublime and is the perfect way
to close of this collection. These gentlemen are one of my new favourite
collection of musicians and comedy writers and should be given a series on
Radio 4 if nothing else but that's the very minimum they deserve. Wonderful, joyous
stuff.
More information: www.biscuithead.co.uk
Live Dates:
30th August - Chapel Allerton Arts Festival
6th September - The Chemic Tavern, Leeds
20th September - BBC Radio Tees
3rd October - Lakeside Theatre, Colchester
8th November - The Fisherman's Arms, Hartlepool
21st November - The Natural History Museum, Oxford
6th December - The Basement, York