Two music posts in row. Lucky you.

The other day while I was out shopping for Mother's Day, I decided that if I was going to buy presents that I deserved one too. That's why I love birthday and Christmas shopping so much: I win no matter what.

At the store I came across the Family Guy Live* In Vegas album. I had heard mention of it in the past couple of weeks and didn't know anything about it (least of all that it had been released) but my love for Family Guy is strong and so I snatched it up immediately. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the subject matter, Family Guy is an animated sitcom by Seth MacFarlane featuring the voice talents of Alex Borstein (Mad TV), Mila Kunis (That 70's Show), Seth Green, and others. It ran for three seasons before FOX cancelled it, apparently due to poor ratings, though FOX moved the show around so many times it was no wonder: no one knew what time it was even on. In what may be a first in television history, FOX decided to uncancel the series three years later after staggering DVD sales (1.6 million for the first season) and strong viewership in syndication on The Cartoon Network. If you haven't seen it before I highly recommend it. It's definitely laugh-out-loud funny, and with the fourth season (the return) just starting, now is as good a time as any to start watching.

But back to the CD.

I was surprised to find that the album was composed entirely of original material. Instead of simply collecting songs from the show (ala Songs in the Key of Springfield), Live* In Vegas features the Griffin family (and friends) performing a live stage show, ostensibly in Sin City. Seth MacFarlane describes it like this, "With an orchestra ensemble of around 55 players and a chorus of nearly 20 singers, the tracks you're about to hear are, we hope, a blend of the rich, lush arrangements of the classic era of Rat Pack Vegas shows combined with the fart jokes of today." Of course it isn't actually live (hence the asterisk), but it is presented in that manner, delivering the sound and feel of a music/comedy variety show.

Another surprise: it's kinda blue.

Apparently the Standards and Decency folks over at FOX records decided to loosen their perfectly clenched butt cheeks a little and let the writers make the dialogue a bit more colorful. There's something oh so classic about hearing Stewie say, "Go fuck yourselves!" in his inexplicable British accent. In general it is an amusing album punctuated with a couple of stand out tracks. One of them, "All Cartoons Are Fucking Dicks", details the exploits a of few notable cartoon characters and their less-than-savory vices. Another, simply titled "T.V. Medley", strikes a particular chord for me having grown up in the 80's as the song features Brian and Stewie singing a number of classic television theme songs. There are a few low points on the album, as well, including a song by Brian called, "Dear Booze", which is sung well but isn't particularly funny. Still, for a fan of the show it is definitely worth the laughs, especially since it is new material. There are also a couple of guest appearances as well, but I'll let you find out about them yourselves.

Oh, and Phoenix, you'll be happy to know that Mr. Herbert, the creepy old pedophile, has his own number called "One Boy". If you can get past the sibilance, you may find it amusingly unsettling.

The CD also comes with a DVD hardly worth watching. Jam-packed with maybe 15 minutes of material, it contains a music video for a not-particularly-good song by Stewie called, "Sexy Party", a short and uninformative interview with a seemingly unprepared MacFarlane, and a "Making of Sexy Party" which (barely) documents the grueling 2-day video shoot and post-production process. Uh, yea. It looks and feels like a college A/V student's final project.

Allow me to leave you with the following lyrics, cause I don't feel like coming up with an original ending for this post:



Tags: Comedy, Family Guy, Music Review