Style: pop rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Los Angeles, California
Members: Trey Green ~ vocals/piano
Jeff Norberg, John Konesky ~ guitar
John Spiker, Frank Gagliardi ~ bass
Brooks Wackerman, Kevin Hupp, Jamie Douglass ~ drums
Dan Rowe, Charlotte Kendrick ~ b. vocals
Getting a bit of notice for one's song titles can't hurt when enticing potential listeners ... examples here being "Totally Awesome", "It Was Late, I Was Tired", "Bill Murray, Philosopher", "The Honest Lullaby", "That Really Was Stupid", "The Shepherd's Pie Song" & "The Gay Pirate Song" for starters. It also doesn't hurt that Kyle Gass of Tenacious D gets a thank you in the album for advice on the lifestyle of a particular pirate & Tenacioius D for the studio space ... one assumes sans pirates but potentially with Bill Murray. Nor does it hurt the band consists of members of Bad Religion & the Tenacious D band, though musically its rock light & heavily relaxed acoustic guitars with a steady backbeat & nothing like these two groups. The key to getting people interested in a band is to get them in the door. The awesome TG has easily done that without trying. But, do you stay for the party? As long as one is having a good time at the party ... & you're probably thinking that, given the hints so far, you're either going to have a good time with TG or end up blowing beer out of your nose in embarrassing laughter, at TG not with TG, as you sneak out the room. Surprise, the beer doesn't go anywhere you don't want it to. This isn't really a comedy album. It's more a fun album of primarily acoustic alt rock with some witty lyrics of the Tenacious D sort versus in your face Spinal Tap. Its joking but not a joke. It's funny but just as much fun rock. An example is "Blew A Kiss" about a girl from Peru, "she's pretty tall but so am I", who he liked when they were just kids. It's more than the cliché 'I like her' songs but instead the un-cliched I liked her "back in the day ... now she's in magazines & all the rage I wish she wouldn't doctor her age" from "Blew A Kiss". This is followed by a collection of fun, sometimes witty but not in that distracting or annoyingly forced way or over-played to the detriment of the music, songs covering "trouble in some fancy packaging" (i.e. "Criminal"), to talking about being a new dad & looking forward to the future when "you'll only get A's & B's ... & play a mean lead guitar ... you'll make up for the nerd I was" (i.e. "The Honest Lullaby"), to wanting to rock out "when MTV was still about the music" with name checked details of the 80's rock scene cause "there's nothing like a heavy metal solo" with the ending plea "can't the ones that are still alive start a school & teach ... how to solo" (i.e. "I Wanna Rock'N'Roll") to what Bill Murray said in the movie 'Groundhog Day' (i.e. "Bill Murray, Philosopher') , to a song hailing Shepherd's Pie (i.e. "The Shepherd's Pie Song") to the stand out piano ballad (i.e. "The Piano Song (Feelings)") about the difficulty of writing a love song in the "I'm gonna act like I really care of what I sing, gonna pour my heart & soul into some random words that just don't mean a thing ... this song is moving right along & I'm pretty sure eventually I'm gonna have to raise my voice ... I'm gonna hold on this last chord for way too long." Some in between song studio babble reminds us that even when TG & co are being more serious than not ... or more Bad Company than the Big D ... this is all about having fun. As for the pirate song ... what do you expect, it's a pirate song! To tour
The Awesomeness TG put together a live band, taking the role of rhythm guitarist/vocalist, that has since morphed into The Hang including drummer Jamie Douglass from the album & new faces Jon 'Sos' Sosin on guitar & Nick Campbell on bass. Under this new moniker TG & company have lots of new music on way.
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