Jonathan Coulton: The Other, Other, Other John
For some reason or other, today I was inspired to check out The Areas of My Expertise again, and I remembered that besides John Hodgman, there’s another John on that CD: Jonathan Coulton. He’s the musical guy behind the theme song for the audiobook, which I wish was available in a higher quality recording.
Previously, I had heard him do a cover of Baby Got Back in acoustic guitar, but I didn’t realize it was him. Only when I went to his website, which has a bunch of MP3s, did I make the connection. He also has a bunch of other really neat songs, like Skymall, which is about those catalogs you find in the airplane seats that feature gigantic crossword puzzles, and Ikea, which is about the bitchin’ furniture store that my entire family loves. I read somewhere that Sweden trusts Ikea more than their own government. Which means that either Ikea is awesome, or the Swedish government is horrible.
The coolest song I found so far (I haven’t listened to all of the MP3s yet) is a mashup of “25 or 6 to 4”, and “When I’m 64.” The vocals of the latter spliced with the background of the former makes for a really cool, melancholy sound. I like it a lot. Check it out:
And also check out his other songs too!