Two guys, one now a New Orleans chef, and the other now a New York City stand up comedian, backed by a full band, combine many music styles on songs about food, sex and life.

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: American Underground, ROCK: Experimental Rock

Show all album songs: TwoInTheOneInThe Songs


Details:
I started a record label in January of 2007 and called it HumanInhuman. HI006 is the catalog # for the album TwointheOneinthe by Salsa Windfall, one of 2 main musical side projects fronted by successful NYC âCringeâ standup comedian and radio personality Joe DeRosa. You mighta seen him on tv, too. I recently got to speak with Joe.

âWell, the title of the album stemmed from the fact that Paul [Chell, guitarist and co-culprit in Salsa Windfall] and I have an infatuation with certain expressions people use in conversation.â It is 8:16 AM , and Joe DeRosa and a small segment of the Humaninhuman Promotions department sit on an Italian leather sofa, sipping mimosas and iced coffee concoctions in DeRosaâs swanky uptown apartment. âWe talk about that stuff almost obsessively. Years ago, we heard a guy refer to a woman's privates as âthe steak.â So we recorded a song called âThe Steak.â" Our young new intern Tyran blushes audibly. â It was a song about a woman's privates. We were really hooked on saying âCrazy as a shit house ratâ for a while. We almost named the album that. But then we got hung up on the sexual phrase âTwo in the pink, one in the stink.ââ On hearing this, young Tyran gets up and scampers off to the bathroom.

âYouâll have to excuse him,â I say apologetically to Joe, who continues unphased.

â We kept laughing about it and thought it would be a great album title. So we called the record TwoInTheOneInThe and made the front cover solid pink and the back cover solid brown.â

âYes you did,â I say admiring a copy, which I offer to him to put in his c- drive. He ignores me completely, launches iTunes on his PC and we have a listen. He offers me a cigar and I unhesitatingly partake.

After the first two songs, Iâm like: âSo this shit is meant to be funny.â


Joe looks pensive while dishing me this: âI think âcomedy rockâ or âcomedic musicâ is something that usually takes place within the confines of a comedy show, club, album or performance. For instance: a guy with a guitar who sings songs that are blatantly meant to be funny. The lyrics are riddled with punchlines, maybe the orchestration itself is even humorous. â

âLike that song âShaving Creamâ?â I suggest.

âMy rap group DEEP is comedy music. It's meant to make the listener laugh. That's its purpose. But Salsa Windfall takes more of a tongue and cheek approach.â

Loud enough for only myself to hear, I say, âThe phrase is actually tongue-in-cheek. I have no idea why âcause, like, where else is your tongue gonna be other than in your cheek? The question is, then, WHOSE tongue is in WHOSE cheek and are we talking facial cheeks exclusively? Anyway, seems to me that everyone speaks and sings tongue-in-cheek all the time, and everyone also always speaks and sings with tongues AND cheeks, so thereâs no need to quibbleâ¦â

âThere's a heavy Ween and Zappa influence. In each song we delve into a different genre of music. And we sort of give the listener a âwink and a nudgeâ that we're doing it on purpose. So, at times, the self-consciousness of the songs might make you smile, but it's not at all meant to be a joke.â

I give mâ boyyyy the knuckles and Iâm all, âI didnât think so.â I pause; then Iâm like, âLetâs drink to Ween, Zappaâ¦. And to general winking and nudging.â

Joe really likes this idea and breaks out some really impressive bottles as Tyran emerges from the little boysâ room⦠to which he slowly retreats as he sees what is developing.

âCreary,â I say, meaning, âclearly.â âCreary, your lifelong fandom of TMBG and Ween show through on these 11 songs. Would your fans be totally nuts if they whipped out their credit cards expecting something like Tenacious D? I mean, you know, noted funny guy and his bud.. Heh-hehâ¦. Doin the âweâre in a bandâ thingâ¦. Heh hehâ¦â

Joe stares at me silently. Icily.

I continue, flounderingly.

âI mean itâs true, Iâve known you since what, â94, when you asked me a couple questions about Headflap and⦠then of course a few years later you help us out when we lose our drummer, and so then you meet our guitarist Paul⦠and you 2 start mixin up the mock-rock alterna-thing in the late nineties when Headflap collapses as a multi-member project or whatever⦠then I see this movie of that book Paul was into, and Iâm like âYo, that Jack Black guyâs funnyâ¦â Then I hear heâs in some Ween sorta band, him and his bud. Thing is, I never hear any of their records, and I miss all their tv appearances. So I finally take a listen yesterday, here in late 2007. Internet actin funny so all I can get is their self-titled⦠and itâs like⦠well ok whatever. Some funny stuff. Brilliantly mixed and mastered, duh. Thanks Epic! And well-played, too, by capable musiciansâ¦. But the compositions⦠are just⦠tired retreads of bad⦠I mean real bad cheese hard rock songs. How hard is it to satirize that? How many times has it already been satirized? Better? Yâknow?â

Joe frowns and nods. Not necessarily in reaction to what I just said. He might have just decided what heâd like for breakfast. This is an unusually early promotional interview.

âBut TwoInTheOneInThe by Salsa Windfall.â I pick my copy up again and admire its visionary-like simplistic cover design. âYou guys chose to not regurgitate and repackage mediocrity under the banner of COMEDY. Instead, you created something completely excellent by celebrating your heroes, who any one who has spent long enjoyable hours listening to the buried treasures of pre- and unpopular music trends, genres and movements would agree are excellent. You guys managed to combine the influences of the more obscure pioneers and purveyors of excellent craftsmanship⦠the ones you mentioned earlier plus Sebadoh, early REM, the Replacements, Dinosaur Jr⦠shit man, I hear Sugarloaf, Roxy Music, the Dictators and AC/DC when I play this tater -- and thatâs why I released it.â

With that, I noticed the time, knew I was making Joe late for a boil removal appointment. Got Tyran out of the bathroom, and tried to get us the hell out of there. But Joe was tapping loudly on his desk, on the printout of an email from me wherein I had listed the questions I would ask in the interview. He wanted me to ask the last question, which I had forgotten about up till this point.

So I asked it, and in between huge bites of a lion sandwich he spat out the answer:

âBurnard Valentine made his first appearance on the very first Salsa Windfall song ever written/recorded. That was about 10 years ago. His name wasn't Burnard back then. It was just "Old School Rap Guy." Paul and I used the character on a few Salsa songs before he made the jump over to DEEP. Once I started doing the Burnard character in DEEP, he became much more of a living, breathing presence. So my DEEP partner Jim (Drill Jackson) and I gave him a name and made him an official member of the group. Since we actually recorded "TwoInTheOneInThe" about 8 years ago, I had to rerecord all of my vocals before its release, just to spruce things up a bit. It was really fun redoing the Burnard stuff . By now he's a fully developed character instead of just a funny voice, so it was great to revisit the old Salsa material with an improved approach for Burnard.â


And after that, we say our goodbyes, and Tyran and I are out the door. In the hallway, Tyran tugs my left sleeve with a quiet âMr. McCabe?â "What?"
âYou forgot to ask Mr. DeRosa your OTHER question.â
âWhether he ever felt like giving Paul a swift kick in the trousers when Paulâs 12-string or backing vocals were sorely out of tune during an otherwise usable take?â
âThatâs the one.â
âThe record shows, Tyran. Creary Mr. DeRosa wanted us to be on our way. I know SOME things⦠I know genius, I know from writing concise, killer ad copy, and I know rock. But I donât know from comedy, Tyran. Now, come on -- letâs get you one of those pigeon egg rolls you kept whining about on the train ride up.â