Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Creamtastic / National Skyline Lonely Island and the Infinity Cat Monkey Paintings
Posted by Steve Haruch on Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 11:28 AM
The other day I got a big package from the folks at UMG, containing the new Lonely Island album, Incredibad. You may know some of Lonely Island's hits: the subtle "Dick in a Box," the warm and subtle "Jizz in My Pants," the vaingloriously subtle "I'm on a Boat" and that Narnia rap with Parnell. We popped the CD in on the way to lunch and...the stuff is better with the visuals. And is the Santana champagne joke supposed to be funny?
As you'll notice, there's a Be Your Own Pet poster just to Andy Samberg's right. This struck us as kinda cool, seeing a Nashville band, albeit defunct, on the walls of Saturday Night Live. Then D. "Eagle Eye" Patrick Rodgers noticed the painting above Samberg's left shoulder, and said, "Isn't that the cover of the JEFF album?"
I just happened to have a copy of said album in my office, so it was easy to compare. Here's the cover of The Boys Are Back in Town:
Not the same painting. But it is striking that both paintings share so many elements:
1. Simian
2. In the woods
3. Wearing court clothing
4. And a little crown
5. Carrying a large writing implement/matchstick
So we asked the head honcho at JEFF's record label what was up with that, hoping to glean some sort of SNL-Nashville rock connection. "I got it in a garage sale," says R.E.O. "It appears to be one of those mass-produced things. Beyond that, we don't know. It's hanging at Infinity Cat." Totally did not satisfy my curiosity.
I'm sure when the Scene's IT department audits my Internet usage, the Google image search I did for "painting monkey wearing crown" is going to raise some red flags. Oh, well. I did turn up this post at a blog called Finkbuilt, which sports two more sweet riffs on the chimp tip, including this little beauty (NSFW if your boss is a chimp):
In the comments of the Finkbuilt post, someone makes mention of an Arkansas painter named Donald Roller Wilson, claiming that these little gems of chimptastic brushwork are actually total rip-offs of D.R.W. So I checked him out, and whoa, that shit is dark. Take his painting of "Beverly," for instance.
And, here's an excerpt from Wilson's description (I think) of the painting, which, come to think of it, kinda has that Infinity Cat feel to it. And the all caps thing.
WITH BEVERLY ON THE VERY EDGE OF BECOMING HER OTHER SELF - MRS. ROGERS...BECOMING MISALIGNED IN HER MIND...SUFFERING FROM SHORTED-OUT BRAINWAVES... CONFLICTED BUT SIMULTANEOUSLY ARRIVING MESSAGES...BEING SENT TO HER FROM TWO BIG DADDIES, EVEN IF BOTH DADDIES ONLY IMAGINED... THE ONE WHOM HER HALF-SISTER KATHLEEN HAD TOLD HER WAS GOD... (LIVING IN THE TOP OF THE CASTLE ON THE NUT FARM IN ARKANSAS, WHERE BEVERLY NORMALLY SPENT HER DAYS) ... AND THE OTHER LIVING SOMEPLACE IN A RECENTLY CONSTRUCTED CASTLE, OF SORTS, IN GEORGIA... (WITH BOTH LOCATIONS BEING STATES OF MIND, TO BOOT)...
I'm going to try to put the pieces of my shattered mind back together now. Maybe I'll just watch the "Space Olympics" video again.
Comments (5)
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alex the great recording has a big monkey poster, too... i think by the person who did the one on the jeff cover... but i don't think it has a crown.
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I have no idea what this blog post is about, but I just wanted to say:
RIP Touch & Go.
Sad day.
Everyone's got something to hide - except for Bob and his monkey. But y'all knew that...
You know what else that's always reminded me of, is the cover of "The Lamps" by the Lamps (on In the Red records): http://agonyshorthand.blogspot.com/Lamps_coverWEB.jpg
Monkey paintings! It's the zeitgeist!
The Santana champagne is funny because it's real:
http://www.santana.com/store/index.asp
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