The new CD, Gumbo Pants, is in our hands just in time for our big CD release party at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, on August 31. CDs purchased now will start shipping next week (week of Sept. 3), or download right away from our Songs page.
Gumbo Pants is filled with thirty (30) tracks’ worth of yummy crap: old favorites that we finally put on disc (The Captain’s Wife’s Lament); new rockin’ awesomeness written especially for you (Your Town); a gospel choir singing about chicken nuggets (Nugget Man); inappropriate Schoolhouse Rock-style educational material (Count to Ten); more rejected commercial jingles; a whole slew of songs that are one sentence long; and the answer to the oft-asked question of what it would sound like if James Taylor were on fire (If James Taylor Were on Fire).
So fire up the ol’ CD player (for the more tangibly-oriented) or Download until your privates hurt (for the tech-savvy iPod-having Netterwebs peoples.)
DOWNLOADER’S DELIGHT: A special discount is also available when you download Gumbo Pants along with either of our previous two albums. And if you download all three together (the "Gimmie Everything Super-Special", which comes with all the other bits and pieces that aren’t on any album yet), the savings just get stupid-crazy!
By the way, we really, really love the cover art, done by our friend (and session drummer for most of the disc) Chris Pyle. He’s the teats.
And super-mega big thanks to Executive Producer Tom Griswold and the entire Bob & Tom family for making this, our third and most ambitious project to date, everything that it could be.
A nice feature on lil’ ol’ us was run today on WAMU‘s Metro Connection in anticipation of next week’s show at the Birchmere. An audio archive of the interview can be found here (Real Audio or Windows Media). Features our new favorite description of our act: "Mature immaturity."
Metro Connection’s host, David Furst, is the goodest of eggs. Big thanks to him for having us on, even if it is the liberal asp-hatchery that is NPR.
Our latest "News to Us" song for the Bob & Tom Show is inspired by this story of a St. Paul, MN man who suffered from chronic "nether region" pain; after doctors refused to remove his testicles, he hired "other professionals" to do it for him, in the comfort of his own home. We have subsequently been inspired to open up a side business to profit off this untapped market.
You can preview and purchase the song here; and find the classy, classy lyrics here.
People often ask what it’s like traveling across the country as part of a hip rock rock band. We can’t really answer that, but we can show you what The Road is like for us.
For one day of a recent road trip (along with Jonathan Coulton), we broke out the digital camera and took pictures whenever it seemed appropriate–any time we thought "THIS is truly part of the road experience". Unfortunately the camera don’t lie, folks, and it took some work to make the pictures live up to the glam-slam expectations that the public demands.
Naturally we turned to PowerPoint as the vehicle to ramp up the excitement–any platform used by motivational speakers and Fortune 100 companies should be more than capable of polishing even the most sun-bleached turds.
Of course it was only after spending a good deal of time on the project that we ran up against one of PowerPoint’s greatest limitations: super-inflated file size. And so we present to you "Road Trip–Midwest Edition: A Paul and Storm feat. Jonathan Coulton Omnimedia Netterweb Odyssey" on the YooToobs:
But for the aficionados out there who wish to savor each silky transition, cross-fade and flow chart, you’ll find the original PowerPoint package (clicky — 139 MB compressed). Just follow the instructions in the "Read This Thing" text file to make that baby jump and swing. And if you don’t have PowerPoint, you’ll need the (free) PowerPoint Viewer 2003 (clicky) to watch it.
Big thanks to everyone who came to see us at Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA, to the new friends we met, and to all of the volunteers who make Musikfest the fun and classy event that it is. A nice write-up of our appearance by Michael Duck of the Bethlehem Daily Star can be found here. But be warned: the post may stoke already-heated US-Canadian tensions, and possibly spark yet another bruising slap-fight between us and the Arrogant Worms.
And look out MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN, here we come! Hold up the back of your hand and follow along with this schedule as we ping-pong around Lake Michigan:
You asked for it*, so here they are–the Paul and Storm late-2007 t-shirts! Inspired by the on-CD artwork from "News to Us" (see…there is a reason to buy actual CDs sometimes), it’s 100% cotton and comes in a very dapper and versatile pigment-dyed dark blue. And since every cool band’s t-shirt needs a short phrase on the back of their shirt that sums them up, the back of our new shirt reads "[a short phrase that sums us up]". (See what we did there?)
Available in L and XL, they make a great birthday present, vacation memento, 4th of July target, prayer shawl, Speedo stuffer, or thing to throw on when you just need to step out to the grocery store for a gallon of milk and you really don’t care what you look like. Visit the Paul and Storm Store to have one for your very own.
*no…no one in particular asked for these tee shirts, but the sullen look on you face as you survey your current wardrobe tells us everything.
Our show scheduled for this coming Saturday, August 11 at 6 on the Square in Oxford, NY has been cancelled; we are working on finding a new date for it in the coming months, and will let you know as soon as we know anything about it.
Apologies for any inconvenience. But come to see us in Bethlehem at Musikfest this Sunday!
A nice feature on lil’ ol’ us was run today on 
For one day of a recent road trip (along with 
