CDs

The Newest Proops – just out: Proops Digs In

Available on iTunes and at http://www.aspecialthing.com

AST Records releases EP 3-pak from Tompkins, Proops & Telfer

AST Records has released fifteen CDs in the last 3 years, but we’ve never put out an EP. To make up for lost time, we’ve put out three at once! Even more fun, these discs are being sold in a limited edition 3-pak in the AST Store – just click here.

The first disc (if we’re arbitrarily numbering them) is Proops Digs In! from Greg Proops. Recorded at his “Elsewhere” CD release party show at Largo, this set finds Greg at his silliest, sharpest and off-the-cuff best. We might be pushing the length limit on what constitutes an EP with this one, but trust me: you won’t mind a bit once you hear it. Vintage Proopage from top to bottom.

Rising newcomer (and Chicago native, so he was required by law to get involved in comedy) Dan Telfer opened for Paul F. Tompkins last year at the Lakeshore Theater when we recorded “Freak Wharf,” and just to make sure the equipment was working, we recorded his set. Guess what? It was really funny, and so now we’re putting it out on CD and calling it Fossil Record. If you love dinosaurs, hate geese and want to laugh so hard your glasses fog up, this EP is your best bet in 2010. Also, Dyna Moe did the cover art for this, and it will knock your ever-lovin’ socks off.

Finally, we heard the demands of hardcore Paul F. fans everywhere — people like Dan Telfer, who said (paraphrasing), “I love the Riff Suites on ‘Freak Wharf’ so much, will you please put out the opening 15 minutes of riffing from the second Lakeshore show?” Yes, yes we will. It’s out, along with a little bit of bonus jokery, on an exclusive, limited edition, CD-only EP and call it Sir, You Have Fooled Me Twice.

This package is available here.

Elsewhere

Greg Proops detests elsewhere. “Not this album,” he explains, “the place. Well, not everywhere. Just the uncool place that you are from.” So gather ’round, children, for Papa Proops has come to tell stories from that rarified district in which he dwells: Hollywood, California. Sayeth Greg: “Hollywood isn’t a city, it’s an idea held simultaneously by a million assholes. I am but one.” And yet this one can teach us. He can lead us out of the dull and ordinary places we reside � places like the Midwest, and Delaware. He can instruct us, and improve us. He can delineate the two situations in which it’s acceptable for a man to wear white pants. (“One: if you’re a sailor; two: never.”) He can solve an entire musical genre in two sentences. He can illuminate the hidden life lessons in even the most worthless celebrity’s existence. He can get you laid, or at least a quality round of hand relief. With the release of this comedy recording, you quite simply don’t have to live like the rube from Buttermilk, Indiana that you are any longer. You can do better, and Greg Proops can show you the way.

You can order here.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Ever find yourself in the disconcerting position of realizing that what country music singers do on tour has very little bearing on your own life? What about when you notice that people probably do drugs because, well, they work? Do you pause, in the course of daily conversation, to allow others to absorb the irony of whatever might have just occured? Dear comedy lover, despite your best intentions, you might not be a redneck. You should, however, be a Greg Proops fan, and “houston, we have a problem,” Proops’ first release for Stand Up! Records, is likely to induce the sort of vigorous agreement and laughter that might lead you to look uncannily like a Harry Carrey bobblehead. Sally forth into an aural landscape wherein your tour guide, Greg Proops, skips gleefully from tirades on the mind-altering proclivities of Rush Limbaugh to the commonalities between the Emperor Claudius and George W. Bush, his love of reality TV, the relative likelihood of God’s attending a baseball game, and whether the pledge of allegiance is a reaffirmation of Jeffersonian principles or simply a good way to get out of a few minutes of first period. With a lofty vocabulary dressing up a gutter-bound mind, Proops proved his mettle on shows such as “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and stages around the world, and now he’s ready to grace your cd player with his wry sense of life in the modern age.

You can order here.

Joke Book

Best known for his improvisational work on both the US and UK versions of Whose Line is it Anyway?, Greg Proops brings his unique brand of erudite observational humor to the people with his new CD Joke Book. Greg starts off light by taking the listener on a romp through America, then delves straight into what he does best: attacking the stupidity of our popular culture and political luminaries, going after George W. �The Decider� Bush, Dick Cheney, major league baseball and Michael Jackson in turn.

Not for the monosyllabic comedy aficionado, Proops never strays too far into lofty territory without bringing it back around to some good, old-fashioned offensive humor. Listeners are in for a good filthy laugh, and Proops masterfully weaves the high-brow and low-brow throughout the hour-long Joke Book. Regardless of political bent, you�re sure to spend an inordinate amount of time nodding in agreement when Proops points out that, in this country, apparently prosecution is based on load composition at the time of the offense, because when a stained dress beats out a punishing salvo of buckshot emptied into the esteemed visage of one�s dear friend, well, something�s clearly more than a little funny.

You can order here.