Spinal Tap to Reunite for Live Earth

Maximum Prophet noted that one of the most influential and loud rock bands in the history of music is coming back together to perform at Live Earth this summer. Yes, that's right Tap is Back. The article has some good news (a new single is coming) and some bad news... apparently Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet. Best wishes to him on his recovery- I'm sure it won't impact the performance... if Spinal Tap is anything, they are a band.

Spinal Tap

Always been confused over this. Is Spinal Tap a real band, or just a movie made band that parodies the rock industry. Thought it was the latter, but people talk about it so passionately as if it was a real band.

Re:Spinal Tap

That's because their music goes all the way to eleven!

Re:Spinal Tap

Wow, after all this time my sig is finally relevant!!

Re:Spinal Tap

Nigel Tufnel: This is a top post, it's very, very special, because, if you can see...

Marty DiBergi: Yeah...

Nigel Tufnel: [pointing to the moderation] ...the numbers all go to six. Look, right across the board: six, six, six, six,..

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most scoring systems go up to five?

Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.

Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's funnier? Is that any more funny?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one funnier, isn't it? It's not five. You see, most... most blokes, you know, will be joking at five. You're on five here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up... you're on five on slashdot. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty DiBergi: I don't know...

Nigel Tufnel: ...nowhere! Exactly! What we do is if we need that extra... push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty DiBergi: Mod it up to six.

Nigel Tufnel: ...six. Exactly. One higher.

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make five funnier, and make five be the top... number, and make that a little funnier?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause, blank look and snapping chewing gum] This goes to six.

Re:Spinal Tap

The music industry is a caricature of itself, so why shouldn't Spinal Tap be both?

Re:Spinal Tap

Actually, I think the rock and roll lifestyle is a less well done parody of Spinal Tap.

Re:Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap did not exist before the movie. Due to the popularity of the movie, the actors who portrayed Spinal Tap actually went on tours and released albums. Because the members are actors, they do not remain together touring and recording albums, but they get together from time to time for things like this.

Re:Spinal Tap

Additionally, Tap fans often join in on the joke by reporting on and discussing the band's doings as though it were all real, as the submitter did here.

Re:Spinal Tap

According to wikipedia, they first appeared as a band on the ABC Comedy Special "The TV Show" back in 1978, long before the movie was released.

Re:Spinal Tap

And the fact of the matter is that they aren't bad musicians at all. Like many in comedy they all had backgrounds in music before Tap. It used to be that some sort of musical ability was a prerequisite for being a comedian. Vaudeville sort of made that a part of being a theatrical comedian. It's not really as wedded to comedy anymore -- I think that Andy Kaufman was the last person to call himself a "song and dance man" -- but it's in the DNA.

Same with animators. Max and Dave Fleischer created a very unique system at their studio where the animators had to know how to read music to time out cartoons. At the very least, they had to know how to read rhythms. The Fleischers had a radically different system than any other studio, and only Tezuka Osamu really copied their methods. However, because Tezuka Osamu copied the Fleischer system, a lot of animation made for domestic consumption in Japan has the seiyuu laying on their voice performances after everything else is done, and x-sheets containing rhythmic notation of some sort or another. The American/Canadian/European system that started at Disney had the soundtrack recording go first and everything else being animated to that "track." When the Japanese did overseas services for studios like Hanna-Barbera in the '60s and '70s they used the "track goes first" system. From what I understand, in modern Japan, whether they animate to the track or not is a personal decision of the production company. Some studios do, some don't.

Anyway what I was getting at is that there are a lot of animators who are also musicians. Some are just people who play music for fun, some are really, really good at it, for example Jim Smith who helped create Ren & Stimpy and whose guitar playing can be heard at the beginning and end of every episode. Being funny and being musical seems to be connected somehow.

Re:Spinal Tap

Sometimes, when performing as Spinal Tap, they also performed as their own supporting band: "The Folksmen", which was OK if the fans "got it", but they also had the experience of being booed off the stage as The Folksmen, only to be cheered back on as Spinal Tap.

Actually...

Spinal Tap did not exist before the movie.

I beg to differ. When I was a wee lad (and allowed to stay up late), I remember watching a special (read: pilot) that Rob Reiner put together called "The TV Show" in the late 1970s (on ABC-TV I think). It was basically skits that parodied TV (much like "Robot Chicken", though horribly dated of course).

The skits included a telethon ("Stop Death During Our Lifetime!"), a commercial for the chemical company Proto-Chem (with CEO Tom Proto-Chem no less), a send-up of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (the prey of the intrepid crew that week was "the white collar worker"), and.. Spinal Tap.

I was too young to do any drugs, so I know I wasn't hallucinating. Anyone else see this too?

Re:Spinal Tap

Always been confused over this. Is Spinal Tap a real band, or just a movie made band that parodies the rock industry. Thought it was the latter, but people talk about it so passionately as if it was a real band.

As real as The Monkeys, The Spice Girls, every boy band since 1990 and Vanilla Ice.

Re:Spinal Tap

No way - they're still on their first drummer.

Re:Spinal Tap

you just insulted spinal tap.

Great news.

I'm hoping their amps can now go up to 12 instead of 11, due to advances in sound and rock technology since their last tour.

Re:Great news.

Silly, they'll just make eleven louder, and keep eleven as the top number. Sheesh. ...

These go to twelve.

Re:Great news.

I hope Nigel will do his bit for the environment by turning his amps down to 10.

I thought the Live Earth line-up would feature the Energy-Saving Electric Light Orchestra and Joan Carbontrading...

Re:Great news.

it still has nothing to do with technology.

Wrong again.

The incident involving the stage setting for "Stonehenge" demonstrates the importance of making sure everyone involved with a project is using the same units of measure. This is an invaluable lesson that all programmers should absorb.

So there, it's nerdy.

Plus it's just about the funniest movie in history, and (most) nerds like funny stuff.

Yesssssssss!

I hope they play Stonehenge!

I hope the drummer doesn't combust

The subsequent release of carbon would be detrimental to the planet.

Vomit

"The official cause of death is he died of choking on CO2 emissions. It wasn't his own CO2 emissions. He choked on somebody else's CO2 emissions."

Heh.

and some bad news... apparently Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet.

He's probably reading about himself on Slashdot right now...

A Masterpiece

As much as I look forward to the new single, nothing will ever take the place in my heart reserved for the song "Lick My Love Pump." Hopefully it will get more than just a two word review.

What this really has to do with Slashdot is t-shirt color. How much more black can our t-shirts be? And the answer is none. None more black.

Wanted: Drummer - Life expectancy ONE Tour

Advertisement as expected on Craigslist!

Best line

Baby, you're too young
And I'm too well hung

Hmm...

I think the appropriate tag would be 'politics', not 'science'.

folkers

I saw these guys perform a couple of years ago at a Howard Dean rally. They appeared as "The Folksmen" from "A Mighty Wind," and they rocked the house. (Or, more accurately, I guess, they folked the house.)

23rd anniversary of their epic "Smell the Glove"

album. Once again, we'll be asking ourselves how much more black can the album cover be? The answer, of course, is none. It can't be any more black.

I, for one, welcome back England's loudest rock band.

Speaking of loud

When is "Disaster Area" going to be touring this end of the galaxy again?

Re:Speaking of loud

Sadly they're only touring the opposite end of the galaxy.. but don't worry, you'll hear it fine.

You sick bastards.

I for one would like to distance myself from the original poster's comments regarding Derek's current stint in rehab. Wishing him well on a website is tantamount to buying a round of drinks and saying "cheers" to congratulate a recovering alcoholic.

Derek, if you are reading this, step away from the computer you weak-willed fool.

Sick, sick, sick.

Guitar Hero 2

Spinal Tap fans really should pick this up - it's chock full of references to the greatest band of all time:

- The final level, appropriately enough, is Stonehenge.
- Kick ass on an encore? Your drummer may explode.
- One of the playable songs? "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You (Tonight)"

There's likely loads of more references that I haven't even caught onto yet. Good times.

Addition to the internet??

April fools???

The DVD is fantastic

If you've never watched the DVD with the commentary track on, I highly recommend you do so. It's like getting the film for the first time all over again. The band watches the film in character, and comments on it from their perspective 20 years later. They spend the whole time bitching about what a horrible hatchet job Reiner did on them. "29 shows out of 30 those pods open just fine, but which one makes it into the film? I ask you."

Great stuff.

Ultimate Battle of the Bands

I hope after this reunion show, that we loyal fans of all things rocking will see the Clash of the Titans as the almighty Tap (the loudest band on earth) tours with Tenacious D [tenaciousd.com](the greatest band on earth). Imagine the non-stop rocking!

Aren't they dead?

I think I remember seeing footage [wikipedia.org] of their tour bus careening off a cliff and exploding. I assumed there were no survivors, but it seems I was wrong.

Am I the only one that finds it ironic?

Live Earth is Al Gore's doing, right?

Y'know, Al Gore, husband of Tipper Gore - the obsessive censorship advocate who, among other things, attempted to sue Jello Biafra, singer of the Dead Kennedys until the rest of the band sold the fuck out, into the ground?

Tipper Gore, who's Parents' Music Resource Centre attempted to have heavy metal, hip hop and other records she didn't happen to like blacklisted?

I wonder what Tipper thinks of "Blow Me (Like the Wind)"?

Well, I'm off to listen to some Gorerotted before it's outlawed and we all have to listen to Christina Aguilera and James Blunt.

Odd

Spinal taps are quite painful. Though I do not understand the idea behind giving one to the Earth.

Extra Long Box!

Does no one remember this?:

"Environmental concerns of unnecessary cardboard waste from artists and consumers alike created controversy over continued use of longboxes. Musicians like David Byrne would incude a sticker over the packaging of his albums reading ""THIS IS GARBAGE", referring to the excessive material use of the longbox form. The satirical band Spinal Tap's 1992 studio album Break Like the Wind was sold in an "extra-long box" (an 18-inch longbox) -- a deliberate parody of the prevailing longbox packaging controversy, as well as a deliberate phallic metaphor."

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbox [wikipedia.org])

So is it hypocritical for them to be performing at Live Earth? Or is it just hilarious? I'm tending toward the latter.

I for one...

I for one WELCOME BACK our Rock and Roll OVERLORDS!!!

Spinal Tap Sold Out!

I recently saw an AmEx commercial using the proto-Spinal Tap song "give me some money". Just by looking at my Dad, who introduced me to Tap, I knew we were thinking the same thing - they were using a song by a fake band to sell a real product. Kind of a parable for the state of the advertising industry.

But will the Folksmen also perform?

But will the Folksmen open for Spinal Tap?

Hello Cleveland

So let me get this straight, are they playing before or after Puppet Show?

To purposely confuse semi-fictional music events:

... this story needs more cowbell.

The infamous M&M's...

While Spinal Tap is probably one of the funniest movies ever made, and one of the best satires of the music business, there's one idiosyncrasy of bands that has become the stuff of legend, but has its roots (usless trivia coming up) in a rational and functional purpose.

It used to be Van Halen that included, among other things in their contracts, a requirement that a bowl filled with a specific mass of M&M's in all colors EXCEPT absolutely no brown. Since the days of their wild contract riders, many recording artists have followed suit with their tour promoters and required some utterly bizarre requests to be fulfilled. One of the funniest moments in the film for me is Nigel being baffled by the meat tray. It's inconceivable to him that the meat could just be folded to fit the bread... to him, the bread isn't big enough. I was backstage at a concert where precisely this kind of stupidity reared its ugly head, and specifically concerning a meat tray that arrived late where the band still had time to send someone down the street at least and pick up some takeout. Of course that never occurred to them.

Regarding Van Halen, though... their tour managers actually included bizarre requests like the one about the M&M's (which has been repeated ad nauseum in other contracts in homage to Van Halen) as a safety check. Their reasoning was that if the promoters weren't paying attention to items like this they also might not be reading carefully through critical safety requirements included in the same contract.

None more back!

Nigel Tufnel: "It's like, how much more back could Spinal Tap be? and the answer is none. None more back"

Bring back Tapster!

Anyone else remember tapster.com back in 2000? There was apparently a mixology site by that name that they borrowed for a few months to make a parody of Napster. I still have a couple of songs I downloaded from there, including Stonehenge, which I have on my iPod. They even had one mis-named song... I can't remember what it was listed as, but one mis-named song was actually Zappa's "I Am The Slime", which I had never heard of before. Or listened to since.

Alas, that site is now occupied by a squatter domain. They should upgrade to something newer like BitTorrent anyhow.

Before Tap : Lemmings

If you dig Spinal Tap / The Folksmen / etc., I would urge you to acquire the record "LEMMINGS" by National Lampoon. It featured: John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Alice Playten, Chevy Chase (with LONG hair!!!), Paul Jacobs, and others. What was it? Well, it's a live recording, and in the voice of John Belushi pretending to be Wavy Gravy:

Hey everybody! Welcome to the Woodchuck Festival of Peace Love AND DEATH! Now the idea is for everyone here, a million of us, to off ourselves by the end of the show! Now if your buddy's too stoned to off himself, just roll him up in a sleeping bag and leave him in the north 40 where the tractors can run him over. And remember - there isn't enough food. There just isn't enough food - so remember - the man next to you is your dinner! Now, we're going to hear from a great band - this is the first and last time they've ever played together - so let's give them a big welcome - FREUD, MARX, ENGELS, and JUNG!!!

One of my favourite parts is when Chevy Chase pretends to be a member of the Weather Underground:

You know - you don't need a weather man to tell which way the wind blows... ALRIGHT! Every single one of you out there - YOU'RE AN OPPRESSOR - PIG! You owe it to the third world to Off Yourself! Everytime you shit or piss you dump uraeic acid on the mother earth, and then you wipe your ass with the guts of a TREE! You're not worth the life of the cow that went in to making your BELT you RUNNING DOG JACKAL! If you're not a black homosexual working class woman - you're an OPRESSOR! PIG! you deserve to DIE! NOW - as we all know, the bourgeoisie own all the means of self-extermination, like ropes, razorblades, and bullets. So if you want to do something really meaningful, you'll beat yourself to death in a four foot hole of organic compost. For the rest, we have TNT suppositories. Power To The Correct People!

One of the funniest Records EVER. EVER!

RS

Nigel's skeleton T-shirt, by Leslie Arwin

The fact that my mom drew the original skeleton t-shirt that Nigel wore in the Spinal Tap movie gives me a tremendous sense of pride, I just had to chime in to brag a little ;)

Accept no imitations, Leslie Arwin is the original artist of the skeleton t-shirt from Spinal Tap (and other movies of the era). She created the shirt to put herself through Med School in 1978, before I was born. She already had a Medical Illustration degree, hence the amazing accuracy on the shirts.

Cheers,
-Ben Arwin

Don't Believe the Hype

Spinal Tap was a real band in the late 70's and early 80s. Its been an inside and ongoing joke on the internet now for 20 years to pretend that Spinal Tap is really a parody of a rock band. After the joke had been going around for a while, the band made a movie thats a parody of a rock n' roll parody to capitalize on it.

Rok Dabla

This article reminded me again of something I saw a few years ago at a local film festival. It's called Rok Dabla (Year of the Devil) [imdb.com], a film/mockumentary (well, partly) about another struggling band, in Czech Republic's own fashion. It seemed to be influenced a lot by Spinal Tap, and even had a few homages to its predecessor. And it's also just as hilarious.

Re:Live Earth?

how's it coming wiping your butt with one piece of paper?

Re:Music!=NewsForNerds

This is Spinal Tap is an utterly hilarious "mockumentary" about a hard rock band in the eighties, brought to you by the same folks as Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind. It's news for nerds because, like everybody else in this world, nerds like Spinal Tap. Why don't you?

Wake up and smell the glove!

who is spinal tap? it is not very well known anyway

It's an unusual band, not a very well known band. Although they've earned their place in history as one of England's loudest bands.

Re:Rehab?

That's brilliant, creimer! I'm going to go tell everyone hooked on cocaine that all they have to do is stop using it! Genius!

:) But seriously, I'm not being serious, even if the actual tidbit about Derek Smalls being hooked on the internet is serious. Which I doubt. You could say I'm some sort of serious-doubter. Yes.

Re:Music!=NewsForNerds

You seem to forget that this is basically CmdrTaco's site. He can do what he wants, and if you don't like it, you're not being forced to visit, so don't.

Re:Rehab?

Newspapers aren't a cure for Internet Addiction. They're a cause of it!

Re:Rehab?

Have ... have you ever tried? Just tried? Do you have the faintest idea just how HARD that is? How your hand starts to shake when you only touch that card? How you break down in tears and pet your machine, promising it that you'll never, never, never pull the plug on the only friend you have on this plane...

erhm... I mean, yes. It's that easy. Anyone who pretends differently is just weak. I could stop any moment. Really. If I just wanted, I could. Honestly. And moment, if I wanted. But I don't want. Well, not now. I mean, there is a raid tonight. Maybe after that.

Re:Music!=NewsForNerds

Fortunately, Spinal Tap and music have very little to do with each other.

Re:Music!=NewsForNerds

Spinal Tap are the pioneers of overclocking. Their infamous "Amp Hack" allowed them to go to 11.

They also wrote one of the very first version of the Unix kernels, and developed TCP/IP in between gigs. Linus Torvalds was once quoted as saying "If it weren't for Spinal Tap's work in the field, I would have never been inspired to develop Linux." The entire concept for broadband internet access - Spinal Tap. Cisco Corporation was started by the proceeds of an early Spinal Tap show. Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap doodled the first design for the Cray Supercomputer on the back of a napkin at a diner while on tour. David St. Hubbins is also credited for inventing SATA drives because "I just didn't like the sound of the IDE drives".

There, that enough for you, or shall I continue?

Re:film short

I always pictured him selling chapeaus in a haberdashery myself...