Mikhail
Horowitz & Gilles Malkine | Poor, On Tour & Over
54
No Help Here Productions
Review by Peter Aaron
When it comes to modern comedy, it seems that thinking and
laughing are mutually exclusive. Yeah, thank God for John
Stewart, Lewis Black, and Stephen Colbert, but for each of
those outright geniuses there’s 200 or so moronic jerks
on the level of Larry the Cable Guy, dunderheads who parlay
dumb shucks-‘n’-yuks routines about how their
wives are always on them to cut the lawn when they’d
much rather be sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching
the game into lucrative, red-carpet Hollywood careers. Yee-haw,
buddy. Okay, we all love a little lowbrow action once in
a while, but would you be any less discerning when it comes
to other artistic disciplines—like music, for example?
Which is it gonna be, more Coltrane and The Clash or an extra
helping of Abba and the 1910 Fruitgum Company? Hey, you are
what you eat. (And swallow that bubblegum!)
Relax: Not only does Poor, On Tour & Over 54 taste good,
it’s good for you, too. Mikhail Horowitz & Gilles
Malkine are the Hudson Valley’s leading (only?) erudite
comedic duo, a literary/Beat-informed pair that references
history and the classics while taking occasional aim at political
and topical ridiculousness. Plus they write songs, funny
ones. On this, the pair’s second disc, Horowitz (voice,
harmonica, kazoo, recorder) and Malkine (guitar, dumbek,
voice) are joined by Charlie Knicely, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason,
Harvey Kaiser, and other top local musicians as they tackle
such masterful side-splitters as “Big Vermonty Mountains” (an
ode to the progressive promised land, sung to the tune of “Big
Rock Candy Mountain”) and “Hip Hop Hobbit and
the Ring Thing” (yes, a rap adaptation of The Hobbit).
High jinks and hilarity, but without the guilt.
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