Stephen Lynch satisfies with Craig Machine

This article is reposted from an article I wrote for The Technique (official site, Wikipedia article), published on November 18, 2005. (html, pdf) This album is available online: Amazon.com: Stephen Lynch – Craig Machine. As of this writing, it was going for $12.48 (+ shipping) used.

Ever since seeing the movie This is Spinal Tap, Stephen Lynch chose the vulgar comic route to music instead of the poetic one. His work isn’t just humor; he’s an excellent vocalist, a clever writer and has excellent control over his instrument.

As the son of a former priest and a former nun, he fell far from the tree. He’s now on his third original CD, The Craig Machine, recorded live at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space in New York City. He is currently touring with his new material and made a stop in Atlanta on Nov. 5.

As with any CD, some songs on The Craig Machine are better than others. Unlike most normal CDs, I actually enjoyed more than two songs on it. By making fun of (for example) lecherous professors, Jesus, Satan and French people, he creates humor that is bound to offend somebody, somewhere and definitely bound to make you laugh. For example, his typical song begins innocently and goes straight to Insensitive Land. On this particular CD, the song “Mixer at Delta Chi” goes from innocent party to naughty professor quick, fast and in a hurry.

He puts his humor to popular-style music and creatively uses timing and his audiences’ dirty minds against them. As opposed to Weird Al, he doesn’t do parodies; he writes it all himself.

His title song is about Jesus’ brother Craig, a party machine scorned by his parents who has the power to turn water not into wine, but into “cold Coors Light.” I’ve actually been a Stephen Lynch fan for about a year; such masterpieces as “Superhero,” “Grandfather” and “Almighty Malachi the Bowling God” caught my ear.

Fans of irreverent humor should check out Lynch’s works.