Casey B suggested that Interrobang Cartel might one day record several songs that would later be covered by famous bands and performers as part of an Interrobang Cartel tribute album:
On Mon, 5 May 2003 12:31:29 +0100, "[[Paddy Smith]]" <pjsmith40 at hotmail.com> had the unmitigated audacity to say: Just found this - the BBC have apparently been leaked the tracklisting from the new Interrobang Cartel double flexidisc album: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2996793.stm Does '[[Rules of Naked Petanque]]' signify a prog-rock change of direction for the combo? It sounds ominously like a high-concept (i.e. gatefold) Yes pastiche. Whereas '[[Static Caravan Fan Club]]' is surely a spin-off solo project for a disaffected marimba player. Nah, man, the way I figure it, this has fallen through a wormhole. Yes, in a vision unnervingly Wyld-Stalyn-like, we can see the future of Interrobang Cartel in the track-listing of this album - recorded in 2008 by several "old-timers" in tribute to the genius of the Cartel. As near as I can figure it:
Of course, my crystal ball may not be very clear.... hey, that gives me an idea for a song! Now, if we refuse to write any of these songs, will we distort the fabric of time and space? Are such time-travel paradoxes resolvable? Is the plural of paradox paradoxes? Discuss. Love, Casey B
Talysman later issued a challenge to complete all the lyrics for the huge pile of song titles people had suggested as the next Interrobang Cartel song. Unwilling to simply issue challenges without contributing, he churned out lyrics for most of the 20 songs listed; he also recorded Sausage Calories, Zoo Heaven, and a rough cut of Virtual Geese Honking as avant-garde sound collages.
Tim Chmielewski wrote alternate versions for Zebra Races, Hedgehog Houses, Tropical Fish Euthanasia and Monkey Origami.
Talysman's MP3s list the album title as "All Hail ?!: The Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album", which puts the Cartel in the odd position of recording a tribute to themselves. Here's how that came about: Sometime in 2005, IBC's record company issued "All Hail ?!: IBC Tribute Album". The accompanying press release described it as "a tribute to one of the music industry's finest bands, performed by world-reknowned artists and groups who credit IBC as one of their primary influences" but went on to say "the performers, in honor of IBC's paramount position in the musical stratosphere, have chosen to remain anonymous for this recording". This resulted in a frenzy of speculation among IBC fans worldwide, who eventually agreed (with near, but not complete, unanimity) that Tropical Fish Euthanasia was done by Radiohead, Hedgerow Hypothesis by King Crimson, etc., etc. And supposedly "Walking Stick Making" was the last song ever recorded by the late Johnny Cash.
And then someone said, "Isn't it uncanny how so many of those bands managed to have their vocalist sound so much like Casey?" and someone else said, "Hey, wait a minute..."
And sure enough, the hoax was exposed: The "world-reknowned" artists who had recorded the IBC tribute album were the members of IBC themselves, doing pastiches of nineteen other artists (and themselves). Predictably, about half the IBC fan base was outraged, burning their CDs (literally burning) in protest, boycotting the band's concerts, threatening to sue the band and the record company and Apple Computer, while the other half just sat back and had a good hard laugh.
But the final joke happened a few years later, when a reissue of "All Hail" came out. Someone said, "Hey, that doesn't sound quite like Casey..." And sure enough, it wasn't: the bands that had been imitated in the tribute album had secretly recorded their own versions of the songs as a genuine tribute album. Except for Cash, of course, whose place was taken by some guy who by then had made an international name for himself as a Johnny Cash impersonator (and whose idea the project was, actually).
Or something like that.
Lyrics: Talysman
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Recorded as announced on LiveJournal need to get the mp3 not sure who did so.
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
Lyrics: Talysman
Arrangement: Casey B
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
(MP3)
Lyrics: Talysman
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Arrangement: Charlie
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
((vocal version)MP3) ((instrumental) MP3)
Lyrics / Arrangement / Vocals: Talysman Instrumental Arrangement: Charlie
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
(spoken word over creepy cellos)
Oh, yes, and strains caused by my anti-godism. I am not concerned with one of the dead or their sore-losers' malevolence, they have tried to attach themselves to me in a dysfunctional static caravan fan club...
Oh, yes, and I have long been a non-flaming poster--as clueless as I am by definition; that means your reality as you see in my "fan club" or feel in the distinction between alt.usenet.kooks regulars and the "kooks" whose static words entertain the regulars, is strictly illusory anyway, so I don't think *anyone*, even the most famous human cockroach or caravan fans, dives under your misconceptions...
Oh, yes, and strains can spread confusion and lack of western words to entertain the regulars. And there were voices, and the "kooks" whose static words entertain the mind of lost references. Please allow my static caravan fan club to congratulate myself on the table.
Oh, yes, and bolt your doors, caravan fans, and dive under your bed, 'cause we're sure as hell ain't going to kiss you if you read my articles of the dead, that troubling distinction between your misconceptions about a sore-losers' malevolence and a city that is like unto a hat. Further--and this point is key for me as a net writer--is that you don't own salt.
Oh, yes, and someone may be responding to someone's perverted fantasy about me with my "Flame Giant". I can feel the lead. There is no question (by anyone's counting) that I stopped using the figures for the "big hairy man" persona because it involves devising comic results with my eyes.
Oh, yes, and bolt your doors, caravan fans, and listen to the thunderings. Bolt your doors, dive under your beds. Please allow my static caravan fan club to kiss you... a champion writer will vanish into a hat.
Lyrics: Talysman
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Recording by Casey B in progress
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
(MP3)
Sound Collage: Talysman
Guitar/Keyboards: jwgh
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
"Virtual Geese Honking" is a sound collage composed for the proposed Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album suggested by Casey B and Paddy Smith (as an elaboration on a list of least-popular search keywords published by the BBC.) Talysman then created a "rough cut" that actually does include the sounds of geese honking jwgh added keyboard and guitar parts to flesh out the track.
Lyrics: Talysman
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Arrangement: Doctroid
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
(I guess I should explain that technically, george wasn't really a pillbug, sowbug, rolly-poly, or any other kind of woodlouse, he just reminded me of one with his articulated carapace, beady, multifaceted eyes, and multiple legs. george explained to me that his people evolved from what we would call trilobites, which is a kind of paleozoic arthropod. but he never told me much more than that, because he suddenly shrieked with pleasure and ran over to a rotting log, which he began to munch on gleefully.)
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Arrangement: Major Zed
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
"Zoo Heaven" (MP3)
Sound Collage: Talysman
Title: Paddy Smith / The BBC
Album: Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album
"Zoo Heaven" is a sound collage composed for the proposed Interrobang Cartel Tribute Album suggested by Casey B and Paddy Smith. It actually clocks in rather long for an Interrobang Cartel song; Talysman is considering redoing an abridged version for easier download.
The "lyrics" of the composition consist of Talysman repeating "welcome to the zoo... welcome to heaven", interspersed by sound samples from various sources, including a '50s educational film, an unaired TV pilot, and a christian driver's education film.