Conan's foul-mouthed dog
embodies male stereotypes
Triumph has catapulted
from late-night television
to the recording industry
with ‘Come Poop with Me’
By Aaron Shakra
Pulse Editor
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is a
stereotype of the male libido with an
unquenchable sexual thirst and seem
ingly unlimited cache of comebacks,
REVIEW equality back
dog — don't call him a puppet — who
coined the phrase ".. .for me to poop
on" has been getting pooped on him
self. Triumph, spawned from the talk
show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien,"
hit Toronto two weeks ago along with
O'Brien to film the show there.
During one segment, which was
filmed in Quebec City, Triumph
asked a passer-by, "So you're French
and Canadian, yes?" following with
the insult "You're obnoxious and
dull." This is but one mild example of
come-ons
and put
downs to set
gender
50 years.
Lately, the
the dog's hijinks. A more extreme one
might be Triumph telling the Quebe
cois they ought to learn English since
they live in North America.
Feb. 16, The New York Times report
ed: "Alexa McDonough, a member of
Parliament from the social democratic
New Democratic Party, demanded that
the show return an estimated $750,000
it received in Canadian taxpayer’s
promotional money for coming to
Toronto."
For those who remain unfazed by
the remarks of that cigar-smoking dog,
you might want to try sampling his al
bum "Come Poop with Me." It is noth
ing less than a singing, dancing, come
dy glimpse into the dog's soul. Part of
the frm of this release is how far the pro
duction team (including executive pro
ducer Adam Sandler) went into explor
ing the character of Triumph. This is
evident in the extensive liner notes writ
ten by MTVs Kurt Loder.
Those who have seen Triumph on
"Late Night" will consider such segments
in a new light after spinning "Come
Poop with Me" on your CD and movie
players. Comparatively, those appear
ances on O'Brien's show are tame
The album is a two-disc set contain
ing one CD and one DVD. The DVD
portion contains 12 different sketches,
featuring guests such as Jared "Subway"
Fogle, Janeane Garofalo and "Blackwolf
the Dragonmaster." The album con
tains many of the same songs and
sketches on the DVD, but adds differ
ent tracks, including the brilliant "You
Have To Work Blue." This track begins
with Triumph whimsically explaining,
"I don't apologize for my comedy. I
don't apologize for it. It harks back to a
time of innocence." However, follow
ing the French Canadian debacle,
O'Brien apologized for Triumph's
words Feb. 17.
In tracks such as "Benji's Queer," Tri
umph's latent liberalism is not well
hidden. Commenting on the breath of
a man in the audience during a DVD
segment called "Sense of Smell," he
says, "Don't worry about it my friend —
we all poop on both sides of the street
these days."
The highlight of the album is clearly
the all-star sing-along 'Together in
Pooping," which features Maya
Rudolph, Conan O'Brien, Adam San
dler, Jack Black, Horatio Sanz and of
course Triumph. The performers begin
singing verses, such as O'Brien's "Poop
ing saves the world/Pooping helps the
Turn to TRIUMPH, page 12
SONICS
continued from page 7
and that $ 15 ends up in the coffers of
some giant record company, fueling
the next Britney Spears pain parade.
No wonder illegal downloading was
so popular, but so much for that. The
Man wins again.
This aversion to mainstream music is
why people listen to the Sonics. Loud
and nasty without being aggressive,
they played punk before anybody
thought to call it that. Inspired by the
likes of Little Richard and local stom
pers such as the Wailers, the Sonics
dominated the Northwest music scene
for a scant few years in the mid-1960s.
The band released a trove of singles,
three full-length albums, yet was hardly
known outside of Washington and
Oregon during its lifetime. Today the
band is known mostly just by circles of
garage-rock aficionados.
Among its recorded works, the first
two albums stand as the best. Released
on the Etiquette label, "Here Are the
Sonics!!!" from 1965 and "TheSonics
Boom," from 1966, are essentially two
halves of the same album. In form and
style, they are indistinguishable. The
only difference is one has a different set
of great songs than the other. Together,
they represent some of the best garage
rock of the 1960s.
The first album opens with "The
Witch," the band's signature tune and
the one they are most known for today
(when they are known at all). Original
ly conceived as a dance tune akin to
'The Twist" the Sonics instead decided
to go for something with a little more
substance. With propelling rhythms
and over-amped guitars, "The Witch"
sums up just about everything the band
would do from then on.
Another noteworthy original on the
album is "Psycho," one of many songs
the band wrote about how evil women
can drive a person insane. This song
also best demonstrates lead singer Ger
ry Roslie's over-the-top wailing. He
screams every verse with wild-eyed des
peration, hollering just like his rhythm
and blues heroes might have, had they
all been completely demented.
"Strychnine" could be the best track
on the album, in terms of originality.
For one, it doesn't deal with relation
ship problems or cheating women. In
stead it deals with the singer's love of
the title poison with simple eloquence:
"Some folks like water / some folks like
wine / but I like the taste / of straight
strychnine." It's hard to beat lyrics like
that. The song is also one of the tightest
performances on the album, while at
the same time seeming to border on
chaos with every note
"Boom" features equally deranged
performances. Opening with the men
acing "Cinderella," the album traverses
the landscape of mid-1960s pop music
all rendered under the Sonics' distorted
crunch-n'-grind guitars. Here the cov
ers hold the most interest, with the
band pumping out its own versions of
standards like "Let the Good Times
Roll" and "Jenny Jenny." The garage
rock classic "Louie Louie" is also cov
ered on the record. With the Sonics
adding their own edge to it, it's about
the scariest version of the song record
ed to date.
One of the standout originals is
"He's Waitin'," another song about
evil women. Containing a simple
powerhouse riff, the tune is one of the
most vicious things the band has ever
recorded, coming closer to sounding
like heavy metal than any other band
was at that time.
After "Boom," the Sonics recorded
one more album on a different label.
But higher production values didn't sit
well with the band's sound, and it
broke up without recording much else.
But the first two albums remain as arti
facts from a time when you could actu
ally hear music you liked played on the
radio.
Contact the senior Pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.
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