The fact that the pied pipers behind Stop Your Nonsense are complete loons shouldn't hinder your ability to get lost in its juvenile buffoonery. The cover of the fuzzy, lo-fi, sample-based record depicts a tot lying on his side, revving a toy roadster -- that indicates the state of mind you may need to enter in order to enjoy it. Most of these sample-based tracks zip by in the amount of time it takes for a youngster to destroy a pillow fort. Throughout the duration of "The Blank," a children's game show host repeats, "What is the blank?" At the same time, a voice that is alternately stretched and compressed exclaims "Huhahahaho -- no!" The creepy "Jimmy Had Jane" bears a Dr. Seuss influence: "Pickled egg, pickled egg, Jimmy had Jane/On the back of an eastbound train." Even goofier: on "Rabies," a voice made to sound like a gent on helium croons "Missing her, like I miss rabies." Other characters who pop out of the jack-in-the-box include a surly green grocer, a concerned aunt who leaves a phone message for her niece, and groups of jubilant kids singing about their dancing fingers. Sampled music from children's records and television shows from the '60s and '70s plays a prominent role, and that entails lots of whistles, horns, and garden-variety percussion, as well as occasional noodling from a cheap guitar. The gleeful regression is an escape hatch from reality into a rumpus room of fun house mirrors -- imagine adolescent versions of Prince Paul and Aphex Twin toying with a clunky My First Sampler.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo