Flight of the Conchords (comedy duo & TV series)

[Cola]

Do you have one sequin spacesuit or do you have several CH-CH-CH-CHANGES?

[bc2006]

- How far out are you, man?
- I'm pretty far out
- That's pretty far out, man

[WheresMyUmbrella]

They have new songs!!

“Tonight I want you to think of us as scientists who are coming and just experimenting on you,” Jemaine warns audience members after admitting how nervous he is about the new songs he and Bret are about to share. The crowd cheers and laughs warmly— clearly excited and honored to be the chosen guinea pigs for Flight of the Conchords’ musical experiment.

Flight of the Conchords’ special appearance this past Monday night at Largo was not publicized ahead of time, but word eventually got out and drew throngs of eager fans. The lucky few that made it inside the intimate, dimly-lit venue reserved one of the (only one hundred seats) available a month ago or were among the first 30 people to line up on Monday evening for standing room at the bar. It was the final show at the popular L.A. music club before Largo relocates in early June to the Coronet Theatre on La Cienega. Comedian Greg Proops emceed the evening, opening with terrific stand-up and banter that included a guest appearance by comic Drew Carey and a surprise phone call from actor John C. Reilly on speaker phone. Largo’s genius gem musician Jon Brion also played a couple songs before Flight of the Conchords took the stage.

Although their set only consisted of two songs, it was a rewarding and thrilling experience while it lasted. They referenced lyrics scrawled on pieces of paper in front of them as they charmed and cracked up the house with their unreleased “I Told You I Was Freaky” that included quotable and effective line delivered by Bret: “You can be a squirrel, and store my nuts for me.” The second song featured hilarious lead vocals by Jemaine who rattled off names of fictitious ex-girlfriends and the various entertaining ways they left him or broke his heart (including Bruce who turned out to be a man), while Bret’s voice served as a female choir. They definitely left the audience delighted but wanting more; a rather successful experiment yielding one clear conclusion: Flight of the Conchords are hot and only getting hotter. ...

source: la.cityzine.com

[WheresMyUmbrella]

From FOTC's myspace:





It must be fun to be a comedian; you get to have so many goofy photoshoots!

[WheresMyUmbrella]

From Time Out London:

Flight Of The Conchords: interview
By Eddy Lawrence
Posted: Tue May 6 2008

Ahead of their debut album, New Zealand’s hottest band talk food chains, old-school ringtones and the Crazy Frog legacy


Say hello to your new favourite band - especially you, ladies (© Amelia Handscomb)

Despite a vast reservoir of hipster cachet, it has been a long time since Sub Pop produced a real band of substance. To this day, Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ remains the label’s only release of cultural import, a feat which the poorly groomed, unmotivated The Shins or The Helio Sequence look unable – or unwilling, more like – to replicate. But all that is set to change with the debut LP by Flight Of The Conchords. We haven’t been this excited by a new band since we first heard The Pity Party last week.

Power duo Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have a gift for genre-blending that makes even David Bowie’s efforts pale in comparison. FOTC shift comfortably from the soft-hitting hip hop of ‘Mutha’uckers’ to the admittedly vogueish retro-electro of ‘Inner City Pressure’, in which they movingly address the urban realities of alienation and second-hand underpants. These are themes the band are all too familiar with, from their days spent on London’s mean streets, trying to hustle up a living in music’s pitiless hometown. Unfortunately, the duo’s stay in London coincided with a little-publicised lull in the capital’s live music scene.

‘I think we were in the wrong part of town,’ says Bret, ‘because there were were no other bands in the UK when we were there, and we still weren’t very successful.’

The pair did manage to score a long-term residency at Nando’s, which they mistakenly thought was a venue for new bands (‘That took us nowhere,’ says Bret). Despite this, the city left its mark on FOTC, shaping their novel approach to exploring genres and themes.

‘Yeah, the UK is definitely the home of the novelty hit, I think. I was in London when Crazy Frog blew up. That’s a real landmark for me. Crazy Frog… that’s my Beatles, that really captures my youth. In 20 years’ time, that tune’ll come on, and that’ll really remind me of the good old days, like, “Hey kids – that’s not music, this is music.” ’

However, despite this grounding in classic rock construction and a level of post-post-modernism that would make Does It Offend You, Yeah?’s eyes hurt, in some quarters FOTC’s sincerity has been called into question (‘The concept gets muddled on their debut,’ sniffed Pitchfork. ‘Are we supposed to laugh at the songs or with them?’ – meow). Unable to break the snooty London scene, and craving variety in their diet, a disillusioned Bret and Jermaine stowed away on a cargo ship to New York, hidden in a container of kiwi fruit.

‘Eating those meant we didn’t get scurvy,’ says Bret. ‘When you’re out at sea, that’s what you’ve gotta look out for.’

Having pitched up in Manhattan, America’s equivalent of Hollywood, the Conchords resumed their struggle to be heard. This desperate period was captured on a short-lived reality show, for which the band neglected to give us the correct YouTube tags. Things picked up, however, when they secured another high-profile residency, this time at Pizza Hut. Here, they were spotted by Sub Pop’s head of A&R, who, according to Bret, spends a lot of time at Pizza Hut.

‘Apparently, Nirvana were playing Pizza Hut as well,’ he says. ‘Most of the bands they get are from Italian-based franchise restaurants. That’s what brings all their acts together. Iron & Wine, The Shins, Nirvana and Flight Of The Conchords. Death Cab For Cutie and us, we did a big all-you-can-eat night. It was a long night, we played all our songs three times.’

Having honed their craft and secured backing, the band set to work recording their debut, on a Sony MiniDisc player Jemaine bought. Wanting to retain their live vitality on the album, the band recorded and multitracked the whole thing in one take.

‘It took about 45 minutes to record,’ reveals Bret. ‘We had Mickey Petralia producing it, and he’s a studio wizard. He’s also an octopus. And yeah, we cloned ourselves as well to help, to play drums and bass and keyboards. Did I mention that? I forgot to mention that. We spent most of the time in the studio working on our clones, and then once we had our clones, the recording process was fairly simple.’

Live anthem ‘Rock The Party’ has been omitted from the final running order, presumably so the album doesn’t become so uncontrollably awesome it explodes, potentially damaging thousands of coffee tables. This restraint and unaffected aura of mystery elevates FOTC above their peers, but they’re still wise enough to have their global strategy mapped out. Considering the music industry’s increasing reliance on secondary revenue streams, the band are exploring a canny approach to exploiting the lucrative ringtone market (worth £278 million last year).
‘I’m making Conchord phone bells, to install in those old phones. It sounds like an expensive idea, but I guess for the number of people who have vintage phones, we could corner that market. They can’t get a ringtone – they’re pissed off. I’ve got a lot of bells that I’ve been making, I’ve gotta do something with them. We haven’t sold any yet.’

With this kind of visionary thinking coupled with the band’s chameleonic melodic genius, surely there is nothing beyond FOTC’s reach. But what does the future hold – cult appeal, mass success or multimedia expansion?

‘I’d like to do a rock opera, like “Bohemian Rhapsody”,’ muses Bret. ‘A complex masterwork. Then hopefully from rock opera, we can take the easy step to opera. Most opera singers started off as rock opera singers, I think. Being an opera singer is a great long-term career option.’

‘Flight Of The Conchords’ by Flight Of The Conchords is out on Sub Pop on May 12.

[WheresMyUmbrella]

The 2nd Season of "Flight of the Conchords" begins January 18th! I'm so excited!







source: hbo



The first episode (US-only, unfortunately) is online now at FunnyorDie.com:

- http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c48...-the-conchords

and HBO's Flight of the Conchords site:

- http://www.hbo.com/conchords/




Season 2 promos on YouTube:

Car promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiB7PLtnETA

Car promo w/ swearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92RRmE5hdE4

Flying promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vkUAIVr2F4

Sexy Flower promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc1Px5R3qkI

Promo w/ dancing!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxD_DhkvYBU

Behind-the-scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOBbsdjSbNY




Though some might argue, I think we have Bret to thank (blame? ) for the return of the sweatshirt.

[littlebunny]

^^

Thanks for posting! I'm so excited about the new season!

[WheresMyUmbrella]

The season 2 premiere is on youtube now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx_Kw63v6yE

[Jacque Marcel]

OMG! Can't wait for the new season. I know the first episode is out already but I want to appreciate it on my big screen tv. I love their songs, especially A Kiss Is Not A Contract.

[WheresMyUmbrella]

Season 2 premiere clips from HBO's youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bjC-VMUhIs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc0NxKgoUfU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA5W5p8UE_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoEUm1iLuUM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ_GZSwS9Xo


Video for "Angels"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-9DFMa05Fs


New promos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iy9PbcCYEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SBAceQzN98



They also changed the intro!

Season 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWGG5lwnsNw

New for Season 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIHSAXTYpIQ

[WheresMyUmbrella]

From Time Out New York:


source: time out new york via goldenfiddle.com

The Hot Seat
Time Out New York / Issue 693 : Jan 8–14, 2009
Flight of the Conchords
The Kiwi comics are No. 1 in Brooklyn!


They came from New Zealand armed with songs about killer robots and racist dragons—and, improbably, they scored. Since June 2007, when their cultish musical-comedy show debuted on HBO, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, better known as Flight of the Conchords, have garnered a Grammy, two Emmy nominations and a No. 3 spot on the Billboard album chart (for their self-titled debut). Plus, this week’s cover! In advance of the January 18 launch of the second season of their HBO series, we spoke to Clement and McKenzie on the Flight of the Conchords set in Greenpoint.


Time Out New York: The new season debuts just two days before the presidential inauguration. How have you changed to pander to the Obama generation?

Bret McKenzie: The second season’s more optimistic.


TONY: Is that because of Obama, or is it because your album went to No. 3?

McKenzie: Well, it was No. 1 in New Zealand.


TONY: That changes everything. How many copies need to sell to earn that honor?

Jemaine Clement: Two.

McKenzie: There are only 4 million people in New Zealand.


TONY: Well, that’s bigger than Brooklyn.

McKenzie: So by that measure, our album was No. 1 in Brooklyn.


TONY: A lot of your fans are female. How many hearts have you broken?

McKenzie: Seven hearts. That’s combined.

Clement: It’s sad.

McKenzie: Jemaine’s more the heartbreaker. He’s broken four.

Clement: Bret’s trying to catch up.


TONY: You used to be so much chunkier when you were performing under the name Tenacious D. How hard was it to lose all that weight?

Clement: HBO insisted on liposuction.

McKenzie: That’s funny. We met [Tenacious D’s] Kyle Gass in L.A. and he said, “You guys are like a skinny version of us.”


TONY: How often do you hear the comparison?

McKenzie: Not as often as we expected when we first started over here.

Clement: Yeah. When the previews started, everyone said it. There were lots of “Tenacious D Light” comments. But it disappeared after the show debuted.


TONY: Like the D, you guys bill yourself as a duo. But you’re more of a quartet, if you count Jemaine’s sideburns.

Clement: Are you saying that my sideburns are two extras? I haven’t really thought about that. I’m so used to them that I don’t think of them as people, I suppose.


TONY: Bret, you appear as an elf in the first Lord of the Rings movie for, like, four seconds.

Clement: If that.

McKenzie: Well, five.

Clement: Have you really timed it?

McKenzie: No.


TONY: There’s a fan site describing your character, Figwit, as “perfect, pouty and gorgeous.” Wow.

McKenzie: Yeah. A group of fans from all around the world flew to Edinburgh to meet me and to watch us play at the Fringe Festival.

Clement: It was a little creepy because they’d get so nervous. They would be quivering.


TONY: Jealous much, Jemaine?

Clement: Nah, I wasn’t jealous.

McKenzie: Yeah, he was jealous. He just got over it, like, five years ago.


TONY: How did the Concorde plane crash in Paris in 2000 affect the band?

McKenzie: We had the name before the terrible Concorde crash. But we were worried that people would think it was a joke based on the tragedy. Which it had nothing to do with.

Clement: I think some people did think that. But we soldiered on with it.

McKenzie: We just didn’t play in Paris.


TONY: Are you bummed that the Concorde is no longer in service?

McKenzie: It’s a shame. I always wanted to do a photo shoot with us in the Concorde. We’ll have to do that on Photoshop now.


TONY: Do you ever miss the days when no one knew who you were?

Clement: We shot a scene yesterday, a gig at a bar, where there was only this one guy and his shopping bags. At the end, they turn the lights on and there’s no one there. That was based on a real gig that we did in Canada.


TONY: That must have been painful.

Clement: Yeah. We don’t even know when that person left.


Flight of the Conchords premieres Jan 18 at 10pm on HBO.

[WheresMyUmbrella]

"Conchords" tunes take off
Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:17pm EST
By Jonathan Cohen


source: reuters.com


NEW YORK (Billboard) - HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" returns next Sunday for Season 2, and this time around, fans will be able to purchase music from each episode the day after it airs.

An as-yet-untitled album featuring 10 tracks from the show and five additional songs will be available April 14, shortly after the conclusion of the 10-episode season. The first song, "Angels," goes live January 19 on iTunes. Fans also can preorder the album through Sub Pop (http://www.subpop.com) and receive one track per week.

The New Zealand duo, whose bumbling adventures in life and the music business are at the heart of the show, has emerged as one of the biggest success stories in comedy during the past two years.

Its 2007 Sub Pop debut, the EP "The Distant Future," won a Grammy for best comedy album last year. And its self-titled full-length album, released in April, has sold 237,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and is up for a Grammy in the same category next month.

Because the songs used in the show often are only a minute long, the versions on the album will be quite different.

"More than one of them leans on a '70s soul sound," said Tony Kiewel, head of A&R (artists and repertoire) at Sub Pop. "I've also heard this choir-y sort of thing, a Meat Loaf-y sort of thing and a crazy top 40-type jam."

Mickey Petralia, who produced the debut, is back on board, while Kiewel said Australian pop singer Sia provides backing vocals on at least one song. A North American tour is being targeted for April or May.

Reuters/Billboard

[lmelanie]

ahhhh!!love it!! i have been going through withdrawls..

[WheresMyUmbrella]

source: piper ferguson / filter-mag.com

[WheresMyUmbrella]

Huge pics ... click to enlarge:




source: hbo