“If you don’t get my songs, then you don’t read books.” Comedian-musician Jon Lajoie busted that joke to the packed crowd huddling the stage at the Royal York Hotel’s Canadian Room during the 2009 Independent Music Awards show. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Lajoie then gave us his classic High As Fuck tune, and followed with another favourite 2 Girls 1 Cup.
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The Montreal musician was doing what he does best – bring his YouTube hits to the stage, one punchline at a time.
Now that his YouTube channel has one of the most subscribers on the Web (158,900 at last count), Lajoie is delivering his second act: a debut album available on iTunes. You Want Some of This? compiles 17 songs, including previously unreleased tracks such as Pop Song, which rightfully skewers the pop music biz. He’s also touring like a fiend, hitting up South by Southwest and then appearing on nine comedy stages across the U.S. in the next two week.
NOW sat down with Lajoie between his sets at the Indies to learn more about his potty-humour brand of music.
So you’ve done songs on masturbation, 2 Girls One Cup, getting high, killing an uncle dressed as Santa. Is there anything you won’t touch?
Probably not. Well, actually, religion. My parents are pretty religious, they are Protestant, so I wouldn’t want to go the whole priest-molestation route. I don’t want to insult them.
If you could share the bill with any musician or act, who would it be?
Someone who sucked the most, right? That way, I can look way better in comparison. Maybe a dude like Yanni could open for me.
But seriously, I’d love to share the stage with a group I respect, like Fleet Foxes or Radiohead.
What kind of aggressive reactions have you received from people who checked out your songs?
Mainly emails. Some good stuff, though. I remember getting lots of feedback from feminist groups about Show Me Your Genitals, saying I did a good job of approaching sexism in an original way. Then there’s the guy who doesn’t get the joke and says, “Yeah dude, right on, girls don’t know shit!”
One of my favourite tunes on the new album, Pop Song, hasn’t been YouTube’d yet. What’s up?
It will be on YouTube soon. Now we’re shopping around for a director to make the video look like a cheesy Timberlake tune. We’re going do something awesome, trust me.
