"that's what works for me" (Nerf Herder - Rockingham)

Why you'll love it: A more creative way to be funny
why you'll hate it: joke songs.  songs that just namedrop pop culture

One of the most idiotic things you can do today is self identify as a geek.  Over the past few years, righteous or simply just cruel "geeks" have spoiled all the fun there is to be had in the world; and that's putting it softly.  The bigger question than "Who the heck wants to listen to Nerf Herder in 2016?" (hey, I do, jerk) would be "How can Nerf Herder put a good face on such a toxic environment?"  The answer to that is with ridiculous humor and glassy-eyed nostalgia.

The opener, "Portland", quickly establishes how Parry Gripp can hold on to the kind of dirty humor Nerf Herder was known for in the early 2000's, without digging his heels into the mud and clinging to the transgressive humor we've outgrown.  "Portland" is such a stupid, random song, it's hilarious.  It starts off with the pretense of being a takedown of Portland hispsters, but all the burns become more oddball until Parry admits that he only knows six things about Portland.

On Rockingham, quirky weirdness becomes the substitute or chaser for when things get a bit too cruel or creepy.  On "Close Your Eyes And Dream", nocturnal voyeurism (surprisingly a Nerf Herder staple) is mostly padded with references to Tommy DiNardo, and Bagatorardis.  When Parry's obsession on "Allie Goertz" starts to get a bit too worrisome, in comes the drummer, communicating through a Speak-N-Spell that he's too old for her.

A couple extremely loyal tribute songs make for some of the best tracks on Rockingham.  "The Girl Who Listened To Rush" and "We Opened For Weezer" do much more than just name-drop a whole bunch of references.  The respective signature sound of these two bands are represented with quite a bit of detail.  That little bit of extra love and care goes a long way.  I wish they had put the same kind of effort into some of the other heavily referential tracks.  "I'm The Droid (You're Looking For)" and "Doctor Who" (couldn't even come up with a clever name for this one?) are literally nothing more than just listing things from the fiction.

A couple other tracks at least put up a little bit of effort.  "Ghostbusters III" uses the idea of a relationship (or hook-up) that will never realistically manifest, as an excuse to spit out a lot of references.  "At The Con" is guilty of just ranting off types of cosplay, but the lines come so fast and furious, I admit a few caught me off guard. It probably shouldn't, but "Gettin' busy with a Pikachu" makes me giggle.

If there is still doubt that this is unmistakably a Nerf Herder album, the ballad "Stock Photo Girl" should put that thinking to rest.  It's straight out of the same vein "Nosering Girl" and "Garage Sale" came from.  The uncomfortably pathetic story painstakingly unfolds, and is funny every step of the way.  It's like an episode of Louie you can sing along to!

It's still joke songs.  There are still some throw away tracks.  Nothing Rockingham does will make anyone into converts, but Nerf Herder really excelled with the album for the little niche they're in.  It's a scary tightrope to both come out of obscurity and release something for a community that is in total unrest at the moment.  It would have been really easy for Nerf Herder to come off as stubborn curmudgeons, or fangless panderers, and they did neither.  Nerf Herder is OK, and Tommy Dinardo is OK, and that that's all that really matters.