Sing, sing, sing Depending on your tolerance for cheese and camp (and your blood-alcohol level) there can be no worse torture endured than a night of karaoke at the bar. While we at Backslash must tip our hats to Dirty Show co-founder Jeremy Harvey’s special brand of drunk punk karaoke (see it for yourself Wednesdays at the Belmont, details at myspace.com/tsingtsing), very few possess the kind of self-mocking wit that Harvey does when he masterfully destroys classic glam rock tunes he’s trying to make you laugh … that dude in the NASCAR ball cap who’s slaughtering “Don’t Stop Believin'” isn’t.
Where are we going with this? Oh yeah, dictionaraoke.org, the singing dictionary karaoke superstar! A classic example of stupid computer tricks, the site features popular tunes that are “sung” by the sterile, blandly electronic voice of online dictionaries.
Needless to say, it’s quite hilarious particularly the ultra-aggressive potty-mouthed songs like Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.” In fact, the computer’s version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” is a vast improvement far more emotional resonance and raw feeling on the original.
And if you’re super-motivated (read: have way too much time on your hands) you can create your own Dictionaraoke tracks, as detailed here: dictionaraoke.org/how.html.
The site was created by a collective of artists and musicians who refer to themselves as the “Snuggles” community: check them out at sensoryresearch.com/snuggles.
Know of an interesting, bizarre or educational Web site you’d like to see featured here? Send it to [email protected]
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2006.
