RYAN FAN CLUB MERCH
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March 30, 2009
This record is the most fun I've ever had making music.
Now that Friggidy Ding-Dong is finally being released on April 7, 2009 I can finally talk about the album. I wanted to make an album that would reflect how I felt on Friday afternoons when I'd have a couple pints at home and then enjoy a solo-dance-party with my iTunes on shuffle. The whole thing started when I got home after seeing the movie Sweeney Todd. I wanted to make a piece of creepy music for my next record, and that resulted in Kinda Like To Order A Pizza. I've always been a fan of both Tim Burton and Danny Elfman and I think they'd enjoy the song.
 
Normally, on my last couple of albums, I would do 2 or 3 songs all by myself. So I recorded Eat Shit N' Die in January '08 and then started on Hi, My Name Is Ryan a couple weeks later. My goal was to make a song that would tranform into a silly video all about me. When I hit the vibe in that tune, I knew... I just fucking knew that I had to make this record all on my own. I finished that song in the fall and gave it away for Fan Appreciation Day 2008. Then I got my ass in gear and took it from there.
Next was Rocky CDIX which uses a DJ Capo hip-hop remix of my "Rocky IV" song from 2002. "CDIX" is Roman Numerals for "409"... get it? I kept the ball of confusion rolling with Bonzo's Funny Funeral, which slowed it down a little and kept just a touch of that Pizza creepiness. I got really drunk on Double Chocolate Stout and tried my best to imagine what it would be like at a funeral for a clown. Now that's messed up.
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Friggidy Ding-Dong is a saying that comes from my little sister Laura. She burst into it one day at Starbucks and I just had to steal it and make it my own. After that day, it pretty much set the pace for the rest of the CD. I recorded a pile of tunes and decided that if I couldn't somehow incorporate it into a solo-dance-party, then it wouldn't go on the album. I spent most of January '09 listening to every Prince album from "For You" to "Planet Earth", and some of his purpleness rubbed off on Oh Shaquanda and I'm So Old.
My song She Thinks I'm Gay comes from my love of Bruce McCulloch's "Shamed Based Man" record. I really want to do more spoken vocal tunes... next time for sure. And actually, if anyone asks what this album sounds like I tend to say, "Imagine the Kids In The Hall and C and C Music Factory had a baby..."
Another upbeat dance tune, Super Happy Fun Song, was originally set to be an acoustic guitar marching song but I couldn't resist putting a groove and beat to it. I wanted to see what would happen when I put lyrics about pestilence, rotting corpses, and traffic jams on top of silly music.
The album was completed in the first week of March when I did Girls Will Be Girls and A Song For My Cats. The title track, though, is nothing like anything else I've ever done. Three songs ("Ain't Gonna Suck Itself", "The Devil's Alphabet", and "Stick It In You") didn't make the cut and will show up as B-Sides somewhere.
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And that's Friggidy Ding-Dong in a nutshell. I know you'll like it. It's definitely my best album yet. So go here to buy the CD and check ou the lyrics. As it stands, there are a couple more music videos lined up for this record.
But I gotta run 'cause I'm in the mood for a solo dance party in my room.
- Ryan
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