(from www.thegoaheadand.com)

 

The Go Ahead And is the nom de plume of Joel Abbott, who writes and records comedy pop songs in Burlington, Vermont.

 

The songs are intended to be funny, although occasionally, under the right circumstances, they might bring a tear to one’s eye.

 

This one-man-band makes songs that emphasize the humor in everyday life and that ridicule people who are a little too self-important. The band’s influences include They Might Be Giants, Weird Al Yankovic, and Fountains Of Wayne, along with Beck, Prince, Sting, Morrissey and other single name artists (except Dido).

 

Born on May 8, in Boulder, Colorado, Joel Abbott has spent the last twenty-nine years making music as a singer, songwriter, keyboardist, composer, and producer, and flautist. From the age of five, he took guitar lessons, and then flute lessons, which eventually led to him majoring in flute performance at the University of Georgia. Unfortunately, UGA’s music school was (and is) focused mainly on generating band directors. Not wanting to be a band director, he left the music school, changed his major to English Education, and eventually became a high school English teacher, a torturous job he tolerated for twelve years.

 

In his teens, Joel’s most significant musical influence was his grandfather, Mike Rosenfeld, who was a dixieland banjo player. His grandfather taught Joel hundreds of jazz standards, and they spent hours playing through fakebooks. Joel became proficient at jazz improv on the flute. Unfortunately, the demand for jazz flute players is a niche market, and so he abandoned that career path.

 

It wasn’t until 2000 that he found a venue that suited his particular style. As the musical improviser for Dad’s Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, Joel underscored scenes and for provided the accompaniment for improvised musicals, operas, and ballets. Over the eight years that he made music at Dad’s Garage, he played over 2200 shows, as well as participating in comedy festivals and tournaments in Atlanta, Dallas, and Edmonton.

 

In 2004, Joel wrote the music and lyrics for “Carrie White: The Musical” based on the book by Stephen King and the movie by Brian DePalma. The play received an extended run at Dad’s Garage, and three years later was re-mounted (with three additional songs) as a staged reading at Bricolage Theater in Pittsburgh.

 

In 2007, he and his wife moved to Burlington, Vermont. Realizing that he’d spent the last ten years building a large collection of synthesizers and other musical equipment, he decided to finally make an album. Four months later The Go Ahead And released its first album, “Babies Don’t Have Hands” (the title derived from an old inside joke between Joel and a college classmate).

 

Very much an alter-ego, The Go Ahead And is a reflection of Joel Abbott’s zany side, his musical id. The Go Ahead And allowed Joel to make angrier and naughtier music than he would ever allow himself to do under normal circumstances.

 

Songs on “Babies Don’t Have Hands” range in tone from the sweet, to the ridiculous, to the just plain mean.

 

The album is divided into three sections, pop, weird, and hard.

 

The pop section includes the tracks “He Keeps The Tags On All His Clothes” about a guy who derives way too much of his self esteem from wearing brand new clothing, “Backless” about a guy with a foot fetish, “Band Name” about a bunch of kids who are too busy arguing about the name of their band to practice, and the hit single “You Bought This Song For A Dollar” which makes fun of how iTunes and digital distribution has set an arbitrary dollar value on songs.

 

The Weird section includes “Nerf” which is a sensitive breakup song in which the singer is impossibly inept at expressing his emotion, “Parade Kid” about a guy on a parade float who believes he’s being stalked by a nine-year-old, and then the Star Wars parody “TK-421, Why Aren’t You At Your Post” about forbidden love between an Imperial officer and an absent stormtrooper.

 

The Hard section begins with “Working Hard To Be A Hipster, which makes fun of how hard hipsters work to look so nonplussed, “Mortal Enemy” in which James Bond sings about his enemy, “Only Child” about a really entitled guy who’s an only child, “Boring People” a jazz hip hop song about a guy who watches television all day, and finally the “TK-421″ Dance Remix.

 

He is currently hard at work on a Christmas Album, as well as a few solo projects apart from the band, including “Songs For The Forlorn Robot” and a Disco album titled “Lethal Cookie.”