Do You Like Jingles?

For Those About to Shop, We Salute You (Oglio Records)

Parry Gripp

By Kory Wilcoxson

You just knew Parry Gripp had something like this in him. Gripp is the lead singer of Nerf Herder, the heady punk-pop band defined by their inescapable hooks and hilarious loser lyrics. After leaving the band in 2003 - temporarily, as it turns out - Gripp got his hands on a request for a commercial jingle for frozen waffles. And then this genius with too much time on his hands went to work.

From that experience has come For Those About to Shop, We Salute You, a collection of 51 jingles and ditties about "stuff," from sports to nachos to feminine hygiene products (a rockabilly ditty called "That Ain't Fresh," as it might be sung by Johnny Cash). None of them can be taken seriously, because Gripp seems incapable of writing a song that doesn't poke fun at its subject. So religion becomes the vehicle to sell deodorant ("You Gotta Have Faith [in Your Anti-Perspirant]") and tennis becomes a metaphor for masturbation ("Pull on your shorts, unzip your racket / Pull out your balls, it's time to whack it"). I smell a Wimbledon theme song!

Gripp also uses a ton of musical styles over the course of the album, some of which are laugh-out-loud worthy. The Ramones' "Blitzkreig Bop" is used to sell razors ("Hey! Ho! Let's go!" becomes "More blades! Better shave!") and Led Zeppelin becomes the blueprint for bran flakes. And then there are a series of songs on trucks and waffles that simply have to be heard. For Those is not to be missed, because I'm pretty sure you won't be hearing any of these songs on a Saturday-morning waffle commercial.