“What on Earth, yeah, did I do to be blessed this much with a freak like you?”

There was a promo in regular rotation on CTV many years ago for the morning show Canada AM that featured Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies responding to a question about whether the band regretted its name. His reply was along the lines of “if you’d called your show ‘Wake up Jerks!’ you’d probably regret it.”

In a similar vein, my work once saw me spending time with the parent of one of the members of the band Holy Fuck. Despite, or perhaps because, his job was one requiring an uncommon amount of propriety, I always got the sense that he took a devilish pride in the name his son’s band.

It’s hard not to think of these bands when I think of The Man The Myth The Meatslab, the musical sobriquet of Jamie Clarke. It’s a memorable name, no doubt, but it quite doesn’t roll off the tongue. I wonder if he regrets it.

Regardless, TMTMTM released Until The Comet Came this week, and, unwieldy name or no, it’s a tiny perfect 16 minutes of rollicking songs that I dare you to emerge from a listen to unhappy. 

I can’t exactly tell you why I love it so, but I do.