Blog The Karaoke Underground challenge

Stoughton native Kaleb Asplund and his wife Hannah Ford established Karaoke Underground in Austin six years ago, inspired by a punk-rock karaoke night they'd participated in while living in the Twin Cities. Instead of providing a showcase for aspiring singers to skillfully take on pop standards (or ironically destroy them), the couple began churning out homemade karaoke videos of their favorite songs from the realm of punk rock and beyond. The song list has gradually grown to include artists ranging from They Might Be Giants to Hüsker Dü to Minor Threat to The Vaselines—not only making karaoke more friendly for certain kinds of music nerds, but celebrating all kinds of vocal talents you'll never see celebrated on American Idol. Asplund will bring KU to Madison for a one-night stop at Mickey's Tavern this Friday, so I called him up to ask about some of KU's most challenging and popular songs. (If channeling Isaac Brock or The Streets isn't your thing, just fall back on a drunken group shout-along version of Black Flag's "TV Party.")

Modest Mouse, "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine"
Kaleb Asplund: The best video Hannah ever made was for "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine." Which is an incredibly long song with many lyrics and odd cadences. If we had the time we would make every video like this one, but we don't. Hannah actually wrote all the lyrics in Sharpie on things around our friend's apartment. She wrote lyrics on an orange-juice bottle, and picks up the bottle and underneath there's a napkin with more lyrics on it. It's challenging just to sing Isaac Brock, and it's also challenging to look at this video that's not a standard karaoke video. You're reading someone's handwriting and the words are showing up in unexpected places.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists, "Ballad Of The Sin Eater"
KA: He spits off so many place names and people names that you're just kinda, "How's that pronounced again?"

Brian Eno, "Baby's On Fire"
KA: I think people don't really even try. It's one of those ones where it's just "we're singing along with this song." The biggest challenge is that you've got Robert Fripp [playing a solo] in there for three minutes. We've got this video of us playing in a carwash, but people get a little antsy sitting onstage while it's going on.

KA: [One guy] had us at his wedding reception, and he and his wife did a duet of the Shellac song. "Kill 'em, fuckin' kill 'em." I suppose somebody in the family probably thought that was pretty dumb.
The A.V. Club: How popular is it on other nights?
KA: That gets sung about every other show.
AVC: It seems like you have to be a little twisted to really pull that song off.
KA: Well, I think that's who we attract, right?

Hot Hot Heat, "This Town"
KA: We were really into Hot Hot Heat back when that album [Make Up The Breakdown] came out. We read an interview, and he basically vocalizes all of his parts before he writes lyrics to them, and he obviously has a desire to make things complicated. "This Town" is in a slightly odd time signature, and he's just got a lot of words spitting out with odd accents.

The Streets, "The Irony Of It All"
KA: There's only been a few people able to pull that off. It usually gets pretty ugly. People will try and do it solo, which I don't think is a good idea it all. It's really funny to watch somebody be schizophrenic and turn and talk to themselves in a different English accent that they don't speak.