The Art Of The Slap : Scharpling & Wurster : Review : Rolling Stone

In the seventies, Led Zeppelin and The Who spent the hours on the road listening to their prized bootleg Derek and Clive tapes. These days, Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster are the traveling rock musician's comedy duo of choice, inspiring a fanatical MP3-trading cult. Like an indie-rock Bob and Ray, they improvise long, absurd dialogues about characters like the Music Scholar (the snob who dismisses the Beatles as "ear candy") and Mother 13 (the loser band plugging its gig at the Earthlink/Pringles Summer Slam Jam). If they remind you of jerks you know, or maybe the jerk you are, that's the point.

The Art of the Slap is their fourth collection, three discs of S&W brilliance. The format is simple: Scharpling is a host on New Jersey indie station WFMU (he's also a writer for Monk), getting calls from Wurster (the drummer from Superchunk), who plays a variety of insufferable personalities. Prime bits include "Jock Squad," a team of super-macho computer-repair geeks (Horse, Moose, Spud and Tank) who wear muscle shirts and beat up rivals at Best Buy. There's also "The Auteur," featuring Trent L. Strauss, the incredibly pretentious director of slasher films such as You're Soaking in Her, It Eats and Entrails 2: The Gouging. His latest is The Toolbelt Killer, the tale of Belty, who slashes customers at a Lowe's built on an ancient viking burial ground ("Phantom of the Opera meets Norma Rae, but with way more impalings and beheadings"). You can hear why S&W are your favorite band's favorite comedians.