Plenty of artists play types of music that allow room for humor and silliness. Because the Beatles wrote light, fun songs, it wasn't so surprising when they would joke around in interviews and make hilarious movies like A Hard Day's Night. However, some artists project such a solemn image through their music that it's hard to imagine them ever laughing about anything, such as these five artists.
1. Yo La Tengo
Hoboken's Yo La Tengo is basically the American version of My Bloody Valentine, with its noisy guitars, dreamy atmospheres, and male/female vocal dynamics. The band's default setting is ethereally experimental pop, which makes the band's comic sensibilities so unexpected. Not only have Yo La Tengo named songs after Simpsons jokes ("Let's Save Tony Orlando's House"), they've also performed an entire episode of Seinfeld live ("The Contest" episode), as well as made a guest appearance on the most recent episode of Parks & Recreation as the band Bobby Knight Ranger, a Night Ranger cover band that dresses up like Bobby Knight and only plays "Sister Christian".
2. Slint
A single listen to Slint's dark classic Spiderland is enough to assume that the people who made the album are probably intellectual, humorless, and suicidally depressed people, but this certainly isn't the case. As the new documentary Breadcrumb Trail explains, the members of Slint were just a bunch of weird kids from Louisville who happened to be abnormally talented musicians, and though the band's music doesn't ever betray its juvenile sense of humor, the alleged existence of an "anal breathing" tape (try and guess what that is) created by members of the band is enough proof that yes, these were just a bunch of weird kids.
3. Nirvana
When a band ends due to the tragic suicide of a member, pretty much any lightness associated with the band immediately vanishes. This is certainly true of Nirvana, who infused a twisted sense of humor beneath its dark, heavy music, like on In Utero's "Very Ape" (If you ever need anything, please don't/Hesitate to ask someone else first"), which is frequently forgotten. The most explicit example of Nirvana's weird sense of humor is this rare In Utero commercial, featuring comedian Bobcat Goldthwait in drag, coaching the band members through childbirth.
4. Rush
As ridiculous as progressive rock can get sometimes, it's one of the most humorless styles of rock, which makes Rush's irreverent attitude towards it own image in recent years particularly refreshing. When bassist Geddy Lee stopped using amps on stage and began running his bass directly through the sound system, he replaced his amps with washing machines (and most recently, chicken roasters). If you need any more proof, just look at this intro skit they filmed for their Time Machine Tour. It's pretty stupid, but at least it's intentionally funny, unlike some of Neil Peart's lyrics (come at me, Rush fans).
5. Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley's sole LP Grace is a dark and mysterious masterwork, without a trace of the irony or lightness of his contemporaries like Beck and Weezer, which makes his banter on the classic Live at Sin-e album so surprising. Between heart-stoppingly beautiful renditions of his own songs and an array of covers, Buckley goofs around and jokes about Jim Morrison and Miles Davis, proving that he wasn't "Hallelujah" 24/7.
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