My “Best of Interröbang Cartel” selection was constrained in part by the capacity of a CD. You remember CDs? I still don’t have a car with an aux input, so CDs have their uses. Anyway, there are 19 songs on the list, and I am not so in love with prime numbers that I’d intentionally … More The Rest of Interröbang Cartel: What might have been

Here’s the complete list of songs I chose, with links to the wiki pages and MP3 files. Some of the MP3 files won’t play in Chrome for me. They play in Firefox, or if I download them. No idea why. The Sun! She Explode! (mp3) Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth (London Share House Mix) (mp3) Love of Stones (mp3) Captain Marvel’s … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: Playlist

My “Best of IBC” CD concludes with “Chalice of Fire”, from Wanger. The lyrics by Matt McIrvin long predate IBC — 1997, even before Harry Potter’s Goblet of Fire — and were written to illustrate the kind of 1980s song “that was about absolutely nothing at all and made no sense, and nobody would even think that … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: Chalice of Fire

My memory’s a little hazy, but as I recall, sometime in the early 2000s, someone started posting some strange messages to Usenet; it seems, he said, he was a time traveler, stuck in the early 21st century unless he could get the parts to fix his time machine, and he really needed any surplus electronics … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: Rewind (Simonian Mix)

This is XTC’s IBC’s closing track from the Tribute Album. What’s to say? Lyrics by Talysman, arrangement and recording by Casey. Staffordshire Bull Terrier Portraits (mp3)

Merry Christmas! No, IBC never did a Christmas album. Here’s a non Christmas song. Some IBM songs are spare and simple, maybe a voice and a guitar, maybe came together in a few hours. And then some are elaborate productions, the products of weeks or months of work. This is decidedly one of the latter. … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: She’s a Geek Freak

This is another song that didn’t get onto a completed album. It was tagged for Aspartame Placebo. Charlie wrote it under the influence of advancing “age”. (Yeah, “age” in quotes. Forty years gone? I vaguely remember that.) The phrase “Pre-Cambrian cabbages” is almost sufficient by itself to get this song onto my Best Of list. Truck Stop … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: Truck Stop Birthday

To repeat myself, it was a lot of fun to hear different people’s takes on the same material. Casey’s version of “The Robot Song”, also appearing on Wanger, was utterly different from Not R’s, aside from having the same lyrics by jwgh. I’m not sure which I like better. Some years later Charlie was involved in … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: The Robot Song (Data version)

I think The Robot Song was one of the very first IBC songs recorded. No, that’s wrong, it was two of the very first. jwgh had written the lyrics earlier, he threw them out there, and Not R and Casey both recorded them. Here’s Not R’s arrangement, the first track on Wanger (or at least one … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: The Robot Song (Dalek version)

The lyrics for this song actually predate IBC. Ranjit wrote them in response to a typo on another forum, and when IBC got going he contributed them to the project. swt, as was his habit, wrote music for the lyrics but recorded it as a chiptune without words, and jwgh then took swt’s tune and … More The Best of Interröbang Cartel: Ballad of the Eire Canal (A Capella)