War Over With Dave Rickards...Still On With Others Elsewhere? (July 31, 2009)

With that, I have to get serious about this matter. This has nothing to do with all of the problems radio has having with PPM, declining ratings, corporate radio, the RIAA, or any commercial entity.

And this is worse than a reader correcting me with missing facts and calling me a moron in the e-mail. This is worse than that.

Now, let's back up to December of 2008. It was Christmas season. I was coming off a very bad year financially as I spent some $6,000 in car repairs that year, only to discover that it needed $3,000 more in repairs with an engine replacement job, and my transmission in the old car was beginning to slip up, which would add another $3,500 for a replacement. I cut my losses and junked it for a new car.

I was really feeling crappy coming off the end of the year. I just wasn't in any kind of holiday spirit at all. Around Thanksgiving Day, I decided to record a little fun ditty called "Demented Music" and post it on the Fump sideshow. That's all it was. A rather poorly produced parody but dead-on parody of a song that The Violent Femmes recorded called "American Music." All was well, right?

Well, here's what happened. Some cretin who posts anonymously by the name of "majorb", decided to post this message on The Fump sideshow: "i signed up specifically to tell you that you have no talent, sound like a dying cat, are not funny and that no one would ever buy your cd."

Dave Rickards would have put it with more class, but not this cretin. A flame war between me and majorb erupted. Read it at http://www.thefump.com/side.php?id=373

Then another flame war erupted at the forum of The Mad Music Archive at themadmusicarchive.com. It became The Ultimate Showdown of Musical Comedy, only it got ugly. Really ugly.

This kept up for a day or two. This also resorted in some writer named Spaff to bully me on the MMA forum as well as getting the collective dementia community to rally against me including defriending me on several social websites and MMA Madspace. Some holiday spirit, eh?

Now I posted a two more songs on The Fump sideshow until I decided to quit posting because majorb kept flaming me. I quit for six months until I decided to start posting on The Fump sideshow once again. The funny thing was that majorb never posted comments on any of the other artist's songs since then.

So last week, I posted on The Fump sideshow with a commercial parody of a fast food restaurant. Some liked it. Majorb didn't. He came back on The Mad Music Archive forum to flame me again. Captain Wayne, owner of the website, deleted his posts, and rewrote the script that would keep him from posting. Majorb continues to flame me on "El Zono de Pollo", which I posted last week, and "Dead Bug", which I posted this past week. He only posts flame posts where I post comments on other songs or on my songs.

Jace from Nuclear Bubble Wrap rallied up the fans to vote for a song someone created that was called "Dementia Hits" he posted in December of 2008. The song was meant to be a style parody of my work. Problem was that it was a dead on attack on myself as well as being far more unlistenable than anything produced with a homemade computer. The truth about the song was that it was made by a jealous cretin who has no ideas of his own to express, has a narrow definition of what dementia is, can't figure out how to write lyrics creatively, ripped off The Beatles for the parody, mumbles the lyrics, has no knowledge of the history of comedy and novelty, and is a media hog that doesn't deserve any attention.

So, his fans got this song "Dementia Hits" to be the #2 song (figuratively) on the Dementia Top 20 radio show. You can listen to the song and the show here: http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/playlist.aspx?Show=MMDT20_09-31

This is what is going on in the dementia community. This is bad. The fans decided to pick on me by voting for that song. They made their statement. The land of dementia remains an unforgiving place. This place needs to start to forgive me and move on with their lives.

DJ Particle, the host of The Dementia Top 20 radio show, posts in response, "Yes, #2 was played under protest -.- I don't take kindly to songs that basicaly flame other members of our community."

Here's what DJ Particle said on her show before she played the #2 song.

"And now (sigh), we're up to the highest debut, and I'm playing this song under protest. Let me give you the story. In December of 2008, David Tanny put up a song basically about how cool the dementia genre is, and there was a flame war on The Fump that resulted on The Sideshow. The thread is over 30 posts long. And, let's just say that the person who was flaming him was very not nice.

"Now, in the midst of all this flame war, on December 13, came an anonymous tune called 'Dementia Hits', and when I listened to it, it was obviously, and I am going to say this, obviously intentional mean spirited slam against David Tanny. And because of that, I have never played that song on 'Revenge' (DJ Particle hosts a show called 'Revenge of the Particle' on dementiaradio.org and themadmusicarchive.com). It's one of only two songs that I never play on my other show, and I won't say what that other song is. I don't want votes to drum up for it at all.

"So, the fact of the matter is, this song got sort-of pushed to be voted. Someone pimped this song for votes in the [Mad Music Archive] forum. And as a result, this song becomes the #2 song of this week, and the highest debut as a result. So, unfortunately for me, I have to play it. But keep in mind that I'm playing this under protest, personally, because, I do not like intentional mean-hearted slams against other people in the dementia community.

"Debuting at #2, here is the anonymous composition called 'Dementia Hits'".

And after the song was played, she continued.

"#2. The anonymous composition called 'Dementia Hits', debuting this week at #2, played under protest."

She continued on with the rest of the show.

Now I have to comment on this. DJ Particle, the host, explained the story behind the song with class and maturity. The fact that this song reached #2 says that there is a major problem with the dementia music community that needs to be resolved, and the answer isn't getting people who disagree with me and my novelty creations to gang up on me and drive me away.

At work, back in early July, I heard from three of my co-workers who tell me that my stuff is funny. One person I talked to asked me why I wasn't posting on The Fump sideshow, and after I explained the story, he told me to "get back on and post again," only he said it with expletetives.

So I did, and this flame attack has started up, but my coworker told me to "just keep posting and not reply to any of the Fump Sideshow posts as you're only going to keep getting flamed. Just keep posting until something finally sticks and gets you votes on DT20 and Dr. Demento."

Just this past week, I posted Dead Bug, a silly novelty song about a dead bug on the wall, on The Fump Sideshow. Hear it and read the posts here: http://www.thefump.com/side.php?id=535

Here once again is cretin majorb: "hello, my name is david tanny. i have no desire to improve and am very unfunny. let me make an obnoxious beat and loop it constantly and then rap over it. only i can't rap. and i can't write funny lyrics. and i don't take a hint. and if you point this out, i will make sexist comments and miss the point. BUY MY CD, IT'S PROFESSIONALLY MANUFACTURED." Yes, he's flaming again. I'm not going to argue with this cretin who simply doesn't get it.

Here's one post from somebody I never heard of before, Ruben and The Novelty Shack. Here's what he posted on The Sideshow: "Wow... Just. Wow... I know there are folks laughing at this, but for all the wrong reasons, I myself included. I mean, does Tanny really think that his career as a novelty musician is going to seriously take off with these mediocre recordings?? Tanny, please don't take my criticisms the wrong way, this isn't an attack or a slam at what you're trying to produce, but you seriously need to re-evaluate your meathods (sic) of producing songs, espeically your parodies. I mean, don't get me wrong, lots of us started out putting out songs in one form or another, I myself included, but staying stagonated and being comfortable with the quick and easy meathod doesn't do you any favors. Have you ever considered having someone help you produce a one of your skits or songs, like your parodies for example?? I know lots of Dementia artists get helped out by other Dementia artists when they can't put something out on their own, I myself included. In fact, a very good friend and frequent FuMP'er was very cool to help me produce my first submission, which should be public in a few days. If you like using MIDI files, that's super, but maybe perhaps you want them to sound less plasticky and perhaps closer to the song you're trying to parody. I'd be very happy to whip you up a few instrumentals for your future parodies. Look me up, I'd be very glad to give you a hand in making better backing tracks. Ciao for Now, Ruben."

Now that's how you post a comment. Not majorb, but Ruben.

jamesonthenet says, "Dementia Hits is #2 on Tanny's old countdown show." I'm sure that he's referring to the song as a chart position, rather than what sounds more obvious.