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Lemon Demon - Damn Skippy
Damn Skippy is Neil Cicierega's seventh album, and his fourth under the name Lemon Demon, being preceded by (at the time Trapezoid) Deporitaz's Outsmart (2000), Microwave this CD (2001), and Dimes in 2002, followed then after by Lemon Demon's debut trilogy of Clown Circus (2003), Live from the Haunted Candle (2003), and Hip to the Javabean (2004). Damn Skippy is currently Neil's oldest album to have been reissued by Needlejuice Records as of January 26th, 2024.
Dead Sea Monkeys
I like this one. I can't really put into words my thoughts on this song, but I can try. It feels like a brilliantly demented combination of grim and comedic, which is the best kind of music (e.g. Christmas at Ground Zero, The Night Santa Went Crazy). It's a good opener to a great album.
Rating: 7 brine-shrimp pals in a better place out of 10
Sky is Not Blue
This one's alright, too. I don't feel super strongly about it, so I'll just give it an average rating in return for you letting me get away with not talking about it. I like the song, but I don't have much to say about it. Maybe I'll revisit this page some other time.
Rating: 7 molten Lego minifigures out of 10
Pumpkin Pie
An absolute classic from the album. To me, any song with an accordion is S-tier. This song in particular always makes me hungry for pumpkin pie. Probably doesn't help that when I first got the CD of Damn Skippy, we had plenty of pumpkin pie at home, so now eating pumpkin pie is permanently associated with listening to Pumpkin Pie for me. Whoops.
Anyway, I like pumpkin pie. Oh, and the song's good, too.
Rating: 9 slices out of 10
When Robots Attack
When Robots Attack has the misfortune of being placed between two of my favorite songs on the album. I don't feel as strongly as I do for Pumpkin Pie or Geeks in Love, but When Robots Attack is a nearly perfect transition between the two songs, and it's definitely earned a solid 8/10.
Rating: 8 locked-up children and pets out of 10
Geeks in Love
This song was actually my favorite for a while. However, for around the first month of me listening to an album, my opinion on the best songs can kind of ebb and flow. It's definitely still in my top 3 for this album, though! The little references hidden in the "scatting" parts (kaboominy-woah-Nelly-love, gashibbity-waffles-and-love, sha-peppity-bismol-love, ma-Spockity-Nimoy-love, etc.) really tie it all together for me and make a great song even greater. And of course, a music video animated entirely in Adobe Flash brings it to the top.
Rating: 10 geekity-geekity-geeks out of 10
New Way Out
My personal favorite song, New Way Out has in spades the "bounce" that PYEO webmaster Winter mentions all the time when discussing song instrumentals. The nonsensical lyrics make it an incredibly fun song to sing along to. Also, any song that interpolates a secon language other than English; in this case, Japanese (Nana korobi ya oki / Ro-ma wa ichinichi ni shite narazu, baby), is a good song in my book.
Rating: 10 packs of Burger King fries out of 10
What Will Happen Will Happen
Ah, a song about not giving a fuck. Name a better concept. It feels like if New Way Out was a little less bouncy and had slightly more coherent lyrics. Apparently this song was written because a handful of Neil's friends fell into a depressive spiral because of the outcome of the 2004 United States presidential election. But, who cares about that? It's just a god-damn good song!
Rating: 8 damns not given out of 10
Kitten is Angry
An adorably violent song, Kitten is Angry is a cute-as-hell ode written by Neil from the perspective of a cat owner who lives with the most aggressive cat you may ever meet. Tearing up curtains, murdering innocent guests, and purring the whole time. I love it. It's cute, despite it's somewhat violent subject matter.
Rating: 8 disgruntled cats out of 10
The Ceiling
Yeah, this one's kind of short. Neil likens his room to the universe in it, too. Like, freakin' deep, man.
Rating: 7 charming constellations out of 10
Subtle Oddities
This is easily in the top 3 most catchy songs on this album. I'm not sure what it is about it, but it just has the right amount of energy. There's one part where Neil is sort of scatting (which probably isn't the best word to describe what Neil does, but I don't know of a better one) which is incredibly reminiscent of They Might Be Giants.
Rating: 8 old fallen chandeliers out of 10
Gonna Dig Up Alec Guinness
Ah, the third Star Wars themed song I've reviewed on this website, the first two being The Saga Begins and Yoda by "Weird Al" Yankovic. That also makes it the first of those to not be by Weird Al! However, it's not as in-universe as Al's songs - more so, it's about... well, robbing the grave of the guy who played Obi Wan Kenobi. Obviously. It's a dumb premise fo a song, which is why it works so well.
Rating: 8 lightsabers swung at a corpse out of 10
Flamingo Legs
As far as nonsense songs go, this is a pretty good one. However, I think this album already had enough nonsense songs on it - and this doesn't come close to topping either of them.
Rating: 7 more meaningless lyrics out of 10
Ode to Crayola
This is one of my favorite songs on this album - if it weren't for New Way Out, it'd easily kick the ass of everything else on the album. I love how it paints (or rather, colors) the narrator as slowly becoming more and more insane as the song goes on, going from loving Crayola crayons, to eating them, to coloring on himself in the nude, to wearing them, to finally praising them as the deity that they truly are. God Bless Crayola, Crayola Bless All.
Rating: 10 crayons eaten out of 10
Rainwater
I like this song quite a bit, and it'd earn itself a 7/10 under normal condition. However, the guitar solo in it is pretty cool (though it has no explosion, unlike Eat It and Action Movie Hero Boy.)
Rating: 8 jugs of rainwater out of 10
Smell Like A Cookie All Day
It's a fun song, but nothing too remarkable about it in my opinion. However, it did make the Pumpkin Cookie variant of the vinyl album possible, so I owe it that much.
Rating: 7 cookies smelt like out of 10
Dizziful Bliss
What's an album with swirls on the cover if it doesn't have a song about being dizzy? I like the slightly calmer feel, especially coming after the rockish part in Smell Like A Cookie, and coming before That Song Where Neil Says Words.
Rating: 7 spinning chairs out of 10
Word Disassociation
A master class in meaningless lyrics. Now, by this point, Neil was no stranger to songs with meaningless lyrics - but at least songs like New Way Out, Flamingo Legs, Boat, Sky is not Blue, Sundial*, and Fly Straight Or Drop The Oar And Wreck still followed simple English grammar rules. However, Word Disassociation is just a completely random string of words put to one of the world's catchiest tunes. And it works! It really, really works! This is the kind of song that would be incredibly fun to try and learn the lyrics to. Oh, and "Enemy Lasagna" would make a great band name, alongside the "Misery's Bitch" and "Random Pieces of Lint" names that Neil pitches in this album's commentary.
*Sundial actually did not exist at the time of Damn Skippy's release.
Rating: 10 slices of enemy lasagna out of 10
Eventuality
Yeah, I don't really have much to say about this one. It's good, and I like it, but I don't think it gives much an impact to the album's conclusion like Running With Scissors' Albuquerque or "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D's Nature Trail To Hell, nor tying back into the start of the album like Spirit Phone's Spiral of Ants. The sampling of Chip's Challenge gameplay was additionally a unique choice.
Rating: 8 unplugged globes out of 10
Conclusion
The album is a solid 9/10 on its own without these tracks, but the addition of Pumpkin Pie, Geeks In Love, New Way Out, Ode to Crayola, and Word Disassociation elevates it to a rock-solid 10/10. Neil gets a gold star.
Rating: 10 silhouettes out of 10
Formats owned on: CD, cassette, LP (Damn variant), MiniDisc
BONUS TRACKS!!
Hey, thanks for stickin' around. As a bonus, I'll review the... well, bonus tracks! These might not all be done yet, so be patient!
Fanfare
This is the pregap track from Disc 1... and it's just the intro to What Will Happen Will Happen. It also plays when you open the HTML document included on the disc, which is pretty cool. However, I don't see much point in making it a hidden track when it's just the intro to something else.Rating: 6 synth horns out of 10
neil.soul
This is the pregap track from Disc 2. And this... now this is a pregap!Rating: 7 fragments of the soul of Neil Cicierega out of 10
Scatterbrained
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X brains scattered out of 10
Musical Chairs (alternate version)
This is an alternative version of a song on his previous album, Hip to the Javabean. Rest is comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
March of the Living Figments
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Elvis Porn
This is a new track on the Needlejuice Records reissue of the album, and it wasn't there on the original release. It's good, I think it's really funny. I'd certainly recommend playing it for any Elvis fans in your life. That's a good idea, I promise!
Rating: 9 reels of famous musicians in compromising situations out of 10
Lollipops
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Bicycle Race
Parody of Bicycle Race by Queen
('scuse me, little used to reviewing Weird Al albums.)
Cover of Bicycle Race by Queen
Hey, this is the 2nd time I've covered a derivative work of Queen! I hate to break it to you Neil, but... I prefer the Queen version. Why'd you have to get rid of the bells? WHY THE BELLS?! THOSE BICYCLE BELLS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF BICYCLE RACE!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, MAN?!
Excuse me, I got... a little emotional there. I like the cover, but I prefer the original. Rare sentiment for me to have, I know.
Rating: 6 bicycles out of 10
Fuzzy
Parody of Fuzzy by The Incredible Moses Leroy
(Surely, the joke is even funnier the 2nd time.)
Cover of Fuzzy by The Incredible Moses Leroy
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Bottom Line
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Sky Blue Up
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
I Want To Wake Up
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Stampy
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Zero Gravity
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Subtle Oddities (Cheesy Synth Mix)
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Mothers All Over the World
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Pirate in a Box
Cover of Wig in a Box from Hedwig and the Angry Inch
(Rule of threes, bitch!)
Parody of Wig in a Box from Hedwig and the Angry Inch
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
Mr. Porta Potty Man
A true master class in emotion-filled lyrics. He be dancing in the doodoo all night, ja.
Rating: X porta-potties out of 10
How to Poop
comin' soon, stay tuned
Rating: X ? out of 10
The Song You Hear When You Die
I love this song. It's just so stupid that it works. I still remember my first reaction to hearing it. It was just a complete sense of "what the fuck is this??"
Rating: 10 flibbity jibber jabbers out of 10
I'm not even a Tally Hall fan, why am I referencing their work?!
When Robots Attack (Instrumental)
Yeah, it's an instrumental. Just gonna give it the same rating.
Rating: 8 attacking robots out of 10
Geeks In Love (Instrumental)
Not doin' the song twice.
Rating: 10 bubbly lava-lamps out of 10
Kitten Is Angry (Instrumental)
👍
Rating: 8 angry kitties out of 10
Subtle Oddities (Instrumental)
👍👍👍
Rating: 8 chess pieces crawling around like a centipede out of 10
Dizziful Bliss (Instrumental)
👍👍👍👍👍
Rating: 7 flights of stairs fallen down in a 1-story home out of 10
Word Disassociation (Instrumental)
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Rating: 10 hilarious oxymoron claws out of 10
Word Disassociation (Vocal)
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Rating: 10 glasses of already nested human wine out of 10