Joe Piket – Talk Like a Musician (SINGLE)

Joe Piket has established himself well enough as, performer, bandleader and musician that he can pull something like this off. His new single “Talk Like a Musician” is a rare bird nowadays, a “spoof” or parody song, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it has scant musical value. Piket’s far too good to let that happen. The Long Island, New York based musician has built much of his outstanding reputation as bandleader of Joe Piket and the Storm, but he’s released compelling solo material in recent years. Everything is Different covers a broad array of musical styles and its follow-up Songwriter, Volume 1 revisits his youthful songwriting as a sort of return to his roots.

The new single doesn’t slavishly imitate The Bangles. The late 80’s hit for the famous all-girl pop rock band was a definite product of its times as the 80’s production emphasized radio-friendly pop gloss above all else. Piket takes the track in rockier direction, albeit never too much so. His version of the track focuses more on a traditional guitar-led pop rock attack. Piket has always worked with talented collaborators and this is no exception. Liam Sternberg’s music and Nelson Montana’s multi-instrumental performance are key reasons for the song’s success.

The video for the track has a strong DIY flavor but will disappoint few. Piket has a light but undeniable comedic presence and the sly nod to stereotypical rock excess, a double neck electric guitar, is worth a smile from listeners with a similar sense of humor. Interspersing various images into the video, including classical composers among them, livens things up instead of focusing on Piket alone.

His lyric writing is great fun. The rhymes aren’t always exact, but they are close enough when they aren’t. There’s actually a little subtext running underneath the song, frustration with being a musician in a world that doesn’t often take musicians seriously, but it doesn’t dampen the otherwise enthusiastic comedy powering Piket’s take on the Bangles and this wry take on being a professional musician.

It doesn’t stand with his earlier work in terms of making a substantive statement. It isn’t supposed to. Consider this something akin to a five finger exercise from one of the independent music’s scenes most talented and hardest working musicians. We need songs like this every bit as much as we need a heart-wrenching ballad, a kick out the jams rocker, or any other great song. It sounds like a spoof that came bursting out of Piket in a single sitting rather than something he belabored.

It’s a nice trifle but, ultimately, an entertaining distraction between Piket’s more serious material. You hear his intelligence bursting through nearly every line, however, and it’s enjoyable hearing him ridiculously elongating lines just to get the rhyme he wants/needs. It never comes off as tacky or too obvious. Piket’s humor isn’t excessively brainy but has a wry wink a cut above your everyday chuckles. “Talk Like a Musician” is good, entertaining fun and should enjoy widespread appeal.

Rachel Townsend

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