As Saturday Night Live heartthrob Jimmy Fallon's new The Bathroom Wall suggests, this is worrisome. For the first half of the CD, Fallon tackles music. Or, rather, it tackles him: "Idiot Boyfriend" is a lame impersonation of Beck's Prince impersonation, "(I Can't Play) Basketball" a lame take on the Beastie Boys' Run-D.M.C. infatuation and "Drinking in the Woods" just lame. The second half is stand-up, and while Fallon's impersonations come in handier here--his dead-on Adam Sandler gets the most laughs, and it's easy to see why--all the aren't-dorm-room-refrigerators-small? crap is more leaden than the freshman 15.
Self-styled Hollywood pervert Andy Dick fares a little better on his album with the magnificently monikered Bitches of the Century. It's all music, and the Bitches' glammed-up pop-rock recalls the brilliant David Bowie/New York Dolls pastiche composer Stephen Trask conceived for Hedwig and the Angry Inch; most of the songs are as sex-obsessed as Trask's, too ("I'll Fuck Anything That Moves" is especially nice). Still, Hedwig worked as more than a leather-clad in-joke because Trask's songs actually moved toward saying something; Dick never really digs into his well-publicized history of substance abuse, instead just hinting at it before deflecting meaning with paper-thin penis humor and tacky anus jokes. Proud devil-worshipers, Tenacious D have unleashed some real witchcraft.