DUSKBUSTERS!

The DUSKBUSTERS! technically isn't music, but I didn't want to rename the website Rusty Likes Recordings just to be inclusive of all my CDs. What they are are two DJs, Snott Brezere and Guil Smellerson, of the radio station 94 Licks who are naively brilliant and funny. (By the way, I won't give letter grades to these recordings, just talk about them a bit.)

Information: DUSKBUSTERS! Productions
Suggested first purchase: Untitled

'89 (1989) -- This is the first released broadcast from their first year on the air. The set also includes "Lost Stuff," bits of the only other broadcast that exists in record form from that year, and "Billy Bob and Billy Ray's Noxipator Used Cars," which is pre-DUSKBUSTERS! but which features some of the same people. Funny stuff if you can stomach the crudeness of the production and monotany.

II (1990) -- A nice sequel, which is fine for being redundant since that's half the point.

Plus (1990) -- The characters begin to develop a bit more here, getting away from obligations to that first show.

Thursday (1990) -- Though the shortest of all, at one hour, this is one of the most important in all of the collection, since many of the main characters are introduced and many of the old ones are gelled. A very tight and funny piece of work.

Overtime (1990) -- The longest so far at 2 hours and 30 minutes, this is basically an extended sequel to Thursday, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Fall (1990) -- The boys settle back into another show, a funny little groove.

Miscellaneous (1990) -- This is the first of the really good and memorable shows that points the way to the more "user friendly" shows which will appear in the future. Focused more on shows and other more focused segments this time (as opposed to just rambling into microphones), this longest show to date (at 3 hours) is maybe the best so far. One of the most memorable things is the inspired commercials. This is also a Christmas show. Classic DUSKBUSTERS! at their best.

Talkin' (1991) -- Seemingly at first a bunch of talkin', it ends up being a very important show because of changes in characters, specifically Guil who falls in love with the then-unnamed Dixie.

Finally (1991) -- The last show of the "classic" period (1989-1991), this one suggests that the DUSKBUSTERS! will be off the air forever. An odd one.

Untitled (1992) -- With very little announcement after their year and a half haitus (a really long time considering their normal prolificy), the DUSKBUSTERS! return with a Christmas show which begins the new fresh version of the show, a version that's less mucky and more shiny and likely to get fans. That's not to say they've lost any originality which is the case with lots of underground productions which go slick (they're never quite "slick" anyway), but only that they're better at trimming the fat and being more solid gold.

New (1992) -- The show is sonically sounding even better than before, and the boys play this aspect up so much that we realize they still are much the same hours and hours of filler that they've always been, which is part of the joke.

Sick (1993) -- Both the DJs (and most of the characters) are sick on this one, hence the name, and it and other great ideas make for a nice little show.

Screw (1993) -- Always ones to jump on whatever bandwagon is going on at the time, the DUSKBUSTERS! get into the Jurassic Park craze in one of the most hilarious episodes to date.

Fourteen (1994) -- An odd Halloween show, fitting right alongside this middle period.

Again' (1994) -- The DUSKBUSTERS! are growing up in unexpected ways. The jokes are growing and expanding, and they are caring even less, making everything 100 more times complex than it already was (which was a great deal).

Stupid (1994) -- The DJs show off in a particulary dumb show (all of these negative words being compliments), even bringing in Beavis and Butt-Head.

Six (1995) -- Becoming more and more inexplicable yet funny.

History (1995) -- This show lives up to its name, with a collection of "Lost Stuff" from the classic period of the show surfacing from time to time in introduced segments. The tie-in to Michael Jackson's album of the same name provides some nice jokes as well. A peculiar and interesting show for all sorts of reasons, and you do actually get a pretty good sense of the history of the show from it.

Nutty (1996) -- Although the last show was History and gave us plenty of reminders of old characters and segments, this show brings us back into the present in which the world is radically different... and nutty. Everything's really weird, right down to the floating finger in the elevator.

Intelligent (1996) -- The opposite of Stupid, they actually are being somewhat smart on this one.

Latino (1997) -- Inspired by the Latino music craze, the DJs go Mexicano.

Time (1997) -- The new equivalent of Finally, this one also provides closure to a period of DUSKBUSTERS! history, this time even more so since the show doesn't surface again until 2001 (though Time doesn't suggest, necessarily, that it will be the last show). The effect comes across with re-treads through past episodes, lots of explanations of riddles that are five years old, and using the old equipment from the very first show.

Commercial (2001) -- After four years of not having a tape, this one comes back (again, with no fanfare) and truck right along, this time focusing mostly on the boys' love life (or lack) and infatuations. The beginning of phase three of the DUSKBUSTERS!