Obadiah Parker

Last month's YouTube phenomenon — Alanis Morrisette's parody of "My Humps" — revealed what we all suspected, that Fergie's ode to her lady lumps just doesn't stand up to lyrical scrutiny. The marvelous thing about last year's YouTube phenomenon, Obadiah Parker's acoustic revisiting of Outkast's "Hey Ya" superimposed over the...

By Serene Dominic

May 17, 2007

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Last month's YouTube phenomenon — Alanis Morrisette's parody of "My Humps" — revealed what we all suspected, that Fergie's ode to her lady lumps just doesn't stand up to lyrical scrutiny. The marvelous thing about last year's YouTube phenomenon, Obadiah Parker's acoustic revisiting of Outkast's "Hey Ya" superimposed over the band's feel-good video, is that Matt Weddle's naked vocals exposed the song's relationship dissatisfaction subtext, which was obscured by all that Polaroid shaking in the original. More than a million people have seen that clip — it's spawned a slew of copycat versions from would-be Weddles and has given this Valley trio not only national airplay but exposure as far away as England, Japan, Germany and Australia. This sets the stage for the acoustic trio to show it's more than a one-trick party, and Obadiah Parker's new live CD offers some examples of singer Weddle's earnest songwriting (which wouldn't upset fans of either Dave Matthews or David Gray), some jazzy horn interjections and another wild-card cover, the band's brave tackling of Radiohead's "Idioteque." In "Oh yeah, I know that song" terms, it's no "Hey Ya," but, hey, you try singing anything off Kid A in the shower.

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