Interröbang Cartel

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Interröbang Cartel is a self-described "international Usenet band". The origins of the band can be traced back to a joking post made to alt.religion.kibology by Jacob W. Haller (also known as jwgh) on April 13, 2003. Somewhat unexpectedly, people responded by writing lyrics and subsequently recording them.

The name "Interrobang Cartel" was originally suggested by John D Salt as a stage name for himself, but became the band name at the request of Jeremy Impson. The umlaut was later added by jwgh, but it is not always used.

Interröbang Cartel is not a traditional band. In general, anyone may contribute. So far, the band has about 40 "members", most of whom have never met in person. Many of the songs originate as proposed titles or lyrics, written and posted to alt.religion.kibology or a related forum, which subsequently are recorded by anyone who's interested. As a result, there may be several sets of lyrics with the same title, or recordings that share the same lyrics but have little else in common. Often, vocal and/or instrumental contributions from band members in different parts of the world are edited into a single song. A notable example is "Love of Stones", a vocal duet with one part recorded in Rhode Island, the other in Australia.

With a few notable exceptions, Interröbang Cartel's songs tend to the very surreal and/or absurd, much like the newsgroup from which the band originated; they vary considerably in style, from punk to pop to country to folk to noise.

All Interröbang Cartel recordings are available as mp3s for free download from the band's websites. The band "released" its first album, "Needs More Wanger", on September 20, 2003. The 15 songs were grouped together for download on a single web page, along with album covers and a suggested play order. A limited number of CDs were burned and sent to Dr. Demento as well as a number of radio stations and various band members. So far, the only confirmed play on-air has been by the University of Chicago station, WHPK, on January 12, 2004, on a radio show hosted by alt.religion.kibology regular Ben Wolfson.

A great deal of material has been written and recorded since then, including 'Editors at War', which describes a mythic battle between Emacs and BBEdit (Bare Bones Software's text editor for the Macintosh) and has lyrics written by Plorkwort and recorded by jwgh. On August 30, 2004 Bare Bones Software released version 8 of BBEdit, and its 'About Box' contained a link to this song.

On October 27, 2004, 19 songs were released as a second album, "The Last Days Of The Crazy People's Supermarket", which was named after a post by Kibology founder James 'Kibo' Parry. A notable feature of "Supermarket" was the inclusion of two songs with essentially no humorous or bizarre intent: "Hole in My Black Levis", a straight country song, and "Not Bitter Blues", an instrumental guitar number.

Additional songs, intended for future albums, have been written and recorded, and videos for a few songs have been produced.

When some Interröbang Cartel music was played for Kibo, he remarked, "I hate music, but I don't really mind any of these songs."