The Arrogant Worms

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The Arrogant Worms
Origin Canada
Genre(s) Comedy
Folk
Years active 1991–present
Label(s) Oglio/Arrogant Worms
Members
Trevor Strong
Mike McCormick
Chris Patterson
Former members
Steve Wood
Gord Thompson
John Whytock

The Arrogant Worms are a Canadian musical comedy trio that parodies many musical genres. They are well known for their humorous on-stage banter in addition to their music.

Contents

[edit] History

The Worms came together in 1991 to do a few spots on campus radio station CFRC in Kingston, Ontario, and quickly moved to doing spots on CBC Radio One. Since 1992 the troup has released 11 CDs on their own label. Their most recent album, Beige, was released in early 2006. The Worms toured Canada with the album starting in January 2006 and are currently (2007) touring. The Worms have spread their wings further with the Beige tour, visiting several locations in the UK in summer 2006.

Each album consists mostly of independent tracks paying homage, always humorously, to different genres and topics. Three exceptions are the 1997 Christmas Turkey CD, dedicated to songs about Christmas, and the 1997 Live Bait and 2003 Semi-Conducted CDs, which are live albums, comprising collections of their best songs. Semi-Conducted is performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Rock, folk, ballads, country, Celtic folk, and children's music all have come under the Worm's satirical guns.

When not spoofing a particular style of music, the Worms' material pokes fun at various aspects of daily life in Canada with songs like "Canada's Really Big", "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", "Me Like Hockey", "We are the Beaver" and "Proud to Be Canadian".

The Worms are based in Kingston, Ontario.

[edit] The Worms

The Arrogant Worms currently consist of:

  • Chris Patterson - Bass guitar and vocals
  • Mike McCormick - Guitar and vocals
  • Trevor Strong - Vocals

Former members of the Arrogant Worms include:

  • John Whytock left after C'est Cheese
  • Gord Thompson left after Russell's Shorts
  • Steve Wood left after The Arrogant Worms

Band Member Replacements (in case of emergencies)

  • Tim Readman replaced Mike McCormick in the early 2006 tour

When on tour, the Worms are sometimes accompanied by a musician from the local community.

[edit] Favourites

The Worms usually perform the following songs at every show:

  • "Carrot Juice is Murder" — a parody of an animal rights protest song comparing vegetarians to murderers, including a line about Coleslaw being a fascist regime.
  • "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" — a ballad about a farmer who takes up piracy on the Saskatchewan River. The song was also covered by Captain Tractor.
  • "Mounted Animal Nature Trail" — an audience interaction song about a real place [1] on Manitoulin Island: Terry's Taxidermy and Mounted Animal Nature Trail.
  • "I Am Cow" — a bovine anthem.
  • "We Are the Beaver" — a tribute song to one of Canada's symbolic animals, the beaver. The song mentions how the peaceful rodent compares to other nations' animals like America's bald eagle, Russia's bear and India's tiger.
  • "Canada's Really Big" — A satirical national anthem for Canada.
  • "Log In to You" — a love song using computer network euphemisms for sex.
  • "Rocks and Trees" — A song describing the distinguishing features of Canada.
  • "Jesus' Brother Bob" -- A song about Jesus' brother, Bob, who is always in the shadow of his brother. Bob is seen as "A nobody relative to the son of God", and states that "If only I'd been born just a little sooner, I'd be more than just the brother of God junior."

A notable exception is their 2004 live concert recording "Toast!", which is comprised entirely of new material and contains none of the above songs.

The Worms are frequently mistakenly credited with performing "Eskimo" (often mistakenly titled "I'm the only Gay Eskimo" or "Gay Eskimo"), "Cows with Guns", "The Toronto Song" and "The White House Burned (The War of 1812)", along with various "Weird Al" songs and many other comedies and parodies by miscellaneous bands. The latter two songs are actually by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. These mistakes are most often made on downloading programs such as Limewire, eMule, Kazaa and Morpheus.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Get Stupid!

Get Stupid! is a book released in February 2005 that was written by one of the Arrogant Worms, Trevor Strong. It teaches the "Ignorance IS Bliss Method". It contains three parts:

  • "The IQ (Ignorance Quotient) Test", which tests how ignorant you really are.
  • "The Seven Steps to Bliss", which teaches you how to find happiness through ignorance.
  • "Simplifying the World", which teaches you how to deal with the problems of the world after you have become ignorant. It contains information about everything, including art, gardening, health, and even recipes.

[edit] External links