From the recording Mingo Town Music Holiday Project
Sandy Klaus - Words and Music by Al Smyth, Mingo Town music 2014
Arrangement and instrumentation by Al Smyth’s FBnCC
Al Smyth’s FBnCC is a flea-bitten unwashed tangled mess of ne'er-do-wells who can barely tie their shoes let alone play an instrument. But even in the adversity found in such a gathering of miscreants this troupe (established by the flunky guitar player Al Smyth circa 2002) somehow manages to present a mirage that surprisingly looks and sounds like music.
When not sitting around throwing feces at each other and using language so fowl that it would embarrass a sailor the individual characters (Cary Dachtyl, Adam Sheets, and Cliff ‘What, me worry?’ Starbuck) dissipate into side projects of local and national stature – assumingly to gain credibility and maintain some degree of dignity.
On the upside though, again, when they do perform Al Smyth’s original music (including this holiday favorite), once one gets past the disheveled clothes and the almost dead fish body odor, a listener can inexplicably reach a state of wonderful nirvana that rivals the strongest psilocybin … perhaps best described as the sliver of wonderment that a goes up your cortex when you hear that “Help me, help me, please!” refrain in Donny Osmond ‘s version of Puppy Love.