The Wet Spots
...have been a going concern for over a decade now. The act is a musical comedy and cabaret duo. Cass King is my performing partner and co-writer. The unifying theme of the material is sex comedy, and the music spans multiple genres. The songwriting approach is to satirize the conventions of a particular genre of music, as much as it is to explore a bawdy concept or narrative. Click here for the official website.
A Few Songs
In George, we drew musical inspiration from bossa nova generally, and Girl from Ipanema in particular. In that song the lyric is almost haiku-like: a snapshot of a moment, perfect and brilliant in its whimsical simplicity. We tried to recreate this, following George through his breakfast, his morning bicycle ride, and some of the fleeting thoughts in his head.
The middle eight was a lift from another bossa standard Aguas De Marco which features Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ellis Regina trading some fast back-and-forth lyrics near the end of the song. In the classic studio recording of that number, you can hear them cracking up as they riff off each other.
The middle eight was a lift from another bossa standard Aguas De Marco which features Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ellis Regina trading some fast back-and-forth lyrics near the end of the song. In the classic studio recording of that number, you can hear them cracking up as they riff off each other.
Wherever You’re Going is an “I want” song - the sort of yearning ballad that features in every Disney cartoon musical ever written. South Park did a great parody of this genre with Satan’s song Up There. This is The Wet Spots’ take. As such, it sort of swings into a bump & grind rhythm near the end. This song, and George above were featured in television commercials for Womyns’ Ware - a Vancouver sexuality store.
Do You Take It…? has become the Wet Spots’ signature tune. My favourite part of the number is the introduction. Again, Disney cartoon musicals are the inspiration. There’s usually a romantic duet in these films, the sort of song that asks “Are you the one for me?”. The introduction to those songs is usually sung in traded-off vocal lines until the two romantic leads harmonize sweetly together on the hook in the first chorus. While I love the very unexpected twist our first chorus puts on the template, I’m also tickled by the banal hipster platitudes our two leads sing at each other in the intro. Apparently having heard of Baudelaire is enough, one doesn’t actually need to have read him…
This song has been featured in several movies and television shows including "The L Word", "The Sex Movie" and a gay Italian porn DVD also entitled "Do You Take It...?"
This song has been featured in several movies and television shows including "The L Word", "The Sex Movie" and a gay Italian porn DVD also entitled "Do You Take It...?"