Canned Hamm
Erotic Thriller
(Pro-Am)
Picture Tenacious D with a Casio synthesizer in lieu of acoustic guitars, and you pretty much have Canned Hamm. The Vancouver-based operatic, electronic sex rock kings aren’t serious musicians — they’re a gimmick. All about the costumes, the props and the theatrics, Canned Hamm, like Tenacious D, is a schtick. The main difference is that The D have some pretty good songs, whereas Canned Hamm’s tunes are virtually train wrecks with very little artistic merit. Their main selling point is the humour, which they do well. However, there is one musical bright spot on Erotic Thriller: The band’s mockery of Chuck Mangione’s “Cannonball” is a gem. Perhaps they should stick to the spoofs and leave the songwriting to someone else.
—Jon Bruhm
categories: Canadian artist
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
