Paul and Storm
Paul and Storm | |
|---|---|
| Paul and Storm at PAX 09 Paul and Storm at PAX 09 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Arlington, Virginia |
| Genres | Comedy Rock, Comedy |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Bulletproof Artist Management |
| Members | Paul Sabourin Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo |
| Website | http://paulandstorm.com |
Paul and Storm are an Arlington, Virginia-based comedic musical duo consisting of Paul Sabourin and Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo. They had formerly been members of the a cappella group Da Vinci’s Notebook. DiCostanzo had also been a member of the generics a capella student group while an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, College Park, and appeared on their 1993 album will sing for food.
They are favorites of Dr. Demento and regular radio guests on the The Bob and Tom Show. They tour regularly with Jonathan Coulton, singing backup vocals for a number of his songs. Coulton has also appeared on stage to do backup for Paul and Storm's songs.
Formation
For 12 years Sabourin and DiCostanzo were one half of the a cappella comedy band Da Vinci's Notebook. When that group went on their "Moxy Früvous-style hiatus," in 2004 the two struck out on their own, with Paul playing keyboard and penny whistle and Storm on the guitar.
Work
Before releasing an official debut album Paul and Storm released a demo EP of songs that would eventually be re-recorded for their debut album Opening Band, as well as other songs that have yet to be rerecorded. The EP was titled Shame and Cookie Dough.
In 2005, the duo released Opening Band, their first album release. The title stems from the lead track off the album, an idea thought up by Storm after their experience as being the opening act. While they mainly perform live as a duo, they had the help of many guest musicians on the album, including Mike Clem and Eddie Hartness of Eddie from Ohio and Valerie Vigoda, Brendon Milburn, and Gene Lewin from Groovelily. Groovelily performed as Paul and Storm's back-up band at the 2005 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. The album features a number of "Rejected Commercial Jingles" as well as a commentary track for two of the album's songs.
Their second album News to Us was recorded week by week for the Bob and Tom radio show as a featured weekly news segment. Many of the tracks on the album feature the radio hosts introducing each song; also there is the audible trademark Bob and Tom laughter on the tracks dubbed as the "On-Air" versions. At the end of the album, the duo placed the studio version of most of the tracks as well so that listeners could have a more traditional album experience. The song "Your Love Is" on the album was co-written by Jonathan Coulton.
In 2007 their third full length studio album Gumbo Pants was released. This album features their fan favorite, and often live concert closing track "The Captain's Wife's Lament" as well as other fan favorites such as "Count to Ten" and "A Better Version of You". It also featured a number of very short tracks that were titled "One Sentence Songs" and more "Rejected Commercial Jingles".
In 2010 after a three-year lapse between albums, the duo released their fourth studio album Do You Like Star Wars?. The album is a collection of songs that the duo had released one by one in the years following Gumbo Pants. It includes concert favorites such as "Nun Fight", "Cruel, Cruel Moon", and "Frogger! The Frogger Musical!". A number of the songs released on this album were written for Quick Stop Entertainment's Masters of Song Fu contest.
Live Shows
Paul and Storm have toured all around the United States as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. They more often than not tour alongside Jonathan Coulton, usually opening up the shows, and also providing backing vocals for a number of songs in Coulton's set.
As part of their tour, they opened for Coulton's act at PAX in Seattle. In November 2009, they toured the United Kingdom alongside Jonathan Coulton, opening the shows with their own songs, just like at PAX.
Other projects
Podcasting
The duo has a weekly audio talk show podcast titled "Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average)". On the podcast the two will often talk about food, live shows, and upcoming projects.
In 2009, in conjunction with friends Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage, Paul and Storm organized a series of music and comedy shows called w00tstock, which began in late October of that year. The events took place around the United States and were billed as "3 hours of Geeks and Music".
Memes
In the summer of 2010 the duo created two separate internet memes via Twitter. Regarding the fact that both of them had come up with them Paul commented that they were considering changing the name of their act to "The Meme Brothers".
WookieeLeaks
In late July, Storm started the popular internet meme of WookieeLeaks by using the hashtag #wookieeleaks on Twitter. The meme is a play on the then recent WikiLeaks publishing of secret government files. Within these tweets a person will mention a secret leaked from the Star Wars universe. Following the success of the hashtag Storm was interviewed by Wired and NPR.
Kanye New Yorker Tweets
Less than a week after the success of WookieeLeaks, Paul created the #kanyenewyorkertweets hashtag via Twitter. Within the tweets where this hashtag is used a person will link to a cartoon from The New Yorker with a tweet from Kanye West added as text below the image. Following its success the meme was picked up by The Onion, Paste Magazine, the Huffington Post, and The New Yorker itself.
Adventure Quest Worlds
In October 2010 they had acted as the musical guests on the online MMO, AQWorlds, in an event that celebrated the 2nd birthday of the game.
Discography
Studio albums
- Opening Band (2005)
- News to Us (2006)
- Gumbo Pants (2007)
- Do You Like Star Wars? (2010)
Other releases
- Shame and Cookie Dough (Demo EP) (2005)
- The 25 Days of Newman (Randy Newman-style Themes) (2008)
- It Might Be Xmas (Holiday-themed They Might Be Giants-style EP) (2009)