Friday Happy: The XYZ Affair will take the physical challenge

Sometimes your neighbor is a jerk. Sometimes your neighbor is Marc Summers. Sometimes those things are one and the same.

Here’s the video for the song “All My Friends” (not a LCD Soundsystem cover) by Brooklyn independent power popsters the XYZ Affair, a band whose name stirs all sorts of memories of long afternoons in Mr. Correll’s class searching my brain for clues to distinguish the minutiae of 18th century diplomatic kerfuffles so I didn’t blow another DBQ (I was nice with the Alien and Sedition Acts, however).

The crux of the video: Marc Summers doesn’t like music and a trifecta of Nickelodeon stars needs to come together to stop his tyrannical neighborly ways. See if you can identify all of them (answers after the jump).

(via Stereogum)

That’s right: Jason Zimbler (Ferguson on Clarissa Explains It All), Danny Cooksey (Bobby Budnick on Salute Your Shorts) and Michael Maronna (Big Pete on The Adventures of Pete and Pete). Stereogum points out that the only thing missing is a cameo by Blake Sennett, formerly of Salute Your Shorts and now of Rilo Kiley. That would be about as likely to happen as Jenny Lewis being an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros., I think.

The XYZ Affair has some solid songs, full of a falsetto anthem arc and a generally sunny musical disposition that makes the following lyric from “Sarah” more cutesy than bleak: “She’ll suck the soul out of your pores/ Sarah was an enterprising whore.” They pack lyrics tightly into a small, poppy space, giving the songs a deeper texture.

Also, I love this line: “Let’s not be too frantic. You be Frank Black, I’ll be Black Francis.”

They just self-released an EP this month, 2 Summer Jams. Get it for yourself here: it’s free! And legal!I mean, for pete’s sake,  they got the host of Double Dare to throw a bucket of slime on Bobby Budnick. Does that not deserve your attention for at least a few songs?

Final note:

There’s a whole other blog post to be written on how amazing and ahead of its time Pete and Pete was. Can you think of another kids’ show whose guest stars included Hunter S. Thompson, Iggy Pop, Steve Buscemi, Adam West and Lucsious Jackson? No, you can’t. If any of us grew up to be cool indie kids despite all the rest of the terrible crap we watched on TV (Hammerman, looking at you, not proud), we’d have Pete and Pete to thank.

Here’s a six-page interview Filter did with the cast and crew a few years ago. It’s a good perspective that likens the production of the show to a college radio station. Great imagery of little Pete pestering Iggy Pop with questions about bands and music as they both sat on the floor eating peanut butter sandwiches on break.