DISCOGRAPHY AND THE WHOLE STORY

Hey dudes!!!! Well if you've made it to this bad ass futuristic page then you're obviously interested in how Humanimal and their supersonic songs came to be. It all started late in the summer of 97'. Paul Langlais had just graduated from Texas Tech and was back in town after a roadtrip to his homeland of Quebec, Canada with his bro' Mark and his Pops (be ready, the Pops will be making his debut in the Movies section this spring!) .

Ben Schenk had just returned to town after a summer in Vermont as a camp counselor. Ben had become pretty tight with the Grand Duke of Hazzard Supreme a.k.a. Jarrette Schule and another dude, Dave "Hollywood" Jimenez over the past couple of years. Paul was looking for a new band, having had a successful run with his first band at Tech, Death Star, which he started with Blayne "EZB" Terry. One night in early September, Schenk called up Paul and got him to cruise to this guy Dave's house. Paul brought his trusty acoustic and after a couple of beers, Paul played a Death Star original called "Cho Chai Thai" and Dave was sold......So they began jamming, two acoustics, recording everything with a Karaoke machine that Paul had since Christmas of 87'.

They officially became Humanimal after searching for a band name for over a month. The name Humanimal came from a skit on a show called "Mr. Show", which was on H.BO. during 97' and 98' (the same show that birthed Tenacious D in early 98'). Origianlly, Paul was not interested in the name Humanimal, he preferred Manchine, but was outvoted (2 to 1, Schenk and Dave vs. Paul). And so they jammed in apartments, at The Lakehouse, at Paul's parents house, and then they got the balls to do open mics. One day, a girl named Heather Phillips called Dave and told him that she got an audition for Humanimal at the infamous Tequila Mockingbird downtown on the Riverwalk. They auditioned and got the gig, which was hosting an open mic show of thier very own every Sunday night which started in March of 98'. Humanimal jammed at Tequila Mockingbird for about two years until it all came to an end when Dave decided to move to Hollywood.

And so Dave went to Hollywood for two years and then one day in July of 03', he showed up in the lab, surprised Paul, and declared that the Rover was out front with U-Haul in tow and that he was back in SA town for good. It was that day that Humanimal saddled up and began to ride again. After about ten days, the legendary Cameron Mansker called up Dave and declared that she had secureed an audition for Humanimal at a place called Alibi's, downtown near Sunset station. The owner, Nick Johnson, was an instant Humanimal sympathiser, and offered the boys a steady gig Saturday nights as an acoustic two man show. Needless to say, Dave and Paul reunited with the previous Humanimal drummer and sax player, Dan "The Automator" Aranda and Jason "The Jewish Jailbird" Hernandez,, by a pure twist of fate. They recruited an architecture student from UTSA, J.J. "Fozzy Bear" Weiss, through Amy "Miss Humanimal 2003" Jackson, as the bass player.....and well, to put it bluntly, shit just straight up took off,

We here at Humanimal Headquaters want to give you guys a feel for how our songs came to be, so below we've provided the stories of how some of our songs were born...so check that shit out man!!

Click on a song to read about its origin....
 

16 Kilos of Cocaine
Abraham Lincoln
Breathe
Buddah
Caribou
Chinese Robots
Freeway

Hollywood Hogan V2.01
Lotus
Mamas Man
Rich Ghetto Boyz
Shaggy Dog
Switching My Shifts
We’re the Best

My•thol•o•gy

1 : an allegorical narrative
2 : a body of myths : as a : the myths dealing with the gods, demigods,
and legendary heroes of a particular people b : MYTHOS 2 <cold war mythology>
3 : a branch of knowledge that deals with myth
4 : a popular belief or assumption that has grown up around someone or something

16 Kilos of Cocaine

A pure ripper written on the fly by paul and dave. this song is about dave's ambassadorship to all the evil leaders of the world. It turns out to be a multi-billion dollar yacht ride dave will never forget.

Abraham Lincoln

One of the staple songs of Humanimal, this song was yet another on the fly recording. This time, it was in Paul's parents' house in 1997 with Paul on drums (and lyrics) and Dave on guitar. Fortunately enough, the original lyrics are still the lyrics you hear at the shows to this day.

Breathe

Recorded “on the fly” (definition: made it up as we were playing and just happened to be recording on the karaoke machine) in 1998 by Dave, Paul, and BJ Lichtenberg (a Humanimal affiliate). Didn’t think much of it at the time. Three or four weeks later Ben and BJ were sitting around listening to the tapes and stumbled across it and “struck gold”. The song is played EXACTLY like the original recording except for one verse, sung by Paul, which stunk. The song has only surfaced twice during the 2003 Humanimal Strikes Again Tour. It is sometimes preceded by the song “Sing Pretty” which lit up the charts.

Buddah

After studying pastoral theology at a fundamentalist Christian college in Missouri, Dave somehow acquired "fire and brimstone" preaching skills. Luckily enough for us, Dave never became a pastor of a local Baptist church. However, Dave did manage to use his spiritual prowess to come up with this song for everybody. Now, all people from all religions can come and worship Humanimal together!!

Caribou

Probably our first decent song, this masterpiece was part of the original 1997 lakehouse recordings. The song began with Paul's classic Humanimal lore. However, it was Ben's genious puppetmaster expertise that forced dave into an impromptu lyrical rant about the mortal enemy of Humanimal: the Caribou. It was a hit from the very first time
Humanimal played it in front of an audience, which was the Humanimal debut at Tequila Mockingbird in March 1998.

Chinese Robots

This one was recorded on the Kareoke Machine by Ben and Dave in 1998. It was a terrible recording, couldn’t hear shit. But it was on wax, although the original recording was lost (unlike every other song, which are all in the Humanimal Music Bank Account)…. This one became a hit at Tequila Mockingbird, where we metamorphed it into the song you hear at the end of every show.

Freeway

Freeway: A song by Paul Langlais inspired by a long journey of one man's sexual frustration in the man vs. female world we live in. This one was made up one afternoon on a weekend in early 98’, with Paul on the drums and Dave on guitar at Paul’s parents’ house. The Humanimals came up with the idea and the riff before they pressed record on the Kareoke machine, so they had to stop mid song, regroup, get Ben off the couch for some expertise tambourine and background humming, and did the song in one take, on the fly of course. It was then made over on December 4th, 2003 in order to make it ready for the Winter Wonderland with Humanimal Tour 2003 debut at Jacks.

Hollywood Hogan v2.01

Hollywood Hogan V2.01

This is yet another brainchild brainchild of the legendary Ben Schenk. When Paul, Ben, and Jarrette a.k.a. The Grand Duke Of Hazzard Supreme went to Robert E. Lee Highshool during the years of 89-93, there was a guy by the name of “Neil”. He had Down Syndrome and he was a fiery redhead. One day Ben was eating lunch with his friends and Neil came up to Ben specifically, got in his face, and asked…….

“YOU’S CALL MY MOMMA HULK HOGAN?”

In February of 2004, Ben, Paul, Brad, and Dave were at Ben Schenk’s apartment on West Ave specifically to make up a song. Ben brought up that legendary phrase, Paul came up with a riff, and they all started writing. It was written from Neil’s point of view, where he was just a typical teenager looking for chicks but for some reason everyone was calling his momma Hulk Hogan. They wrote the song that night and the next Saturday all the members of Humanimal got together in Brad’s garage before a Crabby’s show and came up with the rest. This was the first song they ever came up with all together as a band, but more importantly, it was the first song where they were able to take advantage of Jason’s background in music theory, hence the serious breakdowns in the song. They song was a hit from day one.

Lotus

During a period of far east influence, Paul and Dave recorded this power ballad on the fly at the International Residence apartments in 1999. The song is a message to our decendents of freedom and hope. Metaphorically, the lyrics are an elaborate painting of eastern culture, though the song is really about Paul's Lotus brand bass guitar.

Not Your Mama's Man

This song was written one night in late 2001 by Ben Schenk and Paul at the Escalante Apartments. Ben was pumped up about a line he had been thinking about: “Just cause your mama calls me, doesn’t mean I’m your mama’s man”. So Ben and Paul sat down on the porch and sipped Lone Star Light tall boys and wrote the song with pen and paper in about 40 minutes. They chose the first riff Paul came up with. Paul and Ben didn’t expect anything of it, considering Humanimal hadn’t played in 2 years. They debuted it for Jarrette and Lauri Schule, albeit without much success. Then 2003 came, and along with the resurrection of Humanimal came the resurrection of ‘Not Your Mama’s Man’.

Rich Ghetto Boyz

Written in July, 2003 by Dave, this song is an intricate lyrical magnum opus dedicated to the hard working, gangster rap over-appreciative Anglo-Saxon populous of our country.

Shaggy Dog

Another song recorded on the fly in 1998. We play it live EXACTLY like the original recording, every fucking word. This song was made with Dave on guitar, BJ on guitar, and Paul on bass. We’re not really sure where the idea came from. We recorded this one when Ben, Dave, and Jarrette lived in the Eagle’s Nest apartments on Fredricksberg Rd. It was about 10:00 at night and we had all enjoyed some Lone Star Light and probably other things that we enjoy.

Switching My Shifts

This song was created upon the return of Dave from Hollywood in 2003. Paul and Dave had the studio set up in the Arboretum Apartments and they had just bought a 20-pack of Lone Star Light. About two hours into jamming and simultaneously recording, Dave came up with the riff and Paul began to talk about “Why you gotta give me fucked up shifts all the time boss?” But the real killer was when they discovered how to do the 50’s harmonizing on the “Sucks my dick” chorus. Dave wrote the lyrics proper several days later and the day they got together and learned it was August 2nd, 2003, the same day they debuted it at Alibi’s.

We’re the Best

If you ever wondered where people come up with the shit that they write then this is the history lesson for you. Paul gets his ideas when he drives his car. He has a notebook (that Amy gave him) in his console and he whips it out when he gets an idea. The idea for this song came while Paul was driving, the phrase “Cause we’re the best ‘We’re the best’ and it feels so good, doin’ you just like you knew we would” just popped in his head. So later on that day, during a science seminar, he pulled out his trusty science notebook and wrote the first half. Later on that week he wrote the 2nd half.  So he showed the lyrics to Dave and Dave said “well give me a riff” and the first riff Paul came up with off the top of his head is the riff you hear every time we play that biznitch. A couple of days later Paul and JJ added another riff that Paul had made up three years earlier (which is the first riff you hear on the album version). Dan added that fat ass 808 kick drum and Jason added the ambulance sax and that SHIT WAS ON!

TALK TO THE BAND, EMAIL US AT THE_HUMANIMALS@HOTMAIL.COM !!!!