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Brett Davis was James Murphy in Mid-2000s Indie Rock Avengers parody (watch)

The Special without Brett Davis, which took over Chris Gethard’s old Wednesdays at 11 PM time slot on NYC cable access network MNN, devoted its most recent episode to an Avengers: Infinity War parody where mid-2000s indie rockers must battle Thanos now that most of the actual Avengers are not available due to Spoiler Alert circumstances. Brett Davis, who covered indie rock in the mid-2000s as MC Steinberg for NY Noise, plays LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (and does a pretty good impression), Darren Mabee (who you may have seen in the crowd at many mid-2000s indie rock shows) plays Dan Deacon, and actual indie rocker Jen Goma plays Sufjan Stevens. Other The Special regulars play Conor Oberst, Feist, MIA, Bradford Cox, Gogol Borgello’s Eugene Hutz, Beck, Thom Yorke and more. At one point, Dan Deacon into Beans which is a pretty meta moment that will mean something to mid-’00s BrooklynVegan comment readers. You can watch that episode in full below.

Thanos turns Dan Deacon into Beans on 'Mid 2000s Indie Rock Avengers'
Thanos turns Dan Deacon into Beans on ‘Mid 2000s Indie Rock Avengers’

Brett also has a podcast, The Podcast for Laundry, which has guests like Todd Barry and Chris Gethard, and was part of a recent New York Times profile on Davis:

“Podcast for Laundry” is a satire of podcasting, but only in the way that “Larry Sanders” sends up talk shows: T his is its starting place. But where Mr. Davis takes it is characteristically bizarre. Over the last two months, the podcast has seemed less like distinct episodes than chapters in the story of a sociopath. He struggles; alienates friends; moves to Los Angeles, where he can’t find work or even a place to stay, while running into trouble with the law. While he can be a brusque jerk, there’s pathos to his performance as he becomes increasingly desperate, lashing out at his guests or at various resentments.

His best guests are clued in to this dynamic and play straight men. In a superb performance that evokes her father Chris Elliott’s work on “Late Night With David Letterman,” Bridey Elliott tries and fails to stage an intervention with Mr. Davis, expressing concern that gradually turns to despair and fear. When she says that it seems as if he hasn’t taken a shower in a while, he responds with operatic self-pity.

“I am a monster,” he says. “I am the laundry monster. And I’ll never be clean.”

Meanwhile, Brett will be at Union Hall tonight (5/8) as part of “BackFat Variety” which also features Emily Winter, Janelle James, Dan Perlman, Ana Fabrega, Chris Calogero, and Kerry Coddett (tickets). Brett is presenting “John Gentle: A One Man Show” at Union Hall on May 24 which is described as thus: “John Gentle, a pitiable former adjunct college professor and self-published poet from New Jersey, presents his delusional one-man show, Offer Me Your Breasts, an unfortunate collection of gauche stories and lewd poems about his past lovers and his, ugh, ‘Mama'” (tickets).

Meanwhile, actual LCD Soundsystem and actual Yeah Yeah Yeahs played two nights at Hollywood Bowl.

Shop for indie rock vinyl, Sufjan Stevens included, in our store.