One person's carelessly recorded CD full of demo-like songs is another man's... If Not Why Not?. Indeed, the "why not" aspect of that phrase was probably never considered in the disc's creation, as I can't imagine why some of these tracks would ever leave the studio otherwise. Farces Wanna Mo incorporate equal parts Ween, King Missile, Willie Nelson, Sex Pistols, metal, surf music, hip-hop and just plain oddity as they lay down test-tones, shitty guitars, sloppily plunked-out drum machine hits, off-key operatic choruses, talk-radio samples and synth slap-bass (think the Seinfeld theme) to realize their skewed dreams. The lyrical content is just as random: these are words and sentences, but none of them seem to fit together.

Examples of exactly what you'll hear here will probably add to the confusion, but here goes. "Bela Lugosi Loves Honky-Tonkin'" is, predictably, a combination of Bauhaus lyrics and e-bow drones, with piano and auctioneer/roller-rink DJ-style vocals. "I Remember Jimmy Carter" rocks like Jimmy Page, freestyles like Kermit the Frog and falls apart as if your eight-year old brother were manning the mixer.

Generally, this type of honesty and ballsy delivery gives me warm fuzzies, but the unrelenting juxtapositions and off-kilter humor is a little too much. Take that for what it's worth, though -- Frank Zappa still generally fails to excite me. For all its blemishes and weirdness, If Not Why Not? is a lot of fun if listened to with an open mind and taken in small doses.

Avant-garde or savant retarded? You be the judge.