Paul and Storm

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Current revision as of 14:18, 22 January 2023

Paul and Storm

Origins	Arlington, VA
Genre(s)	Comedy rock
Members	Paul Sabourin Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo
Discography	Opening Band (2005) News to Us (2006) Gumbo Pants (2007) Do You Like Star Wars? (2010) Ball Pit (2014)

Paul and Storm are a comedic musical duo, consisting of Paul Sabourin and Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo. The duo has contributed the songs Ballad of The Sneak and Theme from Stinkoman to Homestar Runner.

Sabourin and DiCostanzo are former members of a cappella comedy music group Da Vinci's Notebook, where they performed alongside Bernie Muller-Thym and Richard Hsu. The group was active from 1994 through 2004.

[edit] Contributions to Homestar Runner

Although it is a point of contention which band member first discovered homestarrunner.com, Da Vinci's Notebook became fans of the site after seeing a content warning July 4, 2001 post on Memepool.com. Paul used his "mad Interwebs stalking skills and a phone book" to get in touch with The Brothers Chaps — finding Don Chapman's information through a WHOIS search and eventually convincing the brothers to come see a Da Vinci's Notebook performance in Atlanta. Remarking that "it was early enough in their career that they were more flattered than creeped out when I tracked them down," a friendship was born.

[edit] "Ballad of The Sneak"

The Brothers Chaps asked Da Vinci's Notebook to write a theme song for The Sneak. Aside from describing it as an Old-Timey version of The Skate Party's The Cheat Theme Song, the band was given free rein in the songwriting.

Storm drove the direction, structure, and writing process, and passed lyrics back and forth with Paul (mostly over email). The line "The Cheat, The Cheat" from the original song was used as a starting point, and the song structure roughly follows the original. The chronological inconsistencies (references to Tammany Hall, the Hully Gully, the Kaiser, prohibition, etc.) were, for the most part, intentional; partly to keep with the overall feel The Brothers Chaps had established with the toons, and partly to see if people would point them out. The trumpet instrumental at the one-minute mark was originally made for a previous Paul and Storm project that similarly used an old-timey style.

Paul did much of the vocals and recording on a Gateway 2000 PC. A long Christmas wrapping paper tube was used to make it sound like it was being sung from a megaphone. Storm recalls that they finished fairly quickly; though they worked on it in between a lot of other projects and tours over a month, the actual work time was only a handful of hours. Paul and Storm gave no input on the animation; even the random sound effects were added mainly to see what visuals The Brothers Chaps would create to accompany them. The "Ballad of The Sneak" toon appeared on the Homestar Runner site about a month after the song had been sent in.

Paul and Storm consider "Ballad of The Sneak" to be inadvertently their first "Paul and Storm" song, as the other two members of Da Vinci's Notebook had no involvement in its production. It was later released on the Paul and Storm compilation EP Shame and Cookie Dough. When rereleased on Homestar Runner Original Soundtrack Volume 1 in 2020, the song was credited simply to "Paul & Storm".

[edit] "Theme from Stinkoman"

A theme song for Stinkoman was also created by Paul and Storm. It was first released on Homestar Runner Original Soundtrack Volume 2, and then several months later added to the site as the backing track for the Stinkoman 20X6 Intro Cinematic.

Although the full song was not released until 2020, it had been written many years earlier — a 2020 @StrongBadActual tweet estimated the song was "from like 2003". The Brothers Chaps played a portion of the song at Georgia Tech in 2007, describing it as being made "a long time ago" by "the guys from Da Vinci's Notebook [...] the same guys who did this cartoon called 'The Ballad of the Sneak' on the website" (the final release simply credits the song to "Paul & Storm"). In addition, the instrumental of the song is shared with Under Construction from 2004; Paul and Storm are referenced in the toon's fake credits sequence, as Sound Composers "paul pan" and "storm storm". However, it is unknown if Paul and Storm wrote this musical fragment for Under Construction, or simply reused it from the toon when writing their theme song.

[edit] Other work with The Brothers Chaps

Matt Chapman has appeared onstage at their shows to perform such songs as Trogdor and the Strong Badia National Anthem.

Strong Bad introduced Paul and Storm at Dragon Con 2008:

STRONG BAD: Ladies and gentlemen! Klingons and Daleks! Bobas and {disappointed} Jangos. B-list celebrities and their entourages of hangers-on! I am called Strong Bad! I urge you to take a moment, put down that vinyl bust or that pewter figurine you're thinking of buying, and give a warm, sweaty welcome to Stormy Paul and the Forecasts! ...What? Paul and Storm? Well that's a huge waste of one cool name and one Paul name. I'm outta here. Anyways, give it up for Paul and Storm.

In 2014, the Brothers Chaps assisted with animation, writing, and voice work for "The Paul and Storm Nondenominational Perennial Holiday Special" videos.

On May 13, 2020, Matt Chapman read an excerpt from the Thy Dungeonman Instruction Manual for the "Worst First Chapter" YouTube series, hosted by Paul and Storm.

[edit] External links

• Da Vinci's Notebook (archived)
• Paul and Storm
• Paul and Storm walk through "The Ballad of the Sneak" on the podcast "Come On, Fhqwhpods"