I love a fairly obscure German band called Knorkator -- they're vaguely similar to Rammstein, but with a weirder singer, funny lyrics, and a far more varied style.

Anyway, I just recently realized that they put out an album of sort-of-traditional-German-type songs under a pseudonym, High Mud Leader. In true Knorkator fashion, this is a near homophone with the phrase "heimatlieder", which means "homeland songs", kind of folk songs about a region.

The songs are quite funny, especially since they're German folk-style songs, but realized with sequencers, and as such are completely off-kilter. Even if you don't speak German, they're quite funny.

Here's my favorite, the first track:

• High Mud Leader "Deutschland ist schön"

The lyrics:

Chorus:
Deutschland ist schön, Deutschland ist schön
Mit seinen schönen Flüssen und seinen schönen Seen
Deutschland ist schön, Deutschland ist schön
Mit seinen schönen Tälern und seinen schönen Höhn

Und die Wälder sind so schön, und die Felder sind so schön
Und die Städte sind so schön, Und die Blumenbeete sind so schön
Wo die schönen Bäume steh'n, kann man schön spazieren gehen
Und all die schönen Mädchen sehn, so wunder wunderschön, ja

Chorus

Im Winter liegt der Schnee so schön, und im Frühling schmilzt er schön
Im Sommer kann man schön baden, im Herbst kann man's schön sein lassen
Es sind auch die Tomaten schön, besonders in Salaten schön
Da schmeckt der Schweinebraten schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja

Chorus

Und im Bayern ist es schön, und im Schwarzwald ist es schön
Und im Rheinland ist es schön, und in der Pfalz ist es schön
Und in Thüringen ist es schön, und in Hessen ist es schön
Und in Mecklenburg Vorpommern ist es schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja
Und in der Lüneburger Heide, da ist es schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja
Und in der letzten Ecke der Lausitz, 30 Meter vor der polnischen Grenze,
ja da ist es schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja

The translation (by me, so beware), for those who don't speak German:

Chorus:
Germany is beautiful, Germany is beautiful
with its beautiful rivers and its beautiful lakes
Germany is beautiful, Germany is beautiful
with its beautiful valleys and its beautiful Höhn[*]

And the forests are so beautiful, and the fields are so beautiful
And the cities are so beautiful, and the flower patches are so beautiful
Where the beautiful trees stand, one can go walking beautifully
And see all the beautiful girls, so wonder-wonderful, yes

Chorus

In the winter the snow lies so beautifully, and in spring it melts beautifully
In the summer one can bathe beautifully, in the autumn one can lie beautifully[**]
There is also the beautiful tomatoes, particularly in beautiful salads
There the pig roast tastes beautiful, so wonder-wonderful, yes

Chorus

And in Bavaria it is beautiful, and in the Black Forest it is beautiful
and in the Rhineland it is beautiful, and in Palatinate it is beautiful
and in Thuringia it is beautiful, and in Hesse it is beautiful
and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern it is beautiful, so wonder-wonderful, yes
and in Lüneberg Heath, it is beautiful there, so wonder-wonderful, yes
and in the last corner of Lusatia, 30 meters before the Polish border,
yes, there it is beautiful, so wonder-wonderful, yes

So, I don't really know whether anyone but me will find this funny, but the fact that they keep smashing shit in there at the end just kills me every time. But then, i like Weird Al, too.

[*] I can't for the life of me figure this out (which is also par for the course with this band). It's an area of Germany, but I can't see that it's a German word outside of that name. Is that where they're from? Some other reference? Who knows. They throw a lot of German region names at the end; maybe it's a precursor of that....

[**] I don't quite understand this line either. So much for fluency.