The Arrogant Worms are a Canadian musical comedy trio that parodies many musical genres. They are well known for their humorous on-stage banter in addition to their music.

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History

The Worms came together in 1991 to do a few spots on campus radio station CFRC in Kingston, Ontario, ^[1] and quickly moved to doing spots on CBC Radio One. Since 1992 the troupe has released twelve CDs. Their most recent album, Torpid , was released in September 2008. The Worms have toured in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Each album consists mostly of independent tracks paying homage, always humorously, to different genres and topics. Three exceptions are the 1997 Christmas Turkey CD, dedicated to songs about Christmas, and the 1997 Live Bait and 2003 Semi-Conducted CDs, which are live albums, comprising collections of their best songs. Semi-Conducted is performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Rock, folk, ballads, country, Celtic folk, and children's music all have come under the Worm's satirical guns.

When not spoofing a particular style of music, the Worms' material pokes fun at various aspects of daily life in Canada with songs like "Canada's Really Big", "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", "Me Like Hockey", "We are the Beaver", "I Am Not American", and "Proud to Be Canadian".

They have also recorded music videos for two songs: "Big Fat Road Manager" and "Carrot Juice Is Murder", which can be seen on the Three Worms and an Orchestra DVD.

The Worms

The Arrogant Worms currently consist of:

• Chris Patterson - Bass guitar and vocals
• Mike McCormick - Guitar and vocals
• Trevor Strong - Vocals

Former members of The Arrogant Worms include:

• John Whytock - Appeared on The Arrogant Worms , Russell's Shorts , and C'est Cheese
• Steve Wood - Appeared on The Arrogant Worms

Additional contributors along the way include (but are by no means limited to):

• Andy Thompson - Producer, recording engineer, keyboards, backing vocals, and more
• Andrew Affleck - Bass
• Gord Thompson - Bass, electric guitar, backing vocals
• Adrian Dolan - Accordion, fiddle, and mandolin
• Tim Readman - Filled in for Mike McCormick in the early 2006 tour
• Mike Ford - Filled in for Chris Patterson in March 2009, after Chris' wife gave birth to twins

Discography

• Albums
• * 1992 The Arrogant Worms
• * 1994 Russell's Shorts
• * 1995 C'est Cheese
• * 1997 Live Bait (live album)
• * 1997 Christmas Turkey
• * 1999 Dirt!
• * 2001 Idiot Road
• * 2002 Gift Wrapped (compilation album)
• * 2003 Semi-Conducted (live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra)
• * 2004 Toast! (live album)
• * 2006 Beige
• * 2008 Torpid (live album)
• Videos
• * 2004 Three Worms and an Orchestra (DVD of Semi-Conducted performances and other original music videos)

Get Stupid!

Get Stupid! is a book released in February 2005 that was written by one of the Arrogant Worms, Trevor Strong. It teaches the "Ignorance IS Bliss Method". It contains three parts:

• "The IQ (Ignorance Quotient) Test", which tests how ignorant you really are.
• "The Seven Steps to Bliss", which teaches you how to find happiness through ignorance.
• "Simplifying the World", which teaches you how to deal with the problems of the world after you have become ignorant. It contains information about everything, including art, gardening, health, and even recipes.

Misattribution

The Arrogant Worms are frequently miscredited ^[2] (on the internet and otherwise) as writing and/or recording songs such as "The White House Burned (The War of 1812)" and "The Toronto Song" (both of which are by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie) as well as Vito Petroccitto Jr's recording of "The Assumption Song". Other misattributions, according to their official website, include "Cows With Guns" by Dana Lyons and "Wayne Gretzky Rocks" by TPOH. This has occasionally led to fans requesting these songs during encores of their live shows.

On a similar note, the Captain Tractor cover version of the Worms' "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" is often simply credited to The Arrogant Worms themselves, with no mention of who covered it.

References

1. The Arrogant Worms: Biography
2. The Arrogant Worms: Official Discography (lists misattributed songs at the bottom)