#and like on raymond's part i dont even think it's intentional half the time

[yappacadaver]

i like when emmrich gets catty/petty/mean it's endearing. it's human. the man is too damn perfect otherwise

[nobody-knose--archive]

i’ve been aching to commentate spirit phone’s commentary for ages. glad i finally got around to it, this was an ejoyable experience. liveblog below the cut

-i'm like half certain i've heard this commentary before. maybe not the whole way through & it was probably actual years ago

-nice hearing stuff like this. in-depth personal view of the album-making process. makes it seem like more of a real thing i could do myself someday

-neil cicierega real person momence

-i could probably go real in depth about neil cicierega/tally hall parallels specifically concerning like. the arc of their musical careers. but i won't, here

-wild how i legitimately don't care much about micheal jackson

-didnt we get a bunch of spirit phone stems from the needlejuice release/his patreon? we could probably hear the funny track he speaks of here in that

-i love hearing musical artists, especially neil cicierega, talking about the meanings of their songs. like, not only has this song been claimed to hell & back by the tumblr gays, but with later ones i just can't see where he gets these ideas from. also, claiming there's any one meaning or plot to a song just seems silly to me

-shoutout to neil reusing a midi from like, 1998, that he made at 12 years old, whose entire melody was reused for the main verses of everybody loves raymond. loved finding that out on my own 2 years ago. now it's common trivia in this fandom. not bad times

-it'd be neat if neil did individual trans tracks here like he did with view monstel, those things are half of why i consider it my favorite album

-it's a lot easier to ignore the creator's intended meaning behind a song when he can't even remember it. thanks neil

-seesaw effect

-and there's my joke all but 1 of my followers wont get. moving on

-what kinds of movie theater lobbies has neil been to where there are arcade machines. i mean im not one to talk but that does sound rather strange

-why do songs' titles even need to be taken from the lyrics. ive never seen that as any sort of requisite. it's like titling any form of prose you can just give it whatever name ya like

-"this part sounds pretty cool right"

-is neil's vocal range only mildly better than mine? with training i could change that

-oh i haven't processed any of the last 25 seconds hold on

-god. a shit ton of vocal modification in this song. it's like neil returned to his roots but with quality this time

-i, as an ace/aro, have never related more to an allohet guy in my life. what is the point of eyes!

-professional humming/whistling takes skill. it's different from the recreational or casual stuff. i'd know

-there's a name for the way sound (especially music) gets distorted when moving past you and i can't remember it but it's probably what neil's referring to here in the way he recorded the intro

(- update: it's the doppler effect no need to tell me cas already did)

-as someone who hasnt seen the rugrats or take me there by blackstreet i'll just say it sounded like a bouncy music box melody. nice to hear a song that messes with the typical scales though. lydian & diatonic.

-that's a rather specific thing to be glad about, but given what he talked about in his last full audio commentary about the jew harp i suppose i'm not surprised

-i know that tmbg song now. listened to it & saw the music video too. yep they're different alright

-where the hell does neil get all these instrumence from anyway

-huh. hadnt heard this part of the commentary before making my oc concerning this song but i like to hear neil's approval concerning part of my interpretation

-i love how ive heard a billion different tellings of this mellified man story from lem dem fans talking about this song and neil's is by far the wildest

-good god that does only make it worse neil

-i love making liveblogs of lemon demon albums. with the fullerenes or tally hall i cant name a specific dude to take out my woes on generally but with lemon demon i can just say neil all the time. i like being on a casual first name basis with this dude ive never interacted with once ever

-is sweet bod the one other than cabinet man with a demo in the bonus tracks? i forget

-holy shit the boston molasses disaster someone call up soapy if it doesnt already know, it'd love this

-two thousand nine. god i miss the fiddle solo. the ver with it is truly the best one

-he pronounces it jeff? i've always read it as gef with a hard g. that's what i get for knowing words that are never spoken aloud

-that's a fun meta interpretation of this ghost story that's over a century old. i like that

-i've noticed neil generally does the same synths across a whole album. it's especially more clear in the earlier ones, and does mean i occasionally mix up songs between clown circus & live from the haunted candle shop

-ah! ancient aliens! my least favorite track on this album. i cant even claim to have the least interest in a popular one i've just generally not liked this one much from the beginning. so im curious to see what neil's got to say, i think ive been in ~new commentary zone for a while now

-anyway. newest update on the loolin not realizing a song's funky time signature front: i think this one's in 6/4. or at least switches a lot between time signatures. granted i dont listen to it very often for the reasons stated above

-see the way neil describes it. eldritch horror upon being visited by the unknown at a time when humanity'd hadn't even yet had a chance to imagine such a thing occurring. should be right up my alley. but the sound itself & many of the lyrics simply turn me away.

-must i specify i don't dislike it? spirit phone is neil's best album it not being my favorite doesn't mean i think it's bad yadda yadda nobody should be surprised by this it's not like anyone in these fandoms reads my liveblogs <3

-granted i think this is. the first bit of spirit phone content i've made on my blog ever. so who knows things can change <3

-the transitions in spirit phone are much less view-monster transition tracks & more extended outros. view-monster's were a bit more intro than outro sure but they also seemed directed upon making a 2-way rather than 1-way bridge between tracks. or something like that

-.............soft fuzzy man is an incredible nickname for a cat. i'd steal that if i werent afraid of introducing my relatives to lemon demon

-jirls

-an underlying metaphor is good enough. the literal side of the lyrics are fun. nothing but agreement here neil my good man

-the transition into as your father i expressly forbid it from soft fuzzy man is the best one in this album

-buddy you ask if a musical idea has been used before odds are the answer is yes in this day & age the question is has it been used in the way you're using it. like sure this soul jazz record from the 60s that was sold out in kansas stores for a week used this bassline that youve found yourself copying. but seeing as youre using it in some angsty garage rock ballad type tune does anybody actually care

-doesn't everybody like to say things in an unhinged manner from time to time

-imagine having a guitar dad, i say, with my dad being a folk accordion/fiddle dad, which is infinitely worse in every way

-i think he was in an actual folk band at some point. idk the 90s were weird

-iron my life?

-m-more intimate? there are a lot of ways i'd describe this song but intimate isn't one of them. granted as your father is negatively intimate so from there i guess you've got nowhere to go but up

-...still glad to see his interpretation kinda supports my oc at least

-the way he says characters in songs shouldn't worry about death really strongly makes me think this is some sort of. thematic continuation of stuck from dinosaurchestra, even if there's no real death in there. interesting. would also mean that the dad from these past 2 songs is named carlos betty (no last name)

-i literally never assumed this was a flute solo. piccolo at best. it's pretty clearly a recorder

-my mom plays the recorder. i wonder if she can play recorder better than neil cicierega

-we can throw a party in honor of the crushing weight of responsibility! i simply won't be the one throwing it because i have enough on my plate already <3

-what the hell does "a sense of intent" mean

-i've never heard rush before however i disagree with neil's understanding of 6/4. 6/4 is meant to have emphasis (onbeat or another term i can't remember) on the 1st & 4th beat of every measure, which is greatly different from a measure of 4/4 then a measure of 2/4. it's why his 5/4 always sounds weird, because while it's recognizable in sequences of 10/4, it's more 2 measures of 4/4 with one of 2/4 tacked on the end. that's also how it's different from 3/4. i don't know much music theory but what i do understand i will fight to the death about

-"canonized" that's. a very interesting term to use when referring to a former president

-from now on i will interpret every love song directed at some unseen "you" to be inviting me to marry them for tax purposes. thanks neil for being an aromantic icon

-ah hell yes hell yes man-made object is my favorite goddam song on this album

-short & sweet & good damn vibes. neil's thoughts on it all are only making it better

-wild how he uses very few vocal effects for a song that he clearly is straining his vocal range for. go off neil

-the qualifier of man-made is a wonderful thing. oldest or biggest thing? oldest or biggest man-made thing? what a incredibly important specification. a world of possibilities lie between the two. oh i love it

-just gets me thinking yknow! what we consider weird/impressive in another species, in our own species- what kind of equivalent to that would there be from an outsider looking in? are there alien versions of the significances we place upon things, that we could never imagine? the limits of the human imagination mean we could never conceive of something else in the world that isn't, in some way great or small, just like us- and are we wrong for thinking that? such a juicy topic i wish there were a name for it because it's kinda hard to explain concisely

-spiral of ants. my second favorite song from this album, in fact. a good one to experience

-the vocals are just another instrument. they really truly are. i wasn't going into this commentary expecting to feel solidarity for neil cicierega in this chili's tonight on more than one occasion but here i am.

-like, his whole stance on interpreting songs is something i agree with almost entirely. you can take it at face value, you can dig to their very depths, you can listen to songs without caring what the lyrics mean whatsoever, and those are all fun. & yeah while any of these people can be annoying as one of the types who enjoys gliding on the surface more than anything i find those who dedicate themselves to figuring out the whole meaning of a song over anything else to be both slightly scary & slightly annoying <3 keep up the good work

-i want to make songs for my siblings the way neil makes songs for his sibling(s)

-spinch

-neil really shouldn't be allowed to be this funny like this whole album youre thinking golly! he's just a normal man this neil cicierega! and then he starts listing the cat hacks jokes & you remember he's had ridiculously consistent viral success with all his humorous endeavors and holy shit it's neil cicierega in action talking about his music. god bless you neil

-you're welcome, no problem, my pleasure. good eveternoon, radio audience!

[jvys-blog]

                      mmmmygod hi hi hi im so excited to be here and play my baby DEMON jay i love with all my heart. i havent written an introduction is literally forever so im /sweats nervously/ dont know what to say other than im glo, im 21 and i would die for captain raymond holt. i am going to include a whole ass part from my app under the read more bc its just hcs about jay to give you a brief idea of who he really is. also HERE is the pinterest board i made for him if you’d like to check it out. i would love to plot with every single one of you, so please hmu or like this lil post and i’ll go to you ! ♡

so basically jay’s dad is this rich, older guy who is at his 4th wife currently and has like 5 children. jay is the second youngest of them and so he was never given too much attention by his dad, especially because he was never married to his mom. his mom is a former runway model, not a big name, but she and jay’s dad met at some charity gala, hit it off immediately and started an affair while he was still married to his second wife. it ended up with her getting pregnant and him taking responsibility for jay after divorcing his wife. as it turned out they did not get along very much long term, so jay got his dad’s last name and moved in with him and the rest of his children residing with him, so jay’s mom wouldn’t have to completely quit her profession.

jay never really minded being a ‘secondary’ child in the eyes of his dad, as it gave him the freedom most of his half-siblings didn’t enjoy. he gets along with most of them, even though some of them are ten years older than he is and already have their own children. his youngest sibling is a five year old girl called kaia from the latest marriage of his dad. she is the apple of his eye literally, he adores the hell out of her and it is no overstatement to say that she is his soft spot.

yikes in the past few months he’s gotten a little bit too close to his new step-mom. she’s less than ten years older than him and the temptation was just too real to resist. it only happened a couple of times and he has no intentions continuing it, but it gives a huge boost to his confidence.

even though he only had about 3 heartfelt conversation with his father his whole life and sometimes they don’t even run into each other for weeks, he was proper pissed when he found out jay was arrested for vandalism (boy loves graffiti), especially because of the timing, since he’s running for mayor. he usually ignores his son’s shenanigans, but this was one step to far and although jay firmly denies he did what he’s accused of, his father refuses to believe him based on his previous streak.

jay meets his mom a few times a year, she lives in new york with her boyfriend and he plans on crashing with her for a while after getting tired of small town life and get her to help him send his portfolio to different art galleries

he never really considered going to college, even though he’s been told studying art could help him a lot. he sees no point in it, he believes he either has talent or not and learning about old dead dudes going crazy because of their art really doesn’t interest him.

being interested in art is such a contrast to everything else he does, people usually don’t believe that he has actual talent until he shows them what he can do. drawing, painting, even just sketching calms his mind, it helps him figure out his life when he messes something up. it’s definitely not a very fruitful career choice but he doesn’t really care, he is comfortable living on a small budget and barely touching his trust fund.

jay doesn’t think of himself as a ‘bad boy’, no matter he’s labeled as one from time to time. he enjoys doing what he wants, he likes living in the moment and that sometimes makes him do irresponsible things but he doesn’t actually have malicious intents or wants to hurt anyone in the process. he also thinks that is a disgustingly cliche label and he hates everything cliche.

he used to smoke a lot of weed in his sophomore and junior years of high school and he got busted for that regularly there is no explanation for why he took up the habit other than he thought it made him look cool

jay thinks himself hilarious, even though his jokes are often only deserving of a face palm and an ‘oh my god, shut up’

idiot tbh

he has absolutely no impulse control, he does what he wants, when he wants. when he gets something in his head, no living person could change his mind.

his favourite physical feature of his is his heterochromia. one of his eyes is dark green and the other is hazel

DRAMATIC. he is literally the most dramatic person…… ever, its ridiculous. he would 100% do THIS, its not even a question.

he’s been boxing since he was like fourteen so he is in a pretty good physical condition. also can throw a punch. he has these constant bruises on his knuckles from practice.

jay doesn’t really care for sleeping around, getting people in his bed is not something he prides himself on or even does necessarily consciously, but he is an attractive guy in his twenties with a charm that would temp the devil himself and his libido is WAY up so it kinda just….. happens sometimes and he’s just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

loves buzzfeed unsolved

he has this weird fascination with statues, he is literally willing to walk around in the museum for hours and stare at them and take silly snapchats of them to annoy his friends. he really wants to go to rome one day, to the vatican museum and see all the art they have there.

loooves attention like 80% of time he gets into some kind of trouble is because he wants to be the center of attention and is willing to do something absolutely dumb for it

he acts very childish in the majority of the time but he is actually quite mature when it comes to serious things. he doesn’t really like to act all grown up though because he feels like it makes everything more complicated and so even when something bothers him, he rather shrugs it off and acts like he has no care in the world.

he is pretty emotionally shut down and although he denies it fiercely, he definitely has abandonment issues because how his mom left him behind so easily. he might not realize it but it influences all the relationships he is trying to build as an adult. it’s not that he doesn’t crave meaningful connections, there is just this bitter, suffocating feeling crawling up his throat every single time he tries.