Long before he became a weirdo-comedy star on Saturday Night Live and Portlandia, Fred Arisen was a Chicago indie rocker. Back when he was the drummer for Trenchmouth, Armisen made his widely bootlegged guide to SXSW 1998, and I heard people talking about that when he first popped up on SNL. Now, Armisen has returned to the Chicago indie world to make a new album called 100 Sound Effects, which is exactly as advertised. Well, not exactly. There are 101 sound effects on this LP. Apparently, he couldn't bear to cut "Fred Walking To Control Room."
We already knew that this album was on the way. Earlier this year, Fred Armisen made multiple appearances on his friend John Mulaney's live Netflix talk show Everybody's Live. Armisen was, in fact, on the season's first and last episodes. He ended the season as Sleater-Kinney's fill-in drummer, and he started it as one of Mulaney's couch guests. On that first episode, Mulaney announced 100 Sound Effects, and he played a couple of them, including "Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles."
I guess you could call 100 Sound Effects a comedy record, but the titles really give away the jokes: "Small Theater Microphone Isn't Working," "Thrift Store Perfunctory Search for Halloween Costume," "Walking into a Video Room at an Art Museum and Walking Out Quickly." In making the record, Armisen got help from his friends Mary Lynn Rajskub, Amber Coffman, Tim Heidecker, Riki Lindhome, and Alice Carbone Tench, and it's coming out on the great Chicago label Drag City. Here's what Armisen says about it:
I was thinking about haunted house sound effects albums and how fun those seemed to record. I wanted to do it at Steve Albini’s studio in Chicago, Electrical Audio, but since this wasn’t a collection of songs and I didn’t know how long it was going to take, I needed to do this where I live, in Los Angeles. I told Steve what I was doing and asked if he knew of any engineers I could work with in LA. He was very excited about the idea and asked Dave Grohl who might be available to help. Dave recommended Darrell Thorp, and we started working at Studio 606 and then later Sunset Sound. Darrell was really inventive and a lot of fun to work with. Because Steve was so instrumental in making this happen, I dedicate the album to his memory. I miss him every day.
To hype up the album, Armisen has share the first seven tracks, which consists entirely of things you might hear at music venues. The hit "Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles" is among them, as well as "Drum Sound Check at Medium Sized Venue," "Guitar Tuned but Still Somehow Out of Tune," " Band Sound Check Sound Guy and Band Agreeing for Too Long," "Romanian Crowd at Rock Club Shouting for an Encore," and "Sparsely Attended Show Encore with Someone Shouting 'Where's Jim?'" We also get to hear the slightly confusing LP opener "Needle on Record." Below, check out those seven tracks and the extremely long tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Needle on Record"
02 "Drum Sound Check at Medium Sized Venue"
03 "Guitar Tuned but Still Somehow Out of Tune"
04 "Band Sound Check Sound Guy and Band Agreeing for Too Long"
05 "Romanian Crowd at Rock Club Shouting for an Encore"
06 "Sparsely Attended Show Encore with Someone Shouting 'Where’s Jim?'"
07 "Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles"
08 "Music Store Around Christmas"
09 "Going from Main Room to Acoustic Room at a Music Store"
10 "Trying Out an Electronic Drum Kit with Headphones at a Music Store"
11 "Trying Out a Distortion Pedal at a Music Store"
12 "Testing Cymbals in a Cymbal Room at a Music Store"
13 "Keyboard Not Working at First at a Music Store"
14 "Music Store Exit with Security Checking Receipt"
15 "Car Door Closing Car Rental"
16 "Car Door Closing Fancy Car Service"
17 "Car Door Closing 1958 Ford"
18 "Car Door Closing Confident"
19 "Car Door Closing Automatically Van"
20 "Small Theater Small Audience"
21 "Small Theater Audience at Heavy Political Show"
22 "Small Theater Microphone Isn’t Working"
23 "Small Theater Enthusiastic Audience"
24 "Small Theater Booing"
25 "Small Theater Audience Talking"
26 "Small Theater Audience Talking and Ignoring Shshsh"
27 "Small Theater Audience Acknowledging Shshsh"
28 "Disappointed Crowd Dublin"
29 "Small Theater Lighting Booth While Producers are Checking Out the Stage"
30 "Small Theater One-Man Show Performer"
31 "Fake Applause"
32 "Fake Booing"
33 "Supportive Booing at a Speech"
34 "Obligatory Applause at a Speech"
35 "Obligatory Laugh at a Speech"
36 "Shocked Audience"
37 "Terrified Audience at an Authoritarian Nation Official Event"
38 "Champagne Glass Breaking on Wood Floor"
39 "Champagne Glass Breaking on Linoleum Floor"
40 "Wine Glass Breaking"
41 "Wine Glass Breaking with Reaction"
42 "Glass Falls but Doesn't Break"
43 "Glass Pitcher Shattering"
44 "Shot Glass Breaking"
45 "Wine Glass Breaking in Sink"
46 "Delicate Water Glass Breaking"
47 "Sweeping Up Glass"
48 "Sweeping Up Glass and Muttering"
49 "Businessman on Phone on Plane Before Takeoff - Work Tone"
50 "Businessman on Phone on Plane Still at the Gate - Casual Tone"
51 "Overhead Compartment Closing"
52 "Couple on Plane Mid-flight Guy Opens Overhead Compartment"
53 "Window Shade Closing"
54 "Flight Attendant Opens Overhead Compartment"
55 "Flight Attendant Collecting Packaging"
56 "First Time Homeowner Switching Circuit Breakers"
57 "Tentative Sawing"
58 "Drilling into Wood"
59 "Gift Wrapping"
60 "Thrift Store Perfunctory Search for Halloween Costume"
61 "Rolling Metal Market Door Opening"
62 "Shipping Container Door Opening"
63 "Campfire Conversation"
64 "Camping Breakfast Conversation"
65 "Camping Ready for the Day"
66 "Jacket Zipper"
67 "Tent Zipper"
68 "Short Bursts of Tent Zipper"
69 "Camping Lunch Conversation"
70 "Sleeping Bag Zipper Goodnight"
71 "Camping Pack Up Conversation"
72 "Basketball Bouncing"
73 "Basketball Slow Bounce"
74 "Basketball Slow to Fast"
75 "Basketball on Carpet"
76 "Signing a Basketball"
77 "Office Refrigerator Fitting in Bag with Lunch"
78 "Hotel Refrigerator Not Taking Anything"
79 "Room Service Lid"
80 "Room Service Ooh"
81 "Outdoor Event Walking on Pebbles"
82 "Outdoor Event Walking on Pebbles and Recognition"
83 "Outdoor Event Walking Quickly to Catch Up to Cart"
84 "Haunted House Demonic Voices"
85 "Haunted House Ghost Going Upstairs but the Door is Locked"
86 "Haunted House Ghost but Nobody is Home"
87 "Haunted House Piano"
88 "Well Reviewed Movie - Hand Washing Clothes in Basin"
89 "Well Reviewed Movie - Farm Work"
90 "Well Reviewed Movie - Cutting Root Vegetables on Wood Board"
91 "Important Film - Italian Woman Yelling Through a Doorway in a Small Italian Town"
92 "Walking into a Video Room at an Art Museum and Walking Out Quickly"
93 "Dublin Street Crossing"
94 "European Hotel Door Opening"
95 "European Hotel Elevator"
96 "European Hotel Stairs"
97 "European Hotel Bedroom Door"
98 "European Front Entrance with Fob Opening and Luggage"
99 "European Small Washing Machine"
100 "European Small Dryer with Some Confusion"
101 "Fred Walking to Control Room"
100 Sound Effects is out 9/26 on Drag City.
