Someone should start a series of videos with actual Alvin and the fuck heads but with this going down on a shelter filled with pp basically running with scissors with this jam. 10\10 Good sound
I actually played a show with these guys some years back. We were the "local opener" when they cam through Dayton, OH. Their career was obviously on the decline at the time, but I was never one to turn down a gig. When we showed up, their manager informed us that the band they were touring with had left so it was just us and the headliner. They asked if we were able to play a double set, or at least play for 90 minutes instead of the scheduled hour. We ended up playing every song we knew. As we approached the end of our set, Theodore pulled our singer tot eh side and asked us to buy some more time, they were trying to get Alvin cleaned up. So we played a couple of our songs twice that night. The rest of the band was pretty fed up and bailed when our set was over. I wanted to see what they had going on though, so i stayed through their set. As the Chipmunks' set went on, the crowd dried up more and more until there was only a handful of us left. They finally finished. No encore, obviously. While their lone roadie was breaking down their gear, Alvin disappeared and Simon was trying to chat up the only girl in the bar. Theodore spotted me and asked if I wanted to go burn a cigarette. Standing outside, he thanked me for being a good sport about the mess. I had to ask him, though: Why did they open with 3 songs in a row from their Christmas album? He started to explain "It's a statement about commercialism..." but he sorta trailed off with a drag of his cigarette. "It was the only way Alvin would get on stage. He's not doing too well these days." When our cigarettes burned down, he helped me load my amp into my shitty old VW and shook my hand. In parting, he told me "Some advice from someone who has been in this industry fro a while: read your contracts, watch your money, and be careful who you get involved with." I thanked him and closed the trunk. "Oh, and I got your band's demo. You guys have something. I'll show it to people at the label when i talk to them again." Then i got in my car and drove off. Either the label disagreed or he forgot, but that that was the last I ever heard of them.
Man. I wasn't old enough to remember them when they were really big, but honestly, I'm kinda glad I wasn't. This doesn't sound like a band I'd want to remember. I'm glad I can enjoy their music without thinking about this side of them. Thanks for sharing your experience!
honestly forgot this was a sped up chipmunks album- and i don't know most of the original songs. i was just vibing to sludge goodness. up until "theodore, what do those words *really* mean?" "beats me!" and i realised i was listening to a grown up rat lament the refugee crisis. i don't think anything could've mentally prepared me for that image.
@@TalynStormcrow It's Alvin and The Chipmunks covers slowed down to half the speed they're supposed to be played at, showing what the songs originally sounded like.
@@dominicbofficial Minor correction. That's the popular perception. Truth is, this was the band's sound. It was too much for the Label. Dave wasn't always the help he should been. The records they distributed were sped up versions. Sold as kitsch. Imagine being this visionary and only being allowed public domain and label owned music to record.
@@djinnxx7050For most, "Real" is a patchwork of perception; lain over a framework of notions. Search for what is True. In truth there is goodness and light.
@Potential Spoilers That's honesty a fairly solid observation! I feel like Jimmy Pop would absolutely have Squidward guesting on a Bloodhound Gang track.
I'll never forget the time I saw them play a pool hall in Shreveport, Louisiana in winter of 89. This was obviously a year or so before Alvin's overdose, but he was already well medicated by the time he came onstage an hour after the set was supposed to start. Theodore had to hold him up a few times to keep him from falling down. But goddamn they had that place going NUTS when they started Eye of the Tiger. Everyone sang every word while holding their lighters up. In that one brief moment, I saw true happiness on Alvin's face. I'll always remember Alvin and this album fondly, even in spite of all the allegations
@Hyperion4K dude you're just jealous you weren't there to see Alvin in his heyday. Before the OD he made Cobain look like the Cookie Monster. absolute Sludge legend.
47:03 Ngl this version of "Fame" really hits different. Cuz it's like a really upbeat song about becoming famous and feeling on top of the world but because it's slowed down and grungy it completely changes the emotion that it gives off. Like it makes me imagine a story where the main character is trying really hard to become famous, and they end up getting mixed up with the wrong crowd and kind of losing their morals along the way. Leaving behind all the people that believed in them in the beginning. In the end, they make it, it's going to be the biggest show of their life, but they have to have one last hit. Then you see them lying down backstage slipping out of consciousness for the last time, as they OD, while you hear thousands of people cheering their name in the background.
This is so reminiscent of the proper goth tunes played at Sanctuary: The Vampire Sex Bar in the 90’s. I can’t wrap my head around the Chipmunks making some of the best sludge, doom and synth wave covers ever
@@WfrArcPol i interpret this version more like a young up and coming star who quickly spirals into drugs and alcohol, losing sight of who they once were
This is my personal favorite track from this record. You can really hear the anguish in Alvin's voice on this one. How the dreams of his youth had become a living nightmare of pain he couldn't escape. Such a genius but like so many other brilliant minds of his generation, a deeply tourted soul. RIP Alvin. P.S. if there were any justice in this fucked up world we live in Dave would be in fucking jail.
I'm feeling really weird and kind of hypersensitive to everything right now and I just got this overwhelming urge to hear this version of Mr Tambourine Man and it has me almost in tears. What a strange evening
If you played this in any dive bar in Jersey City or the lower East side you’d have people in tears every single night hugging each other and dancing, and definitely crying for all sorts of personal reasons
Right??? I can’t get over it at all. It turns a silly chipmunk song into something hauntingly beautiful. It’s like listening to the recording of a dead man in denial. I’m gonna live forever, baby, remember my name…
No way is that in any way related to David Gilmour's, Roger Waters' or Rick Wright's singing. Maybe some of the subtle droning sounds like 'One of My Turns' and the drums sound like 'Learning To Fly,' and the guitar on 'One of These Days'... But only a bit.
If someone had played just the beginning of this track and told me it was Pink Floyd back when they used to be called Ponk Fliyd I would have believed them
Weirdly, I had a stronger "Pink Floyd" feel from "This Diamond Ring", specifically "Piper at the gates of dawn"-era Pink Floyd. But I see where you're coming from.
My dad would always tell a story about the one time he sat next to Alvin on a plane flying from Salt Lake City to Jacksonville. Dad always said he was super chill to talk to at first, even starting the conversation about music and the life on the road and all that, but after maybe ten minutes Alvin just... kept talking, like he was answering questions my dad hadn't even asked. Guy kept talking, seemed like he was getting frustrated at whatever he was talking about, so everyone sorta hurried away from him, getting really worried. Half an hour later, Dad was in a taxi headed out from the airport, and sees Alvin walking up the highway away from the airport still just talking, smiling real big this time, laughing to himself.
How is it possible that nobody commented about the great voice talents that were involved in making these recordings? The guy singing "Bette Davis eyes" really kicks ass!
@@danwalsh3406 Sad, in retrospect. After what happened with him and Brittany. Everybody saw it coming but.... .... nobody ever speaks up. Wasted potential.
The chipmunks' second album is dark energy in it's purest form. Being abducted by the musical industry at a very young age, Alvin was battling with feeling lost and guilty for dragging his younger brothers into this lifestyle. This album shows it by the inclusion of the reoccurring character called Dave, appearing as a demonic music producer speaking to the chipmunks in between songs. By all means this is a complex and layered release, and it solidifies the chipmunks as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) doom rock bands of the 80's. I come back to this whenever I feel nostalgic and it takes me back to the old days. It is depressing reading about Alvin's drug addiction in the 90's resulting in his overdose. He did everything he could to fix his own life and the lives of Simon and Theodore, but in the end he just left them more lost than they had ever been. Such a tragic story for such an amazing band.
Why is the same family jobber who records all these latter-day Alvin and the Chipmunks songs giving the absolute vocal performance of his life on “Bette Davis Eyes”
Okay...."Bette Davis Eyes" is just genuinely beautiful (in a heartbreaking sort of way). Seriously amazing that *this* is what happens when you run a Chipmunks album at 1/2 speed.
So there I was, back in the summer of '96, seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks at an abandoned barn in Topeka, Kansas. They were on the road, doing a string of low-key, underground gigs, hoping to rediscover their roots or something. My band was warming up the crowd for them. When they finally made their appearance, it was clear Alvin was in one of his moods. He was picking fights with the farm animals and giving Simon a hard time. We started our set, and as we're midway through our third song, Alvin rolls onto the stage, attempting some kind of a gymnastic feat but ended up tangled in our drummer's cymbals. Theodore, the level-headed one, helped him out and tried to smooth things over, but it was obvious this wasn't their usual performance. Eventually, they stumbled through their set, but instead of their pop hits, they went on a surreal journey of jazz-fusion and avant-garde tunes. Even the livestock looked confused. To top it all off, they closed the show with a 20-minute kazoo rendition of 'Stairway to Heaven'. Alvin, in a rare moment of clarity, nailed that solo with a profound sense of melancholy. After the show, as the sun was setting and we were packing our gear, Theodore came over and shared a cold beer with me. He sighed and said, "We're just trying to make music, man, but Alvin wants to be the next David Bowie of rodents." I chuckled, thinking he was joking, but the earnest look in his eyes told me otherwise.
God I love this version of Mr Tambourine Man. Sounds like the thoughts going through a dying person's mind as their body slowly starts shutting down the nervous system as their vision fades to black.
Eye of the Tiger is literally the song of a veteran, I can't describe it but the slow beat of the song and actually listening to the lyrics gives off the vibe that it's being sung by a veteran close to succumbing to his illness of trauma. Very sad for me.
i swear i culdn't laugh more in the chariots of fires remix. It's like a conversation between two stoners making music and that's so fucking beautifull
Back in 81' me and a couple of my friends were hitting up a local dive bar and we managed to catch the chipmunks on one of the forst perfomances of this album. Simon and Theodore were the same as ever, if a lot less burnt out at the time, but alvin man, I'd never seen a kid eith more gusto in my whole life. He was singing his fucking heart out in that shotty dive bar and it changed my whole life. Their set had more passion than I even thought that bar could handle. Watching the slow fall on the chipmunks as alvin got more and more fucked up on PCP and Ket and Theodore and Simon got more fed the fuck up man. In 86' they finally toured officially in my city and man what a case of whiplash man. All that life and passion that filled that bar was nowhere to be seen man, just drug abuse and garbled lyrics. I miss those old boys man, really a shame how they lost it all in the glitz and glammor of the 80's man. At least their kids seem to be keeping up the torch but man the nepotism those new chipmunks are coasting on. Their parents were god damn legends who just couldn't handle the times man, real shit.
I met Alvin at a bar in ‘88, just a few years before he sadly passed away. During our conversation, I mentioned that I enjoyed his earlier work, but all he could ever say to that was "Okay, sure." I bought him a drink, and he quickly finished it, seeming to just want to leave the bar. Once he was done, he stood up and stumbled out to his car. I think about that interaction sometimes, wondering if there was something I could’ve done or said to save his life.
Tempos, for the curious: 01 Heartbreaker -- 79 BPM 02 Refugee -- 59 BPM 03 Whip It -- 78 BPM 04 Bette Davis Eyes -- 62 BPM 05 Jessie's Girl -- 68 BPM 06 Mr. Tambourine Man -- 61 BPM 07 This Diamond Ring -- 68 BPM 08 Eye Of the Tiger -- 54 BPM 09 Fame -- 67 BPM 10 How Do I Make You -- 80 BPM 11 Good Girls Don't -- 84 BPM 12 Chariots of Fire -- 70 BPM
Betty Davis Eyes is a classic entry into the "love songs that are not-so-secretly about drugs" canon Alvin was a serious amphetamine user in the band's early days but it was around the time they were getting ready to go into the studio to record what would be Sludgefest 1 that he started heavily getting into heroin. Simon and Theo certainly were no stranger to Mrs Brown either, but Alvin was always the most recklessly hedonistic one, his lack of impulse control led to some incredible artistic explorations but it also led him to some hopelessly dark places that he couldn't come bac from The band's massively increased H usage was arguably the biggest driving factor in their wild departure from the high energy hardcore punk of their early records into more a more punishing and doom laden sound that came to define their later work in the "Sludgefest era" In hindsight it's obvious that Betty Davis Eyes wasn't about a girl, Alvin was a hypersexual maniac who could never be content with just 1 partner, neither male or female, he was so fucked up and jaded that he likely wasn't even able to truly love another person... But Betty Davis Eyes wasn't about another person Betty Davis Eyes was written shortly after Alvin checked himself out of rehab and immediately relapsed, he lived long enough to record it but unfortunately he was found dead in a Belgian hotel room while they were on the ill-fated "Sludge Across The World" tour, it's not clear if it was an accidental overdose or suicide... Either way, he died with his true love *in his arms*, the one with Betty Davis Eyes, Mrs Brown RIP Alvin, thank you for the music
For Those On Mobile Here U Go 01 Heartbreaker 0:00 02 Refugee 6:28 03 Whip It 12:36 04 Bettie Davis Eyes 17:54 05 Jessie's Girl 23:58 06 Mr Tambourine Man 30:09 07 This Diamond Ring 34:41 08 Eye of the Tiger 39:09 09 Fame 47:03 10 How Do I Make You 53:30 11 Good Girls Don't 58:12 12 Chariots of Fire 1:04:34
Vincent Teichmann mines Whip It, Heartbreaker, (even tho they got a lot of lyrics wrong) Mr Tambourine Man, Good Girls Don’t, (even tho they got the lyrics wrong for a good reason because the creator of the chipmunks wanted to keep it kid friendly) Refugee,This Diamond Ring,Chariots Of Fire,How Do I Make You,Fame. Basically Every Song that’s on here.
@@jeffreydavid2997 Oh Christ. Effexor. I had forgotten it’s name. I remember to this day some decades later when I tried to just stop taking it. After two days it felt like I had a live wire randomly firing in my brain. Hopped back on that pill faster than hell. The worst part was hearing it and feeling it in my teeth at the same time. It took years to wean myself of of it.
Obvious credit for the person who slowed the music and matched it, but we honestly gotta give props to Ross Bagdasarian Jr. Dude has been behind one of the best kids series ever (he voiced Dave and sang for Alvin/Theodore for most of their outings) and, as we can hear, could belt when he needed to.
In the murky depths of the underground music scene, there was a bassist known as Theodore. He played for a sludge rock band called Sludgemunks. Theodore was not your ordinary musician; his bass lines were the heartbeat of the band's sound, thick and distorted, like the growl of some primordial beast. One night, during a gig at the infamous Doom Den. Theodore's playing took a turn for the bizarre. Midway through their set, he began tuning his bass to frequencies that seemed to resonate with the very fabric of reality. The strings vibrated in a hypnotic dance, and the crowd was entranced. As the night wore on, Theodore's behavior grew increasingly odd. He swapped his usual bass pick for a mysterious, glowing plectrum he claimed to have found in a heroin nosedive. With each note he played, the room's temperature dropped, and the air filled with the scent of ozone. The climax of the evening came when Theodore, in a moment of madness or genius, hooked his bass up to a series of effects pedals that didn't just alter the sound but seemed to warp the space around him. The audience watched in awe as spectral hands appeared, plucking the strings alongside him, creating a chorus of otherworldly overtones. The gig ended with Theodore smashing his bass into an amplifier, which didn't shatter but instead swallowed the instrument whole, leaving behind a pulsating black hole on stage. The crowd erupted into cheers, not sure if they had witnessed a breakdown or a breakthrough. From that day on, Theodore was known as the Bassist de Cósmico, a title he wore with pride. His performances became legendary, each one more unpredictable than the last. Some say he's still out there, tuning his bass to the dark matter that binds the stars, forever searching for the ultimate riff that will unravel the mysteries of the universe.
Was friends with a bouncer over at Billy Baloney’s and he got me into a show in kind of that weird time Alvin and Simon were pissed at each other, they came out after some punk/ska/synth hybrid group and they just went right into an early version of Tambourine man. Everyone in the place was floored, I mean, I think everyone like stopped breathing for a solid 5 minutes, folks were zombified and somewhere a beach ball covered in baby oil floated around, the smoke was in everyone's eyes, it got real freaky, wild stuff. It was like perfect harmony until the song ended. -Alvin and Theodore go into the first bit of Heartbreaker, heavy, and Simon goes up to the mike and yells out "We are The 'munks!". Instantly like a weight dropped and Alvin threw down the guitar and just cold hit him with a bottle. He didn't need a mike, I could see him mouth "We're not the fucking 'munks!". The place just went off, Simon took a swing from the ground and they started rolling around the stage in the broken glass knocking over the setup, somebody popped the beachball. Theodore just leaned back and lit up a smoke while the crew tried to break them up. Folks were fighting in the place calling each other sellouts or idiots. Crazy thing was they came out again a few minutes later and just finished out their set without a word, still bloody, Simon did that part Dave used to do in "How do I Make You" flipping him the bird the whole time where he goes "Dream about me Alvin!" and Alvin with a cut of glass over his eyebrow was just laughing in the notes. They walked off with their arms over each other's shoulder, fucking legends.
I’ve heard this album was so close to Alvin’s suicide that they only actually played live at three venues officially, one in San Francisco, one in Detroit, and their only international show, in London. Thing was, no one really knows how many shows Dave forced them to play at without paying them. It drove the band insane, and led to Dave dying in a motor accident, and of course the lasting emotional damage caused Alvin’s drug induced suicide. I heard even after all the abuse, with Theodore getting hooked on Vicodin from his injuries, they still really missed Dave, with Alvin even breaking into tears on occasion.
I'll never forget when Isaac Rose and I played that show back in '89 with them. tensions were high, and it was arguably the most creatively productive the band ever was, but it was the moment backstage I mentioned Theodore's wife to Simon, that all hell broke loose. I won't specify any of the tings that were said and done, but it was the beginning of the end for the band, and all I will say, is that the scuffle that night was the reason Simon went Blind in his left eye a few months later.
I remember when the first archives were released of chipmunkson16speed. I asked my great uncle about it and he showed me his original concert tickets from 1983 when they rebranded to the Sludgemunks. They were playing Massey Hall in Toronto on December 19th, my great uncle said it was pretty much Zero Fahrenheit that day. Still sad to hear about Alvin Sr. Passing on in 1991, and I am glad Alvin Jr, Theodore and Simon's son began releasing records recently as a tribute to Alvin Sr's life work of sludge music, the foundations of daycore and sludge metal as we know them today.
When I listen to "Whip It" I imagine I'm walking into a crypt. The sounds of whips cracking in the distance. As I walk in , the smell of incense and blood. It's a circle of priests performing self-flagellation. "Yes" Says the one in the center, like a maestro conducting his final encore "Whip it..." Then unison, all of the priests echo "Whip it good."
