Chipmunks on 16 Speed - Sludgefest (Full Album)
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- REPOST of the legendary original Sludgefest album, which was removed recently when the original poster LunarOrbit disabled their channel.
0:00 Call Me
6:12 Walk Like An Egyptian
13:00 Heaven Is A Place On Earth
20:58 Diamond Dolls
27:17 You Keep Me Hanging On
35:28 My Sharona
43:25 Always On My Mind
50:13 Refugee
Tracks sourced from / alvin-thechipmunkson16sp
"My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away"
0:00 Call Me
6:12 Walk Like An Egyptian
13:00 Heaven Is A Place On Earth
20:58 Diamond Dolls
27:17 You Keep Me Hanging On
35:28 My Sharona
43:25 Always On My Mind
50:13 Refugee
Didn't get around to making the timestamps - thank you very much.
@@RPFG you're welcome 👍 thanks for reuploading
@@RPFG You could also just copy the text and add it in the description.
OOOH HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH THE CITY OF HEAVEN YOU KNOW WHAT THATS WORTH OOOH HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH ok I'll stop
OOOWWWWAAAAAAAOOOOOO sorry 80s music are to catchy lol
Quote from the original video's top comment: "This sounds like carbon monoxide poisoning"
Huh. Interesting.
I forgot about that; The pre-lore Sludgefest era of the comments.
and i love it
Another one I remember: vaporwave for heroin users
And this song smells like motor oil
Shout out to the OG dude who commented “this is the soundtrack of a 5 year old in a hot car”
That still cracks me up. Those og comments were fantastic.
that was so accurate. also the comparison of this to heroine as a song.
That kid was I, and may I live in peace
OH WAIT!! I REMEMBER SEEING THIS COMMENT WHEN I LISTENED TO IT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2022!!! i was about to hit the gym with my dad i think...
those ones are much funnier than the redditors trying to make jokes about it being a real grunge band that had drug problems I've seen copypasted like a million times on all these videos
a comment I remember from the original upload:
"this is vaporwave for people that do heroin"
i farted
@@nickmilano2516Good to know, Nick.
I farded and then also sharded and shidded
Agreed..
thinking about that one brought me here, new comments finally lol
Such a shame the original was deleted, we’ll never get back the stories told by sludgemunk fans. Truly a unique community on CZcams that will definitely take time to rebuild 😢
Stay strong sludefesters
Oh damn it, my old comment =( what a bummer
I remember that lmfao . People saying it's them after a hard life catching up to them etc. 🤣 Someone even mentioned they get probably get laid a lot then someone replied they've been so doped up they haven't had a hard on in decades. Another comment said it sounds like a soundtrack in a dirty biker bar . A lot of heroin related shit. . that's not the exact so don't quote me but it was alone the lines of that
lol ikr I remember one of those old comments was some shit like, "This sounds like what dying of heat stroke while locked in a hot car feels like." Or the other comments lamenting Alvin's death and blaming his overdose entirely on Dave.
@@Danishkringle3000 hahaha
once again I'm woefully reminded of the ephemerality of things
I was there at their infamous show in Detroit in late 1987. I was flown there with a head journalist from the paper I was aspiring to work at, as I had won a sweepstakes of sorts amongst the other interns to go with him to watch their performance. Originally we were supposed to get special reserved seating, but a group of some rather intimidating teen delinquents must have bribed their way into our spot. We ended up having to watch quite a ways towards the back in the cheap seats. They kept the crowd waiting some 45 minutes after the show was scheduled to start, and there was this air of angst and tension that I will never forget. The whole concert hall was hot, dim, with a heavy scent of beer and weed lingering in the air. Despite the place being packed to the brim, there was this terrifying silence, as if everyone was holding their breath.
I will never forget the collective gasp and change in energy when the curtains finally opened. Simon stood awkwardly with his guitar strapped to his chest standing completely motionless, resembling a cardboard cutout. Theo was obviously tripping on something strong, standing behind a meager setup of a small synthesizer and a drum machine. Alvin stood between them for a moment, took in the crowd, and then clumsily stepped forward towards the mic. He looked rough. His fur was matted, his signature red hoodie stained and torn. Then, in perfect unison, Simon and Theo started playing, and the set began.
As they began to play ( believe it was a cover of "Always On My Mind"), I couldn't help but be held in awe at their sound. The slow, murky, psychedelic sound of Simon's sludgy guitar. The desolate, hollow, eerie sound of Theo's synth. And the unforgettable sound of Alvin's voice, which sounded so utterly racked with emotion that even the journalist that I was with, who was anything but a sentimental guy, looked misty eyed as he watched. And when they all harmonized and sang together, it gave a feeling that I can't describe and I haven't felt since then. Like all the sadness, all the pain, all the pressure felt by young adults back then (and indeed, now) all perfectly given an identity through sound, all released at once in the form of sonically imperfect music that somehow sounded flawless.
Admittedly, it was extremely difficult to hear the finer details of the band, so I hardly noticed Alvin's extremely slurred words or Theodore playing offkey. However, halfway through their set, as they were about halfway through "You Keep Me Hanging On", I will never forget what happened. Alvin stopped singing for a moment, looked to the back of the concert hall, and froze. I swear from where I stood it looked like he was watching a ghost. Then, I swear I saw a crooked smile stretch across his face for a moment, before he collapsed on stage. The entire crowd gasped as the music abruptly stopped. Simon and Theodore ran over to try and help him up. I remember seeing how pained and labored Alvin's sides looked, as if each anguished breath took a huge amount of effort. They crouched over him, trying to revive him, but Simon soon ran backstage to get more help. Theodore took a step back and just stared at Alvin, a look of stone-cold, sober agony on his face. How he must have felt, seeing his own brother dying. Simon quickly returned with a beefy roadie, who picked up Alvin and quickly ran him backstage.
At that, the journalist I was with jumped up and pushed himself through the crowd, which was now going absolutely berserk. I followed him as best I could, trying to weave through the sweaty bodies of a thousand reeking, screeching teens. When I finally made it to the front, I showed my ID card to security, who were doing their best to keep the crowd back. They let me through, and as I ran up the stage and through the backdoor, I made it just in time to see the ambulance carrying Alvin speed away. Simon was gone, apparently riding in the ambulance with Alvin. But Theodore stayed behind. And when my eyes met his, I haven't seen such pain to this very day.
The crushing agony. The ceaseless misery. The torturous knowledge that their career, their fame, their family, destroyed forever, disappearing into the night in the back of an ambulance. I couldn't bare to meet his gaze for more than a few moments.
After I made it back to New York City with the journalist I had gone with, I resigned. I wasn't the same person after experiencing what had happened that night, and I haven't been since. I still throw on my old Chipmunks vinyl from time to time, chasing after that old feeling I felt when I heard them for the first time. But there was one thing about that night that still keeps me awake, one thing above all else that will follow me until the day that I die.
As Alvin lay there on the stage, fighting for his every breath. As he was hauled away on the back of that roadie. As they drove him away inside of that ambulance. Even as he drew his last breath.
He never stopped singing. Not once. And his final words?
"Set me free."
wow this is incredible writing honestly
This started off funny but ended up so depressing lmao
This is gay
It's sad to hear Jeannette's backing vocals in Call Me considering how much the band's substance abuse publicly broke her. God only knows what she witnessed in that booth.
You know VH1 will NOT do an episode on Diamond Dolls. Something about a plane, an island, a financier and some Chappaquiddick/Natalie Wood stuff that NOBODY wants their name on.
@@aaronmoore6275 Is the island named Little St James?
@@phil_cassidy hey, I just used to groundskeep at a place SIMILAR to this. I didn't see ANYTHING at the one I worked at.
@@aaronmoore6275 C'mon now. It's a high class establishment. You must have seen a few notable guests in your time. A few celebrities here and there, maybe even the odd politician having some precious time off.
Then again, with clientele like that I can imagine your NDA was thick enough to stop a bullet.
@phil_cassidy I don't know what you're talking about. Lotta golf bags, Lotta big cash tips. Coulda been anyone there. After a while, all the Suits and BigHats start to look alike.
Saw them back in 85 when they were still doing small clubs. They were late, and the crowd was getting impatient. The tension kept getting higher and higher. As soon as Theodores drums came in on Call Me, the stage lit up and Alvins guitar gave a loud roar of perfect disortion. It was like magic the way the crowd instantly was fixated on the bands every move. Simon had a nasty spat with a bouncer that night while he was crowd surfing midway through their set. He hit the bouncer square in the head with his bass, blood was gushing everywhere. As soon as the bouncer landed a punch on Simon, Theodore and Alvin went straight to his rescue. It was pure chaos on that stage. The crowd was chanting “Fuck This Shit” as there was no more music playing. They walked off stage in pure blackness. It’s believed Simon did a shot of heroin in the janitors closet backstage to ease the pain. They eventually came back onstage, to hundreds chanting and roaring. They went straight into Walk Like an Egyptian and they sounded better than ever. Man I miss those days. A lot has changed since Alvin’s overdose, and Theodore doing life for murdering Eleanor. Simon’s been doing great giving back to the community, giving speeches on the dangers of drug use. You can tell in his eyes he still misses rocking out with his two buddies on that stage. They had the whole world in their hands. A damn shame.
🤣😂🤣😂🤣
Well Simon has a good life right now
Didn’t Alvin die to suicide by microwave?
I remember that gig, I was just getting into Alvin and the CMs at that time and me and my friends got cheap tickets, what an experience, it was like nirvana before teen spirit, a really fun and small event but Alvin was so high that after the show he puked on my buddies shoes when we tried to get a autograph after the show. Even then he was struggling but I'm glad Simon is still getting work, I saw him a few years ago at a hole in the wall in new York and he looked great. I could still see the lines in his face from all the H and Coke they did but he looked like he was still 35 for a 60 year old. RIP Alvin, man had a problem and that relapse came at the worst possible time, I feel bad for his kids cause they could have gotten the band going again after that court thing and it just floundered for 4 years and then he turns up dead. Can definitely relate to missing the good old days, almost did a full tour in 91 with my buddies but our parents wouldn't let us til Mikey could drive and then wouldn't you know it, the next year they cancel the tour and go into rehab. I think Cobain scared them, unfortunately for al it wasn't enough. Fentanyl is a dangerous drug
Autism.
This was really their Pinkerton
Hahahahaha, then they cut Matt and went back to business as usual.
"light the spoon dad, we're going in"
A og comment from back in the day. I Haven't been the same since.
I tried getting my friend into this when the original was up around 2019. He read that comment and he pretty much gave up on my music tastes because of it.
RIP Alvin. Saw him live only once. Cleveland, 81. Will never forget that sound. So young. Full of piss and vinegar. The smile he had when he walked up to the mic and told the group of us that he was gonna “blow your fucking minds” - it would have been cocky if he hasn’t backed it up.
Mom threw all my records away after Grenada (she was an old school hippie, hated that I joined the army after high school). Forgot about the Chipmunks until I saw the news reports about the overdose. Friend was able to copy me an old cassette. A copy of a copy. Shit was scratchy as hell. Sound quality was garbage. But god, it was just what I remembered. Their early stuff was so packed with promise. The righteous anger of youth.
I know it’s their later sound that gets all the praise, when they started experimenting (in every sense of the word), but for me? I still remember that grin before he rocked our world.
You a former ranger I assume?
this is so well written
I once saw Alvin use a cop's holstered gun as a bottle opener for his warm Miller Highlife. He shotgunned the whole thing than slid headfirst into a storm drain. I never saw him again... 😞
this was my favorite comment on the old upload, thanks for putting it back up
is this actually real or is it just pretend
I saw Simon at his lowest after Sludgefest 94. This was after the infamous eye gouging incident between him and his boyfriend, but before his glass eye. Theodore almost lost it playing Heaven is a Place on Earth, it was the last thing they all practiced before Alvin's suicide-by-cop. Their manager Dave didn't even give them a week to grieve.
I didn't know Simon had a boyfriend? When was this?
@@Asylum_Vamp I'm pretty sure it was sometime between 86 and 87, they only stayed together for like 4 months and it was never a heavily public thing, however the news were filled with it when it was revealed just 2 days before the incident that led to their break up (it was also theorized that his boyfriend was a fan of his, which sparked a lot of controversy at the time, tho it was never confirmed), one of his solo songs that he wrote after the disbanding actually talks about it, I think it was called "broken smiles" or smth like that, but I'm not 100% sure.
The ironic thing about heaven is a place on earth is the reason Alvin was so obsessed with performing it in the first place was it was basically his love song to heroin
Summer love child
Contracts were signed; commitments made. Luckily Alvin's tech Billy "Goat" Hawkins stepped up to cover the guitar. Chipmunk superfan Tracie Oberheim respectfully handled the vocals for the rest of the tour after winning the hastily-organized "Stand-In For Al-vin" contest. She parlayed the tragedy into a short-lived stint as singer in hair-metal band Krystal Lixx and, later, a successful solo career.
People always ragged on them for being “just a cover band,” but the fans knew what they had. It melted their brains together as one waving, drugged out crowd. Back in ‘89 I remember the flair of their albeit poorly planned tours, but that was the fun of it. The smell of wood glue in people’s hair, Alvin getting into fights in a cross faded rage, the grunge of it all. I met my wife there.
Rest in hell Simon, I wish you could’ve seen your daughter’s career skyrocket before cancer took you from us.
"Rest in hell" 😂
And I have doubles of ford focuses, and doubles of Mustangs.. cuz if any of that other stuff isn't true, then this isn't true but it is, and I have a super hot model wife.. and it will all get better
@@ShaneFlett What was this comment for?
Genuinely the hardest album opening of all time.
Played this for my wife and she says, "If I'd walked in the room and you were listening to this I wouldn't have batted an eye. Sounds like everything else you listen to."
Kinda wholesome
Can you recommend me something that sounds like this?
then you were like if I walked in and saw you doing another Chad I wouldn't have batted an eye, looks like every other guy you do
I don't know what his playlist sounds like, but Hollow by Alice In Chains is pretty similar
As of June 15th, 2023, Theodore has been found dead at only the age of 35. The troubled chipmunk was found dead in his Chicago home and his death was most likely a painkiller overdose. It was a well known fact that Theodore was a pill popper. I still can't believe that we lost another one of the chipmunks. Fly high Theodore, Hopefully you can finally reunite with Alvin 🕊🕊🕊🕊
It’s not even June 15 yet.
@@machmn oh sorry, I thought @patrickkay0607 said Theodore was found dead on July 15, my bad.
@@Handbags239 Future Devil wrote this
I think flying high might’ve been his problem 😂
@@Handbags239they ain't even 24 any more
To quote a unknown commenter on the original Sludgefest upload:
"This is the musical equivalent of Garfield Minus Garfield"
That comment was right on the money
Hi everyone - just want to write and thank you all for supporting the original version of this masterpiece. I re-uploaded for no other reason than for my friends and I to continue to listen to it together, and I'm glad its getting the attention it deserves. Cheers!
I'm glad TBH. Sludgefest is an amazing album!
You DO know the dark and weird things happening in the comment section, right?
Run it back! We need a part two
I'm just happy that someone preserved this masterpiece.
I remember seeing the Chipmunks back in '95. They were opening for Acid Bath that night. It was this little club in the middle of nowhere in Lousiana. The electricy was terrible and the band's amps kept going off the entire night. And they ROCKED. Alvin kept throwing his guitar in the air and catching it, playing with feedback, playing solos with his teeth. Theodore kept doing lines of coke midsong without ever stopping the beat. Absolutely amazing. The high point of the night was when Simon ran off stage during a long jam and went to the nearby bayou. And he came back with an alligator. He threw it in the middle of the stage and wrestled it a bit. They closed with Diamond Dolls, and Alvin kept bringing the mic to the alligator for it to do the backing vocals. Absolutely timeless. Acid Bath almost didn't go on stage because they knew they couldn't top that, and the alligator bit Dax Riggs on the leg. I'll never forget that night. RIP Alvin.
One of the greatest, saddest, most surreal musical moments of my life was at one of their shows at a dingy club outside of Seattle once in the mid 80s. The hype had been building around the band for a while but it was obvious that things were going off the rails very quickly, a sad indication that their musical genius was destined to die on the vine before they were ever able to achieve any real mainstream success. It was a cold rainy night, and nobody was really sure if the band was even going to show up, as they seemed to have been in the middle of a particularly volatile period during those weeks. Nonetheless everyone was curious and excited to see how the night would transpire. About 30 minutes after they were set to hit the stage Alvin stumbles out alone, wearing a red sequin dress and high heels, with heavy mascara literally melting all the way down his cheeks, and a half empty bottle of Hennessy swinging loosely from his right hand. He proceeded to do a solo rendition of Diamond Dolls, to a mixture of boos, laughter, but mostly stunned silence from the modest crowd before chucking his bottle against the stage wall and marching off while giving a giant middle finger to the audience. Afterwards when the crowd had mostly left I made my way towards the back of the club where a kid was sitting scribbling in a notebook. He was in scraggly jeans and had shoulder length, matted blonde hair. Couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17 years old. I had just lit a cigarette and he asked if he could bum one. I obliged, and we chatted for a few minutes. “That was wild, huh?” I said, to which he replies “it’s all fucked up man”. He said he had been a fan for a while, wasn’t terribly surprised at what we saw, and in fact found it quite amusing. He was working on his own lyrics and was excited about getting his band off the ground. Incredibly sweet, down to earth kid, though you could tell he had the weight of the world on his shoulders even at such a young age. Said our goodbyes. Come to find out later - that dude? Kurt. Fucking. Cobain. I shit you not. He never really talked about the chipmunks influence on him publicly, but when I listen to early Nirvana now I can’t not hear it. What a night.
Whaaaaaat?! This was a fun read :D
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Literally made me laugh till I cried thank you
fav comment here so far
I can recall hearing him bring them up here and there in those old one-time MTV documentaries that you can find screen recorded on YT and whatnot 😂 musical legends influencing musical legends
It continuously baffles me how unironically good this is.
Bold, exposed, passionate, dark.
I mean wtf, man.
Ikr
Relax, it's just slowed down good music.
Man, does anyone remember the multitude of comments on the original upload of this video detailing Alvin and the Chipmunks' drug filled sprial downhill? All of that morbid creativity is lost now that the original video is deleted.
Kinda sad to see.
Yeah that was my favorite part about coming back to this album was to read the stories that people had made
Oh man that sucks. Some of those comments really got stuck in my head. “Alvin was really fucked up by that point”. “They created magic on the stage together”. That stuff was SO funny.
All the conspiracy theories about Alvin in the microwave 💀
E
Maybe it was archived in the wayback machine??
This is unironically some of the best post punk ever released
Yeah not bad. But Blondie is more melodic punk! 😊
It's such a shame that Alvin Microwaved himself.
I think it was Dave, since he randomly went missing after Alvin's death and the end of the band... Because, it is impossible to start a microwave from the inside without outside help
He could have just set the timer and then go inside
I think it was Raz0r from the Scummettes that did it. At the Edison Mansion party.
@@josephelkhoury520no the microwave door have to be closed to start the timer
@@ajd823 mine doesn’t 🤔
Shout out to the OG dude who commented “this is what Cleveland Ohio sounds like”
Can’t believe they were all so young when this album came out. The Chipmunks were only 24 when they released this project, I remember the buzz circling around them years prior when they were supposedly the next big pop band. Dave’s death, Theodore’s near overdose death, and his own addiction to painkillers must’ve really hit Alvin hard because he sings so raw and passionately. R.I.P Alvin, wish you were still around to see Simon be a successful solo artist and Theodore being a family man 😔
Honestly Simons career was almost predicted as much as the band, his voice is just as passionate as Alvin’s especially when he actually gets to sing a song during the first track
Note: Also Theodore glow-up fr
Theo? A redemption
crap man im 74 and i rember i snuck backstage and they let me get signatures instead of kicking me out, then we went to the first ever McDonald's when it was just a run down truck. alvn is the bestone there
daddy
How was they still alive? The normal life span of a chipmunk in 5 years so how was that foripled?
I swear, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" chills me every time
That one is my favorite too
Listened to this near the end of a 4 hour car ride across part of California, it must have been 95 degrees out. The cars AC was broken. Absolutely surreal experience.
I’m sorry you had to go though that but I am curious ngl
it's so weird because the instrumental are obviously incredibly modified but the vocals are now untouched and they are singing perfectly in tune
it's almost ethereal in a way
The slowed-down tempo adds such a doomsday grittiness to all of these songs. Love it.
yes
It's the sound of 2020 and 2021 for me... democracy burning, police on the edge, a plague raging across the globe, and the first inklings of artificial intelligences beginning to comprehend art and human conversation
@@ryanwalraven812 you make 2020-2021 sound way more badass than it actually was
GG Allin opened up for these guys on a small eastern European tour in the early '80s. Back then, GG was pretty milquetoast and didn't have much of a stage presence but every night after his set, he'd study the Chipmunks onstage antics and he would actually take notes on a notepad. He basically stole their live show and made a more toned-down, family friendly version of it in order to reach a wider audience.
"made a more toned-down, family friendly version of it in order to reach a wider audience."
Remind me of Bite You Scum (Andy Rehfeldt cover) 😄
lmao
@@TheBl4ckH4nd Saw your picture thumbnail and consider both GG Allin and Saitama both are bald head. I wish Saitama to sing GG Allin music along with Sweet Mask 😆
GG Alvin
Is that why gg would poop all those dirty acorns on the audience.
Genuinely, hearing the original songs after these versions is so jarring. These are genuinely so much better. The vocal performance is so fucking powerful, and the purposeful, almost melting sound of the vocals adds so much heart to the mix. I genuinely wish more music like this existed. People recommend other genres that are similar, but in my experience the vocals are usually too "growly" and the instrumentation is far more harsh. Those things aren't bad, I love those qualities in music, but it just doesn't have that drawn-out, passionate sound this has.
Sounds like this are impossible to replicate with a guitar without playing a song and then slowing it down, and also this was recorded on a special record player that slowed down the music to 16 speed, making sounds like this unknown until this was made
Agree, because there is no alternative best you can do is slow an existing song down to 16 RPM using Audacity and attempt to sing over it yourself
Anyway the closest you’ll get to music like this is with dark wave
@@zbox6420believe it or not they knew about what a slowed down electric guitar sounded like before an Alvin and the chipmunks record was slowed to 16 speed
When the vocals are sped up initially, the slowed down version will sound more natural. That's why the Chipmunks songs are perfect for this.
I've been tripping for the past few weeks because I couldn't find the original upload. It's still so strange that the original was deleted
Yeah my buddy and I were shocked. I only showed him this like, a month ago and he'd been listening ever since. I think the original uploader just got rid of his channel for whatever reason.
Seriously thank you for putting this up. I would have been devastated to lose this
Probably got hit with a copyright infringement or an unrelated issue with the OP.
I miss the comments on that video, some were pretty interesting and funny
Top 5 things the FBI doesn't want you to know
I managed to catch their final show by a slim margin. I must have bought the last ticket before they sold out it was close. Wow just wow. We’d got glimpses of the rot setting in the band over the years with alvin’s overdose in 87 but I don’t think we expected it to end like that. Everything was just.. wrong, like the atmosphere was poison and distrust. Alvin was clearly on something he could barely stand and slurred out his words, but you know his spark was clearly still there. Behind the haze you could hear the magic in his voice that was their in the beginning. Simon and Theodore were uneasy the entire time just watching Alvin the entire time. Theodore looked drunk. They didn’t even make it halfway through the album due to Alvin’s infamous breakdown on stage. I remember it like it was yesterday. He just stopped singing and sank to his knees and raised his eyes to heaven and wept. It was dead silence in the venue nobody said a thing and after a minute he walked offstage without a single word. Simon and Theodore tried to continue the song without him but without Alvin it wasn’t the same. They gave up and didn’t even bother singing diamond dolls, they couldn’t, not in the state they were in.
Learning about alvin’s suicide the next day shook me to the core. I’d seen him. He looked almost sober in that moment and I’ll never forget it.
I actually ran into Theodore in 1996! I was 17, working at a grocery store in Cleveland. I was restocking shelves when I noticed a familiar face in the wonder bread aisle, Theodore!Thank Dave I was able to build the nerves to talk to him. He was super nice, talked about his music a little bit, and even signed my back Jean pocket. Safe to say to haven’t worn those jeans since. So Thanks to Theodore for making a young sludgepunks life!!!!!
Diamond Dolls is a throwaway song from the Chipettes movie from the 80’s that barely anyone remembers, there is absolutely no reason it should be such a banger
Absolutely agreed man, it's my 2nd favorite track of the album.
Hearing it with the vocals slowed down and kinda androgynous in pitch makes me want to perform in drag.
Even as abusive as Dave was, you can tell they missed him. I knew a guy who saw one of their last shows in 99, he said halfway through the set, Alvin just broke into tears. He walked off stage, then came back a 15 minutes later with the cocaine still matted into his lip fur. Apparently Alvin could play just fine while high, which really goes to show how often he got high.
Saw Alvin in 99 Chicago, PD.
Alvin was taking painkillers and theodore had been officially declared dead (for 2 days) by painkiller OD, he was eyes red and popping like a champagne bottle, he handed me a tape and a Letter saying: Goodbye my friend. Adios! -Alvin, 1999
He killed himself 2 months after.
Wild how his mood swings affected him. One minute he’d do something for a fan like your letter, other times he’d toss amps into the crowd.
One of my friends knew a guy that was a friend of Dave’s and he would tell him about what Dave would do and say backstage and in studio. It became clear that he was an abuser and you could really see how abusive Dave really was. Dave would throw beer bottles at Theodore while Alvin would snort coke and heroine mixed into one powder, apparently Alvin said he would get tired a lot more after shows then at bars and clubs so Dave suggested taking drugs. Even got to meet Simon after Theodore’s death though I will respect his wishes and not share any information that he has shared with me
I remember Simon breaking down while doing the Heaven is a Place on Earth tribute for Theodore after the overdose. It’d already been years later, but Simon cried like he found him yesterday.
I remember he couldn’t keep singing. I remember the fans filling it in for him - we’re all joined together so he could have a moment. Alvin kept his head down while he played, but I know that he felt the same.
I don’t know, man. That was their brother. I heard the 911 call on the news.
Why the fuck did this give me actual chills
“Western culture quietly hit its musical high water mark on the 13th November 2015. No one knew but everything that happened before only led up to this moment and everything after could only be a footnote to its transcendent glory.”
-Comment from the original video
This is the soundtrack to sitting outside the hospital and staring at a buzzing, flickering overhead streetlight at 3:17 am having a cigarette after just learning you have lung cancer.
sounds surprisingly cozy
Too late to quit now, anyway
Breaking Bad reference
This is like the best concussion I've ever had.
The best concussion you've had so far
@@sapphoanna 🤣
@@thechrisricci The best concussion you've ever had
rip to all the creative writing projects in the original video -- here's to hoping they all get reposted
Entering this comment sections feels like entering a cult meeting
Drink the wine.
@@Amphetamine_A_Go_Gois it blood or actually wine? I don’t wanna make that mistake again
It's blood-wine made from fermented virgin innocence.
feels more like seeing your childhood friends running a train of ket
Glad that people still listen to sludgefest in 2023, only been listening to it since 2022 but I still want this album to be listened by many people
Bro it hasn’t been THAT long 😭
@@gdgdgdgd5676 I know its hard to believe it but soon its gonna be 40 years! can you believe how the time has past...
Guys! he listened to it a year ago
David, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore Seville. David was a doting father and his three sons were... They weren't creative, lyrically, but they were amazing vocalists and with their respective instruments. They weren't really ever gonna go anywhere, they were a local cover band. But their music helped pay the rent and that was enough until tragedy struck in 1972 when David died unexpectedly of a heart attack. The boys were lost. Their original music took a much darker turn, as did their cover songs. Simon developed a heroin habit at some point in the late '70s.
In 1983 the Seville boys were destitute and desperate. They put everything they had left into a cover album, "Sludgefest." They hoped their new, dark, edgy sound might help them overcome the... Frankly ridiculous idea of a cover album taking off. But their longshot worked. It peaked at #7 on the US charts.
The Chipmunks, as they had started to call themselves, went from the edge of homelessness and ruin to stardom overnight.
It's not as fun and lighthearted as their much earlier covers (recordings of which are almost impossible to find, unfortunately) or as refined as their later albums. But their first hit album really was lightning in a bottle. Listening to it again really brings me back. This music is dark but it helped me get through some dark times in my life. Damn tragic what happened to the Chipmunks in '88, God rest their souls. Thank you for uploading this, i really needed to hear this again.
Way better then the comment I made on my Alt “HenryDoesStuff” good job
Always loved Dave. He did his best...they just got lost in the world of rock n roll...
As someone who has experienced high levels of carbon monoxide poisoning this is exactly what it sounded like. Great memories!
No joke the songs are actually so good it’s so unexpected
3 months late but youre so right. I personally love the slowed down instrumental, it just sounds so nasty I love it
To me, this is the definitive edition of _Keep Me Hanging On_
@@oz_jonesabsolutely devastatingly good.
@@oz_jones Funny part is that it ends up sounding reasonably close to the sound of an earlier 1967 cover by Vanilla Fudge.
It’s so simple too, it’s pretty much just slowed down songs with regular vocals but it works so well
why isn't there more music intentionally sounding like this? slow tempo, heavy sludgy guitars, and clean melodic vocals
czcams.com/video/afhSDK5DJqA/video.html What is the slowest music humanly possible?
sludge metal
@@michaelhurstanime5009exactly that, sludge metal is exactly like that
@@michaelhurstanime5009 any recs?
Sludge metal is growly as fuck and sounds nothing like this
The year is 1989, you find yourself at an underground club at night, and the people that are all around you are nothing but junkies, punks, and low-level degenerates.
While at this club, the lights move towards the stage. There, three chipmunks appear onstage. They all appear to be in various disheveled states, with the one in the red looking the worst out of the bunch.
Before you could say anything, these three chipmunks begin performing a barrage of tunes that you could only describe as "oddly euphoric." As they play, the club begins to decline into musical chaos, with all the attendees divulging into a limbo of music.
diamond dolls is genuinely so haunting. wish i'd been around to see them play live
Unironically, listening to the middle of the road version - between Sludgefest and the intended speed - it's a killer 80s girlboss song.
Trust me buddy you don’t. When they came out with diamond dolls it was near the end of their careers and preforming on stage was a nightmare for anyone who went their, Theodore once had a mental breakdown on stage after preforming my sharona and Dave straight up came on stage and kicked him off. Another time you could see Alvin drinking live on stage and then after they performed diamond dolls some people could see Alvin with a gun to pointed his head and Simon running over to stop him. But their singing was legendary, like a bunch of angels in a chorus.
thats just ween
This album sounds like several times as a young child when I had difficulty waking up from strange nightmares. I wouldn't be fully awake, but in a swirly, weird place in-between consciousness and subconsciousness, my brain frantically trying to pull me out of the dread and hopelessness of the nightmare and back to my bed and cozy blankets.
Hypnagogia
@@ijustlikebees Dang there's a word for that? Thanks for telling me!
@mint_marigold1229 heh, anytime. I think hypnagogia is the word for that weird feeling while falling asleep, not waking up though, don't remember that exact word
@@ijustlikebees you mean that falling feeling?
@@cloudtaker633 yeah I think
To this day the Chipmunks remain one of the most influential bands in history. It’s a testament to their legacy that nearly every song in their discography has been covered by other artists. Despite the myriad problems with drug abuse, the Munks were beloved in the international music community for the essence of pure musical genius they continually displayed. RIP Alvin and Theodore.
I cant believe i cried listening to this shit lmao, Heaven is a place on earth completely destroyed me for some reason
The fact the songs are stretched so long makes the emotions depicted ten times stronger because the build up is so much more intense
Heaven is a Place in Earth sounds like the opening song to a post-apocalyptic dystopian movie where the protagonist is walking across a drug-laden barren wasteland.
Hmmmm…
I pictured the same exact thing, I also think it would be a great song for Ghost to cover.
So pittsburgh?
That guitar tone in Call Me is a dead ringer for Nirvana era grunge. It's incredible how good this silly concept can be. It legitimately transforms all of the songs into something completely new with this amazing depressed hatred vibe. I love sludgefest so much, thank you for reuploading.
yes
I dont hear that at all. Nirvana was never fuzzed out lol. Billy Corgan was way fuzzier than Kurt and even The Smashing Pumpkins isnway to tame fuzz wise compared to this. Definitely way closwr to stoner rock bands like Electric Wizard.
Sounds nothing like Nirvana lol, sounds more like drone, sludge, and stoner metal like Melvins, Electric Wizard, Sleep, or Sunn o)))
@@panasonic_youth ackshooaly...
Sounds like JimMorrison.It’s crazy
when i was helping with cleaning out my grandmother's house when she passed i found a copy of chipmunk punk along with a bunch of other LPs in the attic. upon closer inspection it was covered in black mold. fitting.
That sucks that it’s covered in mold, but still pretty cool that you found a copy, even if it is covered and mould and probably unplayable
Heaven is a Place on Earth is freaking me out. Nightmare fuel.
It really is pretty trippy version. On the original upload there was a whole comment about how it changed the whole tone of the album
@@chumon1992 that's an excellent way to describe it. It's like when you drop a tab and then push a bag right as the acids hitting, but instead of being melty and colorful everything's abruptly gone sinister and menacing
@@orbitalbutt6757 yes exactly!
@@chumon1992 I think that was me lmao I wish I could remember everything I said about it. Turns the song into a depressing satire, making fun of the idea that there's paradise after life, that this slow and grim real world is truly the best it ever gets. It becomes about accepting death and sadness here and now.
@@skore9975 haha yeah something like that.
Thank you so much for uploading this. Really the definitive edition. So sad we've lost all those great comments. My favourite being 'this is the sound track of a herion overdose'.
I second this comment. Fortunately, 2 years back I saved my favorites to a text file (never did that with any other video). Unfortunately, I didn't save the commenter names, so apologies to the original commenters that I can't properly credit them for their much appreciated contributions:
- this is the soundtrack to carbon monoxide poisoning
- MY GENERATION'S MUSIC SUCKS I WISH THE CHIPMUNKS DIDN'T DIE IN THE TRAGIC CAR ACCIDENT IN 1989
- looking at the cover makes me feel like there's supposed to be a fourth chipmunk
- kurt cobain walked so alvin and the chipmunks could run
- this is just the third joy division album
- "Heaven is a place on earth" sounds like the last song a cult recorded before committing mass suicide.
- I feel less healthy than I was before I listened to this.
- Hey, Chuck! It's your cousin Marvin...Marvin Berry...you know that sound you been looking for? Well, listen to this!
- I hate that I understand completely why this was recommended to me
- this sounds like how it feels to get black mold poisoning
- This sounds like the taste of bongwater
- This genre of music is what I commonly refer to as post-90s Florida drug addiction.
- This is what the Chipmunks from the forests surrounding Chernobyl sound like.
- this is what i imagine it would sound like to drown in melted crayons
- perfect album to die from coronavirus to
- this sounds like the crust around my eyes while im drifting in and out of reality during a heroin overdose in 1984 Los Angeles
- This album smells like used motor oil and pipe tobacco
- This is the music I’m gonna be listening to when I’m sitting alone in my dark room shirtless with a 44 gently pressed to my temple
- Feels like taking a strangely refreshing bath in tar
- This is the musical equivalent of Garfield Minus Garfield
- This album sounds like sleep deprivation.
- "What kind of music do you like?" "Heroin"
- When the chipmunks died in that infamous wreck, do you think that in his last dying breaths, Theodore sang "Heaven is a place on Earth"?
- Didn't realize I overdosed on Playdough.
- I can't help but feel like there's a missing chipmunk in this album art
- This sounds like how Cleveland Ohio feels
- It's like a final plea found in a time capsule. They're already dead, and we're next.
- I feel like there’s a body in the trunk of my car
- This is the theme song for Flint Michigan
- Alvin and the Heat Death of the Universe
- Eating lead paint chips brought me here
- I started playing this and an eerie morning fog rolled in by the second track. I may have triggered a plague.
- If Hell was a stripclub, this would be the music playing there while the demon strippers worked the pole.
- This album feels like stumbling into a Goodwill while on heroin and being shanked in the gut and bleeding out all over the clothesracks.
- This album feels like being one of those waterhead babies
- Okay dad light the spoon we're going in
- Walk Like An Egyptian makes the intro to a non-existant 80's dystopian movie play in my head
- This album is like eating quicksand.
- If I ever time travel to 1980’s Manhattan in the midst of a Thorazine high, I want this in my Walkman.
- This feels like someone is overdosing on Heroin and you're hearing his world just crumbling around him.
- This album is the sound of doing an entire box of whippets alone in your car.
- The room this is being played in smells like cigarettes, heroin, and dried blood
- this is good music to drink and drive at 3 am in the middle of winter to, ending with your car sliding on black ice and wrapping around a tree, with the failing tape deck still playing the end of Heaven is a place on Earth as your life comes to an end
- This is what plays when you’re downing vodka in the school bathroom during the dance, after seeing your date kiss another girl.
- I feel like I'am walking thru slowly drying cement.
- This is the soundtrack for getting shot in a crackhouse in the gut with a sawn off shotgun
- heaven is a place on earth makes me feel like drowning in a baptismal font
- this made my blood feel thicker
- This is what a glass and mustard sandwich sounds like
- This sounds like something you’d hear while you drown yourself
- This is the soundtrack to long night shifts as a security officer, shining a flashlight at shadows and shooing off crackheads.
- This is the musical equivalent of tearing apart a stuffed animal and putting it back together inside out.
- this is the sound of slowly melting into nonexistence
- This is the soundtrack that the Romans listened to while crucifying Jesus Christ
@@chrisadraheim thank you so much for this little archive, fella, I was afraid we would lose the best comments on this video, especially because I hadn't seen all of them
@@chrisadraheim thx for the archive
@jetorky5009 @@____________________________.. Absolutely! I'm sure there was plenty of good ones I missed, but I feel like I at least got enough to simulate the experience of the original's comments.
Soundtrack to the inside of a hot car was a real good one.
I was actually at the infamous Sludgefest 09 tour. Theodore was a wreck before he died. He left to take a shit during Diamond Dolls and he didn't come back. I still remember when Simon and Alvin got the news. It was terrifying, man. They broke down on stage, Simon was saying he wished he had stolen Theodore's pills before the show like he wanted to. Terrible, man. I'm scarred.
theodore did't die he just get really injure because alvin throw a speaker. (sometime later the band brake up alvin commit sucide entering in a microowave)
@@victorvargas2345 Different timeline, man. Different timeline.
The chippettes did diamond dolls.
In the original video someone has commented something like "This is what I imagine these song would sound like through the old speakers of an abandoned mall" and I keep returning to sludgefest because I cant keep this image out of my head. Thank you very much for reuploading it
Mind if I play through?
Dya know this is the only workin' 'tricity in this terr-tory? I use it to play The TAPE. If you wanna hear, it's 2 cans, or 2 stabs to yer liver.
that would be an incredible setting
Simon is such a criminally underrated bassist.
Knew Simon back in high-school. Quiet, shy, kept to himself. He'd spend hours alone in the music room, using the shitty, beat-up stratocaster the music teacher had lying around, and record riffs using his stepmom's tape recorder. One day, he gave me a hastily recorded cassette tape containing a rough demo that would become this album. From the moment I popped in my deck, I was hooked. It was like the audio form of Crack. I Damn near worn that tape out from playing it so much. Within a year or two, they were signed to Dave's record label and already had a growing audience. He wanted to go to college and earn a music degree, but his manager convinced him to perform full time instead. Not a day goes by where I don't think of what could've been if I had just intervened and told him to go to college instead. Maybe he'd still be with us. Fly high, Simon ❤️
My uncle saw the Chipmunks at this dive bar in Jersey back in 86. In what looked like a condemned building that was illegally operating and run by a biker gang. Alvin took almost 40 minutes to get to stage after show time. He walked on stage with rubber tubing tied on his left arm while nodding out, but once they started playing, he said you couldn't even tell Alvin was wired. He said it was the best show he's ever been too.
I cant believe they forced Alvin into the studio after he shot up his girlfriend with that fatal overdose. They had to shove him into the record label's company car just as they shoved her stretcher into the ambulance. This recording perfectly captured the guilt he was trapped with inside the mic booth. The chambers of his heart being eaten alive. Not knowing by the time he finished laying this track down, she would be dead, and he would be laying her casket down as well.
God damn, man.
We’ll said 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Jesus christ dude. These comments are like a contest to see who can come up with the most cartoonishly depressing anecdotes.
This happened at Trent Reznor's apartment in Tacoma, WA back in '89 @@mrscruffles801
@@mrscruffles801It's just sad that the real life of The Chipmunks wasn't as happy as in the cartoons.
I can't believe I didn't notice the passing of the original sludgefest until almost a year later. RIP in peace you little melting freaks...
Put it at 2x and it turns into dads singing their favorite songs
The bass drums in walk like a egyptian are devastating
so nasty
Theodore is one of the most under appreciated drummers ever; a style that will never be replicated
Brilliant stuff. Had the pleasure of smoking a joint with Ian Hawke backstage in the summer of 92’. He was actually a really down to earth guy, despite the publicity. We talked a long time about life, women, and music. The band only came up once, when the cops showed (yep, the Boston Blood concert) i remember him saying “i’m done showing up for rats who can’t even show up for themselves.” It was a good night- never saw the guy again, was glad to hear that after the allegations against Alvin he skipped out.
I saw the chipmunks on their 88 tour. It was a dull show… Alvin kept nodding off and Simon would kind of walk over and give him a tap to get him going again. He was pretty with it during heaven is a place on earth which really made it a haunting rendition. I didn’t get the hype at the time but in hindsight I wish I would have given them more of my money for live shows. I’m sure I missed some moments of genius in there.
That Walk like an Egyptian track is eerie as hell
Bro it’s my favourite tbh
It was the summer of '86 when I first met the boys. Being hired as their local guide we toured through the canals of Amsterdam and had a generally good time. They still were their happy chipper alter ego's known as the Chipmunks. Their cover albums started to get some traction that faithful summer and fame seemed hot on their heels.
On his third day in my wonderful capital, Alvin asked me to procure him some special fungus. The mood didn't really sour on that sweltering day yet there was a tension I could not fully explain. At 2AM everything changed. Theodore had been staring into the lake for the better part of an hour, he stood up and just let himself fall forward into the dark waters. The boys being the compatriots they were jumped in after him. As their caretaker for the trip I couldn't stay behind and eventually got them all back to shore. Laying on that grass panting from the experience they stared into the cloudless night sky... A year later they came back to Amsterdam but they were beyond my capabilities of procurement.
They went into the water as the Chipmunks yet came out as the Sludgemunks.
RIP to a real one.
“Heaven is a place on earth” takes on a sardonic quality in this format that is a wonderful juxtaposition to the original. I love it so much.
Found a cassette in a second-hand shop here in Denmark recently, it was someone having recorded one of their live performances of "Walk Like an Egyptian" and like half of "Call Me", thought it sounded cool, so a bit of searching led me here, glad to see a lot of their work has been reuploaded with high quality on CZcams.
Kinda weird though, for such a band that seemingly only ever got big in North America I would never have expected to find any physical media of theirs in a European store, especially an unofficial recording. Sad to hear about how the band split up, and Alvin's death, it's a tragic story.
I heard Simon still makes music at-least. Hey maybe ask the owner of shop if he was at the one where they did “call me” last, and during it a man shot himself, pretty dark blood splattered on my face. It was midway when the electric piano sounding thing plays, apparently he knew Theodore and was jeulous
@@Tittylover3Yeah Simon is still a pretty high-end record executive and producer and has been for the past 15 years or so. I think it’s so cool that he’ll occasionally call Theodore up to play some backing drums on certain tracks for smaller artists.
Simon here. I miss the band, especially after Alvin died after OD'ing on a mixture of Tranq and hard liquor. I remember we played at a bar in '85.. We had bottles thrown at us, and I just saw Alvin throw down the guitar and chuck a fuckin' big-ass whiskey bottle at the crowd, hit a guy in the face too. I also remember, in '89, we had got done making the album, and we went on a tour for it. One guy crowdsurfed onto the stage and proceeded to smoke PCP. Watched as the guards beat him and threw him off stage. After Alvin had died in '05, and Theodore went off to be a politician, I was left to do whatever the fuck I wanted, so I started my own solo project: Chimpanzee on 3 Ketamine. Or atleast, just started it. The first CO3K song will come out 2025. Fly high Al, you were my best buddy.
I remember that call with Alvin. I can only talk about it because his family released the records negating hippa. We showed up and he wasn't breathing, gave him naloxone, he still had a pulse and we started bagging him. It was too late. He had already started turning purple, and then his heart stopped. When the medics got there they called it. It was strange following up on that case with the medical examiner and the police. They wanted our testimony, but there honestly wasn't much to say, it was fairly routine. Guess it was the tranq that really did it... I'm glad his family started that campaign to get kids clean, just sad that it took this.
Played this in two different browser windows 3 seconds apart. Gave it an echo effect that makes it even better.
Heaven is a place on earth and keep me hanging on are the most soul crushing yet powerful songs of the album
Heaven is a Place on Earth is the sonic equivalent of trying to eat a big mac while engaging in a staring contest with a homeless person who is cradling their recently deceased pet dog.
I managed to catch one of their gigs in 82, at this old abandoned sheet metal factory. It was amazing, the band were at the top of their game both creatively and technically. They even played Walk Like An Egyptian! (they never liked to play their hits). I was at the front with my mate so we had full view of the band. We noticed that Alvin had this dead eyed stare like he was half asleep and he would twitch violently throughout the set. The bands drug problem and behaviour was notorious enough to get them banned from most venues but seeing it in person was unnerving to say the least. My friend when it was done looked to me and said that Alvin wouldn't make it to the end of the decade, this made me enraged and we got into an argument about it while we walked home. Now when I listen to Chipmunks I just feel numb, the loss of life and talent that we may never see again.
Cool that you reuploaded it, since the only other upload uses the extended Bandcamp edition. However we can never get back those amazing fan lore comments 😢
That IS the saddest part...I had one going for like a string of 20 comments. It was so good.
I have several memorized. Heck yeah
I remember finding a low-quality recording of Sludgefest ‘03 on LimeWire way back in the day and being both shocked, yet intrigued at how radically different the Chipmunks had become since Dave’s death on 9/11. I haven’t seen it in 20 years, but the image of Alvin lighting an American flag on fire and then pissing on it is still burnt into my retinas.
Sometimes I wonder what their next album might’ve been like had Alvin been around to bring it to fruition, but I honestly can’t imagine a world in which this isn’t the Chipmunks’ magnum opus. Rest easy, Alvin. Hopefully you’re aware that people are finally starting to appreciate the fruits of your labor.
I still can’t believe Dave joined Al-Qaeda.
Favorite original comment from the old upload was “ This is the soundtrack to being a 4 year old locked in a hot car”
my aunt was a groupie and was w/ them when they were touring. alvin always seem like he was angry, but he didn’t know why he was angry. simon was the most levelheaded, the pr man before prmen existed, she said. theodore was lucid like he was there but he didn’t KNOW he was there; he let my mom mess with his drums. she said that the energy in the room was all fucked, like there was people there but was there really? (whatever that means).
huh, weird. i know there have been countless little rumors about demonic energies and curses and all that hocus pocus surrounding the band
I was at a club in ‘88, just before the “Call Me” US tour in January ‘89. I remember my friend telling me about some chipmunks playing that night, and how much we “gotta see ‘em, man.” Not that I knew this at the time, but this was 5 months after Alvin’s girlfriend died of the infamous overdose that started his downward spiral. But all I knew was that these 3 mangy critters’ band, made up of a Vocalist, Guitarist, and DJ, had enveloped the entire hardcore punk club in the dreamlike soundscape of “refugee”. I can vividly remember the acid kicking in while I looked at alvin grip the microphone like he was trying to hold it back from stabbing him. You could see his sweat-drenched fur glisten in the stage lights has he belted his way through “Diamond Dolls”. The trio managed to make their way through a rare near-flawless performance of “Call Me” (Theodore only messing up the guitar line once, to a disapproving scowl from simon and dave, who’s ominous shadow loomed over the band from just backstage the whole set.) The trio had the entire venue, which was packed far too full with what I would guess to be around 300 people that night, completely entranced. No one expected what would happen next, as Alvin completely broke down at the end of the 7 minute performance of “Heaven is a Place on Earth” I still remember hearing Alvin’s desperate, somber shouts turning into cries for help before he just completely broke into tears after the end of the last verse. Somehow, I swear the entire club went dead silent. The only sound was Alvin’s sobs and the haunting instrumental. Dave walked backstage, and anyone could tell he was a mix of embarrassed and furious. I always wondered how much that performance had to do with his eventual death. Theodore stared at alvin with a deep pity. Later interviews with people close to the band said he was in the car with Alvin and his girlfriend when alvin shot her up with that old needle. Simon, on the other hand, had only disgust in his eyes. The older brother looked at his younger sibling, reduced to a pathetic mess in some backwoods Oregon club. He said in a ‘03 interview that, looking back, he regretted how hard he pushed Alvin, but that “…the few studio sessions we could get him to come to after he killed dave made some of the best god damn vocal performances I ever heard.” The ending of that performance kept me away from the chipmunks for a while after that. After Sludgefest ‘99 became a special on MTV, I called up that old friend to ask what had happened to “that third chipmunk”. He told me about Alvin’s suicide and that he had stopped listening after that. I drove over to his parent’s house, where he still lived, to grab his original ‘87 run “Chipmunks” demo. Listening to it brought me right back to all those feelings during that one night in November 1988, which made me fall down the rabbit hole of Chipmunk fandom until I ended up right back here.
Listening to this on CZcams's 2X Speed is an experience, man. DEEP tones.
Good lord. It feels like a bad drug trip fit into an album. Guess that's what the Chipmunks were trying to achieve with this album. It's a shame we'll never get anything like this ever again since Alvin died and Theodore went missing. At least Simon is living a good life with his family.
Those comments were amazing. What a lose
This album is the soundtrack of laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling fan spin, and desperately waiting for your meds to numb your lumbar pain
I was 16, angry and ready to take it out on the world in 83. Fuckin Alvin gave me the thrill of lashing out at the world that concert but I saw in him the disaster that comes with such a fury. He hated himself and his fans and only did drugs on stage to make the show end quicker. RIP you sludge lord.
My dad was there on one of their later tours back in the 90’s. Apparently they were a total wreck. At one of the venues, Alvin would lock himself in the green room with whatever substance he could get his hands on. Theodore had gone missing half way through the set, only to be found a day later by a near by donut shop’s alleyway passed out in a dumpster. Simon was sober, but he was a nervous wreck, lashing out at the venue’s staff. I suppose it was early signs of his inevitable psychotic breakdown.
I found the Sludgefest record in my dad’s closet with each of their faces scratched out. It’s a shame how things turned out, but their music will still love on.
I’ll miss those guys. I was actually personal fiends of them. Theodore is truly a sad case. After Alvin’s death and the bands breakup depression and addiction drove him to radical extremist groups. He was actually part of the Squirrel Lynching riots of 96. He eventually escaped that life but I think he was deeply scarred. I found him once in his room with a cardboard cutter to his throat. Nearly lost a finger trying to wrestle it out of his hands.
@@Prophetofthe8thLegionwait did you live with him?
@@Dwightpower88 Yeah he was my roommate for a while. Until one he disappeared. He left a note saying ima assassinate Osama Bin Laden to stop world war 9. I didn’t see him for 6 maybe 7 years. When he returned alls he would say was “Nam changes you man.”
I remember a comment on the original that said (heavily paraphrased) "I'm a professional mixer. For years, I've heard every genre of music played in front of me, and had to pour over it until it became grating to listen to. This was a refreshing listen."
Chipmunks (soon Chipmunkson16speed as they are known today) were a local American post punk band that formed in the middle of the early 70s. They started out as a regular school band that would perform mainly rock based covers of several famous artists from the time. The band consisted of 3 friends named Simon, The Vocalist and frontman of the group (he also played the guitar). Alvin, The Coca-Cola obsessed bassist who would honestly fit more as the frontman with his attitude and all attracting several school girls to him. Theodore, The really funny drummer. After a few years mainly just gigging out on their own in Theodores garage. They got a chance to play at the school dance. This gig was so good that they got a quick mention in the paper, which caught the attention of an indie label manager named Ian. That Christmas they released one single, Christmas don’t be late (B-Side: Have yourself a merry little Christmas) this single was an instant hit. Known for its twist on Christmas music. Turning Happy jolly tunes into Melancholic masterpieces. On the singles B-Side the group would map out the rest of their career. The track was inspired by an incident on the first day of December where Frank Sinatra’s “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” was accidentally played on 16 speed. After 30 seconds of the song playing at this speed the network discovered the error and instead played it at its regular tempo. This however gave Simon an idea. After the record was released the band changed its name to Chipmunkson16speed, And recorded another single. Was it as popular as the last one? No. But it still got high enough on the charts to convince the boys to quit school and start recording their first album. After years of picking up inspiration from the Post punk movement, writing songs, Getting the right sound. The album was released. It was an instant classic, with the group gaining millions of fans. The main single “Call Me” even peaked at the charts for about a week!. However, Alvin seemed to be getting more attention then Simon (since all of the boys sang at-least one song in the album). And he became the frontman of the group. With Simon just being a songwriter and a guitarist. After another hit album and a successful tour. Ian, who was overwhelmed with the groups success. Removed the groups contract.
Note: I had to eat breakfast so I have to edit the rest instead of typing it in one go
From then the group basically went their own ways, Simon would marry the band’s honorary member Jeanette, Alvin would get addicted to drugs and get married with a model, Theodore ended up getting addicted to meth. Pretty easy to see who’s doing the best, -It’s fucking Simon-. However during the mid to late 80’s Alvin would gain interest in reforming the band after meeting up with his friend Dave. Who had coincidentally started a record label. He was able to convince Theodore, but Simon wasn’t willing to rejoin the band. He argued that he had a family and that if he rejoined the band he would become disconnected from his son that he loved so much. However eventually Alvin offered a deal. The deal was that Simon would get all the bands money. Tours, the albums. All of the money would go to him. Simon reluctantly accepted this deal. The comeback albums production was hellish to say the least. Alvin always showed up drunk, along with Theodore if you add drugs to the mix. Dave and Simon where the only sensible people working on the album, but even Dave was slowly getting addicted to Alcohol. After the album released, Simon and Theodore revealed their desire to quit. Alvin did not take this lightly and forced Dave to make the band tour so they “could get their spirits back up”. Dave didn’t hesitate to agree. Which would’ve made sense since the album had become their most successful yet. But it doesn’t because most of the group having a burning desire to leave the band and go back to their normal lives. But the band toured and it went as expected. Horribly, during the first show in Britain. Alvin got drunk and shat himself. Embarrassed. He stage dived into the crowd and left through the front door. After Call me was over Simon and Theodore investigated, He was found in a nearby bar. Dead……. The band split up after this. Simon, Despite what he experienced. Lived happily ever after with his family. Theodore on the other hand died of drug overdose in 1990. After his death the album your listening to right now came out. It was part one of a 2 part compilation. Showcasing the bands greatest beats from their catalogue. Most coming from the comeback album (well at-least in this part). Both parts of the extended 2015 release remain untouched on CZcams. The first part of the original compilation still exists (your listening to it right now) however part 2 is lost.
I'm really confused, What does it have to do with alvin and the chipmunks? Like is the cartoon based on a real band?
@@Gta4isgarbage yeah I’ve been having an existential crisis looking through these comments because I remember these guys as little animated chipmunks.
@@puenteplays4787wait so Alvin and the chipmunks movie is based on real people?
@@Gta4isgarbage no, I guess it's just a parody of the Analog Horror of Alvin and the Chipmunks video, which is satire
Alvin predicting his own death in 78 is really the thing that makes these recordings the most eerie
Simon and I dated briefly in the late '70s, before his group really started getting serious. 'Dated,' in the way that most closeted early-college boys in the '70s did. He was my first boyfriend and I was his. I never liked Theo and Al, and they didn't like me much neither. Theo pushed me out of nearly every party Simon ever tried to take me to, and their shows? Forget about it. Simon was a bit of a pushover, but I loved that about him. We ended up splitting because my parents found out about us, and I had to transfer out of our 'liberal' college. I heard whispers throughout their career, backroom drugs, abusive assholes who took advantage of Simon's desperation. Everyday it haunts me to think that if I'd just dropped out of college and convinced Simon to not continue on with this band, maybe he'd still be here. Maybe we would've gotten married, when that law passed. I've been with a few people since then, but Simon still lives on in my heart. I can't replace him.
Miss you forever. I'm your Hick forever.
RIP Alvin and Theodore Chipmunk.
1976-1989
1981-2023
Knowing that Alvin killed himself in a microwave and Theodore died of a painkiller overdose, I can’t imagine what Simon had to go through..
I know Theodore is currently looking down at us and Alvin is looking at us wherever he is (his behavior back was kinda strange)
gone but not forgotten😢
I had to go to hospital for an invasive surgical procedure a couple of years ago.
I had nil-by-mouth for 48 hours and an extremely strong sedative cocktail which included temazepam and fentanyl (yes, really). I was getting lift home still very high and we stopped off for a snack - I stayed in the car and somehow stumbled across the original CZcams vid.
It was so perfect. I have to say it blew my mind. The synergy of how I felt was just perfect with the music.
Nothing was more beautiful than listening to Refugee and watching sunlight coming through the leaves of a willow tree.. there is no way to describe how significant and beautiful everything felt in that moment in the Sainsbury car park, on an industrial estate on the M27.
When I hear this album it's like being right back in that opioid, post surgery haze.
I actually got to talk to Simon a while back.
I worked as a music journalist and got to interview Simon for the 40th anniversary of this album.
It was their first album after Dave was killed in the bus wreck, thus the darker tone compared to their earlier material. the band nearly broke up several times during the recording due to a series of reasons (Alvin's drug problems and nearly OD'ing, Theodore being late to sessions due to always being hungover, Alvin getting into a heated fistfight with Ian Hawke with the Chipettes having to stop them, etc.) He still can't believe the album turned out as well as it did given how messy the process was and how broken the boys were at the time.
Simon's a great guy. wicked down to earth, incredibly nice, and always up for hanging out with fans and I can't wait to see the boys again at the reunion tour
For the sake of archival reasons, I will post a comment that was on the original video that I remember:
This is from the timeline where the chipmunks did not get any head.
Heaven is a Place on Earth is the sonic equivalent of trying to eat a big mac while engaging in a staring contest with a homeless person who is cradling their recently deceased pet dog.
Thats a very creative interpretation of it
Damn
God, I miss the chipmunks. I actually got to meet Theodore when i was running a Thornton's back in '95. The dates are a bit fuzzy, but it had to be before their second breakup because he was still clean, and it couldn't have been after Alvin's sex scandal because they mostly stayed in california after that. He seemed nice enough, but you could tell something was wrong.
He had this look in his eyes.
The only other time I've ever seen it was at my father's memorial. His skin looked like wax. His eyes were glassy and he seemed almost like he was moving in slow motion. I tried to ask him about his brothers and the band before he left, but he just stared. I think he mumbled something about Dave.
It's no wonder he killed Eleanor. You don't come back from wherever he went.
Nobody does.
I remember kicking it in my dorm room when I heard the commotion in the hallway. They were gonna be performing at Ralph's that night, Michelle had heard. I remember us all pregaming with Sunny D and either Vodka or Steel Reserve, and making the hike across town. Just after we got past security, I ran into the bathroom to take a leak, and I ran into Ted. I snuck past to the urinal, but Ted was singularly focused on pounding the stall door, calling out for Alvin b/c the opener had 3 more songs. Ted borrowed a quarter to shim open the door where he found Alvin, pants down, having nodded off. Just when I was finished washing my hands, Ted asked me to help Alvin get to the greenroom. We got his pants on, put his arm's over our shoulders, and hoofed it over. Ted gave me his drink ticket and told me to not mention it, and yelled for Simon to come out.
You don't need me to tell you about the show being magical like some boomer, you wouldn't be here if you hadn't heard a dozen stories like that already. But it was. I'm still amazed Alvin collected himself to get on stage like that, becoming a conduit to the horror of existence. Michelle got invited backstage after flashing her tits. Sometimes I wish I'd said something before her life turned like that.
keeping the spirit of the original comment section alive. godspeed.
You can't save them all. This business kills what it eats.
I never got to see them live, but I dug up a video camera from my uncle’s garage that had an old recording of one of their ‘93 concerts. The camera quality was shaky and the audio cut out frequently but near the end of the concert Alvin and Theodore broke into a drug induced fight onstage (I think it was about Alvin sleeping with Eleanor but it was hard to tell) and they had to be pulled off the stage by security. Simon had to finish Heaven is a place on earth by himself, even with the shitty camera quality I could never forget his facial expression, the look in his eyes. I can only imagine what it was like to witness this live.
I dont care what the media says, we all know Elanore wacked Theodore in 94. He was doped up on enough smack to take down a large squirrel, there is no way he could have been concious enough to pull the trigger. Maybe she was part of MK ultra, maybe was just jealous, I have no idea. But what I do know for sure is that she was responsible and Theo wrote most of the songs on Live Through This Hibernation
The album cover is low-key nightmare fuel