''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' (sometimes spelled ''Blondertongueaudiobaton'') is the debut studio album by Swirlies, released on CD, LP and cassette. The majority of the album was recorded in the summer of 1992 at

Q Division Studios Q Division Studios is a recording studio located in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1986, Q Division was originally located at 443 Albany Street in Boston, but moved to its current two-studio facility in 2000. Bands that have ...

, Boston with engineer/co-producer

Rich Costey Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling ** Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated commun ...

. It is possibly their best-known and most critically praised work, with many critics citing it as a "

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

" answer to My Bloody Valentine's '' Loveless''.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

calls it "a mainstay of early-'90s indie music." In 2016,

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

ranked the album at number 11 on its list of the 50 best shoegaze albums of all time.

Background

Swirlies began work on ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' after signing to

Taang! Taang! Records is an independent record label with a roster of hardcore punk, punk rock, Oi!, power pop, ska, indie rock, psychedelic, and ambient artists and bands founded by Curtis Casella in Boston, Massachusetts in 1983. History Taang! ...

Records in the summer of 1992 and compiling the EP, ''What To Do Abut Them''. The band booked time at

with engineer/co-producer

to record a dozen songs that the group had been playing live for the past two years. At Q Division Swirlies made use of the studio's collection of vintage keyboards, including

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

and

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

s, to widen the palette of sounds they'd previously created as a guitar-bass-drums indie rock group. Drummers Kevin March and Mark Rivers from Boston bands Dambuilders and Cavedogs were brought on for most of the album's tracks as Swirlies founding drummer Ben Drucker only played on two songs during the Q Division recording session. A different arrangement of the band's 1992 single, "Park the Car (by the Side of the Road)" (named for a song lyric by

The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...

) was recorded but scrapped in favor of the earlier version. Singer/guitarists Damon Tutunjian and Seana Carmody also recorded the songs "His Life of Academic Freedom" and "Wait Forever" at home on 4-track cassette, and artist Ron Regé, Jr. contributed between-song soundbites as he had on the group's prior EP. A spoken word interlude appears as a

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

at the end of the album (or at the end of side one of its vinyl edition) featuring a conversation about the defensive capabilities of moths to war off predators. The speaker relates about a science documentary he had watched and marvels as to how scientists were adapting the defensive secretions of moths to be used in antiviral medicines for humans, much as those that would be developed for vaccines against

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

three decades later. The recording is accompanied by a backmasked track by Boston

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

band Madbox and

Lou Barlow Louis Knox Barlow (born July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock mus ...

's solo project

Sentridoh Louis Knox Barlow (born July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock mu ...

. The album takes its name from an obscure and expensive audio

graphic equalizer Equalization, or simply EQ, in sound recording and reproduction is the process of adjusting the volume of different frequency bands within an audio signal. The circuit or equipment used to achieve this is called an equalizer. Most hi-fi eq ...

, made by

Blonder Tongue Labs Blonder Tongue Laboratories Inc. is a global communication equipment supplier for TV broadcasters, cable system operators, lodging video, internet systems and institutional systems. As a cable television pioneer founded in 1950, the company has s ...

from 1959–61, which was used extensively while tracking the album. Taang! Records released the album in February 1993 and the band toured to support it.

Legacy

''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' was co-lead singer Seana Carmody's last full album with the group before she formed the

Farfisa Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professiona ...

-driven and somewhat more pop-oriented Syrup USA. In 2015 most of Swirlies' original line up reunited to perform the entirety of ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'' as a live set in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

on the 4th of July as part of the band's 25th anniversary tour. Taang! Records reissued the album on LP in 2016.

Track listing

All tracks by Swirlies # "Bell (Prelude)" – 0:12 # "Bell" – 4:29 # "Vigilant Always" – 5:10 # "His Love Just Washed Away" – 5:24 # "His Life of Academic Freedom" – 2:07 # "Pancake" – 3:15 # "Jeremy Parker" – 4:14 # "Park the Car (by the Side of the Road)" – 5:04 # "Tree Chopped Down" – 3:12 # "Wrong Tube" – 5:06 # "Wait Forever" – 4:18 An untitled spoken word track appears on the album's vinyl edition following a locked groove after "Pancake," the last song listed on side one. On digital versions of the album, the dialogue comprises the last 90 seconds of the track listed as "Wait Forever" after a minute of silence.

''Brokedick Car'' EP

The five-song ''Brokedick Car'' EP was released later in 1993 on vinyl, CD, and cassette tape as a follow-up to ''Blonder Tongue Audio Baton'', and featured different mixes of "Wrong Tube" and "Pancake" from the album. The EP's final track was "House of Pancake", an

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

of "Pancake" by

and NYC electronic musician Gomi. The track comprised Swirlies' first foray into electronic music. Two more

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

tracks, the

atonal Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a s ...

instrumental "Labrea Tarpit" and the Pavementesque

art punk Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...

song "You're Just Jealous", rounded out ''Brokedick Car''. These were the last songs recorded by the band's original lineup, as Drucker and Carmody soon left the group.

''Brokedick Car'' track listing

#"Wrong Tube (Edit)" – 4:08 #"Labrea Tarpit" – 1:58 #"Pancake Cleaner" – 3:15 #"You're Just Jealous" – 2:58 #"House of Pancake" – 6:31

Singles

*The song "Park the Car by the Side of the Road" is a remixed and partially re-recorded version of the version appearing on the band's "Error" 7-inch recorded in 1991. The band had recorded a new arrangement of the song for the album, but shelved it in favor of this touched up version of the original. *Taang! also released a 7-inch version of the ''Brokedick Car'' EP with the alternate mix of "Wrong Tube" as the A-side and "Labrea Tarpit"/"You're Just Jealous" as the B-side *One additional song, "Trudy", was also recorded for the ''Blonder Tongue'' album, but was also shelved. The song was re-recorded on 8-track in late 1993 and appeared as the November release of

Simple Machines A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force. Usually the term refer ...

' 1994 ''

Working Holiday! ''Working Holiday!'' is a compilation album released on the Simple Machines label in 1994. It is a collection of tracks by American indie bands which were originally released on a series of 12 7" singles by Simple Machines as part of the Work ...

'' split 7-inch series. The 8-track version was released again a decade later as a bonus track on the Japanese release of ''Cats of the Wild (Vol. 2)''. *A lo-fi 4-track demo version of "His Love Just Washed Away" from 1991 was released on a split single with the band Iris in 1996. The Swirlies' track is followed by sped-up tape of an impromptu project called the Montclair Punk Rockers. *A 1994

Peel Session John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

of "Jeremy Parker" (with some

Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompani ...

lyrics adlibbed by guitarist Seana Carmody) would later make up the A-side of the group's "Orca vs. Dragon" single.

Personnel

Swirlies

* Damon Tuntunjian – Guitar, vocals, Casio VL-5, Minimoog, Chamberlin (incorrectly listed in the liner notes as a Mellotron) * Seana Carmody – Guitar, vocals, Minimoog, Chamberlin (incorrectly listed in the liner notes as a Mellotron) * Andy Bernick – Bass, radio, artwork * Ben Drucker – Drums (7, 8, 9 on ''Blonder Tongue'', 2, 4 on ''Brokedick Car'')

Additional personnel

* Kevin March (Dambuilders) – Drums (2,10 on ''Blonder Tongue'', 1 on ''Brokedick Car'')) * Mark "Spongey" Rivers (Cavedogs) – Drums (3, 4, 6 on ''Blonder Tongue'', 3 on ''Brokedick Car'', as well as the outtakes for "Park the Car" and "Trudy") * Ron Regé, Jr. – Art direction, design, masking tape pull recordist on "Bell (Prelude)" * Morgan Andrews – Chimp guitar on "His Life of Academic Freedom" * Peter J. Haskett and Raymond Huffman – Prelude to "Park the Car (by the Side of the Road)" * Dan – Moth talk recordist *

and Madbox – Moth talk ambient and cover-up music * Swirlies – Producer, Mixing, engineer *

– Engineer, mixing, co-producer * Kerri Bennet – Artwork, art direction, design

References

External links

information about the original Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton e.q. unit
{{Authority control 1993 debut albums Swirlies albums Taang! Records albums Albums produced by Rich Costey