Weird musical curiosities are always one of my favorite things to write about, and I think that this particular finding is at the top of the pyramid. My YouTube algorithm is cursed in the best way when it comes to offering me interesting finds such as Toad Sings Chandelier and Brushy One String, but when I saw “Chipmunks on 16 Speed – Sludgefest” I knew I was in for a special treat. I clicked on the video and was swept away into the wondrous rabbit hole – or should I say chipmunk hole? – of Alvin and the Chipmunks slowed down.
For those not in the know, Alvin and the Chipmunks are a fictitious band of three chipmunks. The concept behind the Chipmunks is that they are three chipmunks (Alvin being the leader and Simon and Theodore his back-ups) who sing covers of popular songs in their sped-up “chipmunky” voices. The technical way in which this is achieved is that the backing track is played at a regular speed while the vocal track is sped up so that it sounds like the singer is a chipmunk over a regular-sounding song. Since AATC were founded in the early 50s and was ultimately a popular franchise, the Chipmunk catalog is dense, filled with whole albums of covers and other novelty albums dedicated to Christmas songs, Halloween songs, and even the Beatles. Alvin and the Chipmunks are featured in various forms of media, notably, an animated series and various TV Movies. More recent developments such as AATC guitar-hero-esque video games and the recent film series [which comprises of Alvin in the Chipmunks (2005), Alvin in the Chipmunks: Squeakquel (2009), Alvin in the Chipmunks Chipwrecked (2011), and Alvin in the Chipmunks Road Chip (2015)] result in a weighty number of covers of popular music.
This all leads us to the unique internet artifact of Alvin and The Chipmunks slowed down. Technically speaking, this sound is achieved by slowing the whole song down so that the voice (which was initially sped up) is slowed is sung at a normal (if not slower than normal) speed. Consequently, this makes the rest of the instruments super slow. And the results are truly brilliant. It turns very unobtrusive pop-songs into epic, atmospheric, almost post-punk sprawlers. “Sludge” is the genre epithet for this type of gritty, slow, and punky music. The guitars are chugging, each drum hit punctuates deeply, and “Alvin” voice is commanding. And while there are definitely some post production flourishes on the guitars and reverb added at points, you can tell that it fully arose from the original Chipmunk tracks. The simple act of slowing down the track completely changes the type of song, and it results in something rather astounding.
The First album is called “Sludgefest”. Whoever the actual creator of this work is is a bit murky, but it was posted on the YouTube channel “Lunar Orbit” in late 2015. Not sure if this means that it was created by Lunar Orbit or if they were just the ones to post it. Sludgefest is almost an hour and I highly recommend you listen to it (it makes great background music). The Majority of the songs covered are from the 80s and could easily fit on a 3rd Grade Party mixtape – Blondie’s “Call Me”, the Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and The Knack’s “My Sharona” are some examples of the general vibe. What slowing down the songs does is transforms them into dark and brooding drudges, resulting in songs akin to Joy Division's atmospheric dismay or Bauhaus gothness.
(the music video is peak 80s, she’s really into that wall)
I think the peak song on this album is Heaven is a Place on Earth, originally by Belinda Carlisle. Above you can see thegenealogyy of this track and how it evolved into the Sludgefest version. While the other versions of the songs are without a doubt bangers, the sludgy version of the song seems transcendent, ethereal, and even dissociative. Feelings of the occult and astral projects match the sonic quality. Again, meme music can achieve great emotional weight. And that key change. The historical trajectory of this internet artifact is also fascinating. A 1987 #1 billboard song by Belinda Carlisle getting covered by a fictitious cartoon band a year later and then that track getting slowed down on YouTube to create a meme masterpiece. And that key change at the 6:25 minute mark just hits so hard.
Because the chipmunks basically had an infinite output of music since their conception in the 50s, the sludge market is doubly infinite. While Sludegefest is certainly the originally Slowed down AATC album, there are so many more. From what I can tell, the “official” sequels to the “Sludegfest” are “Vol. 2” followed by “Sludge Never Dies” and “Uncontrollable Urge”, which feature similar tracks to the original Sludgefest. But then there are so many offshoots such as “The LSD-sides”, “The Chipmunks’ Wonderful Journey Through Ketamine”, “Brain Rot”, as well as Beatles and Halloween song exclusive Sludgefest songs (as you can tell by some of the compilation names aesthetic elements around the music are “druggy). The catalog is dense and features songs from artists ranging from The Cure, The Clash, The Mama’s and The Papa’s, Cake, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Smash Mouth, The Ramones, Billy Joel, and The Doors
What all this does is calls into questions like: what is music? what is genre? What is creativity? Comparisons can certainly be drawn to Vaporwave (one particular, which takes songs and slows them down into hypnagogic anthems). “Sludegecore” has the capacity to change the meaning of the song and even the aesthetics. This is just evidence that music and human creativity are continually expanding.
And like any true internet oddity, there is a whole celebrated culture around these YouTube album collections. Sludgefest is not simply the music, but the collaborative fan fic that organically developed in the comments. The comment sections of each video details a mythologized version of The Chipmunks, giving the songs an imagined history of a drugged-up punk band from the late 80s, detailing the imagined band’s mental health, drug abuse, and violence. The YouTube comments mythologizing the band adds to this imagined aesthetic that these songs are not in fact slowed down versions of covers of popular songs by an imagined cartoon rodent band, but are in fact original works by a 1980s punk/goth band called Alvin and the Chipmunks and giving the Alvin the mythologized personality of Jim Morrison, Iggy Bop, Danzing, and Ian Curtis all mixed into one. The comments are truly infinite and creative, flushing out an imagined band based on an imagined band.
Here is a YouTube comment by user “Count Crow’s Horror-Torium” which details the imagined personality of the band:
“So sad. You can hear the pain in Alvin’s voice, the drugs and mental health decline taking their toll on him, while Simon and Theodore no doubt knew what was coming but they came together to record this last album before Alvin overdosed. Bumped into Dave a few years ago at a bar in Philly, and I could tell Alvin’s death really took a toll on him. He had very clearly been drinking heavily, and we got to talking and he said his biggest regret was not getting Alvin the help he needed. Theodore and Simon apparently don’t even talk anymore, and I heard Theodore’s divorce from Eleanor was really hard on him, happening not long after Alvin passed. In many interviews since, she mentioned that Theodore simply wasn’t the same man she fell in love with after Alvin died, and the constant emotional distance and coldness on his part just lead to a natural decay in their marriage. Simon has been on a steep mental decline and has apparently been battling schizophrenic episodes and violent outbursts for years. It’s amazing how music conveys so much emotion, and I can’t help but wonder what could have been if Alvin was saved in time. Sludgefest is legitimately lightning in a bottle. It’s simply a shame that it came out of such sadness and pain, but will ultimately stand up as one of the greatest and most emotive records ever recorded. Thank you, Alvin.”
I think that Sludgefest and this type of musical stylizing are important. Not only are they simply hilarious, but Sludgefest offers a couple of other interesting points such as how music can be changed through easy technical innovations and how people can invent mythology which can add to the aesthetic of a sound. Overall AATC is just another sonic artifact that contains a whole internal and expansive world, and I’m all here for it.
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