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The Weather, a commentary, episodes 6-10
🕑 Added 2023-12-08 15:00:08 +0000 UTCA few weeks ago I started an episode by episode commentary on the weather. You can read the first part here. This is, by popular demand, part two.
Aye by Dio
I first heard this track on the Something Awful forums, from the great David Thorpe (https://twitter.com/Arr). He was the resident Something Awful music guy, and his latest interest at the time was Dutch rap. Another track he posted about during this period ended up getting used a little later in the series, but this song is just an immediate classic, one that instantly catches your ear, and I knew I wanted to use it.
Despite What You've Been Told by The Two Gallants
I have no idea where I found this song, no memory of where it was introduced to me. I do remember sitting at my shitty customer service job back in 2009 or so and listening to The Two Gallants as I worked, so I had been listening to them for a while before Night Vale started. The major thing of note here is that Meg, when recording the credits, really struggled to not say "Two Gallants" in a thick New Jersey Accent (The Two Gal-LAHNTs)
This Too Shall Pass by Danny Schmidt
Another song I found on the Something Awful forums. Danny has of course since toured extensively with Night Vale and become a good friend of mine, but all I knew when I first heard this song is "holy shit, this is one of the best songs I've ever heard". And it still is. I later used this track as the theme song to my podcast Our Plague Year, which is still I think one of the best things I've ever made.
Last Song by Jason Webley
I learned about Jason through my sister, who had been a big fan of his in college. Later, when Night Vale was doing its first big live show, The Debate, we needed a live weather, and I decided to see if Jason would do it. He had actually retired from touring by then, but for whatever reason agreed to come out and perform with us. He has since toured all over the world with Night Vale, and remains a friend. He has mostly retired from music now, but still occasionally takes a floating circus on a raft down various rivers. Seriously.
I Know This by Rachel Kann
Generally, I have the responsibility of picking the weather for Night Vale. But this is one that came in through Jeffrey, and so I actually don't know a great deal about it. She's a performance poet in Los Angeles. Uh, that's about all I know. Sorry.
I'll do one more because that one is kind of anti-climactic.
Cigarette Burns Forever by Adam Green
Long before Night Vale, I submitted some poetry to a self-published poetry chapbook. The launch event for it was held in the basement of the Tompkins Square branch of the New York Library. It was a weird little show. I did a performance I had devised with my friend Kyle that involved a walkie talkie hidden in the audience. And this guy Adam Green got up and sang a couple songs, including this one. I was immediately taken by his smooth, old-fashioned voice. It wasn't until later that I realized he was one half of the very famous '00s band The Moldy Peaches. But there he was, performing on the same "stage" as me, in that basement of a library.
-Joseph Fink
Comments
Wesley Hunt
This is my favorite stretch of Weather. I always return to these songs.
Shawn Havery
Joseph, these are great. Please continue enlightening us on the stories behind these weathers. They are all so familiar to me, and each one lives deep in my soul. On that note, I do have one request: When you reach Episode 15 in the next installment, it would be great if you would at least acknowledge the original weather for that episode. I know very well how it has since come to light that the artist has done some not great things, and so he has was deservedly canceled and his song replaced, but I find it impossible to separate myself fully from it, and want to know just a little bit about it. I listened to these episodes so many times in the early days, and so each is ingrained into my soul as it originally was. I think we all have difficulty separating art from artist, and this is especially true for me with these early weathers, as these episodes have lived and breathed as cohesive wholes in my spirit for a decade now. Try as I might, "Street Cleaning Day" will always be inseparable from that song. So, I would love to hear something – anything – about the story of how this one came to be, even if it's only a brief acknowledgement of how you found it and why you chose it to be the weather, before rightly denouncing and moving on from him and talking about the replacement by the amazing Carrie Elkin as well. The same, of course, I would request for Episode 34. Like it or not, the original weather remains a part of Night Vale history, and it would be great to learn a little more about that history. After all, if we don't acknowledge the darker parts of our past, then we may find ourselves unable to learn necessary lessons from those moments. I think it's important to be up front about it. Just my two cents. Thanks for listening. Keep creating.
Katie C
Great stuff! I have such fondness for early Weathers. I've heard them so many times-- while sick, driving, playing video games, washing dishes-- that they're such a comfort to me.
