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Lemon Demon Discography Deep-Dive Script
🕑 Added 2022-03-22 04:50:51 +0000 UTCEveryone loves music. It's a uniquely human concept, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who dislikes organized sounds as a concept. In fact, love of music is so normalized that we have a word for people who don't like it: Musical Anhedonia, and while this isn't in so much a disorder, it's understood as not normal.
Even so, so few people seem to understand the mechanics OF music. In fact, music before the modern era was so complex and prohibitavely expensive to produce perform and listen to that it was considered a rare treat. Even after the advent of records and tapes, the creation of music was hoarded by record labels and companies trying to make the most. That is until the internet.
When I was in 8th grade in the ancient days of 2009, I remember we had a class in my middle school simply titled "computers." In this post-millinnial, pre-gen-z age, where people had to wait for an entire YouTube video to load and most parents only had shitty Windows ME machines, the role of the internet was both cemented in the public conscious enough to have a class called "computers" but also tenuous enough that Mrs. Skim didn't know what to teach us outside of learn-to-type software. This was a wild era, a strange era- This was the era of Something Awful, 4chan, and of course, Reddit.
And in that tenuous time, in that class simply called "computers," I saw a video, a video titled "the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny," a frankly sub par animation accompanied by a chaotic song that was both so crusty and horrid yet so new and astounding that it captured my imagination forevermore.
This was my first exposure to Lemon Demon, and I'm sure it's familiar to you. Maybe you're younger and found Lemon Demon through Spirit Phone, maybe you discovered them through a friend excitedly telling you about them, but Lemon Demon isn't something that's simply been around forever- It's something that's discovered, like a diamond in the midst of the black coal of the internet.
I loved this video and hungry for more, you can imagine my delight when I used my shitty dial-up modem to slowly download "Potter Puppet Pals" on Youtube and show my mom and learning the creators were one in the same. You can also imagine my delight when I found Lemon Demon's web site with free downloads ready to be ingested.
Many memes and phenomena from this time period have faded away into obscurity. Advice Animals, Rage Comics, countless memes like "I heard u liek mudkips" are now laughably passe but Lemon Demon and more broadly, Neil Cicierega have stayed constant, like the fulcrum around which the internet turns.
Like I said before, everyone loves music, and Lemon Demon was one of the first pioneers of music in a digital age, an age where people could make anything and put it out there for no cost, a font of new creativity. Lemon Demon's story is a story of indie creation in the internet age and a story about how far we've come in breaking away from the people who would keep creativity behind walls.
This much you likely already know if you've clicked on this thumbnail, something you fondly regard, but something that a lot of people miss out on is the absolute breadth of work Neil has made. I want to shine a spotlight on all this, because Lemon Demon isn't just Spirit Phone, Lemon Demon isn't just Brodyquest, and Lemon Demon certainly isn't just The Ultimate Showdown.
Let's dive into the discography of Lemon Demon.
Where did Lemon Demon come from? Did it just burst onto the scene one day as some viral sensation? Did Neil Cicierega simply climb out of someone's dial up modem to wreak havoc forevermore?
Like many online musicians, Neil's early work can be traced back to obscure releases that no one clicked on, posted without much thought.
These releases were known as Trapezoid and MEGO vs SPAGO. I'll call this the "instrumental era" because Neil's main focus was on instrumental music during this time with a few exceptions we'll discuss.
I couldn't find information about which came first, but for the sake of a timeline, let's say both of these following releases were "around the year 2000." It's likely only Neil himself knows the answer.
Let's first discuss MEGO vs SPAGO, about which much less is known. Only two tracks from this name are known, a track called "Heh" and a track called the "Chryogenic Freezing Process." (Sic)
According to the Lemon Demon wiki: "The name is a reference to the mego and spago directories found on the Escape from Monkey Island game discs, which contain the game’s audio."
"Heh" is a straightforward rock-influenced song that would sound right at home in a Sonic game or something. "Chryogenic" is more funk-inspired and also sounds to me video-gamey, but more in the Jet Set Radio vibe.
The MEGO releases are both what I would describe as "repetitive but quality." Neil's style is present in both, though, particularly in "Chryogenic" which rather mimics Lemon Demon's title conventions moving forward.
Let's more on now to Neil's first formal release, Trapezoid, now known as Deporitaz, operating from roughly the year 2000 until 2002 with an extra release in 2007, consisting of four full-length album releases: "Outsmart" from June 2000, "Microwave this CD" from June 2001, "Dimes" from November 2002, and "Circa 2000" released November 2007.
The name change from Trapezoid to the anagram Deporitaz was due to another band also called Trapezoid requesting a name change. This request was made after Neil had disbanded Trapezoid, so he agreed, leading to the only release officially bearing the Deporitaz name was Circa 2000.
"Outsmart" was the first release, available for free on Lemon Demon dot com. It contains fifteen tracks.
"Outsmart" as a project is very remniscient of original music of the time, primarily MIDI-flavored tracks with fairly flat mixing. Neil's emphasis seems to be on songwriting, giving each of his compositions different sections and dynamic changes within the constraints of the medium of early music creation.
My favorite track would have to be "COWS" which, according to the wiki, "Probably doesn't stand for anything." It's playing now.
You can also see Neil's signature title style in this with tracks such as "Blips and/or Blips" along with "Sounds like a Jackhammer!" with an exclamation point.
There's really not much to say about "Outsmart." It's pleasant but not noteworthy. The NEXT album, though, is far more interesting.
The 2001 album "Microwave this CD" is semi-lost media. A lot of it, including some tracks as well as the album cover were lost, but enough of it remains to comment on. Unlike "Outsmart" which was all straightforward MIDI-styled tunes, "Microwave" includes tracks that have samples and references to video games of the time.
Track 8, "Sam and Max Disco" contains samples from "Sam and Max hit the road" and the point-and-click references don't end there. Track 5 is a remix from the Monkey Island games that had lyrics written for it that were never released.
Some tracks, such as "Untitled" and "Smosho's Journey" don't have files attached and there are some songs that are thought to be on the album without confirmation but were later disproven, such as "Spiders" and "The Adventures Of."
Neil's skills seem to be expanding on this album, but they remain somewhat limited in scope to MIDIs and samples.
The third album and final original album was released in 2003, known as "Dimes." This, to me, is Neil's first more formal release, as it was given album art and the first to graduate past simple MIDI tracks and into more developed songs. It's also the last album before Neil's evolution into Lemon Demon proper. More on that soon.
The first track on "Dimes" is probably the most significant, titled "I Know Your Name," the first track to feature vocals, but not the first to feature lyrics. Here's some of it.
Again, Neil's songwriting is excellent from day 1, even if the mix and his vocals could use improvement. It's quite listenable for a fledgeling musician, and that isn't faint praise if you've heard other online artists' earliest works.
Beyond this, the rest of the tracks are pretty standard Deporitaz stuff, but more evolved. There's some more sophisticated stuff like panning and better mixing, but altogether, it's the best Deporitaz release in my book.
The final Deporitaz release happened in 2007, so we're jumping ahead a bit here, but we should talk about it because all the tracks were developed in this same early-2000s timeframe in the aptly titled "Circa 2000."
According to Neil, this album was produced as follows:
“Basically, I scoured my many hundreds of old Cakewalk files, collected some tunes that fell through the cracks, gave them titles, and put them in this collection for you. Enjoy!”
Cakewalk of course refers to an early DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) known as Cakewalk, which Neil likely used for most if not all of these early Deporitaz tracks.
This album I would say is the most hit or miss. Some tracks like "Birth of a Cosmonaut" are fully-realized and would be excellent with added lyrics or as video game BGM, but others like "Squats" were clearly originally unreleased for a reason.
All in all, for Lemon Demon buffs, I think that these four albums are worth a listen, primarily Dimes. I remember having a few Dimes and Circa tracks on my MP3 player and re-listening was a good dose of nostalgia.
It's fascinating to listen to Neil's evolution from this guy who primarily did MIDI work to a more accomplished songwriter, you can really see the increase of his ambition, like with each of these albums he masters something new. You can see his style develop, too, all of his song titles are whimsical and fun to read on their own, my all-time-favorite title being "When Grandma Regains Consciousness She Will Thank Us."
I really appreciate these early works being available. Neil has never been part of a formal record label and unlike many other musicians, seeing his growth is not only easy but free, too. It also heartens me greatly knowing that everyone, even titans like Neil start out as newbies, striking out and trying to make something.
But you're not here to just see some MIDI tracks from a defunct music project from the early 2000s. You're here for the good shit.
In 2003, a Demon was born.
Clown Circus was produced, directed, written, crafted, made, executed, begun, incepted, and performed by Neil Cicierega under his new title: Lemon Demon, a name that would come to shake the foundations of the internet for decades to come, but that for now was a simple project by a 17-year-old and his friends.
The first track of Clown Circus, Error, is an instrumental that seems to bring Neil from his prior project into a new paradigm, evolving and sweeping up the viewer, hypnotizing and priming them for what's to come.
The true beginning of Clown Circus, and by extension, Lemon Demon is the eponymous track, Lemon Demon, featuring, for the second time ever, vocals by Neil and a backup verse from contributor Aaron Ackerson, a musician in his own right.
Now, I'm not going to lie. Lemon Demon kind of sucks. The song, I mean, not the artist. With the paradigm shift comes this sort of step backwards for Neil, where his instrumentals and vocals suffer a little bit due to lack of training. He's this guy coming from a MIDI tradition finally making something more conventionally recorded and on top of this, he's every instrument except for Aaron's singular verse.
That said, this is extremely listenable. When I said "sucks" before, I meant relatively speaking. I said this in the Trapezoid section, but the fact that this guy who as far as we know had no formal training except for three stints in MIDI instrumental albums published independently is astounding. Intuitive might be the word for it.
A better word than "sucks" might be "formative," where Neil is still working out his sound. That's my adjective for this whole album, actually. Formative. It's hit or miss, with the misses being forgettable and the hits being solid. The crunchiness also gives it a unique aesthetic that is quite nostalgic. Still- I think it's a pity Neil never re-released this eponymous track.
Standouts on this album include "Don't be like the Sun" and "Bowling Alley," the latter of which features an almost Tom Waits esque anecdote about a dream Neil had.
It's all very avante garde, and not in the pretentious sense but in the sense of a man genuinely trying to find out what works. This album is throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
I should give special mention to track 13 Hyakugojyuuichi, which is incedentally the best track from a production standpoint, has a story all of its own, it's sort of a tangent, but bear with me.
So. In 2003, Neil wasn't just making albums, he was also doing this thing called Animutation. Basically, Neil invented shitposting. Just... Just watch it.
So this is Neil's second animutation, a massive animation using stock assets set to the song "Hyakugojyuuichi" which translates to "151" and served as the ending to the japanese release of Pokemon's first season.
Hyakugojyuuichi 2003 then, is a 6-minute track featuring Neil, Aaron Ackerson as well as three individuals known as Zander, Toxic, and finally Shmorky, a webcomic artist from the SomethingAwful days (please do not google), advertising a three and a half minute animation, urging the listener to watch and analyze it.
Also it goes hard.
Anyway, that's basically Clown Circus. Notably, this album has a more communal feel, as Neil shied away from lyrical contributors later, but notably, there is a writing credit for Alora Lanzilotta, a contributor who also played bass for Lemon Demon's live shows.
The final Clown Circus track is arguably the most competent track, only few lyrics, called Elsewhere. It's one of Neil's Most underrated compositions and it shows how he's always been an excellent songwriter, even twenty years ago.
2003 was a big year for Neil, though, as in July, Neil would release another album to the now defunct Mp3.com. This one is 17 tracks long and features one of my personal favorite tracks, Dance Like an Idiot, and while the quality is largely similar to Clown Circus, but there are some notable tracks that are worth mention.
Hydroelectric Viking is another instrumental, but it's probably to-date Neil's most Lemon Demon sounding song yet.
The second track, "The Saga of You, Confused Destroyer of Planets" also marks an early-LD schtick of telling an absurd story in song form, featuring Neil's storytelling skills.
The tracks rather run together on this one, Neil seems to have found his stride, but that comes at the expense of variety. Boat and Fiberglass Monkey both sound similar to the earlier tracks, an emphasis on synths and distorted guitars with similar drums and Neil's vocals.
Track 9 is Booja Baooja which sounds like some shit off the Loco Roco soundtrack or from Star Wars just has nonsense lyrics which breaks up the monotony in a delightful way. Neil would have more sophisticated nonsense songs later in his career, so keep an eye on this.
Track 11 is a cover of Chu Chu Rocket, and for people who don't recognize that name, it's a fucking... Game. Look, I can't explain this, just. It's a game, okay? There's mice and cats and- It's fine. Don't worry about it.
Track 15 is just a straight cover of Birdhouse in Your Soul by They Might Be Giants which Neil puts his own spin, playing it mostly in double time. I like it a lot, I wish Neil did more covers, but doing covers reveals a little of Neil's developing voice in this era.
The album ends with Movie Night, a slower song, finally dispensing the variety this album desperately needed.
It only took until March 2004 for Neil to bust out another album, Hip to the Javabean. I like the cover art for this one, a cute little pillow guy drawn by Neil's sister Emmy. Not only does this have 15 tracks, but 8 bonus tracks and a readme file.
I would say that this album is the first full-stop "good" Lemon Demon album.
The first track continues the tradition of an instrumental first track with a twist- Instead of Neil it's a synthesized voice musing on the nature of toast. I find this quite compelling as it's Lemon Demon's first foray into existential mundanity, keep your eye on that.
Track 3 however, is a watershed moment for Lemon Demon. This is the first song on any of the albums, Deporitaz to now, to be, in my opinion, professional-quality. The main element to this distinction is Neil's clearly upgraded microphone that no longer sounds like he's trying to escape from a tin can. The mixing has also clearly improved due to Neil's increased experience.
It's still not perfect, but it's finally "there." The fidelity is still nostalgic.
Another noteworthy track is Telekinesis, which features what I call "Lemon Demon kitsch," a pure distillation of Neil's interests in conspiracies and cryptids in a hodgepodge format.
It depicts a skepticism but deep love for these things and an underlying sense of mysticism that would feature heavily on the later release Spirit Phone, but more about that later.
Another noteworthy track is the re-released I Know Your Name from the Deporitaz era. I still prefer the first one but there's no denying this one is more competently-made.
The other two tracks worth mention are "I've Got some Falling to Do" and "Bad Idea," two more narrative songs, respectively about a man falling to his death which now has a great Aimkid animation and Bad Idea being the first song to feature an Albinoblacksheep animation. Albinoblacksheep will feature later, so keep your eyes peeled.
There's also Run Harry Run which was the genesis of Neil's parodical fixation with Harry Potter.
Clown Circus, Candle Shop, and Javabean all constitute what I call "pre showdown" Lemon Demon, the era which contained Neil's formative works. After this, Neil provides commentary tracks with his albums, seeming to indicate the releases in 2005 and later are the first ones taken seriously, and it's clear to see why.
These albums are adorable in the same way a newborn deer is adorable. It's a bit wobbly and confused, but you know it's going to grow into something truly majestic.
On March 21st, 2005, Lemon Demon released Damn Skippy. It had a whopping 18 tracks and 8 bonus tracks and it represents another paradigm shift in Lemon Demon.
If Javabean was Demon's first "good" album of professional quality, Damn Skippy is Demon's first "great" album. I've made a lot of judgemental little comments about how early Lemon Demon was "comparitively" bad, and Damn Skippy was the comparison point. Damn Skippy is a pace test for Lemon Demon, and I've got great news: It only gets better from here.
I've mentioned this before, but let's make it official. Lemon Demon songs all fall into one of a few categories that I've alluded to in previous segments. Let's ennumerate them.
1. Paranormal Kitsch
This of course is when Neil indulges conspiracy and supernatural elements in a satirical way.
2. Direct Narrative
Usually in first or second person, Neil describes some noteworthy event.
3. Nonsense
Neil makes a song with lyrics that make no sense on purpose.
I've discussed these three, but there are another few.
4. Character Study
Neil describes one or more characters and describes their quirks.
5. Surreal Mundanity
Something average or standard is explained in depth or in absurd terms.
I'm going to be using these from here on to describe some noteworthy tracks, so here we go.
Damn Skippy sheds the tradition of an instrumental first track and hops right in with "Dead Sea Monkeys," a very relatable title track that anyone who's tried to raise Sea Monkeys can relate to. This would be one of Neil's surreal mundanity tracks, continued with "Kitten Is Angry" and "The Ceiling" but the real stars of Damn Skippy are "Subtle Oddities," "Word Disassociation," and of course, "Mr. Porta-Potty Man."
Neil also does some more riffing on his own material here, such as bonus track 6, a rendition of Musical Chairs from Javabean as well as an alternate take of Subtle Oddities as bonus track 8. These new tracks aren't 1:1 upgrades but instead iterations, showing Neil's evolving style.
Comparing Musical Chairs in fact shows Neil's growth over just a few years.
Neil also made a nice music video for Word Disassociation a year later in 2006.
If you'd like more information about each track, I'd highly suggest looking into Neil's own commentary track which is available free on YouTube. There's a lot of interesting trivia.
My favorite story about this is the song "What Will Happen Will Happen" being a song that was intended to cheer up his friends after the Bush election in 2004. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
The biggest improvement on Damn Skippy was of course Neil's vocals. Where before they were a bit spotty, they really came into their own here. Neil has a voice that isn't really conventional as a singer but as it developed it became nearly synonymous with his personal style, iconic almost. There are lots of musicians who have unconventional voices like Tom Waits and Bob Dylan and while Neil doesn't sound quite as gritty as they do, he exudes a clear confidence, like a lanky carnival barker gazing at you with glinting eyes, inviting you into his emporium of sounds.
Neil also shines in song structure. He uses the tried-and-true chorus verse style but these choruses and verses are always distinct from each other yet cohesive. He also often utilizes a third verse that has a different style from the others to keep things interesting. I'd describe his style in the word Novel, something that carries over from his Deporitaz days.
So Damn Skippy is a good album. Great, even. You might think it can't get any better- But for those of you who know what's coming... You know that it does.
Before we talk about Dinosaurchestra, we have to talk about The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. Up until this point, Neil's fans were mostly niche forum goers in the mid 2000s internet ecosystem, but Ultimate Showdown was the first time Neil broke free of this mold alone and gained viral acclaim.
The song itself was released on December 22, 2005 to Newgrounds animated by Shawn Vulliez AKA AltFFour. The flash animation got 12 million hits on that site and through many incarnations on Youtube and other sites, the total view count easily tops billions.
The song also gained acclaim outside of the internet, being featured on Dr. Demento's compilation album "Basement Tapes Number 15" in 2007, a year after Dinosaurchestra. It was also the top requested song for Dr. Demento in 2006, topping his "Funny 25" list alongside titans like Weird Al, Jonathan Coulton, and Luke Ski.
So, funny aside. To get that recording, I had to buy it from the Dr. Demento website which is hilariously bad. It's crusty as fuck and I kind of love it? I paypaled them 3 dollars and they sent me an email with a password to get into their audio downloads.
Interestingly, on this recording, Neil cites one of his inspirations: Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club. Check them out if you want some more Lemon Demon esque shit. They're kind of like if They Might Be Giants kept doing educational albums but went insane along the way.
Anyway, this is all to say that Ultimate Showdown was one of the first memes on the internet with any staying power- I would say it's transcended meme, nearly everyone has seen it by now. We love it. It's the fucking Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.
Not only this, but Ultimate Showdown, in all its crusty, flash-animated glory showed the world what a man could do without a record label and no formal training on the internet in a new era. It wasn't just a paradigm shift for Lemon Demon, it was a paradigm shift for like... Earth. The World. Media at large. This was, probably unintentionally, a pioneer of the modern media landscape, one of the trailblazers, and it was all on the power of one demonic lemon.
And was this distinction as Lemon Demon's greatest hit yet deserved? Does the rest of Dinosaurchestra live up to this titanic legacy?
Dinosaurchestra is what I would call Neil's first magnum opus. It's clear that a lot of effort went into this album, since it had the longest track length of any release to date with 19 tracks, 16 bonus tracks, and 1 secret track. It also features a vague framing device, three iterations of the eponymous "Dinosaurchestra," a concept trilogy about jamming with dinosaurs. Very charming. Neil employing more concepts than usual.
The best tracks of this album are Action Movie Hero Boy, Lawnmower, This Hyper World, and of course, as discussed- The Ultimate Showdown. The bonus tracks are no slouch, either- White Bread Boyfriend I remember being shared around forums back in the day. Another classic is Bill Watterson, the tale of the stalker of the author of Calvin and Hobbes. For a long time I thought this was based on a true story- But it's not. There are also some excellent Ultimate Showdown remixes, my favorite being the Aaron Ackerson mix, featuring Neil's vocals and a new instrumental.
A few of the bonus tracks including Bill Watterson got re-released on Neil's NEXT album in 2008, View-Monster, which we'll talk about in a second, but as its own standalone, I really enjoy Dino.
At this point in time, Neil has gone from MIDI guy to competent songwriter to genuinely great artist and he's remained in the milieu of indie internet creator. He carved out a niche and was happy for it.
One of my favorite things about Lemon Demon is its transience. This was just one of many of Neil's projects, something he gave himself to, but was never intended to go big- When it did, it was nice, but in the end, it was all for the fans. Neil's lack of ambition is one of his biggest credits. He seems satisfied with where he is and I really like that. There's no need to explore his personal life, no need to exhaustively promote his work, no need to do anything but share some fun little tunes this guy made.
Too many artists these days who we'd call "Indie" stray so far from that distinction it's somewhat heinous. We all remember the fall from grace of the band Fun as well as the meteoric rise of Billie Eilish, marketed as independent but far from it.
It's nice to have bands like Lemon Demon, scrappy little artists for a niche of people, made with limited appeal on purpose for no critical acclaim. The world is too full of people with too much ambition, too much drive, and not enough creativity. Fuck "making it big," I find something very aspirational about what Lemon Demon became: Loved.
If you look in the comments for any Lemon Demon album you'll find a great number of people just appreciating a work for the sake of it. People who know it's not perfect, that Neil's vocals could use work or that it could be mixed better, but that doesn't matter. Critique falls away because it's unneeded. Who cares how good or bad it is? It meets the criteria of "good" and for Lemon Demon that's all that matters. Even if you don't like one of the songs, that's why they invented the skip button.
Essentially, Lemon Demon in my eyes disproves the notion of objective critique. The thinking goes that no matter what, people should be allowed to level any critique on any project, that is the only means by which people can improve their craft. It's a very negative approach, and one that I'm sure many musicians have either fallen into or been subjected by.
Music online isn't easy. It's actually incredibly discouraging. Generally speaking, no one wants to listen to anything you make, not because it's bad, but because there's already a deluge of works being put out and enjoyed that yours are just another drop in a vast sea of that sweet sweet content. And when you are noticed, more often than not, it's in the form of someone decrying your work, sneering at you, looking down their nose, usually by someone who makes music, too.
Lemon Demon is proof that you don't need some gauntlet of remorseless naysayers to get good and you don't even really have to be good in the first place. People just have to like it. The hope that someone will love your work should motivate you to be better, not some bitter, decrepit worship of quality and critique at the altar of your peers.
Anyway, let's talk about View-Monster.
View-Monster is a return to Neil's roots. First of all, Kaleidoskull is an instrumental track to open things off, like in the previous Neil-Era. There are also numerous transitions in between tracks. This one features 16 tracks and 16 bonus tracks. When Neil later signed on with NeedleJuice Records (more on that later) there were also some DIFFERENT bonus tracks, including some of Neil's albumless releases such as 123456 Pokemon.
Another return to Neil's roots is a collaboration track, Knife Fight which features Marty from Uncle Monsterface. Neil's early work had more collabs, but this seems to be the last one of Lemon Demon's discography.
I would say this album is a peer to Dinosaurchestra, but they are very different. The standouts on this album are Amnesia Was Her Name, Marketland, and the bonus track Ben Bernanke. I think the best way to compare Dino to Monster is Dino is a magnum opus and Monster is a tour-de-force. In a less pretentious way- Dino was Neil's first truly great album and Monster was an iteration on that with fewer limits.
Another bonus track of note is Super Hey Ya, a straight remix of the Outkast hit Hey Ya. Hm. I wonder if Neil will ever do any more straight remixes... hm! Hmmmmm. Hm.
Another bonus track was Toy Food, which got a cool music video from 2009. Same with 123456 Pokemon.
Also, the video on YouTube for Amnesia Was Her Name's comment section is just 41 people who also said "Oh Cool." Idk why but it's funny.
These three albums round out what I call the "Showdown Era," which is essentially a high point for Lemon Demon's popularity- All centered around Ultimate Showdown. This era also featured a great deal more music videos and YouTube comment, as the platform had taken off at this point. This also, sadly, marks the end of Lemon Demon's consistent releases.
Each album from Clown Circus onward released within about a year of each other, with Deporitaz Circa 2000 filling the 2007 gap between Dino and Monster, and View-Monster would be the last annual track with new material Lemon Demon would make. That doesn't mean the story is over, however, far from it.
The last thing I'd like to touch before we enter the 2010s is the album Almanac 2009, released in 2009 at Youmacon. This was a best-of album featuring 14 tracks: three re-recorded tracks, ten legacy tracks, and one original song, "This is Youmacon," a rendition of "This is Halloween" from Nightmare before Christmas, retooled to be about the Detroit culture convention.
This might seem like a small release, but this album was the first piece of media I actually owned of Lemon Demon. I was at Youmacon THAT YEAR. I'm pissing myself with anger that I never kept any photos, but that was one of my favorite events I'd ever been to.
Sadly, 2010 was the first Lemon Demonless year since 2003. To make up for this, in 2011, another re-release album was created, the first album to feature an actual band and not simply Neil recording everything. This is the first time Lemon Demon could be called a "band."
The name, Live only Not refers to the live recording, even though it was not a live SHOW. Personel for the show, listed on Bandcamp are:
Neil Cicierega - Vocals, piano, songwriting
Greg Lanzillotta - Drums, recording and mixing
Alora Lanzillotta - Bass
Charles "Chooch" Sergio - Guitar
Dave Kitsberg - Also guitar
This is probably my single most favorite Lemon Demon release. Something about hearing an actual band play these songs for the first time is magical, it's like a puppet coming to life. There are only 9 tracks, none original, and they don't even hit any of the classics, spare for Ultimate Showdown, but this album might very well be Neil's best job singing. I love it. It's the most slept-on piece in Lemon Demon's library and if you look up one single thing because of this video, look up Live Only Not. Great entry point into Lemon Demon's body of work.
Sadly, the scattershot nature of these releases would become a trend in the coming years. The next two releases were original, but they were similarly short, two EPs, I Am Become Christmas in 2012 and Nature Tapes in 2014. A far cry from the yearly albums, but these two were still amazing.
In reality, the EPs were compilations of various singles released over 2011-2013, but we'll talk about them as EPs instead of singles, becuase the latter would take too fucking long.
I Am Become Christmas is a concept EP about, what else? Christmas. Lemon Demon's spin on Christmas of course is in a characteristic dark optimism, like the Christmas season was wrapped up in a dark black bow. The best track in this 5-track treat is "Aurora Borealis," an instant Christmas Staple in the holidays or out.
Christmas has another intstrumental intro, called Prelude to Presents and ends with SAD and CryptoSanta, both jarringly earnest and jarringly surreal takes on the holidays. It's like seeing the world's most celebrated holiday from a different angle. I like it. It's mired in the sort of malaise that winter comes with, a very down to earth thing.
This is honestly kind of a black sheep among Lemon Demon's releases. It's short, sweet and unique, even when compared to other Lemon Demon stuff. I'm glad it was made.
The other EP, Nature Tapes from 2014 had 7 tracks- 9 after it was re-released on Needlejuice. This EP was made up of the homeless singles I discussed earlier.
The most iconic track from this release has to be Two Trucks, which details the sexual exploits of two all-american vehicles. I don't have any actual numbers, but Two Trucks is probably the second most known Lemon Demon track outside of Ultimate Showdown.
This era of Lemon Demon is punctuated by a sort of... Unhinging. I don't know Neil Cicierega, but if I were to guess, I would say in a general sense this was the time when Neil began to retire the label. It was time to wind Lemon Demon down, to put it on the back burner to work on things like New Kids on the Rock and YouTube, perhaps, or just because of general diminishing returns. Given this, I think it's wonderful we got so many releases like this at all. I think it's wonderful we got the next album.
The final Lemon Demon album of all was not until 2016, two years later, with the critical bombshell. After View-Monster, Neil began work on Spirit Phone, an album which took eight years to produce and release, the first single of which was "Eighth Wonder," released way back in 2009. Between 2009 and 2016, singles would be released that would eventually appear on Spirit Phone, but unlike Nature Tapes, which was just a conglomeration of homeless singles, Spirit Phone was a new, bold Lemon Demon vision.
Spirit Phone had 14 tracks and several bonuses, some of which were demos. This album is similar to I Am Become Christmas in that it is a vaguely conceptual album surrounding what I can only describe as paranorm-core, the kind of shit you'd see on 4chan's /x/ board in like 2012. The hits include Cabinet Man, Eighth Wonder, and the bonus track Redesign Your Logo.
All of the tracks here are a little darker than Neil's previous work, but in a fun way. Like a haunted house, but with a clown. My favorite is Eighth Wonder which features a song from the perspective of an actual cryptid named Gef which a British family made up in the 1930s that was allegedly a ghost in the form of a mongoose. Read up on it on Wikipedia, it's really interesting.
The album is much more focused which I really enjoy, Neil offering some more meaty critiques and commentary on society in this one, especially the likes of Redesign Your Logo which is a stark depiction of how intensely advertising dehumanizes us as people. On top of this, though, they're fucking bangers.
Spirit Phone is probably the single most acclaimed album project of Lemon Demon. Until Phone, Lemon Demon mainly existed as disjointed singles on youtube and mp3.com, but Spirit Phone was the first one people seemed to listen to in earnest.
In response to this, in 2018, Lemon Demon signed to Needlejuice records, publishing Spirit Phone and some of Neil's back catalog, as far back as Javabean. Needlejuice re-released the albums with new bonus tracks, as well, but nothing original was made for them. If you're looking for a place to support Lemon Demon, they're a great place to start. Needlejuice also publishes for indie darlings like Tally Hall and the aforementioned Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club.
Needlejuice also remastered Spirit Phone in 2022, but nothing new has been released by Lemon Demon since then.
There are also two tracks that Neil made for Gravity Falls that were cut from production, both a theme song mockup and a Bill Cipher song that recieved an animatic from the YouTuber Psychic. I'm sad these were never included in the show, Neil's work fits Gravity Falls to a T, especially Spirit Phone's era.
Other than this, there have been no Lemon Demon releases. Spirit Phone is the last Lemon Demon Album and it's been six years since then in 2022. It's unlikely that there will be more, as Neil seems to have moved on, but... I can't bring myself to be sad about that. There are quite literally hundreds of tracks of Lemon Demon, giving them an impressive run of over a decade, from 2003 to 2016, with plenty more artists related to check out on Needlejuice.
I'm of the belief that time does not constrain great music. I might be wrong and Lemon Demon might have an album in the future, but if this is all there is, to me, that makes me happy. Lemon Demon represents one man's skills developing over a decade and along the way shaping the internet culture as we know it. The world would be a sadder place without the whimsical mind of Neil C, and I appreciate the work he's done.
At the end of the day, Lemon Demon is a testament to the growth of an artist. It makes me happy to think that right now, some kid is releasing his bandcamp singles that will, in ten years, be the next big viral sensation. There are probably hundreds of people out there making music just like Neil did, and maybe you're one of them. It's proof that anyone can make it, that anyone can get better, that anyone can become great. That there is room on this Earth for everyone to carve a niche out for themselves.
Lemon Demon isn't a household name, but it is well-loved. Lemon Demon has never won a grammy, but people still make playlists and listen to them. Lemon Demon isn't famous, prestigious, or even the best of the best, but they are there and our lives wouldn't be as full of whimsy without them. I love Lemon Demon, and I hope you do too.
But that's not the end of the story, is it? Neil Cicierega didn't just stop making music, did he? We all know that's not true. We all know that's not true in the least.
Before Spirit Phone, in 2014, Neil Cicierega, outside of the Lemon Demon name, released an hour-long track to Bandcamp called, simply... Mouth Sounds.
This, much like some of Neil's earlier viral hits needs no introduction in the least. It's a mashup album entierly made up of surreal remixes of Smash Mouth's All Star mashed up with other 2000s americana such as Modest Mouth and- Shit. Haha, I said "Modest Mouth" didn't I? Fuck- Such as MODEST MOUSE and Daft Punk.
This mashup album is a joke, but it's far beyond JUST a joke, it has some genuinely good remixes, including Daft Mouth, a compilation of Harder Better Faster Stronger and Walkin' on the Sun which goes hard. There's also Tears in the Chocolate Rain which makes Chocolate Rain into a haunting commentary, like it recontextualizes the meme into a song about racial injustice like it was always meant to be.
I would play some of these tracks, but- I can't. YouTube copyright prevents me from doing so.
Later in 2014, Neil followed up Mouth Sounds with Mouth Silence, something dubbed a... Prequel? To the original album, featuring more mashups without Smash Mouth. This album, unconstrained by one single sample, is even better than the original, featuring the now-famous Crocodile Chop (Elton John vs System of a Down) and my personal favorite, Born to Cat, (Bent Fabric vs Bruce Springsteen.) This isn't even touching the various esoteric references to Smash Mouth hidden in the data of the album.
This album also inspired other works, most notably the work of Triple-Q in their Birthday Girl series. Look up Crimes Against the Internet on YouTube if you want more unhinged mashups, featuring more anime inspiration.
The Mouth Train slowed down for a little while, until in 2017 after the release of Spirit Phone, when Neil released Mouth Moods, another more free-styled mashup album, including a healthy sprinkling of Mouth. The hits of this album are Bustin, a straight-up remix of the Ghostbusters theme with YTP-ified lyrics, and Wow Wow, a remix of Wild Wild West that in my mind, has outright replaced the original song.
Finally, three years later in 2020, Neil released the final in the Mouth quadrilogy, Mouth Dreams, a tour de force, combining all of Neil's exhaustive knowledge of Smash Mouth and mashups, featuring such hits as Just a Baby, featuring Justin Beiber and Johnny Cash, Ribs, and Fredhammer.
All of the Mouth albums are quite unique in that they aren't so much singular tracks and mashups, but they all have links interspersed. Neil has taken great pains to make sure all four albums have a throughline, making them all a genuine experience to listen through.
My personal favorite is Silence, but they're all good. It's uncanny how good they are, actually, like I said some of them replace the originals in my mind. It's like the meme has transcended.
As a YouTube commenter on one of the albums said- "Neil is the king of, 'all jokes aside, this is actually pretty good.'"
The final Neil Cicierega release worth mentioning is, of course Not For Resale's OST, which is an instrumental album that's evocative of the 80s that Neil made for the documentary "Not For Resale," which, full disclosure, I haven't seen. I have heard the OST, though, and it rules.
There was so much I didn't even talk about here. So much. There's Guaranteed Video, Potter Puppet Pals, the fandom videos, so much shit that I just didn't have time for, because in the end, this was about Lemon Demon the band and the projects that surrounded it, not Neil Cicierega.
This video was originally MUCH longer, with a breakdown of every single Lemon Demon song ever, but that video would have been way too much and not fun for me to make, so I made THIS video instead, which is quite frankly, still way too fucking long. This speaks to Neil's body of work.
If you want more information about him, the guy, though, there is a great video on YouTube called Neil Cicierega, internet person from the XOXO festival (whatever that is) where he goes more in-depth about his history and the internet.
Like I said, if you're looking to support Lemon Demon, you can do so through bandcamp or Needlejuice records.
At the end of the day, Lemon Demon means a lot to me. There's a lot to be said about what constitutes skill and what makes up a viral hit, but I've already said all that stuff in previous sections, so I want to wrap up by saying two things.
One, Lemon demon is good. Seriously, check them out. It's literally free. Fuck.
Two, if you're an aspiring musician of any stripe, just... Keep going. Critics and foes will try to tear you down and you might become discouraged enough to quit, but you should keep making stuff. I won't lie and say you'll get famous or rich or make your dad finally love you or something, but you will make some music that you like, you will make friends, and you will enjoy your life.
Rarely do groups like Lemon Demon appear. In an era of Spotify and homogenized music, there are so few bands like them, bands who don't compromise in quality or niche appeal, bands who are still making songs about shit they like, saying what they want to, untainted by this hellscape of capital that we now reside. These are the bands that will never appear on a "for you" page, bands you'll never hear at High School dances, bands that, when you recommend them, you'll get blank looks and confusion. We live in an age where record labels and companies like Viacom and Warner Music control their artists with fists of steel and scrub away any uniqueness like the rough side of a sponge, and the internet was supposed to fight against that, put power in the hands of the listener.
Lemon Demon is that power personified. A simple, humble man, just banging out the fucking tunes.
I've been Funk McLovin. Like, comment, subscribe, and most importantly, tickle my balls. This video is FUCKING OVER.
