A Halloween gig by my pals Without Fidel lead me to my latest audio obsession. Two of the attendees at this fancy dress shindig were dressed as characters from the utterly brilliant festival of the strange that is Welcome To Night Vale.
For the uninitiated, Welcome To Night Vale is a darkly-comic podcast from the US, that makes for excellent twilight listening. A Podcast seems like an undersell: the brainchild of writers Joesph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, it is a faux community radio station set in the fictional town of Night Vale. In this town, inexplicable events occur and interns mysteriously die, all in such mundane surrounds as Pizza parlours and the dreaded Dog Park. It’s a place of looming, omnipresent ‘hooded figures’, where the macabre and the moribund rub boney shoulders under a terrible cloud.
Imagine something that channels the spirit of Twin Peaks, the lyrical whimsy of Flight of the Conchords or The Mighty Boosh with a touch of the creepy ambience of Blue Jam and you’ve got yourself an introduction to the world created by Commonplace Books.
It’s the cult show that became the most downloaded podcast in the world last summer. But enough of the facts and figures , there is one feature, dear reader that I particularly wish to share with you.
Aside from the very amusing, sinister yet strangely lulling tones of host Cecil Palmer (pronounced Cee-cil, UK fans), WTNV has introduced me to some musical gems via its Weather Report section.
There are lots to choose from, but I’ve rounded up a few for your aural delight:
The Felice Brothers – Penn Station
Sounds like: Tom Waits on a happy day. A gravel-throated footstomper.
Sounds like: Yan Tiersen jamming with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
Cigarette Burns Forever – Adam Green
Sounds Like: Lo-fi meets 50s Americana, swoon.
Sounds like: A young Ben Folds, lyrically deft and very catchy.
Sounds like: A female hip-hop artist who has had quite enough of your nonsense, pal.
All the songs from the weather are listed at the Night Vale wiki page.