Brabiz: Albums With Strange Backstories or Concepts

ArsMoriendi 01.12.21	Brian Wilson built a sandbox in his living room, put a piano in it, so he could feel the beach while he composed. This was while he was working on Smiley Smile/The Smile Sessions. Apparently, this was right before he had a huge mental breakdown
Brabiz 01.12.21	For sure, the Brian Wilson stuff is a rabbit hole. Kinda sad too
BenThatsMyJamin 01.12.21	Devin Townsend - Infinity for sure Dude thought he was a god, 'the special one'. He went around dressed in all white and thought he was having some kind of revelation from a higher power, that he held the key to truth, as reflected in the name of the first song. You can kinda hear all this in the music, which is the amazing thing. Tied himself down in a room on his own and took a boat load of psychedelics. Pretty mad stuff he explains it all in his podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VpNaAKsk6hvxZOB5fITcr?si=A10nu6yuRYGoBWLqdtAjtg
porcupinetheater 01.12.21	Not disturbing or anything, but the way Caroliner (or Caroliner Rainbow, or any 74 variants on that name) went about recording all the weird shit for their records is endlessly fascinating. Having a whole record where the drums where hung like eight feet in the air and the percussionists had to jump on trampolines with mallets to hit them, playing guitar on guitar necks that were warped beyond recognition, recording to tape they found in the trash that started oxidizing into paste so they hit it with hours of blow-dryers for playback. Just bonkers shit
WeepingBanana 01.12.21	This Heat - Deceit
YoYoMancuso 01.12.21	Nothing - Tired of Tomorrow vocalist got beaten within an inch of his life either during or right before recording. Also the band started after he got out of prison for stabbing a guy
porcupinetheater 01.12.21	Also any number of Fela Kuti records. Two of the more striking are Expensive Shit and Coffin for Head of State. Expensive Shit came from a time the Nigerian cops planted a joint on Fela to then arrest him, but he ate the joint. They locked him up and waited for him to shit it out, but with his consistent anti-authoritarian behaviors, he had a lot of sympathetic bodies inside, and he was able to swap out his shit with a fellow inmate's, and they had to let him out. Coffin for Head of State's much bleaker. Military raided his compounded, captured and tortured Fela and his compatriots, and threw his mother from a second story window. She eventually died from the injuries. The next year, Fela and several others drove a van into the military barracks of General Obasanjo, the military dictator who ordered the compound assault, and, while under constant fire, threw a coffin at his door.
Brabiz 01.12.21	Not concept albums specifically. Just albums with strange stories or conceptions. Porcupine Tree in general has a lot of dark, strange themes, In Absentia seems to be the most explicit of those. Also Wilson’s Hand Cannot Erase is notable. Though that’s more depressing than anything
teamster 01.12.21	Blindead - Affliction
Brabiz 01.12.21	Added a few more that came to mind. I know there is a bunch i can’t remember.
porcupinetheater 01.12.21	And Beefheart basically ran an emotionally abusive cult for the better part of a year for the recording of Trout Mask Replica. No outside music allowed, only one person would leave a month for supplies, single musicians out for days of verbal abuse until they broke down, all sorts of short. My smile is stuck, I cannot go back to your Frownland.
americanohno 01.12.21	if you're interested in the hinterkaifeck murders bill james the baseball guy wrote a book called the man from the train i think were here theorizes the guy responsible for the famous villisca ax murders in iowa is also responsible for hinterkaifeck aswell. i dont buy it but its a fun theory anyway.
gryndstone 01.12.21	Hand Cannot Erase was inspired by the life of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman who was dead for two years in her flat before anybody found out
Mort. 01.12.21	'Coffin for Head of State's much bleaker. Military raided his compounded, captured and tortured Fela and his compatriots, and threw his mother from a second story window. She eventually died from the injuries. The next year, Fela and several others drove a van into the military barracks of General Obasanjo, the military dictator who ordered the compound assault, and, while under constant fire, threw a coffin at his door.' jesus christ
ReturnToRock 01.13.21	Diamanda Galás - Vena Cava. The sounds within are meant to emulate the inner workings of a human body slowly succumbing to AIDS and dementia. It's...certainly something :S It kind of puts every other 'regular' would-be creepy concept album to shame. Macabre - Dahmer. It's all about the titular serial killer. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A# Infinity. It's meant to be a sort of post-apocalyptic tale told through music (I think). And it really works in that respect. The Shaggs - Philosophy of the World. This one's more about the abuse inflicted by the girls' father by forcing them to practise rather than be normal teenagers, as opposed to any sort of purposefully dark concept.