It’s no secret that this website turns five this month. I’ve been promoting it a fair amount. So let me up the ante for you: Today is the real, official anniversary date.
It was on Nov. 19, 2014, that I published the very first Vehlinggo post ever: a review of College’s Save The Day EP. Learn more about the early days of Vehlinggo in this retrospective post that includes an excerpt from the Vehlinggo Presents: 5 Years compilation liner notes.
The comp and the elements surrounding its promotion, including the release party pictured above, represent the bulk of the anniversary celebration activities.
However, this is also a good chance to highlight some of the posts you might have loved or missed over the years. (If I failed to highlight something you cherish, let me know in the comments. Let’s bond over it.)
Select Interviews
- That time I went into the studio with Electric Youth (or the time before that, when we did our first deep dive)
- Or that time I interviewed Johnny Jewel, College, Electric Youth, Cliff Martinez, and others for the fifth anniversary of Drive.
- Reliving the past with The Midnight
- Colin Stetson discusses his Hereditary score
- The very first interview FM-84 ever did (back in 2015, when it was just Col Bennett)
- Dinner and an interview with It Follows composer Disasterpeace
- Those Valerie Collective deep dives
- An in-depth with Cliff Martinez
- The Q&A with Mac Quayle (Mr. Robot, American Horror Story, Pose, etc.) and David Klotz (Stranger Things, AHS, Game of Thrones) about the music of American Horror Story: 1984. (Or the in-depth with Quayle a year before.)
- The Q&A with Carpenter Brut about the band’s turning point
- One of the earliest interviews with GUNSHIP
- Joseph Stephens talks about his score for Vice Principals
- Saying “goodbye” to The Americans with score composer Nathan Barr
- Celebrating The Final Girls with score composer Gregory James Jenkins
- Cody is a new kind of “Carpenteresque”
- Catching up with Fred Ventura
- Score composer Paul Haslinger and I talked about the untimely end of Halt and Catch Fire
- Talking synthwave with Thor and X-Men screenwriter Zack Stentz
- Daniel Davies discusses his work with John and Cody Carpenter on Halloween, and also does a deep dive into his solo album, Events Score, released on Lakeshore Records and Burning Witches Records
- Ben Lovett discusses his extraordinary score for horror flick The Ritual
- Rob Simonsen discusses his exquisite synth score for the Nerve (and his other many film scores)
- Maine creates synthetic sounds from a human place
- Getting real with Nola Wren
- John Bergin is a Renaissance man
- Cobra Kai composers Zach Robinson and Leo Birenberg bring us back to the world of Karate Kid
- A chat with Steelberg, who makes all that cool VHS art
- That time Betamaxx retired just before Kung Fury gave him a signal boost (and then he returned a couple years later)
- Antoni Maiovvi: A Portrait
You can find all of these and many more in one easy place.
Select Reviews and Essays
- The Grand Unified Theory of Com Truise
- NEON RetroFest as a family reunion (and a highlight of the live show)
- Looking Back at Outland Toronto
- Electric Youth’s Breathing will take your breath away
- The Midnight’s Kids
- FM-84’s Atlas — a turning point
- That time Chromatics went Lynchian (This was before we knew they’d be on Twin Peaks, but I could feel something was afoot.)
- Jesse Novak’s Bojack Horseman score (This is actually a premiere, but I wanted to highlight it because (a) the score is fantastic and (b) it’s one of the most-read Vehlinggo posts ever owing to Jesse’s brother BJ from The Office tweeting it out.)
- Paperwhite conjures beautiful Magic
- Futurecop!’s grandest statement
- Clio’s “Faces” (and Donna Summer’s “Our Love”)
- The Wicked Die Young so that Refn might truly live
- Soviet’s Ghosts is the ’80s album you needed — always
- Mandy
- Tess Roby’s Beacon is a masterpiece
- Barrow and Salisbury and their extraordinary Annihilation score (one of the most-read Vehlinggo reviews of all time)
- Francis and the Lights and that surprise album in late 2017
- Helena Hauff tears off our useless armor on Discreet Desires
- That time Duett refreshed synthwave
- Samantha Urbani’s Policies of Power
- Anoraak basically says you can go home again (and previously embraced contemplative vibes)
- Clint Mansell and how San Junipero avoids the perils of nostalgia abuse
- What it’s like to experience 2814’s Rain Temple
- Cliff Martinez expertly conveys Refn’s inner Neon Demon
- And, of course, College’s Save The Day (and that time he and Nola Wren performed live in NYC)
You can find all of these and so very many more in the Reviews section.
Select Guest Posts
- GUNSHIP’s Dan Haigh and his favorite synths and burgers
- Deadwax‘s Graham Reznick on his 5 Favorite Tracks of the Year
Select Podcast Episodes
- Pilotpriest
- Deadly Avenger/Mecha Maiko
- Le Matos
- Com Truise
- Dana Jean Phoenix/Absolute Valentine
- FM-84
- Timecop1983
- Drum & Lace/Michael Oakley
- Parallels/The Bad Dreamers
- Learn about Brian Wilson’s proto synth-pop from the 1970s
- Vehlinggo at MondoCon
- The Code Elektro Making-Of Series
For these and the rest, check out Podcast section. It has the Damn Fine Network episodes from 2018 and 2019, along with earlier one-off episodes from 2017 and 2018.
Before This Post Ends
Make sure you don’t miss this cool video from last year, that features a bunch of artists celebrating Vehlinggo’s fourth birthday. It was cool back then and worth the re-up.
Oh, and do check out the compilation. A lot of people mentioned above are on it with new or previously unreleased songs.
(Feature Photo: Von Hertzog of VHxRR and Hayley Stewart of Mecha Maiko. Photo by Andrew B. White.)
