{"product_id":"i-hope-youre-sitting-down-jacks-tulips-black-2lp","title":"I Hope You're Sitting Down \/ Jack's Tulips [Black 2LP]","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBack in 1994, when Lambchop first lurched lackadaisically into public view, they seemed to many people freakish, outlandish, destined at best for the pages of photocopied fanzines and the graveyard hours of specialist radio stations. A sprawling collective of Nashville musicians—eleven were credited on the sleeve of I Hope You’re Sitting Down \/ Jack’s Tulips, —they’d named themselves after a sock puppet, inexplicably given their album two titles, and stuck a painting on the cover of a small, barefooted child holding a dog whose cock and balls are on proud display.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKurt Wagner—the artist behind that striking cover, as well as the group’s soft-spoken singer, songwriter, and one of their guitarists (although in those days, he disdained any notion of being either their frontman or mastermind)—proceeded to offer further fleeting glimpses of a mysteriously intimate encounter, its unconventional details lingering long after the final note of lap steel guitar had faded. “She asked for some gum,” our farmcapped bard concluded. “He gave it to her. Begin.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis set the tone for a 17-song collection willfully given two titles, it turned out, to sidestep \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe arguably pompous associations of a dreaded double-album debut. Lambchop, you see, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eweren’t pompous at all. In fact, they could hardly have been more unassuming, especially in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003etheir humble approach to music-making, rehearsing in Wagner’s basement and exercising an \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eopen-door policy that allowed anyone with an instrument to take part, whether or not they \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecould really play it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne song, “Soaky in the Pooper,” resonated particularly powerfully, and it’s doubtful \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eanyone in that basement near the railroad tracks could have foreseen in the early 1990s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehow, little more than half a decade later, members of a sold-out, seated audience of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e2,200 in London’s prestigious Royal Festival Hall would yell out its unlikely title, begging \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eto hear it. “Better pull his head out of the bowl,” Wagner croaked—against a maudlin, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eeccentric arrangement of, among other instruments, guitar, mandolin, woodwind, brass, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003estrings—as he chronicled a bleak suicide in a public bathroom and the ensuing sad, lonely \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003efuneral for which “all the mourners traveled in one car.” It wouldn’t be the last time he \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eaddressed subjects from which most tend to shy away.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhere Lambchop brought us was somewhere so singular and bewilderingly gripping that—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eto perhaps no one’s greater surprise than the band themselves, whose homeland remained \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ebaffled for quite some years to come—the album ended up in British music paper NME’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTop 50 Albums of the Year. In case anyone were to consider this an anomaly, France’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esimilarly influential Les Inrockuptibles placed it at number 25 on their own list. Not bad \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003efor a band who had gathered since the mid-1980s, once a week, purely for pleasure, in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethat smoky, dimly lit basement. Not bad, either, for a record whose sessions were initially \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eonly expected to produce enough material for a handful of 7-inch singles. Disheveled yet \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003etender, anarchic yet intricate, I Hope You’re Sitting Down \/ Jack’s Tulips instead provided the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003espringboard for a career—still ongoing, despite repeated reinventions, and still compelled \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eby stubbornly freakish, outlandish intentions—during which Lambchop’s ever-changing \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eline-up has continued to confound expectations. Wagner, meanwhile, remains one of our \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emost cryptic but crucial voices, an authentic poet of the magical banal. Sure, it was weird \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehere, but it was wonderful, too. Over a quarter century later, it still is.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—Wyndham Wallace, Berlin, 2021\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cdiv data-bt-autogen\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBegin\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBetweemus\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSoaky in the Pooper\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBecause You Are the Very Air He Breathes\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUnder the Same Moon\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eI Will Drive Slowly\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOh, What a Disappointment\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHellmouth\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBon Soir, Bon Soir\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHickey\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBreathe Deep\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSo I Hear You're Moving\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLet's Go Bowling\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat Was He Wearing?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCowboy on the Moon\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOr Thousands of Prizes\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Pack-Up Song\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUPC:\u003c\/strong\u003e 673855007014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLabel:\u003c\/strong\u003e Merge Records\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelease Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e 12.10.21\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vinyl\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Lambchop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58292127465553,"sku":"383592","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0620\/5023\/8545\/files\/4026869-2761970.jpg?v=1760739731","url":"https:\/\/apocalypsevinyl.com\/products\/i-hope-youre-sitting-down-jacks-tulips-black-2lp","provider":"Apocalypse Vinyl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}