“Now everybody—”
Visit Interprets Songs by Thomas Pynchon

 

The great novelist Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937) is also a sometimes thoughtful, sometimes irreverent lyricist. Sprinkled throughout all of his novels are many tunes that surprise the reader. The NYC band Visit recorded fourteen of them and Philadelphia-based composer Peter Price put together some interstitial material. Released on 8 May 2020—the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II but also Pynchon’s 83rd birthday—the album “Now everybody—” Visit Interprets Songs by Thomas Pynchon adds to the growing list of music inspired by the American writer.

Promotional video

 

Welcome, music lovers, to the cheerfully deranged world of Thomas Pynchon!

Over the years, Tyler Burba of the band Visit had accompanied a number of my talks on music in Thomas Pynchon’s work. One evening, I suggested he record an entire album of Pynchon’s songs. He gave it two solid seconds of thought: “Sure, if you’re going to produce it.” There’s a first time for everything, and, karmically speaking, becoming a music producer most certainly beats being the President of, say, the United States of America, no matter which faction of the Business Party he, she, or it belongs to.

 

REGISTER YOUR PURCHASE AND GET LOTS BONUS STUFF

If you register your purchase, we will give you access to a password-protected area with lots of bonus stuff, such as:

All MP3s in 320 kbit/s quality for online streaming or download
One MP3 of the entire album (so as to avoid a brief pause between the tracks)
MP3s of the demos recorded before going into the studio
Cereal Book: a PDF of all the lyrics and chords to sing, hum, or strum along
Full liner notes
Artwork: Tyler Wilson’s album art
A PDF of a big band arrangement of “Full Moon in Pisces”

 
Line-Up

Vocals, guitars, ukulele, banjo, keyboards, bass, tambourine: Tyler Burba
Drums: Clint Carlson
Harmonica, kazoo: a friend

More harmonica: Junior Burke
Pedal steel guitar: Gerald Menke
Clarinet, bass clarinet, tambourine, coconuts: Christian Hänggi
Recorder: Todd Burba
Violin: Astrid Hänggi
Cello: Tristan Price
Additional percussion: Bill Wolf