#first of October

[mythicalwater]

Rob Scallon portrait

[pandakong]

Certified holiday

[geodethecrow]

FUCK YEAH NEW FIRST OF OCTOBER ALBUM LETS GOOOOO!!!!

[pubbyboards]

[awritersbro]

Since it's the spooky season, I'd like to show y'all a fun little tune from a fun little band

[magis-ghast]

I'm so excited for the new first of October album soon. The song titles are so intriguing. I've been listening to the other albums all day

My head all day has just been

You know it's October 1? (What what!)

[nofatclips-home]

The Making of an Album in One Day: Chaos by First of October [The actual album] [2021] [2019] [2018]

[kraestburns]

Thank you Rob Scallon and Andrew Huang for writing this song and giving me an emotional crisis two minutes at a time

[jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels]

Rabbits

Rabbits

Rabbits

[this-has-returned]

if you wanna come to my house

ya gotta ask me first

you can't just go there

you can't just go there

if you wanna come to my house

ya gotta ask me first

you can't just show up

that's really weird

if you wanna be my car insurance agent I gotta

sign a paper or something

you can't just

start

representing my car insurance

get outta my house

that goes for you, Greg

[somesortofidiot]

Ranking the First of October songs

Because Andrew Huang showed that someone else had ranked them, and I desperately feel the need to formally disagree by ranting about them for a while.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is by actually ranking all of them myself. For context, Andrew's tweet: https://twitter.com/andrewhuang/status/1611052440630992896 It would take me much too long to explain my disagreements with the original ranking, and I think the replies show enough examples that I don't think starting off with my own rants here would be justified. Instead, they'll be sprinkled throughout where I think they should be. If something doesn't seem to have an explanation for its ranking I've probably slotted it in after realising it should've been lower down.

Unfortunately, something has to go into last place as the worst FoO song. Fortunately, The 11th Song exists to make that choice much easier. This isn't to say it's a horrendously written song and that it brings active distaste towards the rest of the album or anything - it's just that it didn't need to be there and nothing would really be missed without it. How on Earth did it get placed at 24th? Same goes for the weird tacked-on ending of Ben Wyatt with the electronica that just had to go somewhere. (I know my writing here may come across as brutally harsh, and that's because it should - just in a joking way. They're good songs, but something has to go in last.)

That starts off this list:

#41: The 11th Song

And now, all of the songs that weren't written with a 4 minute time constraint worsened by Pro Tools crashing halfway through the recording.

It's genuinely difficult to put these into a formal order because I think they're all fantastic in their own unique ways. There's also no list that can appease absolutely everyone, and I'll probably disagree with myself by the time I've finished writing this - but it has to be finished at some point or I could keep debating everything forever. Frankly, the more I stare at this song list, the more I despair at what I'm doing and the impossibility of it all.

#40: Two Friends #39: Don't Go to My House #38: We Didn't Have Time to Get Lyrics on This One #37: Things to Do

Largely from the first album, with the first two being somewhat rushed ("somewhat" as if they weren't written back to back in incredibly short timespans). Rob and Andrew have improved at their speedy songwriting immensely with each passing year, and these were right at the start of it. Lyrics were also rushed for this first album (but let's not forget that they had two fewer hours for it too), and that definitely had its effects on Things to Do - they work, but honestly not much more than that. The same can be said for #38, but hit even worse by the time they had left - at least Two Friends and Don't Go to My House came pretty naturally to Rob. Spoilers for Playdead's Inside should probably go here for a similar reason, but the rest of its musical writing do bring it up a bit. Nowhere near as high as the original ranking at 11th, but better than the high 30s.

Past this point, it's brutally painful to rank them, because a lot of songs need to be placed lower down in order for others to be higher up. (Also - reasoning and actual ranking becomes basically arbitrary because seriously it's impossible to do this well.)

#36: Apology Melody #35: Coffee! Yeah!

Another case for the lyrics in these putting them lower down, I think. Apology Melody gets put lower due to its more minimal arrangement and emptiness. It works for the song, and I don't think it should've been done much differently if at all - it just ends up lower down because I don't think it's as good as the rest of them.

#34: October 1 #33: Possible Band Names #32: Ben Wyatt #31: Spoilers for Playdead's Inside

Again, lyrics let these down. October 1's repetition is fun but grows comparatively bland; Possible Band Names is chill and nice but otherwise somewhat boring; and Ben Wyatt, while being a pretty good song, is let down by its ending. Spoilers for Playdead's Inside now sits at the low 30s.

#30: First of October #29: It's Halloween #28: Jangly Bones #27: Riff Lord #26: Climb That Mountain! #25: Feels So Right

For First of October and Climb That Mountain!: Death to C major. (Not really, otherwise the other C major pieces would've gone down here - I just can't really think of good reasoning. They don't spark as much in me as some of the others. Climb That Mountain! gets put higher because that modulation brings out something more.) As much as I'd like to put Jangly Bones and Riff Lord higher, I don't feel like I can or should, but maybe by the end I'll think differently. Riff Lord also feels incredibly like Rob with the soloing - as he put it, pick a scale and just move up and down it. I'm pretty sure he's already used some of those lines in a different song/thing with Jessica Burdeaux, and that's outside of Djazz too. (Not that that's a bad thing necessarily - just that I recognise it maybe a little too well.) Feels So Right is quite fun, but also what's weezer

#24: Woo! #23: Rollerbladin' #22: Thirty-First of October #21: Trick or Treat #20: I Am Not Afraid

Woo! is short, fun, and great all around, and I have no complaints about it. Nonetheless, it's here because it has to go somewhere and the other songs do more (both figuratively with the ideas and arrangements as well as literally with being more than 37 seconds long). Rollerbladin' is the same - well-written, but I think the others do more.

#19: Temporary #18: Headless #17: Greg! #16: Don't Go #15: Valerie

Midwest emo isn't really my thing but I do still find it enjoyable. Temporary is incredibly well-written and I can't fault it. Headless is solid, Greg! is just pure fun, and Don't Go and Valerie are the sweet acoustic songs of the first two albums. They had to go somewhere.

#14: Grandad's Dinner Party #13: Spooky Time #12: Never Say Goodbye #11: Lonely Angel

So the sweet songs get beaten by Primus and the lead song of CHAOS. (I probably could've switched those around and it'd still be completely fair in my eyes; I just thought about them first and so they get put a little lower because this is basically a gigantic ramble post I'm poorly disguising as thoughtful discourse.) Never Say Goodbye and Lonely Angel are fantastic songs, and their placement is pretty much only decided by the bees that invaded in the bridge of Never Say Goodbye.

#10: Left My Pants in Chicago #9: Ravioli #8: Always #7: Good Enough #6: Do You Want To?

Now we're getting to the undeniably iconic songs of the albums. I just put them in their respective slots because they're where I felt like putting them and frankly, it was already entirely arbitrary and opinion-based after I listed the first few, so does it really matter where these ones go? They're fantastic, and that's all that matters.

#5: Bookmobile #4: Lonely Angel #3: Love to Say I Love You #2: Miracle #1: Find The Way

The cream of the crop and the end of this gigantic list and blog. I think Find The Way beats out Miracle just by the slightest of margins with the absolute quality of the arranging and everything that went into it. I think this also makes a little too clear my bias for the latest album, but so be it. It's my list, and that's all that matters to me.

Big ranking for easy visibility and sharing I guess:

#41: The 11th Song #40: Two Friends #39: Don't Go to My House #38: We Didn't Have Time to Get Lyrics on This One #37: Things to Do #36: Apology Melody #35: Coffee! Yeah! #34: October 1 #33: Possible Band Names #32: Ben Wyatt #31: Spoilers for Playdead's Inside #30: First of October #29: It's Halloween #28: Jangly Bones #27: Riff Lord #26: Climb That Mountain! #25: Feels So Right #24: Woo! #23: Rollerbladin' #22: Thirty-First of October #21: Trick or Treat #20: I Am Not Afraid #19: Temporary #18: Headless #17: Greg! #16: Don't Go #15: Valerie #14: Grandad's Dinner Party #13: Spooky Time #12: Never Say Goodbye #11: Lonely Angel #10: Left My Pants in Chicago #9: Ravioli #8: Always #7: Good Enough #6: Do You Want To? #5: Bookmobile #4: Lonely Angel #3: Love to Say I Love You #2: Miracle #1: Find The Way

If you've made it to the end of this: thanks for reading! I hope you haven't lost too many brain cells from this. I might use tumblr some more for random rants a bit like this, so if you think you might enjoy reading some music nonsense then maybe give this account a follow. (Do I sound enough like an influencer yet for this to work?)

[niko-pink]

just wanna show my appreciation for this video (and the first of october project as a whole) for a second

i think this perfectly compiles everything i enjoy about the band - other than the songs, of course. making an entire album in one day must be an incredible amount of work, but andrew, rob and the crew look like they're having lots of fun everytime

foo just has that "teens having fun in a band" energy and i think the songs reflect that, with their stylistic choices (taking inspiration from bands like primus, weezer, system of a down, and genres like punk rock, midwest emo, nu-metal, etc) fused with their own musical style, career and expertise and rob ruccia's huge experience with sound

this band is something i look forward to every year. musically and video-wise, it's a fun mix of what i enjoyed when i was 14 and what i enjoy now

[bayofalgecirascranes]

Every First of October song is technically an ode to procrastination

[geodethecrow]

new First of October album soon let's gooo! :D

[opia-jpg]

not exactly inktober but! i will try to draw a quick cat doodle every day of october..... i just think they're neat

[lazylittledragon]

'halloween starts on september 1st' kind of couple