tabsout.com
Longmont Potion Castle 19
What has become increasingly apparent over LPC’s 30+ years dedicated to calling people just to see what’s up, is a real sense of what the refinement of (our) decline sounds like. In an era where public trust in institutions has eroded, we’ve failed to truly combat covid and fascism, and we have no prospect of a real communal future (just dipshit survival of the fittest), LPC 19 is basically a tenuous survey of how close we are on the brink. No, LPC calls have never been outright political–even the 2004 highlight "Election Blues" is more a dead-eyed stare into the world of opinion polling and petty territorialism, than real politics. Yet, even with the usual roster of peeving or phone mayhem, something about this compilation’s squabbles is more unhinged than usual.
Could it be pinpointed to various moments of the LPC 19 "Medley" 1/2? Dedicated pleas to help with a garage lever (“I got your number from a friend at the DMV”) hit the fritz faster than a bat outta hell. Later, earnest pleas coaxing neighbors to provide a swab, just to confirm they didn’t steal anything from LPC, unleashes some of the pettiest “go fuck yourself” behavior documented on a phone line. “Machete Lottery,” a stately attempt to make a general store garner $200, unleashes new levels of customer service hell, as if being a valued customer over generations doesn’t mean a thing. Somehow lottery people are enraged by the end of this! Meanwhile, no one wants to pay ASCAP the hundreds of dollars owed for the song "Taco Comavilla". People just aren’t willing to let their data be destroyed and restored, and let interstate commerce crimes be bygones in the process. Even the cryptozoologist isn’t interested in building a coalition, only furthering his knowledge. Truly, all signs of a society that wants the other fella on the line to fuck off and die.
There’s still these fascinating moments of brevity. Take the new sound effects, like the reverberated siren that randomly shows up a la Eric Andre style, to the baffling twinkles that pop in moments where people are truly being unhuman; they function as breadcrumbs to signify that LPC sorta knows the insanity he’s in as we sit back and eavesdrop. Meanwhile, while dialing up as Dale Pigtail and trying to force a fella to pay a ticket, LPC just lets the fella state he’d been the target of homophobic slander and sincerely express grievance, (then) he hangs up and we never hear from him again. For the first time I can recall since "Super Nintendo" (perhaps LPC’s pinnacle of empathy), LPC sorta just vibes around with a kid with no real harm or irritation. Even a call to a bookstore reveals that people who staff these stores are more amused by the bizarreness and humor of the three-way rhyming quips than actually wanting to kill this man. Truly, a sign that civilization is still alive, at least as long as someone is listening and playing.
While the Alex Trebex calls remain likely finished and all released in the forms they should be, there is the return to the record store for a semi-sequel to "Nash", "Buckwild". Here, it further teases that those calls have garnered him a longevity for a new generation. Record store clerks now live to tell tales of LPC. Hell, I met one of the guys on LPC’s Amoeba Records call from Vol. 7. Take "Buckwild"’s splicing twists and turns, going well beyond "Zia Records"’ meta-moment and spreading out. It’s the call that has instilled long-lasting effects on my brain, with LPC’s incessant need for the breakthrough single from a Babylonian group on a “hot imprint” creating massive layups for slam dunk lines. And also, he can’t not sing the song into the phone over and over. All of it instigates classic LPC pleasure. And of course, there’s the samplepedia ditty, the thrash song, and a whole roster of things I can really only say “you should just hear this.”
...All I can say is at the end of several deep listens in various formats and with various friends, I'm deeply thankful this guy just wants to swab some people and keeps doing this shit. It’s important American surveyor work.
theanswerisinthebeat.net
Longmont Potion Castle 15
The biggest addition to the LPC canon from this new album is definitely the part at the end of “LPC 15 Medley” when he calls up a record store and asks for some country song that goes “Where’d ya gitcha donkey donkey?” with tons of wet echo effects on his voice. It’s like a long lost Western cousin of Dugan Nash’s hit “Check, Double Check, Triple Double Check” and it’s the new hit sweeping the nation. It’s all over the radio now. Besides that, someone keeps calling up all these bookstores and hardware stores and asking for hedge clippings and books about egg nog and wart hogs. And trains keep going by and birds keep chirping. Also, the way LPC keeps pronouncing “card” and “charge” is mindblowing. And when he’s doing his UPS guy shtick, claiming he’s from fleagenie.com, and asks someone for a “long number that begins with a four”…. I lost it. One of the album’s bonus tracks is the most revealing thing to appear on an LPC recording so far. There’s a Q&A with people from a record store where he demonstrates his process on the fly. He gets asked if he’d ever want to appear on Jeopardy and he calls Alex Trebek up and asks about casting information. Also he says he’s spoken to Alex between 600 and 700 times. Also, he calls Andy Breckman who tells him to go screw himself. Too perfect.
The Grain Music
Longmont Potion Castle 14
From Salinger and Pynchon to Kubrick to Banksy and the Master of Vyšší Brod to Daft Punk and the Weeknd, it could be said that some of the most important creative people in their fields have been anonymous, or at least reclusive. Why is this? Is it because these people have realized their need to contribute art untainted by image, and let their work speak for themselves? Or is it the anonymity that creates the intrigue? Maybe at times what fascinates us about this work is the idea of the masked genius behind it. So unconcerned with the limelight, it seems as though they hardly care whether or not anyone is paying attention to what they do. Somewhere deep within the assemblage of masked creators, lies Longmont Potion Castle, a noise and thrash metal recording artist whose status has never touched any of the aforementioned. His discography, 17 albums deep, proves not only to be a one-of-a-kind attempt in its field, but proves LPC to be canon-worthy in the history of anonymous artists.
Almost 30 years after his first release, Subliminal Propaganda, Longmont Potion Castle’s work still enables his little group of devout listeners to feel the same euphoria, intrigue and bewilderment that it did in 1988. This is because through the past 3 decades his ideology, medium and ultimately his mission have remained the same. Whether he wants his listeners laughing, crying or cringing at any given moment, Potion Castle has clung to his discovery: how to interact with the world in a way no one else ever has.
The first thing you may notice upon listening to LPC’s 14, is that his use of vocal effects and manipulation runs far more rampant than we’ve heard before. His rambling and comedic soundscapes sound more like Merzbow than ever, until they don’t. In a moment his vocal aesthetic is reminiscent of Diamanda Galás, whose career of intense avant-garde, blues, and shrieking is not all that unlike Longmont’s. The same moment we might forget all about his vocal style, as his prose is illuminated, sounding like the lyrics of a dead country singer whose mind was replaced by a random word generator.
LPC, whose true identity has remained a mystery ever since Propaganda, becomes more self-referential than he has on his work before. From his lyrical discussion of his own electronic vocal manipulation on the first track “LPC Medley 1” (“I’m hearing voices / And Beeping / And crazy sounds”), to the second track on the album, “Around The House,” which opens up with the line “Let’s get back to the phones now.” Perhaps this serves as a reflection on his own career in audio. The surreal beauty of LPC’s work is in his anonymity, statements on his web site have claimed that his albums are simply absurdist art.
The most notable feature of the album are its lyrics. Longmont’s verbal capacity has grown since his beginnings, uttering phrases that seem intricate and nuanced, while also phonaesthetically silly. On the opening track, “LPC 14 Medley,” he croons, “We got people leaping up and down / We got people leaping all around / And we got a fractal cactus / We got a holistic medicine man on premise / he’ll get with ya a little bit later,” and we wonder whether the words are profound or profoundly meaningless, only to realize that it doesn’t matter. But we still have to wonder if we’re the one who is being pranked through Longmont Potion Castle’s postmodern experiment.
The album came out on DU Records in June of this year, a time that the label describes as “Just when you thought it was safe to turn on the radio.” A listen through LPC’s music is as it has ever been: a journey. Through a desert soundscape of cassette tape and discomfort and funny voices and harsh noise. We ask ourselves where this journey brought us, what destination has this led us to, and finally, who is Longmont Potion Castle? But if LPC’s career continues at all similarly to how it has been going, the answer should be clear: It doesn’t really matter.
theanswerisinthebeat.net
Longmont Potion Castle 13
This year’s LPC album is the most epic one yet. Including bonus tracks, it’s nearly 3 hours long, and it was released as a triple CD (which sold out in a minute, like every LPC album from the past few years). These tracks are long, convoluted, and dense. He’s using crazier effects than ever, and there’s less silence and awkward pauses and just a higher intensity. In the first track alone, he misinterprets someone saying “she’s not with us” for meaning that she passed away, tries to sell someone a KISS comic book printed with LSD, and tells someone his name is Schwab. Then he’s asking for weird animal parts (multiple times) while weird distorted groaning sounds roll around in the background. At one point he actually asks someone “Do you idiots sell urine?” Also it sounds like he’s editing callers so that certain phrases repeat and they sound like they’re stuttering, like on some older LPC releases. And then on “Mongoose”, he edits his own voice out so it’s just a big block of confused people chattering about mongooses (mongeese?). And of course, the one where he calls people asking who they’re voting for. One dude swears he always writes in Billy Dee Williams every election. Another dude recognizes it as LPC calling and says “you’re my hero!” Also, Alex Trebek still doesn’t seem to know what’s up. Also, LPC does some sort of Avalanche Bob-like scatting during “Bicycle Center”. I was going to post here that an LPC documentary called Where in the Hell is the Lavender House? is in production, and I was going to post the Indiegogo page, but it says it’s closed. I didn’t get around to donating yet! At least this (and every other LPC) album can be ordered at longmontpotioncastle.com.
theanswerisinthebeat.net
Longmont Potion Castle 12
It’s a good start to the year if there’s not one but two new Longmont Potion Castle releases. LPC 12 is more Skype and voice modulator terrorism, and while he’s still calling people up asking about ridiculous products and demanding payment, the people he’s calling still fall for it and it’s still hilarious. He’s calling from the Ho Ho House, and all the calipers on his Daihatsu Blooper are ruined. His record store calls are as ridiculous as ever; he asks about a band called Hobo Barf and keeps throwing his voice around. He also claims that he’s in a band of musical gnomes and wants to sell his album on consignment. There’s also the saga of when he’s been hired to photograph the Little Miss Clackamas pageant and he’s been told to pixelize the film, and he just won’t give up whenever the guy tries to reason with him and tell him how to go about fulfilling his ridiculous requests. And then of course he threatens the guy: “How ’bout I pixelize your teeth?” His later albums have more of his own voice, because his voice just keeps getting funnier, but there’s a couple moments like on the earlier LPC releases where he repeats some of the more flustered responses from callers, and I think he might even cut his own voice out just to leave the confused-sounding callers. And he’s definitely cutting some space out of the calls to make them more rapidfire on a few tracks. The limited CD and cassette versions of the album was sold out by the time I found out about it, so I grabbed a digital download. Anyway, if you’re well versed in LPC, you know you need this in your life. If you haven’t heard LPC before, you need it anyway.
theanswerisinthebeat.net
The Albert Lerner Trio/Longmont Potion Castle "Split"
This new LPC release is a lot different, in that it’s one of the project’s few entirely musical releases. Basically the only other ones before this that have little or nothing to do with prank phone calls are the split 7″with Hatebeak and a collection or two of just the metal interludes from the albums. This double LP collection (which also had a limited CD release) starts out with an LP by the mostly instrumental Albert Lerner Trio (which lists two different drummers, I assume they appear on different tracks) who play a sort of twangy, thrashy spaghetti western rock. There’s moments that get pretty heavy which dovetail into sprightly country without missing a beat. The album’s 17 brief tracks all feel like the soundtrack to scenes of a trippy, surrealist film set in the scorching desert heat, so it’s all too appropriate that Longmont Potion Castle provides remixes for the album’s second disc. He adds plenty of exaggerated echo and effects to the drum and guitar tracks, as well as lots of spoken snippets, some of which are from his phone calls, but most of them are likely from movies or TV or other sources. It’s definitely fun and playful, even if it doesn’t go for all-out hilarity or ridiculousness. His sample placement is impeccable; his sense of timing is excellent no matter what he does. Everything fits together in a more musical way than it ever has for him. On “Birds (No, Sorry Mix)” he surrounds the atmospheric post-rock with bird sounds, and then samples one of his calls where he asks someone at a store if he can bring his bird into the shop because it helps him to see. A musician caller excitedly talking about mixing different styles of music appears on both this album and LPC 12, and his enthusiastic rambling is bolstered here by LPC’s drum echoing, spiraling-up bass, and sporadic piano and sax bursts. Whoever this caller is, he could end up being the new Tight Bros. This definitely feels like a sort of vanity side project for Longmont, but it’s a good showcase of his musical side (it wouldn’t be accurate to say his “serious” side).
theanswerisinthebeat.net
Longmont Potion Castle 11
Longmont Potion Castle has been on a prolific streak for a while now, regularly
putting out a new album every year, each one funnier than the last. The newly
released 11 (actually the 12th LPC album, counting Late-Eighties-Vein) marks the
project’s return to the CD and tape formats, following a couple digital-only
releases and the double-vinyl release of 9. This one, like most LPC releases, is
pretty much non-stop ridiculousness. He calls people claiming he has a 65,000
pound battle cannon in a helicopter, asking where he should land the thing. He
tells a camping store that he wants to get outfitted like a “swamp donkey”, and
after he can’t get what he asks for, he asks for “holographic boots”. He gets
Alex Trebek on the line with a bunch of other celebrities, claiming to be from a
new show called What’s Crackin’. He does his UPS guy bit, telling someone he’s
going to deliver them Tasmanian syrup on dry ice. He talks to an Obama-hating
Fox News reporter, claiming to be from the NAACP, asking for donations to What’s
Crackin’. Best of all is the 11 minutes he spends calling people up claiming to
be “your new neighbor”, asking how he can cry more of his own natural tears.
That one just hits home because I think I’ve somehow lost the ability to cry
tears and sometimes wonder how I can do that myself. This is also one of the few
calls where the people he’s calling are actually amused by his calls, and one of
them asks him if he’s Longmont Potion Castle, and keeps saying “this is so
awesome right now”. He’s as proficient as ever with manipulating his voice and
coming up with ridiculous fake names, and he calls people on Skype and when they
say they’re going to report his number or track him he nonchalantly goes “oh
don’t do that”. The last few LPC albums have included links to bonus tracks with
the digital tracklist insert, and this album's highlight is when he claims to be
from “Golf Wolf Magazine”, and repeatedly asks the guy he’s calling how he’s
doing, who keeps replying “I’m unbelievable, but if you keep calling, I’ll call
the police”. He also claims to be a former coach for the Denver Broncos, and
calls some guy who hates football asking for input. Oh, and as usual, there’s
some thrash songs, some of which have dense sample collages, and one of which
samples the infamous “Tight Bros” phone conversation between two guys talking
about which classic rock guitarist is better (“I was flipping on acid!”). Buy a
download, give this man all the moneys, or he’s gonna whoop your ass. How does
that sound?
605 Magazine
Longmont Potion Castle 10
I can never figure out if this surrealist and anonymous prank caller is aiming
for juvenile giggles or a fascinating look into the psychological reactions of
the average American, but, once again, he achieves both in a way that
alternatively stuns and entertains. Favorite tracks: "Lamb Dilemma",
"Interloper's Probation", "Turtle Pleasure", "Neighbor Noise". 4 stars out of 5.
theanswerisinthebeat.net
Longmont Potion Castle 10
Returning to digital-only after the first-ever full-length LPC vinyl
release, here's another album of lambs, deadpan taunting, preposterous UPS
deliveries, 3-way phone mayhem, and thrash metal, via Skype. Most relevant to my
location, Mr. LPC poses as someone from Detroit Energy and calls people telling
them he's going to turn their heat up to 110 degrees for testing. He starts off
calling a candy store, who says that this will melt all their product. Then he
calls a bunch of other people telling them the same thing, and they get
belligerent, so he claims to be charging them for non-compliance. At one point
he interjects, "do you even know there's a new pope?" "Liquor Outlet" finds him
doing his classic vocal manipulation and playing with words, and confusing the
hell out of someone at that store. "Interloper's Probation" is the saga of a
disturbed, cranky, racist old man who lives in a motel. Elsewhere, he adds
synths and drum machines to his calls, resulting in a hilarious "What You Peepin'?"
song for about 10 seconds, which gets met with a "what are you saying?" and a
hangup. He asks a liquor store for 100 limes, and claims to be from yelp.com,
and offers to change someone's negative feedback into positive for $800.00. Oh,
and there's the one where he calls a record store asking for Turtle Pleasure and
Solomon Gumball. "I'm at the KFC just catty-corner to ya." He calls people
claiming to be their neighbor, and tells them to quiet down, and the first
person seems to actually comply with him. There's also a disturbed,
violent-minded man who really hates the President, and a montage of phone
greetings, and (as a bonus track) the crazy living in a motel talking to Alex
Trebek. Maybe a bit too much 3-way calls this time, but still, if you love LPC,
you need this.
The Xavier Newswire
Longmont Potion Castle 9
LPC album shocks audience with chaos & hilarity!
Prank calls are often associated with juvenile humor, and for good reason. Calling an individual with an unfortunate name and asking for them doesn’t yield much comedic value. It would seem like such a genre would lack any room for artistic expression.
Enter Longmont Potion Castle (LPC), an anonymous Denver resident who has been terrorizing Colorado and California residents since the late ‘80s. Unlike his contemporaries, who typically use one or two tricks in their calls, LPC boasts an entire magic show ranging from conference calling confused victims to the electric guitar effect pedals he runs his voice through. His calls are released as albums, which often last more than 100 minutes with thrash metal interludes mixed in between the calls. To date, he has released 18 albums.
Albums 8-14 are often considered by fans to be the golden age of LPC, likely due to the fact that they were all released after he got an English degree. Of these albums, I think LPC’s ninth is the best entry point to his work due to the flow of the album.
The album opens with “Clown Motel,” a phenomenal opening track which is a perfect introduction to LPC. LPC calls a clown-themed motel looking for three rooms for three nights which he needs to unload two Humvees full of weights into. As the owner tries to convince LPC not to come to the motel, LPC pushes back stating that he’s en route to the motel as the owner becomes increasingly flustered. It introduces LPC’s surreal brand of comedy perfectly.
The next two calls introduce two more common LPC tactics. “Interloper’s Room Service” introduces conference calling and focuses entirely on the confused victims and does not feature LPC’s voice at all. “Cables From Guam” introduces LPC’s signature delivery call in which he calls Dick Dale pretending to be DHL with a cash-on-delivery package that Dale didn’t order.
Other gems from the album include “NBS Electronics 2,” which features an incredibly angry guitar amp repairman, “Lizards,” in which LPC attempts to book a hotel room for three lizards and one cobra, all "Medleys" which feature a series of bizarre and nonsensical calls too difficult to be categorized, and “UPS Freakout 3,” which is essentially “Cables from Guam” but three times as intense.
The calls are enhanced by LPC’s delivery itself. His vernacular is huge by prank caller standards and he employs it masterfully throughout his calls. Whenever a call begins to stagnate, he immediately throws in a fake surcharge or a third-grade bully-level threat.
His pseudonyms sound like they were created by an English major on acid. His ability to create absurd situations to trap his victims is admirable as well. His victims are thrust into hellish situations involving animals, money, whips, flamethrowers and threats of physical violence if they don’t meet LPC’s demands.
While I enjoy most of this album, there are a few instances where I feel as though LPC crossed a line. “Dirk and Josh” features LPC calling a woman and repeatedly asking her to put her son on the phone until she gets a police officer involved. There are also calls which I simply do not find entertaining, such as “Bare Essentials,” which simply features an uncomfortable conversation between LPC and an adult novelty store manager. However, I still find myself guilty of laughing at these calls purely due to their presentation.
Listening to the ninth album is like listening to a god of chaos playing with his subjects for an hour and fifty minutes straight with three-minute jam sessions spliced in between them. The album perfectly captures all of LPC’s styles and presents them in an easily processible way. LPC turns basic juvenile humor into a two-hour-long surrealist art presentation that is chaotic, bizarre and nothing short of hilarious.
605 Magazine
Longmont Potion Castle 9
LPC is a single Colorado man who makes prank phone calls. The calls
make Crank Yankers seem square and The Jerky Boys seem sober. It's absurd and
wonderful, or infuriating if you're Dick Dale. Favorite tracks: "Clown Motel",
"LPC 9 Medley 1", "LPC 9 Medley 2". 4 stars out of 5.
foxydigitalis.com
Longmont Potion Castle 9
Almost 25 years after the anonymous Colorado citizen operating under the moniker
Longmont Potion Castle started tormenting people via phone and releasing it on
cassette, and after claiming that the project was over several albums ago, LPC
is finally making its full-length vinyl debut. Even though LPC falls under the
category of “prank phone calls” I’ve always thought of his work (and I do
consider it “work”) to be closer to some sort of avant-garde sound art than the
fucking Jerky Boys. He’s had the same deadpan tone to his voice all these years,
and he’s still coming up with ridiculous dadaist non-sequitors that simply
wouldn’t come out of most people’s mouths. Not to mention, he still filters his
voice through a digital delay system, playing around with pitch and reverb and
generally just confusing the hell out of people. He still occasionally calls up
shops asking for odd-sounding items that don’t exist (“rug munchkins”), or
asking repair shops to fix items they don’t actually fix, and when they won’t,
he’ll nonchalantly retort with “maybe you’d rather look at my flamethrower,
how’s that sound?” Naturally, a large percentage of the people he calls react
with extreme fury. Sometimes LPC is obviously asking for it; he opens one call
claiming that he’s sponsoring Julian Assange for WikiLeaks, and is told that he
will only receive money for “hand grenades to blow his fucking ass to hell where
he belongs”, otherwise “go fuck your commie self.” His standby routine still
remains calling people up claiming to be from UPS (or DHL, or another delivery
service) and saying that he has a huge delivery from another country and that
they owe him thousands of dollars and that he’s on the way to deliver it right
now and he needs the money immediately. Even when the people he’s calling
absolutely refuse to believe what’s happening, they still stay on the line for
much longer than anyone with common sense would, and continue arguing while
LPC’s utterings get more absurd, and while his voice gets more processed. On
“Lizards”, LPC tells the guy on the other line to “talk to my leader”, at which
point he filters his voice and mixes it with new age music, and speaks about
“objects which look like faberge eggs from Mars” and other psychedelic things.
On another track, he calls someone asking for backing tracks (“I need ogg vorbis
tracks, stat!”) with the pitch of his voice fluctuating rapidly, and works the
guy on the other line up so much that he ends up having to ask “why are you
fucking cursing at me?”, with his voice still electronically mangled. Only on a
few instances do the people he’s calling seem to be in on the joke. He cracks a
girl up with some silly voice saying “hey Dahn, what’s going ahn?!”, and in two
instances, he’s actually asked if he’s the guy from Longmont Potion Castle. On
one of the digital-only bonus tracks, Merle Allin (whose brother G.G. was
infamously called on one of LPC’s early albums) seems to have a grand old time
hooping and hollering at LPC, who calls about delivering a package by foot, but
then ends up throwing it in the dumpster.
If all of this sounds horrible and not funny, then you are probably not going to
enjoy the track called “Kiplet’s Prayer”. On this track, LPC speaks through a
Mac speech synthesis program in character as a hearing impaired 14 year old,
calling a Christian prayer line to pray for his friend Carl “who is in gangs and
drugs.” He gives his email address as “kiplet@earth.friend” and his postal
address as “39 friend@friend.com”. This sounds cruel and exploitative on paper,
but what makes it hilarious is the way the computer voice pronounces “Kiplet”,
and “gaaangs”, and “thhaaank you”. Essentially, the delivery is what makes LPC
work. The combination of straightfaced recitation of completely absurd subject
matter (such as calling up a coffin shop asking about “Alligator Monday”) along
with quick-witted one-liners (such as giving his phone number as “888-Witchery”)
makes his recordings completely bizarre and fascinating, and I’ve yet to tire of
them.
I should also mention that LPC albums consist of more than just phone calls. He
also sneaks at least one thrash-metal instrumental onto his albums, and
sometimes he even makes songs blending metal riffs with collages of chopped up
samples of his phone calls. “LPC 9 Theme 1″ makes a hook out of the angry guy he
calls at NBS Electronics saying “I’m open right, I’m open right fuckin’ now”,
and “Big Big Banana” loops the titular phrase amongst a copious amount of
curse-heavy threats. The guy is obviously a pro with a recording studio, as well
as with a guitar.
I’ve been a diehard Longmont Potion Castle fan since college. I read the reviews
and interview on Mark Prindle’s site, and downloaded a few albums, but I ended
up buying all of them because This Man Deserves My Money. As you can probably
expect, every time I try to subject my friends to LPC, they either don’t get it
at all or become diehard fans as well. I seriously think that this man has had a
profound effect on the way I perceive human interaction. I’m not saying I
randomly call people up and threaten to whip their ass, or tell them I’m about
to deliver a truck full of insects, but it definitely makes me consider how
ordinary and banal it is interacting with most people on a daily basis, and this
just makes me wish I could do something subversive. My mind is nowhere near as
creative as LPC’s, however, and I’m pretty anti-social most of the time anyways.
But I think what he does functions as a fascinating study on social interaction,
as well as being funny absurdist comedy and experimental sound-art. Plus, it’s
more quotable than Monty Python. I’m getting all sorts of coaxial flutter on my
unit. I deal with Elastico Gomez. OK, let’s try this again; Dougan,
Nassssshhhhhhhhh…
Le Garage Hermetique
Longmont Potion Castle 8
This latest volume of telephone-terror-surrealism somehow captures the
experience of when our lines get crossed with other variational-orbits, but in
this case, from what some of us believe, it's intentional. The labels below best
describe what's to be found within: bandanas, case of wine, DCA-approved, echo
box, Gorilla Snot, Isotoner Gloves, neon dayglo gladiator, orange soda,
overalls, retro style hang-gliders, skeleton meat, Tough Sheds, whip-cracking.
L.A. Record
Longmont Potion Castle 7
I think it’s safe to assume now that any time the voice behind Longmont Potion
Castle says he’s going into retirement, we don’t have to run home crying and
clutching our "Longbox Option Packages". As much as he says he wants to put the
name to end, he must find something irresistible in ridiculous phone calls and
the people that answer them. This time, the respondents are a mixed bag of old
and new victims. George, the angry bar owner from Volume 6, opens up the album
with a call that singlehandedly outdoes all of their previous conversations: LPC
plays Remington, an agent from CitySearch.com, out to reverse the negative
comments George’s bar has received for a mere $1,300. Like Volume 6, LPC
cultivates long-term relationships with his respondents on many of these tracks
— sometimes these tracks are as long as 13 minutes! This album also marks a
couple of firsts: after around three minutes of arguing with “Two Tickets to
Paradise” singer Eddie Money (he also calls Alex Trebek and Weird Al guitarist
Rick Derringer, by the way) over $1,400 worth of gravel, the confused celebrity
hands the phone to his assistant and goes to practice his saxophone, totally
derailing the phone call and causing Longmont Potion Castle to almost lose his
self control — a rare first. Secondly, the Longmont reputation has finally
preceded itself: a respondent working at a record store hears LPC’s delay pedal
antics and instantly recognizes it, one-upping the call by throwing back an LPC
reference. I guess it had to happen sometime? Another sign that Longmont Potion
Castle is asserting his place in the American cultural landscape!
markprindle.com
Longmont Potion Castle 6
"NO! GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE! NO! NO!"
"What? Will you get lost!? Ya got the wrong goddamned phone number, you jerk!"
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!? WILL YOU STOP THIS SHIT?"
"Are you as stupid as you sound!?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Who is this?"
"STOP CALLING OR I'LL CALL THE POLICE!"
"You're a fucking retard, dude. Seriously."
Yes, the yelling on the wall means it's time for another
hour-and-eighteen-minutes of abuse from Longmont Potion Castle.
LPC: "Yeah, what'll you give me on a dog bowel? How much?"
Tool Salesman: "I don't buy shit like that, okay? I buy tools."
LPC: "No, you'll buy it. How much will you give me on it?"
Upset Woman: "I don't care who you are. If you have a problem, then you need to
call the police."
LPC: "I might just do that."
Upset Woman: "Just go right ahead and do it!"
LPC: "Let me have your social security number."
LPC: "I'm gonna give you a citation."
Bartender: "Buddy, you're fuckin' full of shit, you understand that? Why don't
you come over here and try to collect the money?"
LPC: "'Cuz I'll SUCCEED!"
LPC: "I'd like to talk to you a little bit about gangs this evening."
Woman: "Games? What kind of games?"
LPC: "No, gangs, ma'am.
Woman: "Gangs. Okay."
LPC: "Yeah, and I suggest you learn the pronunciation of the word. It's a
serious topic in our society today. Dangerous? Sure. A bit frightening? Perhaps.
I'll get back to that later. Right now I'd like to talk about something that
needs to be addressed - suicide."
Bartender: "I have six cops sitting here on my bar stools. Do you wanna talk to
one of them?"
LPC: "No!"
Dating Service Telemarketer: "I'd like to have one of the membership
representatives call you back to explain -"
LPC: "I tell you what - why don't you just send 'em over, and we'll have a
little pasta and some wine."
Dating Service Telemarketer: "It doesn't work that way."
LPC: "What, you want some pasta?"
Dating Service Telemarketer: "What they do is they call you to explain how it
works. When would be the best time to call you?"
LPC: "How did you get my number? I'm just curious."
Dating Service Telemarketer: "It's a computer."
LPC: "Did Claire give you my number?"
LPC: "We need a contribution this evening."
Guy: "I don't have it!"
LPC: "And we send a Rav 4 out to ya. And we need a contribution at this time
from ya."
Guy: "Are you listening? Stop bothering me! I don't believe in that. I don't
have it."
LPC: "Well, we're a network, sir. The Good Faith."
Guy: "I don't care about that. I don't believe in God, okay?"
LPC: "Well, neither do we!"
LPC: "I can't really make heads or tails of this new watch I picked up."
Saleswoman: "Okay, what don't you understand?"
LPC: "Well, I'm wearing a monocle. Could that have anything to do with it?"
His absurdity reaches new heights. His quick thinking is smarter than a whip.
His ability to confuse and anger is at an all-time mountain peak.
"I've issued a citation to a finger puppet before!"
"I have a magic act -- I issue citations!"
"Bring it on! Right now! Come on! Put up your fists!"
"Wanna do a little butt slappin' tonight? Or -"
"Are you telling me that he didn't get that pinata?"
That's all the quotes I wrote down. But believe me - there's about 77 1/2 more
minutes of them to enjoy! Although he starts a bit slow with some basic confused
anger and an 8-minute call with little payoff, LPC on the third track hits pay
dirt gold in a major way, and continues to hit it time and time again before
ending with track 23's high-speed metal solo interlude. He is an extremely funny
and quick-witted man who has added a few new "weapons" to his "arsenal" this
time out. The first and most important weapon is a bald-headed bar owner. This
man appears on at least five different tracks ("Moisturization," "Citation," "Sandyman,"
"Can O' B.S." and "Yucatan Suckerman") and is one of the most gullible,
quickest-to-anger and slowest-to-hang-up marks that LPC has ever found. His
inability to realize that he is being pranked is astonishing, and the lengthy,
side-splitting "Moisturization" call deserves a place alongside "Mark Knopfler"
and "The Tube Bar" as one of the ultimate classics of the prank call genre. Here
is a quick summary of its events: LPC calls up a bartender and says he and his
band have been referred to that bar for moisturization. The bartender explains
that they only hire Latin bands. LPC is disheartened and tells the bartender
that he'll have to issue the band a $175 refund. The bartender is confused. LPC
explains that the bartender can pay them via PayPal, but he also has to cover
the 7% fee that PayPal takes out. The bartender gets angry and refuses to pay.
LPC makes a kind gesture, offering to cover the PayPal fee himself. The
bartender remains angry and refuses to pay. LPC says the bartender can just cut
him a check. The bartender gets angrier and angrier. LPC remains calm and
continues to request a $175 refund, throwing the word "moisturization" in as
often as possible. The bartender CANNOT FIGURE OUT THAT HE IS BEING PRANKED.
Ditto for "Can O' B.S.," in which he gets into an angry argument with a cassette
tape. Ditto for "Yucatan Suckerman," in which he steadfastly refuses to help
move some piglets for charity. Ditto for "Sandyman," in which he maintains his
composure as LPC continuously shouts "You lookin' to get slapped?" while
attempting to place a take-out order for beer. This man is pure comedy silver.
Other weapons include new concept ideas. Moving on from the old "UPS guy"
stand-by, LPC this time pretends to be such entertaining figures as a
citation-happy policeman, an annoyed neighbor, a long-distance telemarketer, a
charity representative, a member of various unknown rock bands ("I play the
maraca"), and - thanks to a bizarre television segment captured live on tape - a
single mother who needs medical marijuana to control her (hilarious) stutter.
Furthermore, he includes snippets that you would never hear on a Jerky Boys or
Crank Yankers CD, including a montage of disgusting medical LPs, a tense
telephone conversation with an acquaintance, some playful banter with a local
morning show, and even snippets of what most prank callers would consider to be
'failed calls!' Listen closely during "Telechoice" as one woman complains about
her mother-in-law and another expresses regret that she can't call her husband
when he's at work because it's considered long-distance. He called these women
to prank them, but somehow fell into their confidence to the degree that he
simply CAN'T suddenly turn into an asshole mid-call! These bits may not be
funny, but they're intriguing in a 'human interest' way, and their inclusion
between all the successful prank calls at least suggests that LPC does possess a
moral center somewhere.
Not every single call is an instant classic ("Radio Julius" and "Frogleg" seem
particularly uninspired) but there is over an hour of excellent, funny material
here, and I wouldn't hesitate to call this the strongest Longmont Potion Castle
release yet. As the protagonist of "Horsewhip" puts it: "What are you, goofy!?"
Yes, Mr. "Horsewhip" Protagonist. He is goofy. Goofy like a FOX!
iheartattacks.com
Longmont Potion Castle 6
I bet a bunch of motherfuckers have been waiting for this!!!
Fucking fuck you and fucking fuck yes! New Longmont shit! what do you all know about this? Nothing!
Let me start by telling you, this is some of the funniest shit I have ever heard in the way of prank phone call CDs. As a matter of fact, I don't even want to group Longmont Potion Castle's work with any of the many various selections from this particular genre, calling this a prank phone call CD just takes away from how fucking radical this is. So let's agree to use LPC's term "Phone Work" from here on out.
There are so many irreverent styles on this album, from putting multiple retail employees on a party line, and into deep deep confusion, to editing his side of a call out altogether. Prolific is the only word i can attach to this guy, because that's what it is, prolific.
This fucking thing had my friend and I nearing death's door due to laughter mixed with driving (not safe, especially in Glendale, yugh!) We were pretty much lost on the Los Angeles highways for roughly an hour, missing streets left and right, we were trying to show up on time for a taco and alcohol related event, but the piss was being drained out of us, we almost had to pull over. Straight up stitches, bitches!
It follows up LPC5 nicely, and brings closure to the Longmont Potion Castle dynasty. That's right, Number 6, FINAL, done! The last we will hear from our pals at Orange Julius, no more Radio Shack, no more goggles...As I hold back my tears, the only thing left is...GET A COPY HOWEVER YOU CAN!!! AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!! MUY PRONTO!
Trust me, I'm just as sad as you are about this, but you must let it go. And if you haven't already, go find the rest of the LPC CDs, it's not hard, get the Longbox Option Package, you won't be bummed, whatever way you choose. Not at all.
Sorry if I'm getting a little crazy here, but I JUST learned that this was to be the last Longmont LP as I was writing this review, and it is just sinking in that this guy is done. Wow.
Don't sit here and weep with me, hunt down this fucking CD, you fucking babies!
10 out of 10.
lostinthegrooves.com
Longbox Option Package
While the crank phone call as comedy device peaked in worldwide exposure with
The Jerky Boys, and later, Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, it's a safe wager
that an eight disc boxed set was unprecedented treatment until the this year's
release of Longmont Potion Castle's Longbox Option Package. The two former
mainstream examples are fallacious (and legal) examples of an art steeped in
decades of surreptitious execution and released by folks too geographically or
chronologically disparate to be considered a "community". Though the Jerky Boys
began life as a grossly obscure, vinyl-only document, the tracks that ended in
five (!!!) major label CDs (and the source material for one of the worst
comedies to ever be filmed) did so via permission (and one must suspect an
honorarium of some sort) of the victims. And it's been said that the calls on
Crank Yankers are heard through the alleged comedy-neutering gauze of overdubs
and celebrity voiceovers. Rumors abound that a literal call center of pranksters
hammer through pranks until the perfect one is attained before the golden voice
of, say, Sarah Silverman is introduced to the situation. I have no idea, nor do
I care. The end result is rarely all that gut-busting, and diligently serves the
funny bones of chatty ho-hums that one might run into at a relative's wedding.
Longmont Potion Castle brings up the rear, giving the world of underground crank
calls the ultimate, flawed epic, complete with filler, excessiveness, and
hilarity. In various formats, this wisely anonymous cranker has released aural
hi-jinks since the late-80s. If the man were a character actor, he'd be the
genre's Michael Madsen. It must be noted that "genre" is the only appropriate
term to describe the (mostly) one-off larks that span decades, surfacing on
cassette, vinyl, and CD, consistently buried under the radar for the entire
ride. Along with Gregg Turkington, the pseudonymous Mark Knopfler, the Comfort
calls, Al Cashew, Calls to Okies, and the late John Bean, the Longmont Potion
Castle name is relative legend amongst whoever might comprise the underground
prank call fanbase.
Now in his mid-thirties, LPC, as we'll call him, has always been based in
Denver. The first few years of calls (honored by discs 1, 2, and 5) are short,
juvenile, and below-the-belt funny (if funny at all). Devoid of concept, unless
thematic repetition can be considered conceptual, LPC never established a clever
rapport with the victim, throwing silly anti-punch lines and phrases just to
elicit response. Take the numerous calls to meat packers, in which the requests
for processed wasp meat or eel bowels result in more aborted connections than
interesting exchanges. Also omnipresent on the early discs are audio collages
(of caller reactions) and calls that LPC is edited out of, creating disorienting
and sometimes riotous recordings of only the caller's reactions. Though played
down in interviews, LPC is, or at least, was, a man obsessed. Victims often say,
"you're the guy that's been bothering me for two weeks", or, in some cases,
"this is the one that's been calling all day".
Through this long audio commitment, you witness a prankster growing up. Like any
inherently funny person, the wit and weaponry are sharpened as the 20's and 30's
are traversed. This is how discs 3, 4, and 6 shine. LPC nurtures an insatiable
hard-on for certain establishments: UPS, Orange Julius, record stores, and Radio
Shack. A reliable hat trick finds our man posing as a UPS representative, trying
to deliver goods that were not ordered, usually thousands of insects. The calls
are longer, and though LPC often remains a guy that impulsively picks up the
phone and riffs without notes or solid ideas, he is a much funnier guy; a
funnier guy with an advantageous day job at his disposal: running a recording
studio. Calls are punctuated, or rather, annihilated, with sound effects and
vocal pitch shifting. LPC will call into a radio talk show, play it straight for
a minute, and then slow his voice down to a subterranean growl, causing the host
to lose composure ("This is going out over the air!"). Writing about prank calls
will have its obligatory trappings, most glaring of which is that the jokes are
lost in translation. Please believe that the sucker-punch of these simple calls
had me laughing like a maniac, and they had the same effect on the nine-year-old
daughter of a friend. I naturally recommend screening any Longmont Potion Castle
before a child hears it, but the good clean calls are a testament to the
wide-ranging power of simple, perfect comedy. Find it juvenile? It is, and
that's your problem.
Please know that earlier calls were previously self-released on cassette and CD
(as was this boxed set, under the D.U. Records imprint), while much of the
material on discs 3, 4, and 6 was originally released by legitimate indie
labels. Southern California's Vinyl Communications issued two "Best Of" CDs, and
to keep things quasi-legal, the discs included a disclaimer that the recordings
were found in the trash. Last year, Baltimore's Reptilian Records released
Longmont Potion Castle Volume 5 (this is disc 6 of the set). Logistical
information aside, this sort of progression points out, at the very least, that
the man has fans, and on some scale, distribution. Vinyl Communications
accessorized their titles with a VHS collection of calls to public access talk
shows, and video of calls to record stores made with a camera hidden in a duffle
bag. When audio is cued up to a store clerk dealing with LPC, the sum is golden.
Not to worry, this footage is compiled on disc 8, the "Bonus features" DVD.
A poignant curiosity in LPC's "career" is the arc of technology and its impact
on the prank call. The older calls have victims leveling laughable threats like
"I'm going to have this call traced!" or the promise of a call to the police
(you can be sure that this happened). Up until the mid-to-late 80's, phone
harassment had to reach a dangerous or extreme degree for law enforcement or the
phone company to get involved. It may seem that LPC accomplished the extreme
part, but not quite, and he never came off as dangerous or creepy. In the years
since, the game has obviously changed drastically with the advent of caller ID
and the eventual extinction of the landline. Is LPC's drop in activity or his
rumored retirement the result of advances in gadgetry? Probably not. In an
online interview conducted a couple of years back, LPC admits, "prank calling
does not get any easier as you get older". This is a guy that developed
relationships with a couple of victims; one man even asks how the CD is coming
along, and another puts forth the offer of allowing LPC to kick his ass if he
promises to never call again. Bless his devious heart, and heart is what
differentiates LPC from many of his crueler colleagues. Longbox Option Package,
in its proverbial girth, does hint at finality in regards to the prank call.
There is something else, however, something ill-defined that nonetheless tells
me that the game is far from over.
LA Weekly
Longmont Potion Castle 5
Speaking of prank calls, the Shakespeare of the medium has released what is
purported to be the final volume documenting his surrealist interventions into
the mundane realities of Radio Shack and Orange Julius customer-service
representatives. I’m not a fan of generic smart-ass practical joking, but to say
LPC does prank calls is like saying Williams Street makes cartoons for the TV.
In addition to their transcendental absurdity, the five volumes of LPC
constitute an interactive liberatory critique of consumer culture deserving of
recognition by the Nobel Committee. At least as much as Dr. Kissinger.
Markprindle.com
Longmont Potion Castle 5
If you have a phone, don't pick it up. Because Longmont Potion Castle's back on
the trail, and this time he's coming for YOU!
Yes, that's so. After some-odd years in hibernation, Longmont Potion Castle has
bought a new AT&T calling card (so you can't trace the actual number he's
calling from - ZING!) and is using it to torment and terrorize the humorless,
braindead citizens of his Colorado city or wherever he lives. They say that with
age comes experience and finally wisdom, but such is definitely not the case for
these idiot adults who, though very grown up and probably possessing jobs and
families of their own, are still incapable of realizing that a guy who
vehemently demands postage due on a delivery of Chinese bowling balls might not
actually be employed by UPS. Furthermore, I suppose it's good to be aware of
your rights under the Constitution, but not to the point where you take
seriously repeated calls from a man offering to pay you $450 if you'll tell him
who you plan to vote for.
A good 17 of these calls will have your stitches rolling down the aisle all the
way to the bank due almost entirely to the naivete of LPC's fellow residents.
Here are a few classic responses to listen for:
" United Parcel? Yeah? Fuck you! Drop dead!"
" I've already dealt with this squid shit before with you people!"
" You got the wrong number. It's midnight. QUIT CALLING ME. QUIT CALLING ME.
QUIT CALLING ME. QUIT CALLING ME."
" Dude, shut the fuck up! You're a fucking idiot!"
" I don't care if it's a tank full of PUSSY!"
" I'm not sure that we're talking the same language."
As for LPC and his LPC ways, he's still (obviously) having great success with
his false UPS deliveries, although respondents seem less disturbed by his
physical threats this time around; maybe they just find it as amusing as I do
that his normal-man's voice suddenly adopts a thick Southern accent whenever he
says halfway through a call, "I'm o' WHIP yo ayyysss!" He's also still making
calls with his voice through an effects processor, using names like "Spencer
Zebra," "Fennel Cartwright" and "Frickey Weaver," and making up such sickening
food products as "Aqualamb," "Chowder Julius" and "Wovenloaf." Why fix something
if it isn't broken? Like a hymen, for example. Why fix that? Leave it alone! Let
her get married or ride a horse. Put your hammer away, overprotective Dad!
So where are the innovations? Oh, they're around here and there, disguised as
normal LPC fare. Take note of how many times he calls people over and over and
over long after they've threatened to call the police. Check out how he calls a
hair salon and requests a full-body weave. Check out how he claims that he's
"been in the water for 44 years, and on the sea for half of those years!" Check
out how (in the track "Fennel Cartwright") he interrupts EVERY SINGLE WORD the
guy says. Check out how he tells a pill salesman that his date of birth is
"2/8/92/42/84/22" and his middle initial is "VBX." Check out how he portrays
MULTIPLE UPS employees for the sole purpose of driving ignorant people to
distraction ("I'm a supervisor down here at United Parcel. I know you've talked
to two of my employees tonight; what seems to be the problem? We've got a flag
on your account that shows you're a problem customer. Something to do with a
squid?").
One thing though - you have to learn to like to laugh. If you don't love lots of
laughs, then Longmont Lotion Lastle is the "last le" you'll want to listen to.
Why? Well, I'll tell you why. Because then what happens if his funniness makes
you laugh? You'll be up Fucked Creek without a paddle!
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this album a TEN!!! Then I take away three.
insound.com
Late-Eighties-Vein
The 5th in Longmont Potion Castle's series of crazed prank call releases. If you
haven't heard them, they are some of the most absurd and funny phone pranks ever
done. Some say the LPC calls are scary but they funnier than all that - the call
victims just won't hang up on this guy no matter what he says to them! Prank
calls to random people and businesses about squids, peacocks and whatever else
that comes to mind, are met with a wide range of curse words and absurd
responses. VERY FUNNY!
Williamette Week Online
Longmont Potion Castle 4
If you prefer a little more acidic weirdness, Vol. 4 by prank phone caller
Longmont Potion Castle takes the played-out crank-call genre to an entirely new
level. Unsuspecting victims at Radio Shack, record stores and fast-food joints
feebly attempt to maintain a sense of social responsibility and normalcy while a
caller speaking through a digital delay poses ridiculous questions, his voice
flitting between a demonic growl and elfin chirp. Truly the vanguard of comedic
terrorism.
Markprindle.com
Longmont Potion Castle 4
A record company said “Hey Guy Whose Name I’m Not Gonna Say In These Reviews
Even Though I Know It, I like your tapes and want to put out two ‘Greatest Hits’
CDs with material from them.” He said, “Yes.” And they did, and might be good.
But I don’t have them proper. So this is the only CD I have by LPC, it’s not as
consistent as the tapes (nor is it anywhere near as “avant-garde”), but it was
good enough to make me BUY the tapes, so take THAT to the Banks, Ernie and Cash
it, Johnny! Volume 4, featuring a CD cover “take-off” parody of Black Sabbath’s
similarly titled fourth LP (starring Ozzy Osbourne of The Osbournes), features a
bunch of new calls mixed in with old calls and even some calls that were on the
TAPES, though I’m hoping that’s because they weren’t on the Greatest Hits CDs,
but having unheard the latter, I shant comment. His newer calls feature pristine
recording conditions, a lower man-voice and some uproarious echo,
speed-maneuvering and looping effects that totally wack the respondents’ shit
ALL the fuck up, bitch! But a lot of the older calls are just pointless. Like
less interesting exact replicas of earlier calls. LUCKILY THERE ARE 68 TRACKS TO
CHOOSE FROM! Hear a famous celebrity utter those famous words, “NOBODY IN THIS
HOUSE ORDERED ANY MILLIPEDES!” AND “FUCK YOU!” Hear an angry yet calm man take
the phone from his female employee for this moving yet calm exchange:
”Who is this?”
”My name’s Bert!”
Well… Fuck you, Bert!”
Hear Mr. Castle bust into a horse-smackingly bad hip-hop song to a record store
employee, claim it’s by a “Duggan Nash,” then upon being told that they don’t
have anything by that artist, immediately ask, “How about Orville Sash?” Hear
his false UPS character respond to the valid question, “WHAT’S MY NAME?” with
the equally invalid response, “I can’t divulge that information over the phone;
it’s UPS policy.” Hear his tough guy character utter the skin-clenching threat,
“My needs will be met or my fists will be met – by your JAW!” Hear the first
person to ever call a strip club and ask, “You got any of those baked potatoes?”
Hear him respond to a life insurance telemarketer with the nervous response, “Am
I in danger? Is that what you’re telling me?” Hear him respond to a bored Y2K
survey questioner by explaining that he’s not worried because he has created a
200-cubic yard microwave that he’s going to enter on New Year’s Eve and
transport himself forward ten years.” And the caller DOESN’T EVEN NOTICE. She
immediately – without pause or humor – restates her question, “So would that be
‘probably will,’ ‘maybe will,’ ‘maybe will not,’ or ‘probably will not’?” To be
honest, I don’t even think she notices when his true answer turns out to be
“Probably will maybe could not!” Let me point out that I’m well aware that these
reviews are for the most part not reviews at all but just quotes – because
THAT’S what’s going to sell you on this guy’s work if you’re going to be sold.
Nothing I can possibly write here is going to have an effect anywhere NEAR that
of just telling you that at one point he calls a Radio Shack to announce, “I’m
warbling a lot. I need some kind of adaptor.” WHY ON EARTH WOULD SOMEBODY DO
THAT!?!??!? You might find this CD in your cooler record stores. Don’t worry
that it only gets a 7 out of 10 – the thing’s like 74 minutes long and a good 50
of those are so funny you’ll squirt milk out of your nose.
Indieville.com
Longmont Potion Castle 4
I love prank calls, and Longmont Potion Castle knows how to do them well.
Apparently, Longmont has quite a cult following behind him, and I can see why.
Over the course of this album, Longmont comes up with a whole variety of ways to
harass people over the phone. The following are only a few of them.
He calls up a random household under the guise of being a UPS worker and insists
that the person has ordered a bunch of live lambs from Lebanon. After the guy
denies responsibility, he tells him that if he won't accept the charge, he must
at lest pay the ninety-eight dollar freight charge.
He calls up a strip bar claiming he has a series of "exotic" photos of himself.
Upon being told that the strip bar is only interested in female dancers, he
claims that the bar manager is "proposing a completely Darwinian society." After
then claiming that he doesn't really even know what a Darwinian society is, he
goes on to use a number of other long words in the wrong context.
He attempts to order a haircut from a record store.
He gets a call from a survey-ist asking about his concernedness for the Y2K bug.
He goes on to explain his (rather elaborate) plans for the new year.
He calls numerous places, and, using a sampler (or something similar), contorts
his voice to undescribable lengths, all to the confusion of the person on the
other end of the line.
And that's a just a small sample. Longmont's prank call ideas are diverse and
numerous. He must be one of the most creative prank callers in prank call
history. He must be a...a genius. If you haven't laughed yourself silly by the
end of this CD, then there's probably something wrong with you. Screw the Jerky
Boys, this is the real shit.
Splendid
Longmont Potion Castle 4
This terrifying collection of prank calls will probably convince you that it's
indeed time to spend the extra cash on Caller ID. Countless chumps fall prey to
Longmont's confusing tirades, ludicrous claims and general telephonic
tomfoolery. It'll leave you laughing - at someone else's expense.
The mysterious Longmont Potion Castle prankster takes a two-pronged approach
when harassing his unsuspecting prey: he either begins with a ridiculous
assumption and then provokes the victim, or carelessly employs a series of
disturbing sound effects, mangling his voice or spewing forth ear-splitting
feedback that causes general tonal havoc and ultimately befuddles the person on
the other end of the copper wire.
"Livelambfromlebanon#1" and "#2" find hysterical and unsuspecting denizens
pitted against Longmont, as he imitates a United Parcel Service employee trying
to figure out how to deliver a package of lambs. It's embarrassingly hilarious;
Longmont presses each victim on how he will pay for additional postage charges
and what the best time would be for package delivery, somehow keeping the prank
convincing at all times. It gets even worse when Longmont, in UPS guise, demands
that be allowed to promptly deliver a large shipment of millipedes that are
biting other UPS employees. Unfortunately, the confused gentleman believes that
his wife may indeed have ordered millipedes and attempts to sort out this
bug-ridden mess.
Longmont also launches attacks against irritating business personalities,
including the local record shop "know-it-all" clerk and the disgruntled fast
food employee. "Extralargesausages" finds Longmont asking for big 'n' thick
sausages, and then a "Leprechaun Julius" (you know, the "green kind"). He's
greeted with a tirade of expletives from the female food clerk, leaving him
empty-handed, her fuming with anger, and the listener near-apopleptic with
laughter. Longmont asks one local record store how much they charge for
haircuts, because "they're in (his) neighborhood," producing several threatening
responses, and also quizzes hip indie store Wax Trax about Chic-Fil-A. Other
amusing conversations involve a Christian singles dating business, the annoying
sports radio commentators, an accidental death insurance salesman and a female
strip club manager.
Is he drunk? Is he stoned? Or is he just so brilliant that he outsmarts the
majority of the human race? Whatever his secret, Longmont has successfully
whipped through several volumes of pranks, and Vol. 4 gives you plenty more
entertainment. If you ever enjoyed making your own prank calls, you'll find
Longmont's harassing dial-ups exceptionally original and full of some mighty
choice verbiage. There are a few pranks that don't succeed, but with the large
selection presented, there's enough telephonic mayhem here to last a long time.
Slamm
Longmont Potion Castle 4
The avant-garde prank caller known as Longmont Potion Castle has released a new
CD entitled Volume 4. The CD is a joint release between San Diego labels Post
Replica and ADR Recordings. Known for his bizarre, yet hilarious prank calls to
unsuspecting Radio Shack clerks and others, LPC also has releases on Chula
Vista's avant-electronica-punk label, Vinyl Communications. Over the years he
has achieved an almost cult following in San Diego, despite the fact that he
lives in Colorado. "I never lived in San Diego," he says. "When I have been
there in recent years, I've been surprised how excited and vocal people were
about all of the Longmont nonsense." Longmont has been recording his prank calls
for over 10 years. Much of his genius comes from the absurd characters he
creates, like the pugnacious "Dirk Funk," one of his "no-nonsense" personas. On
other calls he utilizes a voice modulator to further aggravate his victims, some
of whom include famous celebrities. With that under his belt, what does the
future hold for the mysterious prankster? "I'm probably going to be around,
drinking a beer with someone, when they'll make me hop on the phone and ask
someone to talk about something stupid, and laugh," he says. " I can pretty much
say, yes, I will record it, too."
Aiding & Abetting
Longmont Potion Castle 4
The Jerky Boys with a sense of irony. Crank calls to businesses, customer
service and tech support types. Drop dead hilarious without being unnecessarily
cruel. Trust me, that's good.
wilrecords.com
Longmont Potion Castle 4
(UK) This is only a little music and mainly a series of 68 absurd and surreal
telephone calls recorded on a CD. This is the fabulous works of a crazy American
guy (pleonasm?) absolutely mad with this kind of communication. Maybe he's a
predator and when you pick up the phone it is too late coze you become the
victim and never hang up on him...Please check the website to download the most
famous attacks.
Aquarius Records
Longmont Potion Castle 4
I'll be honest. No one here likes this as much as me (Andee). BUT FOR GOD'S
SAKE, TRUST ME THIS TIME! I WILL NOT LEAD YOU ASTRAY! Most fans of crank call
comedy should already have the first few volumes if the brilliant(-ly insipid)
Longmont Potion Castle. How can you not love a guy who gets off on torturing the
clerks at radio shack and is obsessed with Tandy products?! A guy who spits out
the most retarded and baffling products/names/etc.: Googliata, voltor,
leprechanjulius!! And on a previous CD, he continually harassed a foul mouthed
cantankerous old man, but by the end of the disc, they were buddies, with the
old man asking how the tape was going and LPC promising to send him a copy.
FUCKING HEARTWARMING! How often do you get that on a crank call record?!!?
Stupid and silly and once in a while totally inspired. This was constantly in
the stereo on all of our road trips and so much Longmont verbiage became
vernacular for me and all of my San Diego friends. So buy this, or I'll start
talkin' whip, and may even bring a tennis racket to yo' lip!!!
Westword
Longmont Potion Castle 4
Longmont Potion Castle has simultaneously annoyed and amused the population of
Colorado over the years with this series of recorded phone conversations. This
latest batch of pranks (including several bizarre three-ways) targets everything
from funeral homes and the Waffle House to Denver's own Twist & Shout records.
Dada theater reigns supreme when mallards invade Welby road, when the Lamb
Center of Lebanon misdirects a package of fleecy ungulates and when Bruschetti
and Fruschetta make way for pumpkin brew. On Volume 4, even a major movie star
gets an unexpected jingle through an unlikely homage titled "To Sir With
Millipedes".
Suburban Voice
Best of Longmont Potion Castle Volume Two
A CD of phone pranks done by a guy from Colorado with way too much time on his
hands! I know whodunnit, too, but I won't reveal his identity - and the check's in
the mail, right M-? Cruel, nasty, immature and it's amazing that the victims
stay on the line as long as they do. One of the funniest moments comes when Mr.
X calls a parochial school trying to enroll his son and wants to know if lotion
sandwiches are sold or a record store looking for Eel Bowel's "Greatest Hits". A
work that kind of defies critical commentary but it's pretty funny.
digitalskillet.com
Best of Longmont Potion Castle Volume Two
Prank calls used to be funny. In some ways they still are. But calling up
unsuspecting businesses and homeowners to berate them has gotten more than a bit
cliched. Longmont Potion Castle does what so many others have failed to do: he
breathes new life into a tired art form. That's not to say he's perfect. There's
still something utterly obnoxious here. And he treads familiar waters at times.
What sets Longmont Potion Castle apart, though, is his creativity, sheer
silliness, utter disregard for logic, and an ultra-quick reaction time. Longmont
Potion Castle abandons convention by editing out portions of the conversation,
adding sound effects in the midst of utterly serious dialogue, and by asking
businesses repeatedly for items that clearly do not exist (bottled squid potion
anyone?). Sounds a bit childish, but it will make you giggle like a schoolgirl.
Spin
The Best of Longmont Potion Castle
Chula Vista, California's Vinyl Communications purview has expanded to noise
recordings, from Merzbow's abstract waves of force to prank phone calls.
Notably, the Longmont Potion Castle series.
Markprindle.com
Longmont Potion Castle III
Hi! I’m John Ashcroft and I just wanted to let you know about the hilarious new
Longmont Potion Castle cassette entitled III! Boy, the first time I heard this
tape, all the foul language upset me so much I spent $8,000 to cover the tape
player with a big sheet. But the more I listen to it, the more I think I like
it! First of all, the calls are longer than on the previous three, which gives
me a lot more time to put a tap on his phone and find out exactly where he’s
calling from. Secondly, there are fewer music interruptions than on the last
tape, giving children less of an opportunity to be lured over to the Devil’s
side. Thirdly, Mr. Castle doesn’t waste your time and mine running his recorded
calls through looping machines and echo units, instead presenting them in a
safe, normal way that shows respect to all human beings. Because we have no king
but Jesus. I thank God for this tape and for you readers, who recognize and
commit yourselves to the proposition that we were so created, and that to live
with respect to the Creator promises us the greatest potential as a nation and
as individuals. And for such we must reacquaint ourselves daily with his call
upon our lives. Just as you’ll love to reacquaint yourselves daily with Longmont
Potion Castle’s hilarious calls upon unsuspecting Coloradoans’ lives. The tape’s
really good. Longmont keeps changing nonsense terms into names of people he’s
asking for and then back into nonsense terms (example: “I asked you about the
zingers.”/”The zingers?”/”Yeah, I need to talk to Hershel Klinger.”). He also
has an incredibly funny delivery – very droll and dry, no matter what ridiculous
thing he is saying. The last quarter of the tape runs out of steam, but up until
that, it’s just humorous prank followed by more of the same. Say! People who are
into the “Church of the Subgenius” are dorks who think they’re not dorks!
Luckily, I can point at them at laugh because I’m “cool” like the Fonzie.
Ayyyyyyyyyyy!!! How about this call where he calls the Gomez residence, the
woman who answers says, “They moved away a year and a half ago; I still get
calls for them all the time,” and then he BRILLIANTLY with no fuss or flutter
whatsoever responds, “No no, I AM Gomez. I’m calling to check on my messages.”
HA!!! Then he goes on to offer the woman jewelry and diamonds if she will come
to work for his “business”!!!! People – he’s FUNNY!!!! And he’s got this phone
trick box that makes his voice speed up and slow down as he’s talking, confusing
the hell out of all the radio shows he calls – HA! And his annoying UPS guy has
taken to responding to challenges like “I didn’t order any centipedes!” with
retorts like “Well how about if we THROW the centipedes at you?” How about THIS
genius exchange:
Hello?
Yes, do you sell Wedge of Mackerel?
This is a pharmacy!
Oh. Then how about Hunk of Tortoise?
He’s not dumb, fellows! He’s a goose! How about when he calls Dunkin Donuts to
ask if he can “maneuver their donuts” and “place them strategically throughout
the store”? Who would think to conduct such a bizarre, insane phone
conversation? I’LL tell you who!!! This guy whose name I’m not supposed to tell
you. His ideas are just so WEIRD! “Would you embroider my foot?” “Could you
harbor my stick insect?” And what about when he tries to BARTER for a copy of
Wizard of Wor for Atari 2600? And what does he have to offer in this barter?
Well, putty. Wrought iron. Teak. A ’67 Mercury Cougar that’s missing all the
doors, windows, wheels and tires. A zebra. Hummels. Pottery. Bronze statues.
Souvenir spoons. But darn it – NO SALE! Why aren’t you buying these tapes yet?
90 minutes each! $8 apiece.
Milk
Longmont Potion Castle III
"When would you like me to bring your spleen to you? You realize then that we
are authorized to hurl the centipedes at you...You are going to be diving
through ointment...I am Gomez, what do you want? Do you want wealth? Do you want
jewels? I'm a very extravagant man...Yo man, w'sup? You got that Nugent tape on
disc? I said to my son a long time ago, I said, you must learn from the ways of
Towelette Pettitucci...Ma'am, Could you unlock the gate? I need to get my turtle
back...I need you to make me some condor sausage. How about some porpoise jerky?
I believe it was my Gary Coleman nimrod...Backing up, I believe I said I'm
getting some perpendicular cross-talk on the unit...What's the wow ratio on
that? I don't want to buy it, I want to trade something for it. I have
putty"....Your mind gets a little funny after listening to nothing but the same
totally mental 90 minute crank call tape for weeks at a time and laughing till
you pee.
Markprindle.com
Longmont Potion Castle II
The time is 3:06 PM eastern. I’ve been awake since 5:00 AM eastern vomiting and
trying to make my headache go away. I didn’t need three and a half Red Devils
last night. I didn’t need ONE. I just drank because the wife was in the mood for
drinking. Now it’s ruined my entire Sunday. I’m exhausted, in great pain and
thus unable to sleep and I can’t get the first two lines of “Double Shot Of My
Baby’s Love” out of my head. I feel like somebody shoved a long metal pole all
the way through the right side of my head, starting in the baaack and coming out
of my right eye in the front. And I’ve been walking around with this pole all
day, not realizing it’s there. Drink sucks. No more. SUCKS! Nausea! Does it
worry you? No reason to. Can't open eyes. Pain, exhaustion -- PRANK PHONE CALLS!
On this, the second tape, Longy pisses the hell out of people's off, generally
by claiming he's a UPS delivery guy trying to deliver a bowel. Strangely, nobody
wants a bowel, nor do they want to pay the delivery fee that Longy claims they
owe him. Why on Earth do these morons not just hang up on him? Why do they
become violently defensive whenever he makes some ridiculous threat about
bringing his whip to somebody’s lip? It’s just ludicrous! Is everyone in
Colorado just a big stupid asshole? How is it possible that THIS many people
don’t realize that they’re being pranked when a UPS guy says he has “the Siamese
peacock bowel you ordered”? Or the “lesbian magnet”? Or the “hernia package”?
And why aren’t the local butchers laughing their asses off when he calls up to
ask if they can “process some wasps” or “grind Emilio” for him? Sure, he’s got a
convincingly emotionless delivery, but come on – what kind of jackoff STAYS ON
THE PHONE when a caller, in the course of one minute, requests “Eel Jerky,”
“Wasp Jerky,” “Eel Bowel” and “Antelope Wad”? But again – that’s not even why
you’re here. The real reason is to hear how astonishingly ANGRY these people
get! I mean, you can almost see the veins on their foreheads throbbing, pounding
and bursting open as they unleash such classic verbal attacks as:
”UPS? KISS MY UPS ASS!”
”I ordered a bowel?!? YOU GO TO HELL!”
”SICK BASTARD!”
”ARE YOU STUPID OR WHAT?”
”I’LL TWIST YOUR HEAD OFF!”
”Hog jowel?!? YOU’RE FULL OF SHIT!”
”PISS ON YOU, YOU SHITASS!”
”YOU’RE JUST SOME SICK OLD MAN!”
”I didn’t order no dog bowel! I’m gonna sue you! UP YOUR FUCKIN ASS I WILL!!!!!
“Andre the Giant bowel?”
”YOU’RE PROBABLY A FAG!”
”I’D LIKE TO POUND YOUR FUCKIN’ ASS IN!”
”YOU’RE A SON OF A BITCH!”
”I’M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS IN THE BUTT!”
And of course, the threat so dumb, Longy calls the guy back at the end of the
tape and keeps repeating it to him over and over, “How would you like a 12-gauge
in your HEAD?!” After reading all these threats I’ve just dictated from you (by
the way, no two of those threats are from the same call - THAT’S how angry this
guy gets people), it occurs to me that Colorado isn’t just the home of Longmont
Potion Castle; it’s also the home of South Park and Columbine High. I should
warn thou though: I don’t think he had 90 minutes of calls, but he really wanted
to fill up a 90-minute tape. He plays some fantastic thrash and indie rock, but
he also samples lots of TV shows and movies in what seems to be just an attempt
to fill space on side B. Sorry to end abruptly – there’s a little man named
Urine in my penis and he wants to go swimming.
Westword
Longmont Potion Castle II
Denver label D.U. Records' biggest-selling, most notorious offerings are not the
work of a band, but of what they say, not very convincingly, is "a team of
people in a castle in Longmont, CO. There were a hundred phones in a hundred
rooms, and they used them to trouble the Denver community." The results of these
efforts can be heard on two volumes released under the name Longmont Potion
Castle. Rather than music, the ninety-minute cassettes feature phone
conversations between anonymous team members and unsuspecting victims who are
bothered with insignificant questions or annoying interruptions until they
explode. A profane variation on gag calls made by morning DJs, as well as a
phenomenon that's popped up in a number of cities across the country, the
recordings are both fascinating and repellent. They're also probably illegal,
since the calls to the unsuspecting co-stars of the Longmont Potion Castle tapes
frequently cross the line between pranksterism and harassment. D.U. Records say
they see the art in the recordings-but they also see the writing on the wall.
This second cassette, they say, was "hurried out before the arrival of Caller
I.D. that everyone has now. There can't be any more of them again..."
Markprindle.com
Longmont Potion Castle
Once upon a midnight dreary, a young man pondered weak and weary, and noticed
that his mother’s answering machine recorded calls on his chamber door. So he
started pranking people, even though a real loud beep’ll let them all know what
he’s calling for, and when will he stop bugging them? – quoth Lou Reed’s The
Raven, “Nevermore.”
At the beginning of his prank call career, Mr. Castle was trying to create art.
“Phone work” he calls it at one point. FUNNY art, but art nonetheless, rather
than just a straight prank call tape. Instead what you hear is a bunch of poorly
recorded (due for a hot digital remastering!) people getting angry on the phone.
Most of the time, Castle’s voice has been completely removed – except for rare
occasions when you hear him, in a dumb tough southerner accent, threaten to make
people “meet my fist!” (typical response: “You want me to meet your fish?”), at
times replaced with “meet my whip!” “meet my pipe!” “meet my clamp!” or “meet my
foot!” He doesn’t come across as a very CLEVER prank caller yet, but he sure
does know how to “get a rise” out of people – a hell of a lot better than I know
how to “get a raise” out of my boss anyway! Heh heh hell! But as this is
supposedly a “various artists compilation,” it’s not all just “phonework.”
Interspersed with the screams of “I DIDN’T ORDER ANYTHING! YOU BASTARD!,” you’ll
find a lot of echoed samples, pointless lo-fi drumbeats, quivery sped up and
slowed down keyboard songs and funny samples from movies and other things on a
screen. Indeed, you’ll even hear Castle and the Castle Associates, LLC calling
radio talk shows to sing awful folks songs and rap numbers. But this is all just
window dressing (though some of it is great fun). The true purpose for this
tape’s existence is to (a) remind us of a simpler time when old people believed
anything you told them (come on, what kind of packaging store moron would take
seriously a caller who says, “I need you to package a crawdad”?), (b) make it
clear exactly how annoying it can be when a prank caller keeps dialing you over
and over and over again, and (c) demonstrate how fuckin’ funny people can be
when they lose their temper. BUY IT! Go to his web site and BUY it! Ninety
minutes! 8 dollars!
Factsheet Five
Longmont Potion Castle
"Assorted nameless folks contribute varied noise/interest/fun pieces for quite a
conceptual tape." Basically what Mike, the compiler, means is that the tape
combines amusing phone call terrorism mixed with broken up beat synth, noisey
guitar, various odd samplings from unknown sources, and a healthy dose of
feedback. I haven't laughed so hard since my first viewing of "Debbie Does
Dallas."