Regional at Best
Regional at Best — is the second studio album by music duo Twenty One Pilots. It was self-released on July 8th, 2011. Regional at Best is a discontinued album. This is the last album recorded and released independently by the band prior to signing with Fueled by Ramen. and it is the first album to feature the talents of Josh Dun who joined the band in May 2011 after the departure of bassist Nick Thomas and drummer Chris Salih.
| Regional at Best | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 8, 2011 | |||
| Recorded | 2009 — June 2011 | |||
| Studio | Tyler Joseph's home studio | |||
| Genre |
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| Length | 63:09 | |||
| Label | Self-released | |||
| Producer | Tyler Joseph, Josh Dun | |||
| Discogs |  | |||
| Twenty One Pilots chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Twenty One Pilots | ||||
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History
2008 - 2009
The story of the songs on this album begins a little before the band's emergence. Lyrics for some of the songs were reused from older Tyler Joseph songs recorded in 2007 - 2008 during high school. The first verse of the song Blasphemy was used for the outro of the song Anathema. Part of the lyrics from Just Like Yesterday were used with modifications for the song, Ode To Sleep.[1][2]
A lot of demo tracks were recorded by Tyler Joseph and the band in the period 2008 - 2009. Joseph made a large number of tunes and tracks, but for various reasons some of them were postponed or forgotten.[3]
The first song from Regional at Best was Trees, written by Tyler in 2008 and recorded in the basement of his house with Nick Thomas before he met Chris Salih.[4] The song was never officially released and lay in Tyler's files until 2009 when the band remembered it. They thought it was a perfect fit for the band's repertoire and it was posted for download on the band's MySpace page on December 31, 2009.
Be Concerned is also one of the first songs on Regional at Best. On July 23, 2018, a Google Drive[5] was created with a leaked tracklist of Tyler Joseph songs from 2007 - 2009, one of them being Be Concerned. It was assumed to be a mistake, but some Regional at Best songs that weren't written in 2008-2009 don't appear on this disc. Since the songs fit with rapper Jocef, with whom Tyler recorded 2 songs together in 2009 such as Dollhouse and Live, which indirectly confirms the song's old age.
2010
In 2010, Joseph again starts to work a lot on new music at home or with the band in their studio. Thus, in March - April 2010, Slowtown and Car Radio were recorded. It's suspected that the video from Live Highlights is a recording studio for, but not limited to, these songs. Eventually the band decided that recording live instruments is overly complicated and they will do all new material on a MacBook. From this point on, almost all new music was written only by Joseph himself.
By the end of 2010, from August - September Joseph was imagining and recording a song that he had dreamed of. It became one of the strangest and most unusual song in terms of structure. The song was nameless for a while, and according to Tyler's commentary in Vessel (Commentary Version), with the help of fans, the name of the song was found - Ode To Sleep.
| «The first track is called "Ode to Sleep" and I remember back when I was first trying to name the song, we actually played it live first before it was named, and this is back when we had kind of a small following in our hometown and it was small enough that everyone got to write on a piece of paper and put into a bucket it which name they wanted the song to be named. One was "Ode to Sleep", I forget—I honestly forget the other names of the songs, but it was cool because a hometown audience got to name the song. I like putting this song first on the album, because it kinda puts the listener through kind of a song structure boot camp, if you will, when it comes to them being able to anticipate what the rest of the album is. So "Ode to Sleep" is definitely one that we like to intro with, we open up a lot of our sets with this song and I’m really proud of how weird it is.» | ||
2011
From the beginning of 2011 Tyler started to work a lot more on the new record, recording many songs throughout this time. From late 2010 - April 2011, several songs were recorded: Ruby, Holding On To You and Glowing Eyes. On April 1st, 2011 the band sends out a newsletter to subscribed fans, where they reveal the title of the new album and mention these songs.
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Newsletter
By this time Nick and Chris had almost completely withdrawn from writing music. Thomas and Salih were losing motivation to continue in the music and only Joseph was working on the new album.
According to a fan who attended, on May 7, 2011 after a show Tyler Joseph was approached by fans. They had conversations about depression and suicide, and they shared their stories of how they got through it. This made a big impact on Joseph as he realized that he needed to help others with depression, which inspired him to write the song Guns For Hands. About these conversations with fans, Tyler mentions it in his comments on Vessel:[6]
| «There was one show in particular that this song was inspired by. I was playing a show in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it’s just this kind of a barn full of kids, and after this show, more than usual, there was kind of an unusual number of kids came up to me and felt inclined to share with me what it is they were going through. You know, a lot of their struggles, a lot of their, you know, whether that be depression or suicidal thoughts, a lot of stuff along that vein. And I just thought, I was like wow, I mean I’m — am I just in a hotbed of kids going through stuff, I mean is this just kind of like a crazy ratio of everyone struggling with this thing?» | ||
After Chris Salih left the band, he recommended his friend from the music center, Josh Dun, to replace him. Shortly after the band announced Chris' departure, they announced a show where they would play with Josh Dun for the first time. There are some inconsistencies about this topic due to the fact that Josh Dun in an interview mentioned his first show with the band at a street performance on May 6, 2011, but most likely meant that Josh attended it, he did not play as a drummer, because May 13, 2011 was the date of the first official show with Josh Dun announced by the band on May 8, 2011 on social medias.
On May 22, 2011, «Regional at Best: The Web Series» began.[7]
On May 27, 2011 the band played a big concert at Newpoer Music Hall where they played some new songs from the upcoming album: Holding On To You and Ruby.
July 8 2011 album was released. The band holds a big free show to celebrate the release of the CD.
2012 - 2013
2014 - Our time
Recording
Promotion
Reception
Setlist
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Guns For Hands" | 4:37 |
| 2. | "Holding On To You" | 4:26 |
| 3. | "Ode To Sleep" | 5:14 |
| 4. | "Slowtown" | 4:57 |
| 5. | "Car Radio" | 4:49 |
| 6. | "Forest" | 4:11 |
| 7. | "Glowing Eyes" | 4:26 |
| 8. | "Kitchen Sink" | 5:34 |
| 9. | "Anathema" | 3:59 |
| 10. | "Lovely" | 4:20 |
| 11. | "Ruby" | 4:30 |
| 12. | "Trees" | 4:20 |
| 13. | "Be Concerned" | 4:08 |
| 14. | "Clear" | 3:38 |
| Total length: | 63:09 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Guns For Hands" | 4:37 |
| 2. | "Holding On To You" | 4:26 |
| 3. | "Ode To Sleep" | 5:14 |
| 4. | "Slowtown" | 4:57 |
| 5. | "Car Radio" | 4:49 |
| 6. | "Forest" | 4:11 |
| 7. | "Glowing Eyes" | 4:26 |
| 8. | "Kitchen Sink" | 5:34 |
| 9. | "Anathema" | 3:59 |
| 10. | "Lovely" | 4:20 |
| 11. | "Ruby" | 4:30 |
| 12. | "Trees" | 4:20 |
| 13. | "Be Concerned" | 4:08 |
| 14. | "Clear" | 3:38 |
| 15. | "House Of Gold (Newsletter Edition)" | 4:08 |
| 16. | "Two (Newsletter Edition)" | 3:38 |
| Total length: | 69:06 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Guns For Hands" | 4:37 |
| 2. | "Holding On To You" | 4:26 |
| 3. | "Ode To Sleep" | 5:14 |
| 4. | "Slowtown" | 4:57 |
| 5. | "Car Radio" | 4:49 |
| 6. | "Forest" | 4:11 |
| 7. | "Glowing Eyes" | 4:26 |
| 8. | "Kitchen Sink" | 5:34 |
| 9. | "Anathema" | 3:59 |
| 10. | "Lovely" | 4:20 |
| 11. | "Ruby" | 4:30 |
| 12. | "Trees" | 4:20 |
| 13. | "Be Concerned" | 4:08 |
| 14. | "Clear" | 3:38 |
| Total length: | 63:09 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Implicit Demand For Proof" | 4:52 |
| 2. | "Fall Away" | 3:02 |
| 3. | "The Pantaloon" | 3:34 |
| 4. | "Addict With A Pen" | 4:47 |
| 5. | "Friend, Please" | 4:13 |
| 6. | "March To The Sea" | 5:32 |
| 7. | "Johnny Boy" | 4:39 |
| 8. | "Oh, Ms. Believer" | 3:37 |
| 9. | "Air Catcher" | 4:13 |
| 10. | "Trapdoor" | 4:37 |
| 11. | "A Car, A Torch, A Death" | 4:34 |
| 12. | "Taxi Cab" | 4:46 |
| 13. | "Before You Start Your Day" | 3:53 |
| 14. | "Isle Of Flightless Birds" | 5:46 |
| Total length: | 62:08 | |
Tour
Web Series
The Web Series ''Regional at Best'' is a documentary on how they made their album ''Regional at Best''
Gallery
Credits
See also
Sources
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/twentyonepilots/comments/nedee7/no_phun_intended_everything_we_know_history/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/user/AlexanderPANASONIC/comments/nvnbaa/no_phun_intended_full_history_continued/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8DJGPuuIYY&t=1022s
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cokb6XrZQxc&t=10s
- ↑ https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1VO4OUYt9Utd5HgR5nFFPMTTchTRCs5p8
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQlHr3Tbo3w&t=0s
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/twentyonepilots/posts/202843566424333