Illinois

• The Record
• Listen / watch
• Named in the episode
• Track talk

Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois.

Midwest represent!! Great lakes !!

Michigander. Shy boy with a banjo.

https://hotwax.club

twitter: @HotWaxSC

§The Record

Asthmatic Kitty Records – AKR 014 2×Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue. US, 22 April 2006. Double gatefold. Lyrics/photo insert.
Discogs – r649042

Official title is Illinois. The jacket still says Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come on feel the Illinoise.

Back cover: the cop cars picked up Illinois plates. AKR014 and A NO NO.

Deadwax is Kevin Gray at AcousTech, RTI metalwork. No poem this time:

• A: AKR-014LP-A KPG@ATM 14855.1(2)

• B: AKR-014LP-B KPG@ATM 14855.2(2)

• C: AKR-014LP-C KPG@ATM 14855.3(2) (the B is crossed out)

• D: AKR-014LP-D KPG@ATM 14855.4(2)

§Listen / watch

The record, and the bit it came out of:
Illinois
Michigan

The label:
Asthmatic Kitty

Cover text is a Quiet Riot / Slade joke, and a mispronunciation:
Cum On Feel the Noize
Quiet Riot
Slade

Chicago in the Little Miss Sunshine credits. That’s how a lot of people met this record:
Little Miss Sunshine

The stage show, years later. Dance revue, not a jukebox plot dump. Broadway 2024, Tony for choreography:
Illinoise

The outtakes album, if the 74 minutes wasn’t enough:
The Avalanche

§Named in the episode

Sufjan Stevens

Illinois (the state, the homework)

Michigan (made the fifty-states bit feel real; he later called the rest a promotional gimmick)

Asthmatic Kitty (his label; AKR 014)

Divya Srinivasan (the jacket: Lincolns, Sears Tower, Black Hawk, UFOs, the goat, the hero)

Superman / DC Comics (first jackets; this copy prints the balloons instead)

Metropolis, Illinois (the town that stole the name, and the statue)

Blue Marvel (Chicago hero on the 10th-anniversary jacket; they asked first)

Abraham Lincoln / Land of Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln (short reprise; went insane, but for very good reasons)

Carl Sandburg / “Chicago“ (Galesburg; visits in a dream)

World’s Columbian Exposition (1893; part one of Come On! Feel the Illinoise!)

Black Hawk / the Black Hawk War (the long title is the apology)

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (Norwood Park; the clown; the song turns the mirror around)

Casimir Pulaski / Casimir Pulaski Day / the song (first Monday in March; the holiday is the title, the cancer is the song)

Chicago

Willis Tower (still the Sears Tower on this jacket)

Jacksonville, Illinois

Highland, Illinois (the UFO sighting the opener is about)

Decatur (stepmothers, the Chickenmobile, a round of applause)

Pullman (one last whoo-hoo, six seconds)

Godfrey / the Great Godfrey Maze

Bushnell , Bloomington–Normal

Rock River

Illinois ghost towns (They Are Night Zombies!!)

James McAlister (the sophisticated drum parts; the rest is mostly solo, cheap mics, a Roland VS-880EX)

Shara Worden / Shara Nova (the choir voices)

Illinoise / Justin Peck / Jackie Sibblies Drury (campfire stories, 2023–24)

Bitcoin (club business, as usual)

Sufjan Stevens

§Track talk

The Go-To’s: Chicago. Casimir Pulaski Day. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Jacksonville. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts.

Lore trail (every track, really): Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois. A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh! The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!

For when the mood strikes. A very good record. A seriously committed concept.

-L