Off The Record #8: "World Building"

Off The Recordis an experimental project byMatt Andrews, a music loving web developer. While it's far from the first event of its kind, I wanted to create something where people could make time for good music and hear people talk passionately about why it's great.I moved from London to Birmingham in June 2015 and have restartedOff The Recordin my new home city. I'm excited to see what the home of metal can bring to our little event, although we're unlikely to play any Sabbath (sorry, Ozzy).

Matt Andrews

<A HREF="http://offtherecord.club/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Off The Record</A> is a Birmingham-based music meetup. The event is centered around making time to listening and appreciating music – specifically, an album in full.
This is our eighth event. It works something like this: people will arrive, grab food/drinks from the lovely bar and café, and then we’ll sit back and listen to an entire album together, followed by a group chat about it – yep, a bit like a book club.
<H2>The theme and album</H2>
<IMG SRC="https://cdn.evbuc.com/eventlogos/31036119/phenom.jpg">
This event we’ll be following the theme World Building – an album where the artist has created a story or universe around themselves. Think concept albums, records where bands have invented a backstory or theme that runs throughout the songs.
The album we'll be listening to is The Phenomenauts' 2008 album "For All Mankind". They're a Californian band blending punk, rock'n'roll and new wave with sci-fi and futurism (which they called "rocket roll"). The album follows a concept involving the band being members of a space fleet, expanding on their sci-fi adventures!
This time, our session will be curated by <A HREF="https://twitter.com/DrEmilyCollins" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Emily Collins</A>, a Birmingham-based music lover, post-doc and "friend to all dogs". 
We'll be listening to this record in full on the night, but wait, there's more! After we've heard the main album, it’s over to anyone else who wants to play a single song that fits our theme: World Building. We’re not too strict, but the idea is that you’ll pick a song that matches the theme, introduce it to the rest of the group, and then we'll listen to it. If you have an example of an album or artist who's told a wide-ranging story or created an experimental world through their music, then bring it along to share. If it’s on Spotify or you have it on a portable device, bring it along and you can tell everyone why you love the song (and the album). 
<H2>What’s this all about?</H2>
What’s the point? Why not just listen to it beforehand? Well, half-listening to an album while you’re grappling for a seat on the bus or pretending to work at your desk for the last hour of a Wednesday isn’t the best way to make time for experiencing a record. We want to try to experiment with putting aside time to engage properly with an album, really devote half an hour or so to taking it in, then hearing what other people thought of it. And discovering new stuff that other people really love. That’s the idea.
<H2>How much does it cost?</H2>
The event is free. The pub does good food so if you fancy some food while you're listening then you're in the right place. Cherry Reds has a brilliant beer selection and does teas and coffees too.

Cherry Red's Cafe Bar

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Off The Record #8: "World Building"

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Off The Record #8: "World Building"

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