Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 #1 vinyl by Bleachers featuring Mitski + 5 years since I met Jack Antonoff at Electric Lady Studios!
The Terrible Thrills project was created as a concept by Jack Antonoff and his collaborators in 2010 to reimagine his band's music through the voices of a wide range of incredibly talented female artists. It began with Volume 1, with a collection of Steel Train songs reinterpreted and reshaped by some of the band's personal favorite musicians. The tradition continued with Bleachers for Volume 2, which featured new versions of Strange Desire in its entirety (which is so underrated), expanding the idea into this new chapter of his artistry.
In 2019, the project evolved again into a new format as an exclusive vinyl club series. Four songs were reimagined by incredible artists, paired with demos and alternate versions of tracks from Gone Now. It became such a unique, ever‑changing concept - one that grew over nearly a decade, adapting to each album cycle in its own way. On the band's webstore, they wrote; "The concept behind Terrible Thrills is to create a final version of an album at the end of its cycle. What that is will take different shapes for different times."
Volume 3 features collaborations from Mitski, Julien Baker, Ani DiFranco, and MUNA. Unlike the past Terrible Thrills editions, Volume 3 exists only on vinyl and isn’t available on streaming. If you're able to find these versions of the songs somewhere, they really are such great, underrated gems. They were released in 2019 as a series of one‑time pressings sold exclusively through the Bleachers webstore, making them even more special and hard to come by now as a full set. The covers all piece together to form one unified photo on both the front and back, which is such a clever design concept.
The first release of the volume features the song "Mickey Mantle Comes Alive" and "Let's Get Married" featuring Mitski, pressed on a bright neon orange vinyl. Mitski was the perfect artist to reimagine that song, she has such a stunning voice and an innate way of singing love songs that makes the emotion feel so amplified and beautifully raw. "Let's Get Married" is already such a pure, beautiful song, but her version strips it down into something haunting and romantic, contrasting with the more intense romanticism of the original Bleachers version.
"Mickey Mantle Comes Alive" is the early demo version of what went on to become the Gone Now opening track, "Dream of Mickey Mantle". Getting to hear such a raw, early version of what the song went on to become is so incredible. The sparse production makes certain lyrical moments stand out even more and allows the listener to hear the earliest glimmers of what the song would eventually build into.
"All that hope I had when I was young, I hope I wasn't wrong" is one of my favorite lyrics ever written and hearing it in this way is so impactful. Getting to hear the blueprint of a song that means so much in this way is such a special experience.
For now, the tradition has ended with the Gone Now era. Terrible Thrills hasn't continued past that point, but it remains one of the most special and inventive parts of the Bleachers world and one that I have seen several other artists recently adapt in their own way. Hopefully one day Bleachers will bring it back again!
I've been sharing bits of my vinyl collection for years now, and whenever I can, I always try to tie in my own personal experiences and stories that are attached to some of my favorite pieces. I love connecting my own memories to the songs, pressings, where or when I got them, design elements that stand out - anything.
This 7" vinyl absolutely has the coolest story of any record I own, as it was gifted to me from Jack Antonoff himself on the roof of Electric Lady Studios in 2021! It's officially been five years since the absolute coolest day of my life - one I have told literally every single person I know about and will continue to tell literally anyone and everyone for years to come - but it felt like the perfect time to finally officially highlight one of my very favorite singles I own!
It was the most surreal experience of my life, all coming together in under 24 hours. A few weeks prior though, I spontaneously filled out a Google form the band posted about what I would ask Jack if I ever had the chance, and filling it out with something I've always specifically wanted to known about but never thought I'd actually get the chance to actually ask him myself. At they very most, I thought maybe it would end up in some Twitter Q&A somewhere. Then, a few weeks later, I got a surprise email from someone on the Bleachers team at Sony the evening before, with the subject "Bleachers invites you", asking if I could come to New York City the following afternoon for a special event, with no other details.
I said this in my original post recounting the day, but needless to say, my whole family thought I was going to get kidnapped - but I guess I was willing to take the risk! About 30 of us lined up outside the Sony headquarters near Madison Square Park on a very hot summer day, got COVID tested, and boarded the "Bleachers Bus" to hear Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night in its entirety for the very first time, two days before its official release. While we listened to the album, the bus drove around the city and eventually took us to the iconic Electric Lady Studios.
We went up to the roof, where the special "fan press conference" was set up. Jack came out soon after, and everyone got to ask him their questions, and he even performed a few of the new songs acoustically.
It was all recorded and livestreamed on their YouTube channel, and I definitely recommend watching it because everyone asked really great questions and it was such a fun event. I was so nervous to ask my question, and when it was nearing the end, Jack asked if anyone else had any more questions before they ran out of time, and I knew it was finally the moment!
I asked him about the connection between four of my favorite songs ever; "All My Heroes" by Bleachers, "Perfect Places" by Lorde, "The Archer" by Taylor Swift and "New York" by St. Vincent - all of which he is a part of and are tied together by a reference to heroes; what it means to be one, what it means to lose one, and finding the courage within yourself to be your own hero.
So much of the music Jack writes is connected by a number of recurring themes and motifs - it is very prevalent across the frame work of the entirety of Bleachers' discography, but certain lyrical connections can be made across all of the work he's made throughout his career with other artists too. Especially when looking at the records he was making around the same time, the thoughts and ideas that were top of mind for him in those moments become even more apparent. It was such a specific and kind of a niche thing to ask, but he knew exactly what I was talking about right away and gave such an incredible answer and personal anecdote about what those lyrics mean to him.
It's even more perfect that featured is a version of one of my favorite songs of all time, "Dream of Mickey Mantle" too. Like I said, it is truly one of my favorite songs ever written and it was so perfect that this was the one I was lucky enough to get!
I wanted to do something different to commemorate the day and reflect back on it, instead of just sharing the same photos I first posted in 2021. This day was one of many really special experiences that happened throughout the Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night era for me. In the collages, I wanted to tie in some of the other ephemera and little bits that represent those incredible moments. You can spot some of the cute guitar picks I got included with one of my webstore orders, and the background of the collage is made up of a copy of Jack's doodles that were included with the "Chinatown" / "45" 7" vinyl single, which tied it all together. I even added some Fearless star confetti too!
Along with this record, I also included a scan of another prized item I own in the second collage - a Polaroid of Evan Smith, the band's saxophonist, that was mailed to me along with a piece of the Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night album cover before its official announcement. At the time, thousands of fans were sent tiny 1x1 squares in the mail, all of which were pieced together on a giant spreadsheet to reveal the full artwork. Only a few were sent Polaroids and I was lucky enough to be one of them!
None of this even scratches the surface of what this music, and what this day, meant to me then and continues to five years later. I just love music so much, and there are so many artists and records I can point to that have shaped me throughout my life. But the connection I have to Bleachers' music and the memories tied to this album in particular are like no other. This is an experience I will truly never, ever shut up about, so don't say I didn't warn ya!!
Anytime he sings about the rooftop, or any of those hot summer nights at ELS that track by track soundtracked our days, I always think back to this day! 🍅
Thanks for reading! I have written in-depth about Bleachers' music many times over the years, all of which are linked here and below. Check out my original post from back in 2021 about this incredible day at Electric Lady, as well as my full 5 year anniversary album review of Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night and my experience getting to hear so much of this album live for the first time at Radio City in 2022. Many more are coming soon, always!
Bleachers forever! TTSOOSN forever! Electric Lady forever! 🍅
All photos are my own!
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