Information[]
HiLo is the fourth album by Jack Stauber, released on April 14th, 2018 at a length of forty-five minutes and ten seconds. The album consists of a mixture of different genres and music styles such as rock, jazz, pop, and some experimental styles. The album cover consists of a square keyboard with HiLo title on the left and the name JACK STAUBER on the right. The album contains the following thirteen tracks:
- Cunk (2:37)
- Dead Weight (3:07)
- Coconut Ranger (4:04)
- Leopard (4:22)
- John & Nancy (3:32)
- Beird (3:09)
- It's Alright (4:10)
- Small World (3:07)
- Pad Thai (2:45)
- Gettin' My Mom On (2:10)
- Databend (3:20)
- O.U.R. (3:44)
- Pizza Boy (4:01)
- Moonstone (3:14; Vinyl Exclusive)
History[]
Pre-Release[]
On October 5th, 2017, Jack would upload a song called Databend onto Tumblr exclusively. This song would be first of the HiLo songs to be revealed publicly, as it would go on to be the album's eleventh track. Two months later on December 5th, 2017, Jack would upload a video onto Instagram called sound on, sod which would feature a song called Cunk in the background which would go on to be the first track on HiLo.
Later on March 13th, 2018, the first promo video for HiLo would be uploaded called HiLo Teaser, which would consist of Jack finding the album at a flea market. The teaser would reveal the album's title, its cover art, its release date for April 14th, 2018, and another portion of the first track on the album Cunk. Another promo would later be posted on March 30th, 2018 called HiLo Peek, which would feature a snippet of all tracks on the album playing on a small vintage television with unique background inside of them.
On March 31st, 2018, the second track on HiLo, Dead Weight, would be released on Patreon as a single, giving his patrons early listening to the song. Behind the scenes videos and photos would be teased throughout his social media platforms during the following days before the music video would officially be uploaded on April 5th, 2018. On April 12th, 2018, the final pre-release promo for HiLo would be posted called HiLo Trailer, which consisted of Jack as a father taking the HiLo album as a child to its first day of school. A HiLo release show would also take place at Basement Transmission prior to the album's release. The full show is currently unavailable, though snippets have been uploaded online and a compilation video would later be posted onto Patreon on June 17th, 2018.
Release & Post-Release[]
HiLo would officially be released to the public on April 14th, 2018. The release would come with a promo video self-titled off the album called HiLo, which consisted of the album walking through a grassy field and jumping into a hole, revealing the album's release. About a month after the album's release, a music video for the tenth track on the album, Gettin' My Mom On, would be created and uploaded on May 12th, 2018 in celebration of Mother's Day 2018.
Later on August 20th, 2018, Jack would first launch his merchandise website, which would notably feature a HiLo CD available. About two and half years later on January 23rd, 2021, Jack would follow up the HiLo CD by revealing and beginning distribution of a vinyl edition of the HiLo album. The vinyl edition of HiLo would also come with an exclusive bonus track available with a digital download of the album featuring on the release called Moonstone.
Notes[]
HiLo has since become one of Jack Stauber's most famous and recognizable works. The tracks featured on the album would each become well known for their own reasons, with the album famously featuring a wide range of genre variety. The tracks on HiLo would also be liked for their stories and meanings sung in each song, majority of them being figured out by fans. Certain songs on the album such as Dead Weight and Gettin' My Mom on would also go on to become some of Jack's most famous songs, being well known on the Internet.
Trivia[]
- In an interview with FRIDAY magazine, when Jack was asked what his favorite song on the HiLo album was, he would respond saying that if there was a burning house with all HiLo tracks in the them he would rescue Leopard, though he would also say that he would play Databend from the inside as he watches the house burn down.
- There are two tracks that were originally planned to be featured on the HiLo album but would eventually be omitted.
- The first omitted track would be a song called Violins on Fire, which would later be posted exclusively onto Patreon on May 24th, 2018.
- The second omitted track would be a song called Stones, which would originally be posted exclusively on Tumblr on October 6th, 2017. Despite its public availability, it would also be uploaded as a Patreon exclusive on June 26th, 2018.
HiLo vinyls stacked prior to distribution.
- The first distribution sets for the HiLo vinyl would be infamous for being slightly warped, due to them being stacked together prior to their distributions.
- The album cover for HiLo is the only album cover out of the main four studio album's that isn't a traditional drawing by Jack.
- The album is a digital art piece, stitching together buttons and other various parts of a Casiotone MT-100 keyboard. Jack used this keyboard in a lot of Micropop at the time, and can be heard in the outro of O.U.R.
- HiLo is the only album made under Jack Stauber's studio name that has never been entirely uploaded to his YouTube channel.
- Coconut Ranger marks the first and currently only instance of the name of the album that a song is featured in being sung in the song, with HiLo being sung as a background lyric as a unique way of saying hello.
- Despite this, there are also fans that speculate that the saying is a play on the words high and low.
- Another source of speculation is that the album title is based off the song Al Dente where Jack sings the lyrics "love valley hi hi" and "love valley lo lo".
- The flea market the Jack walks through in the HiLo Teaser is Rossi's. This flea market and its employees would notably be the inspiration for John & Nancy, the fifth track on the album.
- In the HiLo Trailer promo video, the story displayed on the news channel on television reads "CRAZY DUDE EATS A GRAPE TWICE".
- The small text seen at the bottom of the news channel reads "NEWS HAHA WOW THE NEWS IS NUTS HUH MORE TONIGHT ABOUT THE GRAPE THING".
- The anchor man seen on the news channel is called Tim Reporterman.
- The news channel cartoon created for the HiLo Trailer would be posted exclusively onto Patreon on the same day of the promo's uploading.
- Jack would make an advertisement for Pennsylvania radios in promotion of the HiLo release show, but it would be rejected by stations. it would later be uploaded onto Patreon on April 4th, 2018.
- Storyboards for the HiLo Trailer would be posted onto Patreon on April 11th, 2018.
- A sticker of the Those Eggs Aren't Dippy thumbnail, along with a Created by Jack Stauber sticker and polaroid photo, were featured alongside the purchase of a HiLo vinyl and CD in early 2021 when the vinyl edition first debuted.
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