Fred Armisen: 100 Sound Effects [DRAG CITY]

Why you'll love it

This LP was mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service and holds 101 tracks of newly recorded effects. Armisen made it at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 and Sunset Sound with engineer Darrell Thorp, and dedicated it to the memory of Steve Albini.

This edition

• Mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service

About the album

Every record shop of a certain age has a bin of old sound effects LPs, full of thunderstorms and squeaky doors. Fred Armisen, the Saturday Night Live and Portlandia star who also bangs the drums for a living, kept wondering why nobody made new ones. So he did, and Drag City put it out in September 2025.

Some of the effects are simple: doors shutting, glass breaking, a needle dropping on a record (Bill Hader's idea for an opener). Others are tiny scenes that will make anyone who has played in a band wince with recognition, such as a drum sound check at a medium-sized venue, a guitar that tunes but somehow stays out of tune, and a music venue employee clearing the room while throwing away bottles. Riki Lindhome co-recorded many of the tracks, with help from Tim Heidecker, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Amber Coffman and Alice Carbone Tench, and the glass-breaking was done at a rage room in the Valley. Steve Albini and Dave Grohl helped connect Armisen with Thorp.

It works as a library for your own projects or as a strangely gripping 39-minute listen. There are 101 effects in all, at Steve Martin's suggestion, and we've decided not to ask for a refund on the extra one.

Also at Kops: more Fred Armisen on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Listen

On Drag City, a reissue of the 2025 album.