Ok! I'm going to take this post as an opportunity for everyone in the notes to learn about My Favorite Band Ever
The Mechanisms were a queer storytelling concept album cabaret band, or in short, a folk band that made 4 concept album.
They performed from the years 2010 - 2020 in character as immortal space pirates aboard the infamous starfaring vessel, The Starship Aurora, a warship stolen in a rigged game of Russian roulette from the now-deleted empire of Cyberia.
As they traveled, they spread stories they picked up in asteroid bars, ditties of the wars they fought in (and sometimes orchestrated) and importantly-- violence, violence, and more violence.
Unfortunately, over the last 300 years in the future ago, all members of the infamous band of pirates have shown up dead, following a two-day showing in January of 2020 called Death To The Mechanisms.
That is to say, they broke in up in 2020, and their personas all had silly endings. Such as being eaten by 300 octokittens.
or in short: The Mechanisms were founded by a very talented woman named Maki Yamazaki, and included talent such as Jonny Sims (you may know him from The Magnus Archives, or Slay The Princess), Morgan Wilkinson, Frank Voss, Ben Below, Jessica Law, Kofi Young, Rachel L Hughes, and several more anonymous members over the years.
Over the course of a decade, they completed 4 concept albums such as Once Upon A Time In Space, Ulysses Dies At Dawn, High Noon Over Camelot, and The Bifrost incident-- four space operas following high stakes stories, from Snow White and her bloody rebellion against the immortal King Cole, to Lyfrassir Edda, an inspector investigating the vanishing of the Ratatosk express - and the disappearance of the entire Asgardian Government with it.
They have two additional album of one off-songs, as well!
They are a queer band telling queer stories! If you like weird transgender concept albums listen to this band!
Pump Shanty is the 6th track off The Mechanisms' first album-- Once Upon A Time In Space! The version linked is the studio version, but I personally prefer this live version of the song. It's from a future recording they did for a radio show, and has all the proper vocalists as they added to their talent over the years!
Pump Shanty as a song follows Snow White after her attempted assassination by King Cole, after the king bombed her sisters wedding to Princess Cinders - Cinderella, and is the turning point in her character to becoming The General of the resistance.
As a song, Pump Shanty-- as with many of The Mechanisms Songs (and as is typical with the genre of filk*) borrow melodies and tunes from folk songs with similar names! Here are some examples of Pump Shanty as sung in its more traditional folk versions:
Pump Shanty - The Sheringham Shantymen (this version is the closest stylistically to the one the mechanisms play)
Pump Shanty - Rub and Shrub Shantymen
Pump Shanty - Storm Seeker
How do I get into The Mechanisms?
Fear not, by virtue of reading this post, you have already found the most comprehensive resource on how to Get Into This Band
This blog, The Mechanisms Lore Archive, is a fan-run archive blog to provide access and answer questions about the band. We have collected a google drive with all live shows, photos, merch records, relevant in-character posts across various social media.
But if you want a cursory, surface-level grasp as this band:
You can find their albums on youtube, spotify, apple music, and most importantly, Bandcamp! (and other places, I'm sure, but these seem the most commonly used)
For live shows, to find them all in one place, i recommend the videos folder in the archive, but there also exist playlists on youtube.
The optimal listening order is as the albums were released. And remember - these are concept albums, listening on shuffle will get you entirely lost very quickly!
Filk is a genre of music that emerged in the 1950s and primarily gained its conventions through sci-fi and fantasy conventions. It refers to songs with a heavy emphasis on sci-fi or fantasy elements!
Filk songs are, very typically, parodies or retellings of common folk songs or popular music. If you are looking for fun sci-fi music. Filk is a great place to start! The Mechanisms are a Filk band.
In any case! If anyone here does decide to check them out, they're a very cool project-- these days, the various members are working on new projects. I'll be making a "so what are the band up to now" in the coming few weeks! Keep an eye on this blogs pinned post for that.
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