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Masks and Monsters
Metadata
- title
- Masks and Monsters
- description
- The 2020 pandemic record: eighteen tracks written, played, mixed, and mastered in North Park, San Diego, during lockdown, with Babidi and Gokudaxij on three of them.
- year
- 2020
- releaseDate
- 2020-08-11
- artworkBy
- Gentle Giant Illustrations
- artist
- Scoobert Doobert
- artistId
- #scoobert
- bandcamp
- https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/masks-monsters-lp
- spotify
- https://open.spotify.com/album/13zzM1QEnrvJ7kRwUGNIFw
- apple
- https://music.apple.com/us/album/masks-and-monsters/1526427944
- youtube
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zcGome9-yI
- tracks
- title
- It Can Get Worse
- song
- it-can-get-worse
- title
- Snuggle With Shaggy
- song
- snuggle-with-shaggy
- title
- Creature Comfort
- song
- creature-comfort
- title
- When It's Over
- song
- when-its-over
- title
- Pandemic Blues
- song
- pandemic-blues
- title
- A Good Life
- song
- a-good-life
- title
- Wash Your Fucking Hands
- song
- wash-your-fucking-hands
- title
- Flip Flop Phil
- song
- flip-flop-phil
- title
- Quarantine and Chill
- feat
- Babidi
- song
- quarantine-and-chill
- title
- My Mind Is Slowly Slipping
- feat
- Babidi
- song
- my-mind-is-slowly-slipping
- title
- Shaggy's Anthem
- song
- shaggys-anthem
- title
- Happy Birthday
- feat
- Gokudaxij
- song
- happy-birthday
- title
- Coca Cola
- song
- coca-cola
- title
- Corona
- song
- corona
- title
- I Am a Slave to the Yeast
- song
- i-am-a-slave-to-the-yeast
- title
- Why, How, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
- song
- why-how-yeah-yeah-yeah
- title
- Mystery Machine
- song
- mystery-machine
- title
- Derrida Makes a Différance
- song
- derrida-makes-a-differance
- press
- outlet
- Masks, Monsters, and Memes: Max Horwich (Critical Meme Reader)
- url
- https://lukefwalton.com/publications/masks-monsters-and-memes/
- desc
- Book chapter on Scoobert Doobert as memetic production (INC Reader #15, 2021, pp. 78–88). Reference page with DOI + PDF.
- outlet
- Computational Culture: Critical Meme Reader review (Neda Genova)
- url
- http://computationalculture.net/review-of-critical-meme-reader-global-mutations-of-the-viral-image/
- date
- 2023-07
- desc
- Only Scoobert-specific scholarly reception; names Horwich interview; notes cite pp. 79 & 88. MediaRep TOC + Neural Archive are publication record/cataloging, not citations.
- outlet
- Neural Archive: volume TOC lists Horwich/Scoobert
- url
- https://archive.neural.it/init/default/show/3200
- desc
- Cataloging (not citation count): TOC includes Masks, Monsters, and Memes chapter.
- outlet
- Last Day Deaf
- url
- https://lastdaydeaf.com/91-qa-with-scoobert-doobert/
- desc
- Q&A on the album’s name and its cartoon namesake, closing with “Mystery Machine.”
- outlet
- Neon Music
- url
- https://neonmusic.co.uk/face-your-fears-with-scoobert-dooberts-shaggys-anthem
- date
- 2020
- desc
- On “Shaggy’s Anthem” ahead of the LP: courage while your knees are shaking.
- outlet
- Glasse Factory
- url
- https://glassefactory.com/scoobert-dooberts-new-track-think-about-it-is-experimental-funk-at-its-finest/
- desc
- Artist note: fourth record, recorded in North Park during lockdown.
- draft
- false
Content
Masks and Monsters is the pandemic record. Fourth in the early Scoobert run, after Dragon Ball $d.
Finding $D is the one-day lab notebook. Swami's is the collage LP. Dragon Ball $d is the narrative hip-hopera. Masks and Monsters is the pandemic self-portrait. Luke Francis Walton wrote, played, mixed, and mastered the whole thing in North Park, San Diego, while the world was very small. Babidi (Taylor James / J MESA) cowrote and sings on Quarantine and Chill and My Mind Is Slowly Slipping. Gokudaxij (Eric Radloff) cowrote and sings on Happy Birthday. Everything else is Luke. Cover art by Gentle Giant Illustrations.
Bandcamp Masks & Monsters (LP) dropped August 11, 2020 ($8 or more, 24-bit/88.2kHz). Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer all list 18 tracks, about fifty minutes, ℗ 2020 Beformer. The visual album calls it explicitly “my full pandemic record.”
The cartoon shell is still there: Shaggy, Mystery Machine, monster language, goofy title logic. Track titles include It Can Get Worse, Creature Comfort, When It's Over, Pandemic Blues, A Good Life, My Mind Is Slowly Slipping, and Corona. Masks work literally (COVID) and mythologically (Scoobert's older costume-and-avatar world). Last Day Deaf caught the naming story; the Critical Meme Reader later treated the record as memetic production in practice.
The closer is Derrida Makes a Différance: cosmic nihilism, matter puns, family as grounding. What comes next is Little Hug: re-entry after the pandemic record.