Line #91 Music/AbneyPark


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AbneyPark.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Abney Park comes from an era that never was, but one that we wish had been.]]
3
4	->''"We tried to make a buck, but we could barely stay aloft''
5	->''Tried swinging a deal, but we pissed the wrong guys off''
6	->''With a clockwork guitar, and a flintlock bass''
7	->''We're blasting the past all over the place--''
8	->''And now there's nothing left but '''Post-Apocalypse Punk'''!"''
9
10	Abney Park is a Seattle-based {{steampunk}} band that mixes elements of {{industrial}} dance, and world music influences in their work. The band has a steampunk theme that they incorporate in their instruments, music, outfits, and even their own studio, which is actually pretty awesome. Really, is there more that needs to be said?
11
12	Current band members:
13
14	* "Captain" Robert Brown - vocals, darbuka, diatonic button accordion, harmonica, bouzouki, bağlama, ukulele
15	* Kristina Erickson - keyboards, vocals
16	* Josh Goering - guitar, banjolele
17	* Derek Brown - bass
18	* Mitchell Drury - violin
19
20	Albums:
21
22	* ''Abney Park'' (1998)
23	* ''Return to the Fire'' (1999)
24	* ''Cemetery Number 1'' (2000)
25	* ''From Dreams or Angels'' (2001)
26	* ''Twisted & Broken: Abney Park Remixed'' (This album is available from the band as part of a special package)
27	* ''Taxidermy'' (2005)
28	* ''The Death of Tragedy'' (2005)
29	* ''Lost Horizons'' (2008)
30	* ''Aether Shanties'' (2009)
31	* ''The End of Days'' (2010)
32	* ''Off the Grid'' (2011)
33	* ''Ancient World'' (2012)
34	* ''Through Your Eyes on Christmas Eve'' (2012)
35	* ''The Circus at the End of the World'' (2013)
36	* ''Nomad'' (2014)
37	* ''Wasteland'' (2015)
38	* ''Under the Floor, Over the Wall'' (2016)
39	* ''Crash'' (2017)
40	* ''Scallywag'' (2018)
41	* ''Iconoclast'' (2019)
42	* ''Abney Park's New Nostalgics'' (2019)
43	* ''Abney Park's Songs Of The Sea'' (2019)
44	* ''Songs of Joy'' (2020)
45	* ''Esoterica'' (2020)
46	* ''Technoshanties'' (2021)
47
48	The band also produces an award-winning RolePlayingGame called ''Airship Pirates'', and has published a TieInNovel of stories set in their backstory universe entitled "The Wrath of Fate."
49	----
50
51	!!They provide examples of:
52	* AllMythsAreTrue: "All the Myths Are True," predictably.
53	* AnachronismStew: Comes with the SteamPunk aesthetic. Lampshaded in ''Rag Time Punk'':
54	-->We bolted brass and we kicked some ass\
55	Wrote some songs by the lamplight's gas\
56	Soon our history we did defile\
57	And made a past that couldn't be
58	* AfterTheEnd: ''The End of Days''.
59	* TheCaptain: Captain Robert.
60	* ConceptAlbum:
61	** ''Lost Horizons'' follows the crew of the HMS Ophelia (an airship) as they travel around the world during a Victorian era that never was -- mad scientists, exploring mysterious lands, airship pirates, strange science, and the joy and heartbreak of traveling abound.
62	** An RPG based on the post-apocalyptic airship pirate theme [[http://airshippirates.abneypark.com/index.html has been released in two versions]], one using the Heresy System as seen in TabletopGame/VictorianaRPG and the other using an original system called the One-Dice System.
63	** ''The End of Days'' follows the crew (and mankind in general) as they pick up the pieces after [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally causing the apocalypse]] at the end of ''Lost Horizons''.
64	* ComingOfAgeStory: Ultimately what the song "The Clockyard" is about. Literally it's about a Clockwork boy who's trying to find the parts to build himself up before he leaves. Metaphorically it's about how if you wait until you're good and ready to go out into the world, then you'll be an old man cursing the fact you wasted your life because you were never ready.
65	* CoolAirship: Linked in with the band's fictional BackStory is the [[TimeTravel time travelling]] [[CoolAirship airship]] ''HMS Ophelia''. Just to re-iterate that: Their airship ''[[OurTimeMachineIsDifferent travels through time]]''.
66	** The tabletop RPG set in the band's world has a lot of these, and the players will have one of their own.
67	* CoverVersion: A good portion of their discography is them covering various songs from various eras. Techonoshantes is them doing covers of old Ship shanties, and ''Abney Park's New Nostalgics'' is them covering songs from 1909 to 1942.
68	* ClockworkCreature: "Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll" from ''Lost Horizons'', a clockwork sex doll. Really.
69	** Also the protagonist of "The Clockyard," who is building himself up from scrap.
70	* CoolSidecar: "To the Apocalypse in Daddy's Sidecar," based on something Captain Robert's daughter said.
71	* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Promotional photos of Capt. Robert show him smoking a pipe.
72	* DownerEnding: ''[[BusFullOfInnocents Airship Pirates]]''. Unless you believe that they took the people onto their crew.
73	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The band had been around for ten entire years before they adopted their steampunk theme. Before that, they were a goth industrial metal act, with much darker lyrics and heavier sound to match.
74	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Technoshanties'' is techno versions of sea shanties.
75	* TheGameOfTheBook: "Airship Pirates," the RPG.
76	* HollywoodAtheist: The song "I've Been Wrong Before:" Tells the listener that acting this way makes you a bigger fool than everyone else as not only are you close minded but you don't believe in anything.
77	* IAmTheBand: Captain Robert Brown is pretty much the beating heart of the band. Not only did he found it, he sings for it, plays multiple instruments for it, makes some of the instruments for it, and is the principal songwriter for the band. That being said he's a nice enough guy about it, and his wife is a member too.
78	* INeedAFreakingDrink: From "Throw Them Overboard:"
79	-->"To survive this cultural urology, you have to study [[PerfectlyCromulentWord Alcohology]]."
80	** The Airship Pirates RPG invokes this when it comes to time travel, advising players to make sure they (and their crews) have some liquid courage before attempting time travel.
81	* IntercourseWithYou: From before their {{steampunk}} days: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKqkSFOaF0 Love]]," a song unashamedly about rough sex.
82	* ItAmusedMe: Captain Robert (The actor/singer) on why he loves the song "Out of Darkness"
83	--> "When I was writing this, I thought maybe it was too happy-bubbly. Kristina walked into the studio, and said, “This sounds like ABBA, if they had been a goth band.” I giggled for an hour, and decided I loved it based on that description."
84	* KayfabeMusic: Sort of. While the band does perform in their airship pirate personas, it's the novels and RPG that establishes the characters more than the band itself.
85	* LoveAtFirstSight: Rosie and Max. The second Rosie looks Max in the eye, she sees the rest of her life. However the song admits that she doesn't know if that love is platonic or romantic, but it's there.
86	* MadScience: "The Secret Life of Doctor Calgori" from ''Lost Horizons''.
87	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample, dual-trope entry with a slash see Administrivia/HowToWriteAnExample * MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds / NiceJobBreakingItHero: They accidentally caused the Apocalypse.
88	* MurderTheHypotenuse: "The Emperor's Wives" has a particularly unusual example.
89	* MrFanservice: Mostly Nathaniel and his mandolin, though Robert would probably get more if he weren't married.
90	* NostalgicMusicBox: "The Secret Life of Doctor Calgori" begins with one, underscored and eventually taken over by the sounds of steam and clockwork.
91	* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: In the novel, Dr. Calgori is very insistent that they can't meet up with his past self to repair the ''Ophelia''.
92	* OfCorsetsSexy
93	* PerfectlyCromulentWord: "Throw Them Overboard" provides an example in the form of ''alcohology'', in order to fit in with the rhyme scheme of the other ''-ology'' words.
94	* PirateGirl: The ''HMS Ophelia'''s crew of drunken pirates includes Kristina Erickson and Jody Ellen. On a pirate ship retrofitted into a steampunk time-travelling dirigible. Yes.
95	* ReligionRantSong: One of the ways (the most obvious way) to interpret "Virus" is as a Type 2.
96	** "I've Been Wrong Before" plays with this. The singer says that he doesn't really believe in religion or anything similar. However he then goes on to say that if you don't keep an open mind about things you're much worse than the people that do believe.
97	* RenaissanceMan: Captain Robert Brown. Singer, Writer, plays multiple instruments, creates new instruments, and father.
98	* RevolvingDoorBand: While Captain Robert and his wife have remained members of the band from the beginning, there has been over nineteen former band members.
99	* ScienceIsWrong: In the song ''All the myths are true''. The singers mention how science has come up with perfectly mundane explanations for various myths. The problem is that the mythology doesn't care to follow them, as shown in the frantic radio broadcast in the interlude.
100	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their first album, which seems to have been lost to the world. They also have a song called "Abney Park" on another album (which is about the cemetery.)
101	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: In the novel, Captain Robert and the rest try to do this, but because of the ButterflyOfDoom, it didn't turn out so well.
102	* ShoutOut: From "Victorian Vigilante:"
103	-->''Each night as I go walking underneath the lamplight.''\
104	''[[Franchise/SherlockHolmes I bring my baritsu and I'm ready for a fight.]]''
105	** And in the ''Wrath of Fate'' novel, Dr. Calgori makes a reference to ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' by calling Captain Robert "Wart," and making a reference to MerlinSickness.
106	* SkyPirate:
107	** The group logo is a [[GogglesDoNothing goggle wearing skull,]] and crossed cutlass and propeller; figure it out. Also the basis of much of their music, especially "Airship Pirates," "Under the Radar," "Post-Apocalypse Punk," and "Aether Shanty." Though by the lyrics, they're not nearly as good at pirating as they'd like.
108	** The hidden track on ''Lost Horizons'' ("The Ballad of Captain Robert") splits it squarely between the lifestyle being rough, and them being pretty hopeless.
109	** They even named their RPG "Airship Pirates."
110	* SpaceWestern: "Space Cowboy."
111	* {{Steampunk}}: Obviously.
112	%% Commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * {{Stripperific}}: Look at them garments.
113	* SwordCane: The person the vigilante in "Victorian Vigilante" kills has one of these.
114	* TakeThat: The song "Jealousy" from the album ''Ancient World'' is certainly this, and the song "Waiting for You," could also be considered one... Possibly at the fans.
115	* TieInNovel: The band has written a novel of stories, set in the Abney Park backstory universe.
116	* VillainSong: "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Evil Man]]." "Beautiful Decline" is one for the BigBad of the novel and RPG as well.
117	%% Commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * WanderlustSong: "Wanderlust" from ''Aether Shanties.''
118	----

Context Music / AbneyPark