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- And now, get ready to read about the most leet quartet in musical history.
Berlanti Sigma (formerly stylized as BËRLÄNTÏ SÏGMÄ) is an American meme wave or whatever band formed in Burbank, California in 2003. The band's mainstay lineup, unchanged since 2005, is composed of Mark Medley (vocals, guitar), Junior Newman (vocals, keyboard, guitar, other instruments), Halloween Meyers (bass guitar, kazoo, vocals), and LSD Parker (drums, vocals). The band's output—whose songs are known for their ridiculously edgy lyrics, "social satire", bizarre instrumentation, and terrible audio quality—is erroneously interpreted by critics as "avant-garde", and they have been credited with pioneering the meme wave genre.
Berlanti Sigma's self-titled debut studio album, released on Newgrounds Records in 2006, helped the band gain an underground following in their early days and a record deal with Virgin Records. The band's next studio album, From Under the Sex Tree (2009), went viral online because of Internet memes and widespread sampling for Bandcamp shitposts and topped the Billboard Hot 100. It was followed by the chart-toppers O RLY? (2011) and AdventureTimeGravityFalls (2013), which received substantial attention on the 4chan board /mu/ and was followed by the remix album AdventureTimeGravityFalls 1.5 (2014). Due to souring fan perception of Berlanti Sigma and intense legal disputes between the band members and Virgin, after the band came out with the compilation album BS Never Dies – Greatest Hits in 2014, they released literally nothing for something like six years, a period during which Virgin silently dismissed the band from the label.
In 2019, the band hurriedly and quietly signed with Virgin's then-sister label, 10K Projects, and secretly recorded a backlog of music. They came out with the surprise album Attack on Thailand in 2020 to mixed reviews and poor commercial reception. After joining Polydor Records, they came out with the critically acclaimed, chart-topping album Sounds 90s Kids Remember (2022), backed by the financially successful Sounds 90s Kids Remember Tour and the viral hit singles "Open Letter to Cartoon Network", "I Heart Lum the Invader Girl", "I Am Weeb for We Are Many", and "This Song Has Five Minutes". The next Berlanti Sigma album, Soul Reapers Are Hiding in My Closet Right Now, was nominated for. On November 30, 2024, Berlanti Sigma announced their eighth studio album, 100 Sigma Male Kermit Dank Meme, was released on April 11, 2025.
For Sounds 90s Kids Remember, Berlanti Sigma won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, and O RLY? was previously nominated. The band has also received an American Music Award, an MTV Europe Music Award, two Billboard Music Awards, four World Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards. The band's members have also individually played in the bands British Brothers Alternative Orchestra, Hi Concept LLC Band, Shinigami de Malibu, North Korean Social Media, and High End Low End.
History[]
2003–2006: I Have Sex, LorneHWMichaels, and early shit[]
Berlanti Sigma formed in Burbank, California in 2003. After graduating from Burbank's Jack L. Warner High School in 2003, Julius "Junior" Newman Jr. and the unfortunately named Michael "Halloween" Meyers decided to take their interest in music "seriously", recruiting Greg LeJardin and Donnie Johnson (not to be confused with Don Johnson) to play in their band, then named I Have Sex. According to Newman, the name was chosen because it made the band sound like "really popular dudes who pull bitches like magnets and get magnet with the moneys". Originally, Newman served as the band's lead singer and guitarist and Meyers played the bass guitar and provided backing vocals, while LeJardin played the drums and Johnson played the keyboard.
Despite having extremely limited resources and almost no money, the band began recording and producing songs in Newman's makeshift bedroom studio that year, resulting in a six-track demo CD titled I Have Sex in early 2004. In April 2004 came the band's first show: opening for Weezer at Dodger Stadium—which was otherwise vacant, save for a member of two of Weezer's sweaty, lonely, suburban White male fanbase in the audience and former United States President George H. W. Bush—in Los Angeles. Bush booed.
Shortly after the Dodger Stadium performance, LeJardin introduced the band to Jack McJohn, a part-time drug dealer and out-of-work former A&R executive at Arista Records, whom he interned for in college. McJohn offered to provide constructive criticism to help the band catch a major-label deal. Upon hearing I Have Sex performed McJohn was immediately interested in the band but felt they needed a "less virgin-y" name and a different lead vocalist. Tensions and frustration within the band grew after they failed to land a record deal, stalling progress and resulting in Johnson leaving the band to tour with Remy Zero or some other WB teen drama soundtrack band, so only Newman, Meyers, and LeJardin remained. LeJardin then quit the band because his nine attempts to replace Johnson with an imaginary friend, a six-foot-tall anthropomorphic penguin named Pancho, all failed, and in November 2004, he was replaced by Brock "Scarface" Brewster, who was initially recruited on a temporary basis. The band's name was changed to LorneHWMichaels, which was chosen by Meyers to represent the fact that—in McJohn's words—"even after they got booed by HW, they still had the confidence to publicly make asses of them like Lorne Michaels".
In December 2004, the month after Brewster's recruitment, McJohn recommended Mark Medley, a musician from New York who formerly played in the indie rock band My Name Is Jonah, and an up-and-coming heavy metal instrumentalist named Lucas "LSD" Parker. He suggested a new lineup in which Medley served as the lead singer and lead guitarist, Newman was the rhythm guitarist, Meyers was the keyboardist, Parker played "either the bass guitar or kazoo—maybe both", and Brewster was the band's drummer. The band almost instantly accepted Medley as "one of us". The band's demo recordings were published on MySpace in early 2005 and caught the attention of some creepy A&R guy from the Japanese record label J Storm who trolled the band on MySpace into accepting an unusual "one-time" record deal with the label and threw a "slightly off-putting" in-house producer named Johnny Kitagawa at them. The band subsequently re-recorded five of the six songs from their demo CD, replacing one song with an entirely new one, and wrote and recorded three entirely new songs thereafter. This resulted in the debut mini-LP or EP or whatever music thing LorneHWMichaels, released in March 2005. After listening to it, the band thought it sounded like ass and wanted extra time to record some of the songs "one last time", but J Storm was like "fuck you" and released it out of spite in January 2005. Growing frustrated with nobody taking them seriously, the band withdrew from the label, and Brewster left to form the heavy metal band Kill Our Father, after which Parker took over as drummer.
2005–2006: THE SIGMA IS BORN[]
- Main article: Berlanti Sigma (album)
In November 2005, the band's name was changed one last time to Berlanti Sigma, a name was conceived by Newman. The name is a reference to the short-lived rock band Ligma Sigma, which Newman cited as a major influence on the band, and television producer Greg Berlanti, the creator of the television series Everwood, which his mother was a fan of.
After the J Storm disaster, Richard Publix of Crush Management became the band's first manager. Berlanti Sigma attempted but failed to catch interest from other record labels by shipping off the band's demo CD to random record labels. Warner Bros. Records refused because they thought Medley and Newman were "creepy", Sub Pop wanted Parker dead, Def Jam Recordings couldn't decipher "what the fuck [was] going through these guys' heads", Columbia Records found the band's musical style "stupid" and asserted that Parker "look[ed] like a child predator", Blue Note Records said the band's music "wasn't jazz at all" (this is the label that brought the world Norah Jones, by the way), Sony Masterworks took issue with Meyers' existence, Fat Wreck Chords said the recordings they were submitted "weren't socialist enough", and Geffen Records' A&R executives objected to the idea of signing a "virgin band" (despite being the successor to DGC Records, the first label that signed Weezer on [no offense]). Nick Records briefly "liked" the band but thought they "lacked Dan Schneider flavor", wanted them to change their name to Schneider Sigma, and thought Schneider should be their manager. When the band refused to comply with these changes, Nick told them to fuck off. Sire Records almost signed the band on, but they already signed with another virgincore band, Nu Sounds Mafia, and the label was hoping to avoid "oversaturation". Immortal Records} offered to sign the band on, but they passed because they could "see the label's failure coming from a mile away".
However, in February 2006, McJohn was hired as a "Supervising Junior Senior Vice President" by the independent record label Newgrounds Records, a sister to the entertainment website-turned-furry porn dumping ground Newgrounds. After that, the label was "intrigued" by Berlanti Sigma. However, A&R wasn't pleased with the band's musical style and wanted them to be an alternative hip-hop quartet. McJohn told A&R to "go commit die". The label was back to liking the band. That March, Newgrounds Records offered an unusual "single-album deal" with the band, meaning Newgrounds Records would release a single album from the band, call up another label to "get them out of here as soon as possible". and release any non-album releases in the meantime. Though the deal was designed to be "convenient", it was initially refused by the band because Newgrounds' Records releases were distributed by Virgin Records, which has "Virgin" in the name. They responded by sending a vulgar email written by Newman to Newgrounds Records' owner, Tom Fulp:
IT'LL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE WE SIGN WITH A LABEL THAT LITERALLY HAS THE WORD VIRGIN IN ITS NAME! WE ARE NOT VIRGINS! WE HAVE SEX! LOTS OF SEX!! BIG SEX!!!
Fulp responded:
bro just fucking sign it already jesus fucking christ
The deal was ultimately worked out and agreed to in April 2006. Despite the band moving to Virgin Records for physical releases, the agreement allowed Newgrounds Records to handle the online releases of the band's albums.
After that, Medley and Newman's positions as songwriters were defined: Medley wrote bad words like "fuck" and "shit" while Newman wrote the rest of the song. Mark Mothersbaugh, a co-founder of the nerd band Devo who had listened to an early song by the band, called Newman at 11:00 p.m. one night and shouted, "YA WANT RECORD PRODUCERS? ME AND BOB'LL HOOK YOU UP!!" After the band agreed to have Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh produce their album, in May 2006, they headed to Studiopolis in Studio City, Los Angeles to record the album after the band and the album's production team were mistakenly given clearance, intending to rerecord three songs from LorneHWMichaels that were "more refurbished than a logo evolution" and record nine new songs. A few of the new songs on the album, such as "Your Mom Is Hot" and "Constant c Productions Theme Song", were written several years earlier, while others, like "Signal in the Toilet" and "Sagwa the Siamese Punk Rock Band", lacked finished lyrics until halfway through being recorded because Parker spent too much of his time masturbating to furry porn, leaving Meyers to finish them. Meyers ended up replacing Medley as a de facto lyricist for the time being. However, because Meyers' work often clashed with the pre-existing work, so Parker would have rework Meyers' shit. As a result of this songwriting disaster, Newman, Medley, Meyers, and Parker were all technically songwriters, so they decided to be collectively credited as Newman-Medley-Meyers-Parker before they realized how clunky that shit sounded and simply settled for being credited as Berlanti Sigma by the time recording started.
Between recording sessions, the band would erratically perform live shows at colleges, strip clubs, and car dealerships around Los Angeles County, and were booed or physically attacked at most of them. The most notable of these, according to the band, was a celebratory Independence Day show at the University of California, Los Angeles on July 4, 2006 during which someone threw a chair at Newman but missed and hit another audience member, causing a massive fistfight. Rumors that this incident led to the creation of Weezer's Black Album are unconfirmed. Recording ended later that month.
Newgrounds Records released Berlanti Sigma, the band's self-titled debut studio album, on November 3, 2006. The album was a near-instant commercial success and sold 22 million copies internationally, becoming the highest-grossing album ever released by an independent record label, a record previously held by Smash by The Offspring. Newman said in a 2022 interview that he felt bad about breaking the record because "I love that fuckin' album" and that guilt from breaking the record inspired him to join the Church of TV Tokyo. The album birthed the singles "Your Mom Is Mine", "Signal in the Toilet", and "The Sigma Is Piquing". Its release significantly expanded the band's cult following and led to the album frequently being stolen from Hot Topic stores, quickly prompting an FBI investigation that, as of 2025, has gone absolutely nowhere. On November 6, the band made their television debut performing "Your Mom Is Hot" on WWE Raw, live from the Cox (hehe, Cox) Arena in San Diego—their performance was booed by the audience of smarks despite the fact they're all also virgins like BS' fandom, and the band was met with chants of "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" and "BOTCHAMANIA!", the latter chants coming after Newman referred to John Cena as "Josh Cheerios".
2006–2009: Virginity™ and From Under the Sex Tree[]
- Main article: From Under the Sex Tree
By 2007, the band had already begun receiving "extreme levels of praise" from the media and gained exceptional popularity among emotionally unstable teenage boys. The band appeared in an episode of MTV Unplugged and were flown to New York City to perform on Late Show with David Letterman. Newman described the band's experience on the Oceanic Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport as "sexy" and "highly deserving for us". The band was crammed into a room at the Trump International Hotel and Tower that Newman said was "covered in cum stains... which, now that I think about it, were probably Donald's—and crawling with bedbugs". Reportedly, a spider tried to eat Medley's face on their last night there before Parker killed it. After three days, the band was flown back to Los Angeles. Flexing on their newfound fame, Berlanti Sigma and the Mothersbaughs returned to Studiopolis without permission and recorded four previously unused songs originally intended for Berlanti Sigma for the mixtape Zerø Life øn the Planet Øhiø, released on Newgrounds Records on May 4, 2007.
Shortly before the CD came out, Fulp started to expressed concern about the label's financial situation, as it owed "a shit ton of debt" to Virgin, and if that didn't change soon, three Newgrounds businesses would be—in Fulp's words—"broke as fuck": the label, its parent, and the Newgrounds website. As a result, Fulp began arranging a special agreement with Virgin allowing Newgrounds Records to dismiss some of its artists to Virgin. Berlanti Sigma ended up signing an unusual five-record deal or something like that with Virgin Records in March 2007, shortly after which the band started writing songs for their next studio album, then named Berlanti Sigma II. In April, Meyers started working on a side project, British Brothers Alternative Orchestra, with Parker and Pissmonster's Darryl Ivory and Kal Ellis.
The Mothersbaughs were originally set to return as producers. However, they got bored of the band's antics. As a result, Crush Management threw producer Jake Sinclair of The Films at the band, and recording started in July 2010. Numerous ridiculously long breaks were taken during the production of Berlanti Sigma II so the band could perform at live shows; Meyers and Parker could focus on their side projects; Meyers could make out with his girlfriend, Tricia Troy; Medley could make out with Meyers' girlfriend, Tricia Troy; and Newman could visit his dentist. The album's title was changed halfway through recording to From Under the Sex Tree, a reference to Fall Out Boy's From Under the Cork Tree, which Berlanti Sigma plagiarized to make their music for this album. They tried to make it seem less suspicious by giving their album a darker, more abrasive sound inspired by the death metal, metalcore, industrial metal, manic depressive, and amyloidosis genres. Newman wrote in his autobiography, Newman: The New Man, that after recording ended in September 2008, he considered quitting the band because it was stressful, but ultimately chose to stay for the money and attention.
From Under the Sex Tree's release was preceded by the promotional single and "2009 (and I'm Doing Just Fine)" and heavy advertising on Facebook and Twitter. The album was released on March 20, 2009 to commercial and critical success because late 2000s alternative rock, immediately peaking at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being certified octuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also sampled a bunch for Bandcamp shitposts, which may have contributed to its success. The album produced the single "Sesame Street Is on Fire and I Can't Put It Out", which peaked on the Billboard 200 and the UK singles chart and received widespread critical acclaim. The album won Favorite Pop/Rock Album at the 37th American Music Awards.
2009–2011: O RLY?[]
- Main article: O RLY?
In January 2009, Berlanti Sigma fired Publix as manager. Now left without a manager, Parker enlisted his childhood friend, Sam Samson, as their assistant and de facto manager. This was followed by lots of live performing.
Per Samson's request, the band joined the 2009 Warped Tour and performed at the sold-out Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles on February 17, 2009. The following day, the band held a one-off concert at the Earl Carroll Theatre in Hollywood. On February 25, the band performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and on February 27, the band performed From Under the Sex Tree in its entirety at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. Finally, on March 3, they played at the Hollywood Theater. All of this live performing negatively affected the band members: Medley caught a cold from some old jagoff sneezing on him, Newman caught chlamydia from drunken sex with a random fan, Meyers ended up with bird flu, and Parker caught a mild case of brain cancer. During a last-minute second performance at the Hollywood Knickerbocker hotel, Medley reportedly vomited in the middle of performing. Things we're looking really bad. In April, the band agreed to "split up" for a few months—ultimately four—without formally disbanding, focusing on getting better and helping each other recover. During this time, Meyers and Parker drastically recovered and recorded British Brothers Alternative Orchestra's debut studio album, No Lite at le Tunnels End. The band awkwardly reunited at an out-of-the-way Burger King in Tequesta, Florida in August 2009.
In December 2009, Meyers' father, Jacob Meyers, abruptly suffered an excruciatingly unpleasant heart attack and died in the middle of taking a piss on his neighbors' lawn. As a result, Meyers took a break from band activities to visit his parents in Glendale and attend Jacob Meyers' funeral. During this time, Meyers fell into a deep depression, started shutting himself inside, began experimenting with music, and wound up writing 800,000 songs in two days. These songs each featured deeply personal lyrics and commentary on subjects such as life, death, grief, loss, rage, the Nintendo 64, 1990s Nickelodeon, media consolidation, Stone Temple Pilots, Love Spit Love, Radiohead, and Pokémon.
After Meyers returned to Burbank, he introduced a few of his songs to his bandmates, who were fascinated by their subject matter—which Newman described as "angst-driven, emotional, passionate... and really fuckin' boring." Newman spent an hour loudly berating Meyers, which led to Meyers entering a physical altercation with Newman that Meyers won purely due to rage. Medley and Parker, who observed the fight from afar, agreed that both Meyers songs and Newman's reaction were sources of massive outrage. Medley concluded that the third studio album should be filled with "raw, angry, outrageous lyrics that would be so bad that no one would ever shut up about how bad they are, hypothetically drawing attention to Berlanti Sigma!"
And thus, O RLY? was born.
Songwriting officially started in April 2010. The band devised a plan where a few lyrics from Meyers' "sad sap mopey mope music" would be included in each song in addition to new deliberately offensive, politically incorrect new lyrics mostly penned by Medley and Newman. Parker had lost interest in songwriting for much of the songwriting process and thus only contributed lyrics to the songs "Radiohead Can Kiss This Ass" and "CALL ME UNICORN BECAUSE I AM HORNY". Recording began in May 2010 after Ocasek and the band broke into Westbeach Recorders in Hollywood, Los Angeles. However, the studio was permanently closed in the middle of recording the album's first song to avoid future incidents. As a result, the remainder of the album was recorded and mixed at Utility Muffin Research Kitchen in Los Angeles, while additional recording took place in a RV parked outside a Wienerschnitzel in Oxnard. Recording ended in September 2010.
O RLY? was released on January 21, 2011. The album was the subject of controversy and public scrutiny due to its violent, vulgar, and sexually explicit lyrics despite it being just as edgy as the band's previous work. It received mixed reviews from critics upon its release, many of whom criticized the album's gloomy, abrasive sound and low audio quality. It debuted at #2 the Billboard 200, the UK Albums Chart, the Dutch Album Top 100, and the Norwegian VG-lista. The singles "CALL ME UNICORN BECAUSE I AM HORNY" and "2008 Election Meme You Tweeted Too Late" were #2 hits in the United States, and the former peaked at #1 on the UK singles chart. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, but didn't win. An O RLY? tour was originally set to kick off in February, but was ultimately canceled. Because 2020s music journalism, however, the album has been retrospectively acclaimed for its "daring" material, its "challenging of sociopolitical norms", and faux-emo White girls' overuse of "2008 Election Meme You Tweeted Too Late" as background music in their TikTok videos. In May 2022, it was ranked #3 on CNN's list of the Top 100 Albums They Shouldn't Have Let Us Rank.
2011–2013: AdventureTimeGravityFalls[]
- Main article: AdventureTimeGravityFalls
After Adventure Time premiered during the making of O RLY? in 2010, Gravity Falls premiered in 2012. This Will be important information, trust me.
Anyway, the band spent most of March 2011 on the road, performing at various venues across Los Angeles County, most of which were selected by Samson just mom-and-pop shops or low-end restaurants. The band sought to venture to other parts of California, but Medley and Newman needed to stay in the county to work on filing corporate shit for their record label, Zero BS Records. The band would later hold a one-off concert at Disneyland that virtually nobody attended, after which they decided "fuck live shit" and refocused on getting another recording out. Within two days, the band members ended up writing 75 songs of varying styles, ranging from pop rock to hard rock to death metal to emo. After reviewing all 75, the band realized they all sounded like crap, which resulted in them mashing and condensing them into 12 songs.
On April 13, 2012, the band returned to live performances, appearing once again on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On April 20, they performed at the Outdoor Theatre at Coachella. And finally, on April 21, Medley drunkenly scream-sang the O RLY? song "Turtle Doves Sound Like Fake-Ass Animals" from O RLY? outside the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, after which he was arrested, though he was quickly let go after Newman clarified it was a "misunderstanding".
On June 15, 2012, Newman watched the premiere of Gravity Falls live on Disney Channel and went fucking nuts. The day after, he approached his bandmates and screamed, "YO WHAT IS UP YOU GUYS HAVE YOU HEARD OF THIS SHOW CALLED GRAVITY FALLS IT'S A CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE YOU GOTTA WATCH IT ALSO FUCK YOU MARK YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU GETTING ARRESTED OUTSIDE THE PLAYBOY MANSION GOOFY ASS MARK OH MY GAWD!!!!" Medley was unamused. Meyers simply asked, "Is it anything like Adventure Time?" This launched an entire conversation between Newman and Meyers about cartoons they liked. They concluded that Adventure Time and Gravity Falls were "almost as good as porn" and they decided to record an entire album about those shows. Parker expressed nervousness: "Don't you think that idea is a little far-fetched?" However, he was on board after Meyers threatened to kill him.
The band spent the remainder of June reworking the lyrics of their 12 songs to include a bunch of references to Adventure Time and Gravity Falls in an attempt to make what Newman called "a tribute album". In addition to those shows, the decided to sprinkle in references to other basic cable kids' cartoons, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Code Lyoko, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom, and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. However, this approach didn't sit well with Medley, who thought the songs sounded "choppy" and "ham-handed", and wanted to write entirely new songs. The rest of the band disagreed and wanted his head on a pike. Ultimately, most of the songs were rewritten from scratch, the only exception being Parker's "Finn and/or Jake". Meyers and Newman argued with Medley and Parker over the title of the album, the former half wanting it to be Kable Kartoons for the SöuL and the latter half wanting it to be Stupid Løvely Melødy from Hirsch and the Land øf Øøø. Samson recommended a somewhat unrelated compromise: AdventureTimeGravityFalls. The band ultimately agreed.
In November 2012, Sinclair and Samson helped Berlanti Sigma break into Hollywood's EastWest Studios, and the started recording AdventureTimeGravityFalls. However, because the facilities had been mostly occupied by more famous bands at that point, the band was relegated to recording in a small storage room informally referred to as "Studio Nothing". Most of the songs' lyrics weren't finished at the time recording started and were "figured out on the way" by the band, and the band couldn't figure out the album's musical style. However, as they recorded, they ended up implementing an improvisational indie rock style in line with their debut album. Halfway through recording, Medley yeeted an entire song, "The Great Tale of Grunkle Stan", because he thought it sounded mid, and he and Parker quickly wrote "Finn and Dipper (Head in the Sand)" as a replacement. By the time recording ended in January 2013, news and leaked details about the album's development had quickly spread around the Internet, especially on 4chan's /mu/ board, where many pedophiles and alt-right idiots are dumped to congregate about music.
In celebration of the existence of weed, AdventureTimeGravityFalls was released on April 20, 2013 to positive reception from both actual people and music critics. The album caught the attention of Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward and Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch, who both praised it as the greatest album of all time because self-absorbed "I peaked in the 2010s" animators, and was met with positive reactions from critics. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 and stayed there for like the rest of the year, and also debuted atop the UK Albums Chart, Oricon Albums Chart, and Top 100 México. Additionally, the album was a top 5 hit in literally every other country it was released in. It was certified "infinituple platinum" by the RIAA. The album spawned the singles "Finn and Dipper (Head in the Sand)", "More AOL Time Warner Than Anything", and "Carl Wheezer Sends Cindy to the Shadow Realm", all three being top 10 hits in the United States and United Kingdom. Despite the rest of the world liking the album, Berlanti Sigma's fandom was not pleased, many of whom accused the band of selling out. On June 1, 2013, the band's first remix album, AdventureTimeGravityFalls 1.5, was released, featuring a remix of each song from the original album by a different artist.
To promote the album, the band embarked on the AdventureTimeGravityFalls Tour, which included dates in the United States and Canada. However, the constant touring schedule became difficult for the band due to fans' negative opinions about the band. "Any time we performed a song from the record, we were speedrunning getting booed out of the venue", Newman said in a 2020 podcast interview. "I fucking hated that shit. Fucking sucked. Fuck." The tour was ultimately cut two weeks short to allow the band time to "decompress"—and rethink their decisions up to that point, as public perception was evolving for the worse.
2013–2014: The Great Betrayal and Virgin Records bullshit[]
The Urban Dictionary defines the Great Betrayal as "[t]he sudden change in the public perception of Berlanti Sigma circa 2013, occurring after the release of the album "AdventureTimeGravityFalls".
After the AdventureTimeGravityFalls Tour ended, the band would perform at various venues around Greater Los Angeles and get booed at every last one of them. During a performance in San Bernardino, one angry "ex-fan", 29-year-old Donald Wasserman, threw a chair at Newman's head, which he says "really fucking traumatized" him. Wasserman was charged with attempted murder. The incident was widely covered by unreliable sources, many of them calling it "the most unhinged moment in rock music history". Berlanti Sigma would perform at concerts where other bands were also playing, and they would be the only band to receive any negative audience reaction. Medley has said that after performances, he would have breakdowns in restrooms, sobbing and gnawing on toilet paper to cope.
Despite the bad reception, Virgin Records wanted the band to continue performing live, one executive calling it "good-ass press". The band subsequently announced a one-month cross-country with PVRIS, Foo Fighters, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which took place from June to July 2013. At the end of the tour, Newman had a panic attack, collapsed on the stage, and was rushed to a hospital. In August 2013, the band filed a $25 million lawsuit against Virgin Records and its parent, Universal Music Group, alleging that the attack was the result of over-touring, which itself was a direct result of Virgin forcing them to keep going to shows, and that Universal was complicit in the torture. Virgin sought to file a countersuit because "nuh-uh". However, the label was ultimately ordered by the Supreme Court of California to pay each individual member of Berlanti Sigma $50 billion and Newman's medical expenses. In the California Court of Appeals for the Second District, Virgin filed its countersuit, which was rejected, and the label was ordered to pay $20 to Berlanti Sigma.
In September 2013, Newman angrily took a break from performing with the band and formed a side project, Hi Concept LLC Band, with Sxwthfrnds' Gabriel Gaye and Kirk Longjohn. Virgin, looking for an excuse to get revenge, attempted to sue Newman for "being in a non-Virgin virgincore musical group whilst Berlanti Sigma remains to Virgin Records". The suit was thrown out for being dumb as hell, and Virgin was fined $200,000 by the state of California for wasting everyone's time.
the band was growing increasingly annoyed of Virgin's antics and regretted signing with a label literally called Virgin. On February 8, 2014, they came out with a greatest hits compilation, BS Never Dies – Greatest Hits, announced alongside its release that they were going on hiatus "for our collective sake, and for Junior's".
The Sigma was vanishing.
2014–2019: The Sigma vanishes[]
By the time the break began, Medley had gained 90 pounds and was the heaviest he had ever been, and he and Meyers had both loathed Berlanti Sigma's emo" image. Meyers had begun smoking weed before the hiatus—which resulted Troy, his fiancée, breaking their engagement off, legally changing her name to Aberdeen Nirvana Cobain, and moving to Montesano, Washington. Parker caught brain cancer again. And, last but not least, Newman fell into a "deep state of state of sadness" that led to him having the interior and exterior of his house painted black and listening to Stabbing Westward's "What Do I Have to Do?" on loop for up to four hours a day.
During the hiatus, the band members each pursued individual musical interests, which were met with "varying degrees of ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES".
Medley met Family Guy's Nick Napalm, I Hate You as a Friend's Michelle Lubbock, and Passwords member Reed Reefer and formed the supergroup Shinigami de Malibu, who released the surprise EP Red Blood Heals Visual Artists EP in 2015. They then rushed the production of their self-titled debut album, Shinigami de Malibu, and released it later that year. The band performed at the 2016 Coachella and was cheered on an insane amount, inspiring them to come up with a second album, Shinigami de Malibu II, which was released in 2017. Around the time that album was released, Medley also unsuccessfully sought a solo career, hindering his effort on the band's third album, Shinigami de Malibu III. The album was released in 2019 and fucking failed. The band tried touring with Every Time I Die before that band rejected their existence and sent a death threat email to Medley.
Meyers and Parker returned to focusing on British Brothers Alternative Orchestra, which included recording BBAO's second album, U, Urself & Blasphemous Antics, was released in January 2015 to critical and commercial success. The band would then go on an equally successful cross-country tour before returning to studio work to record the 2017 EP Spiders lay 3gg5 in my head EP, which was released in 2017. The band's third studio album, Vmvzon Rnfrst, was released in 2018 to commercial failure and mixed-to-negative critical reception. In May 2018, BBAO hitched a piggyback ride on what was supposed to be a Foo Fighters–Weezer joint tour (don't ask) and got booed out of every venue. They have since broken up.
Newman continued his pre-existing work with Hi Concept LLC Band, who debuted with the studio album Have a Little to No Faith in March 2015. While that album was a critical success, it commercially failed in most countries, the only exception being Serbia, where they were exceptionally popular for some reason. A short North American tour by the band unfolded for two weeks in April, and only in the United States; the tour was cut short after Newman got bored of it. The entire band experienced sudden creative burnout and went on a short break. They released the EP Record to Get You Thru Your Day and End Your W0rld in May 2017, and in September 2018, they came out with the album HBO TV Listings 17 January 2009 9:00 p.m.. Earlier, in July 2015, Newman had started a heavy metal project, High End Low End, with Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Efrim Menuck. They came out with the studio albums The World Is Sad Like a Daytime Soap Opera in August 2016 and Shut U Downer in March 2018 before disbanding because Menuck annoyed Newman. Newman then returned to focusing on Hi Concept LLC Band.
Despite the hiatus, Newman, Meyers, and Parker still kept in touch with each other via text messages and, after its launch, on Discord. Newman and Meyers reunited in person for the first time in 2018, when Newman was the best man Meyers' wedding. Parker and Newman viewed the hiatus as, all things considered, "pretty fuckin' cool". "That break was a necessary part of the Sigma's evolution", Parker told ABC News' David Muir in a restroom at a Golden Corral in Schenectady, New York in 2020. "It really helped us figure out who we are as a band and who we need to be: the most based band in rock history."
Feeling extremely down on their luck, starting in winter 2018, Newman, Meyers, and Parker would meet up from time to time to loiter outside some random-ass Virgin Records office in Los Angeles and do skateboard trucks or some non-musical shit like that. At one point during one of these "Sk8 Meets", Newman asked, "Is there a chance we can grab Mark and get the band back together?"
"Probably not," Parker answered.
"Nope," said Meyers.
2019–2020: THE SIGMA RETURNS (and Attack on Thailand)[]
- Main article: Attack on Thailand
Everything changed when the I Need a Down Payment on a Condo Nation attacked.
In January 2019, Newman called Medley in the middle of the night to check up on him. "You haven't texted me in a few months and I'm... kinda worried", Newman said. "Last I heard is that you were begging to get money for a down payment on a condo in Del Mar. If you wanna meet up, bro, just say the word." This initiated a full conversation between them, their first in a few months. Later that month, they met in person for the first time since 2014 at a Waffle House in Lancaster, California, where a swarm of tabloid journalists and Berlanti Sigma fans bombarded them. After that meeting, the media began speculating that Berlanti Sigma were finally back together, Inside Edition specifically speculating that they were "finally reuniting after they were dropped by Virgin Records".
"Virgin did WHAT?!" exclaimed Medley.
Newman called that Los Angeles Virgin office from before and got in touch with a representative named Letitia, who transferred him to another representative named Carlos, who transferred him to LL Cool J, who screamed "NO DIGGITY, NO DOUBT" and transferred him back to Carlos, who obviously intended to ship him off to another Virgin Records fart but hit the wrong button and accidentally transferred him to Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, who said flat out, "Oh, yeah. Virgin's done with you guys."
That February, Samson organized a meetup for the entire band for the first time since 2015, and—to the ominously playing tune of "DVNO" by Justice—they marched down to Virgin Records' Los Angeles office. Newman kicked in the doors and shouted, "WHO DO I TALK TO ABOUT GETTING DROPPED THE FUCK OUT?!" Strange looks were given to our four heroes, but no one answered... except one guy, an archivist named Kyle Winkler who pointed them to an office "down the hall [and] to the left". In that office, they found Grainge, spinning a swivel chair that he stopped in front of them to simply say, "IT'S OVER. GO THE FUCK HOME." And Newman did just that: he went the fuck home. Then he called a lawyer, who then called Virgin just to say, "See you in court." That April, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered Virgin Records to pay the band $1 million in damages or some legal shit like that.
Throughout March and April, Newman and Medley would songwriting sessions and "pop out five to six ideas per session"—only to abandon much of their output because it was "cringe" and awkward. "Writing those songs with Junior, I felt like I was having sex with a lover I hadn't seen in centuries immediately after reuniting with her", said Medley to no one on PBS NewsHour in 2021. In May, these sessions expanded to include the whole band, after which they started "cooking with fucking gas!" By July, these sessions had brought—not counting the shit they immediately trashed—over 100 songs, many reworked from songs the four discarded throughout their collective career, and discussed what they could compile into a studio album.
In August 2019, Parker called Sinclair, who was on the toilet at the time, and screamed at him to "HELP US GET COOKIN' AGAIN I NEED A DOWN PAYMENT ON A CONDO AND NEED THE MOOLAH TO DO IT WAAAAAAAAAA—". Sinclair subsequently declined the offer and sued Parker for "$1 plus [his] legal fees" for "making my eardrums go 'nahhh, bro' and fall the fuck outta my head". The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Later that month, Parker dined out with a Grainge of a different kind: Elliot Grainge, founder of the locally based record label 10K Projects. After the two had a brief but wholesome conversation, Xanax, and rough sex, Grainge scheduled a meeting with the entire band for the following month. At the meeting, the band silently stared at Grainge for two hours before he responded, "Whatever." Then everyone signed a bunch of documents and shit. It was boring. I hate talking about it. Ugh. Anyway, in October, Grainge called Parker to say that 10K Projects had signed the band on for "a studio album and whatever other music crap" on a trial basis. During this period, Parker would appear in interviews to assure the media that "the Sigma is not coming back, so shut the fuck up". In November, 10K Projects got the band a distribution agreement with Universal's Japanese label Universal D. The side projects wouldn't be ignored, of course. Hi Concept LLC Band performed for the final time at Alienstock in Rachel, Nevada in September before disbanding, Meyers and Parker attempted to reform BBAO but quickly gave up, and Medley just did whatever the hell he does.
In December 2019, Grainge got Berlanti Sigma in touch with record producer Rick Rubin, who agreed to produce the band's next album. Grainger, Rubin, and the band all ended up signing an unusual contract that swore all of them to secrecy, meaning that nobody could know the band reunited or was continuing work at all to any degree until the release of their album for any reason at all ever. After that, Rubin and the band headed to Prairie Sun Recording Studios in Cotati, California to begin recording the new album, then nicknamed "the Comeback Album". During recording, the band sought to maintain the sound of their debut album: mid-budget pop rock with mostly improvised instrumentation. A total of six songs were recorded there, with six more being recorded at Utility Muffin Research Kitchen. At the end of production in February 2020, the album was titled Attack on Thailand. In 2021, Newman explained that he came up with the title partially in reference to the anime Attack on Titan, but also in reference to "how many of the album's lyrics sound like the audio equivalent to femboy spam, and femboys are a really big deal in Thailand. It's, like, the only openly gay part of Southeast Asia, dude."
Attack on Thailand was released on February 8, 2020 to substantial attention from tabloids and politically biased news websites, many noting the "absolute fucking randomness" of the band's return, but received mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom accused it of being a reskin of LorneHWMichaels and the band's debut album. Despite the media attention, Attack on Thailand barely cracked the Billboard 200, peaking at #200 on that chart and #50 of 50 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart. In Spain, however, is he album peaked at #3 on the Top 100 Álbumes chart. Though the album was a commercial failure and unable to appease critics, it received unanimous acclaim from the band's fans, many of whom saw it as "a return to the band's original sound, but with a sexy, modern twist" and returned to gushing over Newman. Due to the commercial failure of Attack on Thailand, the band was dismissed from 10K Projects.
A joint tour between Berlanti Sigma and Have a Nice Life across the country was scheduled to begin in April 2020. In late February, however, it ended up being called off because the COVID-19 pandemic hit. All live performances scheduled for 2020 ended up being canceled because of the pandemic and "#staythefuckhome" and all that 2020 goodness. Out of boredom and seeking more attention, Berlanti Sigma announced the launch of an official Discord server called Berlanti Sigma Discord in November 2020, which gained 585 members within its first 24 hours.
2020–2022: Sounds 90s Kids Remember[]
- Main article: Sounds 90s Kids Remember
The COVID-19 pandemic ended up being reflected in the band's music because why wouldn't it?
In November 2020, Newman reunited with Gaye to record and asked Gaye if he wanted to "record something" with him. In December, Berlanti Sigma and Sxwthfrnds remotely recorded an eight-track split EP of sappy, pandemic-inspired songs about loneliness, depression, homicide, homicide investigations, Millennial nostalgia, Millennial angst, anime, manga, and KFC. Their EP, 262,179 Sad Little Anime Girls as of December 1st, was under Zero BS Records as a download on Bandcamp and SoundCloud on February 20, 2021 to generally positive reception from critics for its "down-to-earth", "accessible" distribution and allusions and callbacks to what old people call "simpler times", and fans of both bands were ecstatic about and sexually excited by the collaboration. In March, the bands held a one-off concert at the North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre before being chased out by security, and throughout April, Berlanti Sigma toured across Los Angeles with Norah Jones, Nine Inch Nails, and AC/DC. The band attempted to enter Head in the Clouds Festival, but were forbidden from "as much as attend[ing] the festival" because they're not Asian. On September 12, Berlanti Sigma and Sxwthfrnds made a surprise appearance at Pitchfork Music Festival 2021 in Union Park, Chicago, Illinois. Upon returning to California later that month, Berlanti Sigma worked out a record deal with yet another UMG label, Polydor Records.
During their travels, the band started composing songs for their sixth studio album. Noting the success of that split EP with Sxwthfrnds, Newman suggested that they should exploit sadness and poor for profit and entertainment value by filling the album's songs with depressing lyrics and styles of instrumentation. The band wrote sixteen total songs before coming back to Los Angeles to figure out what they wanted to appear in the album. Most of the songs focused on similar subject matter to 262,179 Sad Little Anime Girls as of December 1st, specifically with regards to the songs focusing on loneliness, Millennial nostalgia, and anarchy like that EP, but also on the pain of adulthood and the band's love for Japanese popular culture. The band ended up indirectly writing what Medley called "this big alternate-timeline story" across the songs.
Newman called Rubin to yell at him about how he "need[ed]" to produce the new album, but Rubin declined because his deal with the band was for one album only. Word got around music industry about the album's production, however, and a production deal was ultimately signed with Sean O'Keefe in December 2021. Shortly before recording began, the band reached their final decision on the new album's content: ten of the songs would be recorded for the album and the other six would be saved for a mixtape later. In addition to O'Keefe, the band invited record producers DJ Nu-Mark, Neal Avron, Mustard (LOL), and Nigel Godrich. Newman suggested a significant departure from the band's previous work: opting for a sound more inspired by alternative dance and rap rock, with emphasis on the electric guitar, sampling, and turntablism, in similar vein to EMF's Schubert Dip, particularly "Unbelievable". The band ended up "grinding" during album's production, and as a result, it was fully recorded, mixed, edited, mastered, etc. within the span of two months. Only after production ended did they name it Sounds 90s Kids Remember, which Medley described as "emphasizing the vivid Millenial and 1990s nostalgia vibe and definitely not baiting the chronically online into buying it". The band collaborated on individual songs with rappers LL Cool J, J-Hope, and Mike Shinoda.
After the band finished recording their album, they recorded the remaining six songs for a promotional mixtape, Animēshon før the New Høllywøød Hills, which was released on May 6, 2022 to critical acclaim and a #199 spot on the Billboard 200. After the band released the promotional single "An Open Letter to Cartoon Network" in July 2022, Sounds 90s Kids Remember was released on September 24, 2022. The album was a #1 hit on the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart. The album received obligatory critical acclaim for its musical style, production, themes, and existence and was widely cited as the band's "great comeback" and playing a key role in the Great Meme Wave Revival of the 2020s. The album has spawned three hit singles: "I Heart Lum the Invader Girl", "I Am Weeb for We Are Many", and "This Song Has Five Minutes"—all top 10 hits in the United States. Similarly to how "2008 Election Meme You Tweeted Too Late" went viral as TikTok background music, "I Heart Lum the Invader Girl" went viral thanks to its use as background music in cringy TikTok and YouTube Shorts videos and for anime music videos. In October 2022, the band launched a North American Sounds 90s Kids Remember Tour, consisting of 12 dates across California, Nevada, New Jersey, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. In November. The band was joined along the way by LL Cool J and fellow rap legends Kendrick Lamar and Ice-T and multi-instrumentalists Tyler Joseph from Twenty One Pilots and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead. The tour concluded back in Los Angeles in December 2022, a month earlier than originally intended, due to Samson testing positive for COVID-19.
At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024, Sounds 90s Kids Remember unexpectedly won Best Rock Album, which Medley called "our biggest achievement ever in the history of literally everything in the universe". It also won the American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album.
2023: Soul Reapers Are Hiding in My Closet Right Now[]
- Main article: Soul Reapers Are Hiding in My Closet Right Now
On January 11, 2023, Newman announced on Berlanti Sigma Discord that the band had begun writing music for Berlanti Sigma's seventh studio album: "Hey, @Peasant! Berlanti Sigma is proud to announce that we're writing songs for a new album! After spending so much time touring, it's nice to go back to just sitting around and crafting new tunes. Also, fuck you @TITTYDESTROYER69. Fucking freeloader." The next day, Medley engaged in a Reddit AMA to answer questions about the band's "exciting journey to the year 2023". Most of the commenters were simply self-described "based redpilled gigachad[s]" who told indivdual members of the band to kill the others and then themselves. During the AMA, Medley revealed that Avron would be producing the album, and that the album would feature collaborations with rappers Chali 2na and Fat Bobby Jones. By March, recording was underway on the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Studios.
2024–present: 100 Sigma Male Kermit Dank Meme[]
- Main article: 100 Sigma Male Kermit Dank Meme
Discography[]
- Main article: Berlanti Sigma discography
- les studio albums
- Berlanti Sigma (2005)
- From Under the Sex Tree (2009)
- O RLY? (2011)
- AdventureTimeGravityFalls (2013)
- Attack on Thailand (2020)
- Sounds 90s Kids Remember (2022)
- Soul Reapers Are Hiding in My Closet Right Now (2023)
- 100 Sigma Male Kermit Dank Meme (2025)