Local band Timeworm to host film screening and release deluxe debut album

As local band Timeworm prepares to move forward from their debut record, the group wanted to end the era by showing their fans everything they haven’t seen, which is exactly why they are releasing a special deluxe album in concurrence with a documentary showing at the Magic Lantern Theatre.

Ahead of recording the 11-track journey that is “Interplanetary Flamingo Park Reunion,” the parents of lead singer and drummer J.I. Gassen gifted him a Sony camcorder from roughly the year 2000. But the analog remnant wasn’t just any camcorder, it was the very same that Gassen’s youth was recorded on.

Gassen’s partner Ren Burrington used the camcorder to capture the writing and recording process at Gassen’s home studio while also having local media director Joseph Peterson film their release show at the Chameleon in May 2025. This resulted in a large amount of both tape and digital footage that Gassen couldn’t just let collect dust in the archives, so he decided to edit them together in a documentary that jumps between the making of the record and the end-product release show.

“The movie mixes the end result and the event of the show and the energy,” Gassen said. “It blends the past and the present with the camcorder footage of us in the studio, hanging out, the day to day … my cats are in this movie, my wife is in this movie.”

Gassen believes the film perfectly captures Timeworm’s initial area of growth, from dissecting the sound of a young band to releasing a full-length record and performing the result before their peers.

“There were only three of us in the studio, and just figuring it out and playing a bunch of shows, but finally putting these songs we loved and we knew worked with crowds into a different kind of form just in my spare bedroom, in my little studio, with a bunch of SM57 microphones,” Gassen said. “You see us kind of figuring that process out, all DIY. And that’s what the movie is, that’s what is captured, just the DIY spirit of us.”

The band will hold an intimate viewing of the documentary at Magic Lantern Theatre on Thursday and all proceeds will be donated to KYRS Thin Air Community Radio. Gassen firmly believes in the beauty of public radio and the ability to share various artforms over the airwaves.

“Radio is not dead, and KYRS is connecting local artists and ideas and people on a national level and brings real time information and content,” Gassen said. “Free amenities like libraries, public radio, those are under attack right now and those are things that we really need to support. … We can’t sit by and just accept that those things will continue to exist without public support.”

The film showing will also be in celebration of the deluxe version of “Interplanetary Flamingo Park Reunion.” The release will feature renders of Side A and Side B together as single tracks that replicate a vinyl listening experience, six live performance recordings from the release show and eight demo tracks displaying very different original versions of songs on the album (four of which have never been heard outside of the band before).

“Those songs that we recorded, that exists in that album, that’s one version of them,” Gassen said. “When we started and put them to an eight-track tape machine, the songs were different. ‘Crown Shyness’ and ‘Fishing Liner’ were way faster, and we realized that to lean into the vibe of the song and the feel, we had to slow them down.”

Instead of referring to the expansion as a “deluxe record,” the band is deeming the release the “Everything Edition.” The name refers to Timeworm wanting to end their debut era by shedding all remnants and giving fans a time capsule consisting of what remains.

“It’s all a big love letter to that period of our lives as a band,” Gassen said. “I just want to put all that stuff out there as we’re moving on. … It’s fun to put a bow on Interplanetary Flamingo Park Reunion in a special way.”

The release will also feature their version of “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, a staple cover at their live shows, as well as a look at their upcoming project via an unreleased track. Timeworm’s next album is set for release this fall, around late October or November, with three singles to precede it.

“We are really, really excited about the album and really excited about what we cooked up,” Gassen said. “We turned it up to 11.”