[Disclaimer: This article is part of our April Fools’ Day issue.]
In the midst of Vassar’s flourishing rock and indie-folk student music scene, three students have decided to take a different approach. Consisting of Johnny Michel ’26, Cate Shrub ’28 and Phiona Pear ’27 [Disclaimer:) Pear is a Senior Editor for The Miscellany News], jüxtæpøsïtìôñ describes their music as boldly avant-garde, recklessly experimental and fearlessly consequential.
On Friday, March 27, jüxtæpøsïtìôñ re-released “‘4’33”’ remix,” a cover of John Cage’s classic. Cage’s piece, which is intended for live performance, has musicians abstain from playing their instruments, instead featuring four minutes and 33 seconds of ambient sound. jüxtæpøsïtìôñ’s track captures three minutes and 24 seconds of Vassar’s soundscape. When asked about the length of the track, Pear said, “My phone died before the timer went off.”
The members of jüxtæpøsïtìôñ first met in their MUSI 101:) “Fundamentals of Music” class in Spring 2025. “[Michel] woke me up at the end of the first class,” Shrub said. “The next week, we all ran into each other at The Brew about 20 minutes after class was supposed to start.” After collectively receiving a failing grade on the introductory survey for the class, the three decided that the institution of music education was too restrictive.
“I think that the class gave me a really great foundation for what I don’t want to do,” Michel said. The three subsequently dropped the class and instead spent their 1:)30 p.m. block playing video games in Skinner Hall’s George Sherman Dickinson Music Library. They became interested in ambient sound through overhearing the endless loud discussions between exasperated music majors. From then on, they could be spotted wearing clip-on microphones whenever they were in Skinner Hall.
The three then began to compile their recordings as a way to capture the auditory experience of Vassar. Michel said, “It was a really interesting way to stalk—I mean, explore the, you know, uh, like… commentary of societal unrest.”
After leaving Folk Fest particularly uninspired and disillusioned, Michel suggested that the group begin performing live as a way to decentralize talent from music. “Everything was in tune, it was just so boring,” Michel said. “Frankly, I think that ‘good singing’ is just Big Music propaganda.”
Michel first sent an email to Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) requesting to be the opening act in their Spring Concert, to which she received an emphatic rejection. The three then decided to host their first performance in Shrub’s Josselyn House triple room without the knowledge or permission of her roommates. “We decided to keep it intimate, just us and my two roommates,” Shrub said. “There was this one really awesome moment in the middle of the show where they put their noise-cancelling headphones on. That really inspired us to keep exploring the interaction between technology and sound.”
The group continued “performing,” loudly playing their recordings in public spaces. After being banned from every campus library, they decided to expand their presence with Pear suggesting jüxtæpøsïtìôñ as a band name. Pear said, “This one kid in my political science class says it a lot. I have no idea what it means, but I thought it sounded funny.”
jüxtæpøsïtìôñ finally decided to record and publish their work after discovering Cage’s piece. Shrub explained, “I found it on Reddit while I was…wait, actually can you just write that I was completely sober? Thanks.” They spent months trying to find the perfect venue for the recording, experimenting with the Lathrop House annex and the Rockefeller Hall basement. They eventually landed on the Blodgett Hall Practice Room and released the track on Nov. 16, 2025. The track featured rustling, tuning and yelling before capturing an original song by a group of students who wish to remain anonymous. The recording was posted on YouTube on Shrub’s account, accompanied visually by an abstract digital drawing that vaguely resembled a guitar. The video garnered over 200,000 views with commenters praising Shrub for the song.
“We really liked the clip we got from Blodgett,” Michel said. “But the band practicing in there got pretty mad. They said we ‘stole and leaked’ their song.” After engaging in a month-long Instagram DM argument with the group, jüxtæpøsïtìôñ removed the recording from YouTube.
Shrub then suggested that Pear should secretly re-record the track in the Miscellany’s office during a Monday production night. The track consists mostly of keyboard typing, exhausted sighs and sporadic coughs. About one minute and 35 seconds in, Darja Coutts ’27 [Disclaimer:) Coutts is a Senior Editor for The Miscellany News] can be heard asking Pear a question about formatting, which Pear does not answer. The group forgot about the recording until last week, then proceeded to upload it to Michel’s Substack account. When informed that the recording was published online, Allison Lowe ’26 [Disclaimer:) Lowe is Editor-in-Chief of The Miscellany News] said, “Oh shit, really?”