WHAT IS WALLSOCKET?
Wallsocket is an album and ARG released by artist April Harper Grey, also known as Underscores. The album was released on September 22nd, 2023, and a director’s cut was released on June 28th, 2024 which features four extra songs not shown on the original album.
This shrine is going to be dedicated to the timeline, ARG and story that surrounds the album of Wallsocket by Underscores.
The specific shrine for the album is
here.
Majority of what I was able to find about the ARG and timeline was found using the Wall"Doc"et, big thanks to the creators of it! There were many details that I would have missed without it. Several images used in the timeline section can be found in the Wall"Doc"et!
CONTENT WARNING: THERE WILL BE MENTIONS OF GROOMING, DEATH, GUN VIOLENCE, SUICIDE, STALKING. BE AWARE!
LIST OF IMPORTANT CHARACTERS IN THE WALLSOCKET UNIVERSE
Name
Significance
Other Notes
April Harper Grey aka Underscores
"Mysterious musician" of Wallsocket.
Visited Wallsocket, observed the town and didn't directly engage with characters.
S*nny Domingo
One of the main characters in Wallsocket, daughter of Joshua Domingo.
Transgender girl. The story of Wallsocket revolves around her and the situation of her father's scandal of robbing the bank.
Mara Albright
One of the main characters in Wallsocket, stalks S*nny throughout the story as she romanticizes her life and wishes to be her, is also her next door neighbor.
She is the copy editor for Waterworks Weekly. Potentially was also obsessed with Old Money Bitch at one point.
Old Money Bitch
One of the main characters in Wallsocket, best friends with Jack.
One of the wealthy people in Wallsocket, has gotten into arguments with Mara. Potential name could be Samantha, as stated in Jack's section in My Guy (Corporate Shuffle): "Samantha says I need a therapist.". Name could also be Sarah, as stated in Old Money Bitch: "After Sarah's sweet nineteen, we had our first big fight."
Joshua Domingo
Father of S*nny Domingo, Robbed Wallsocket's bank, causing a huge scandal in the town.
Can be found in the Cops and Robbers MV.
Jack
Old Money Bitch's best friend who joined the army.
Dies in the end. Can be found in many MVs for the album.
Jerry Bowman
Founder of Secretariat.
Also a previous mayor of Wallsocket in 2016. Secretariat is the company who operates arm reduction surgeries.
Ashley
Daughter of Secretariat's founder.
She only shows up in CCTV, the prologue for Wallsocket. Assumed to be dead.
Darlene W.
One of the moms of Wallsocket.
Shown in the Cops and Robbers MV, her perspective of the robbery is shown in My Guy (Corporate Shuffle) and she can also be found in a Townofwallscocket TikTok.
Jordan
S*nny's friend who helps her come to a realization about her faith.
Only is mentioned in the description for the SoundCloud upload of Geez Louise.
Johnny
Older man,
groomed S*nny.
Potentially is shown in the MV for You don't even know who I am.
- Sidenote: I'm not listing every single character in the Wallsocket universe, I think I would lose my mind if I did that. So instead I'm only mentioning characters I think are important for the main story of Wallsocket.
- TikTok account that displays interviews of miscellaneous Wallsocket characters.
TIMELINE OF WALLSOCKET ERA
- Sidenote: I am not going to go over every single thing that was updated/posted for the Wallsocket era, just mostly things that i think are important to note and things mentioned in the Wall"Doc"et. Example, I won't talk about every single time that the Moms of Wallsocket website updates. Just only important things. That is all!
The video displays various clips from the then unreleased music videos for the album. Underscores can be heard asking 12 questions to an unknown person:
"What are you thinking?"
"What are you feeling?"
"What do you have?"
"Where does your money come from?"
"What allows you to exist?"
"Where did you grow up?"
"Who are you forgetting?"
"What are you obsessing over?"
"What community do you belong to?"
"Are you ashamed?"
"What's your circumstance?"
"Do you wrap back around?"
Not long after the release of the trailer, Underscores posts this image to both her Twitter and Instagram.
The text reads: "I got to take the past year off, I stayed in this town called Wallsocket for a while by myself. It's a super small town in Michigan, and the longer I stayed there, the more inspired I got.
I started to write from the perspective of the people I saw there, trying to imagine what they were thinking and feeling, and the circumstances that allowed them to exist. Everyone is such a character.
Welcome to Wallsocket."
Next to the green text, shows a tiny image of a green horseshoe, a prominent image that would be shown throughout the album. The background image itself is of a two-story house, with each level being labeled on the side.
Not long after, would fans begin to realize, that Wallsocket, MI was not a real place in Michigan.
According to the town's main website, Wallsocket is described to be a small town that is also known for being a horse town as well. However, at some point industrialization took a massive toll on the town, and eventually afterwards Secretariat "emerged" from Wallsocket. With Secretariat's headquarters being so close to Wallsocket, many people started to move into the town, thus leading to Wallsocket becoming a victim to gentrification.
4/22/23
The very next day, Underscores would post a QnA on her Instagram, I was only able to find two answers from it, and those two answers intrigued many fans:
The text on this answer reads:
"Q: IS the new album theme green?"
"sorta :)
I've got a crazy image about the Color Theory for this era but I can't show you yet."
The text on this answer reads:
"Q: did you make any friends in wallsocket?"
"I wish I was that outgoing to strangers
Got some weird looks but also got some smiles :)"
This would lead fans to speculate on the color theory for the album. Many noticed that from the Wallsocket reveal from the previous day, the "Welcome to Wallsocket" was in green, alongside the main website for it, while Secretariat was primarily associated with blue.
This QnA would also reveal Underscore's role in the Wallsocket universe, as mostly a background character. Her character can be mentioned in one of the town hall meeting posts as a "mysterious musician loitering in the downtown area".
4/26/23
The Moms of Wallsocket would occasionally update in between. As mothers in the universe of Wallsocket would use the website, one such post would spark some interest. The post would be screenshots of a news article discussing the robbery of Wallsocket's Bank.
The title for the post reads: "**URGENT** COLUMBIA BANK ROBBERY" with the caption "This is horrific!!!!! Please tell me y’all saw this!"
The text for the article reads:
“...by FBI for $425,000 theft
∣ April 26, 2023
Residents of Freedom County are advised to keep watch for 54-year-old Wallsocket native Joshua M. Domingo. Domingo had been employed at Colombia Bank for over a decade when it was alleged that he had been gradually siphoning money from the accounts of elderly customers. Domingo has also been alleged to have stolen from the deceased, usually those with little to no family.
"We had no idea [Domingo] had been stealing..." "She would send checks out every month made to our brother. We didn't realize until years later that our brother was not receiving them."
Days after Linda P. Romero met an untimely death, Domingo uncharacteristically nearly emptied her account, provoking Linda's son William to call the branch manager on Saturday afternoon. Domingo was suspected to have fled that night as he failed to show up for work on Monday.
"[Domingo] said he was from a family of immigrants as well," says Romero. "We figured that he knew first-hand what working [one's] way up in this country was like. We trusted him — he hand been at the same branch for so long."
Joshua M. Domingo is 5'8", weighs around 160 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. Domingo is suspected to be driving a red 2004 Toyota Tacoma. A Freedom County resident claims they may have seen him thirty minutes out of Wallsocket yesterday. Those who may have any information regarding Domingo's whereabouts are advised to contact the nearest FBI office."
Fans would then notice that the picture of the man in the article resembled that of a man that appeared in the Wallsocket era trailer. This would confirm his importance as a character to the Wallsocket universe.
4/27/23
Underscores would release the first out of three different teasers for the Cops and Robbers music video, the first being titled "underscores 'Cops and robbers' teaser A".
The teaser displays many different images of people living their lives, with an unknown person talking over the video.
4/29/23
Underscores would release the second teaser for Cops and Robbers titled "underscores 'Cops and robbers' teaser B."
The teaser shows different clips of Joshua Domingo, alongside pictures of evidence of his robbery. Paired with the audio over it, this appears to be snippets from his court trial.
4/30/23
The Townofwallsocket TikTok account would upload a video, where the account owner "interviews" the "bank robbers daughter" aka S*nny Domingo.
The account owner asks S*nny if she has any opinions on the new Underscores album, where she dismisses the question, saying that its whatever.
The interviewer also asks her if she has heard anything about the recent bank robbery, to which she doesn't reply and walks away from the account owner.
This would solidify Underscores as the "mysterious musician" that has been noticed in the town.
5/1/23
Undersocres would release the final teaser for Cops and Robbers titled "underscores 'Cops and robbers' teaser C
".
The teaser shows a view of what appears to be the town of Wallsocket, showing a neighborhood and a town before entering a market. Underscores is seen in one of the shots, in possibly the security room as the camera cuts to people in the market, who are screaming.
She would also reveal the date when the music video releases, that being May 3rd.
5/3/23
Underscores would finally release the Cops and Robbers music video:
For an in-depth description of the music video in relation to the story, check here.
A link to this board contains noticeable characters for the story, locations and frames of interest.
5/11/23
The town of Wallsocket website would update with a new town meeting note. The town hall meeting would discuss the news involving Joshua Domingo's bank robbery. Many residents were shocked and disappointed, some saying that they couldn't even believe that he would do something like that.
5/18/23
Oxbows Market would announce that they were hiring through the Wallsocket Email newsletter. Only two people applied and were hired for Oxbows Market.
The Email that they would receive would include a video, displaying corporate-style visuals that were captioned. The most important thing though, was the background audio for an unreleased song at the time.
At the time, fans dubbed this song "Northwest Zombie Girl", which would later be the official name for the song as well when it released.
6/4/23
Underscores would post a teaser trailer for the next singles music video: You don't even know who I am.
The teaser shows various images, primarily images of gun targets. After the images it cuts to a house, then showing us different frames of Mara, S*nny and Old Money Bitch.
6/7/23
Underscores would release the music video for You don't even know who I am.
For an in-depth description of the music video and it's story go here.
6/9/23
Underscores would announce her "hometown tour", with her uploading a poster for it.
The poster shows many different scenes, some highlighting specific things in the story, like Joshua Domingo running away with the money in the top section and Mara stalking S*nny in the section below.
Things worth highlighting about this poster is it going from Secretariat blue to a Wallsocket green.
Another thing that fans noticed was that the license plate in the image to the right of the second row says "JOHN13", which a fan commented on the religious meaning of John 13:
“John 13 is the chapter when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples and then predicts that Judas will betray them and Peter will deny that they knew Jesus”.
This would leave fans creating more theories for the album's story.
7/10/23
On her Twitter, Underscores would post another teaser, this time for the next single Locals (Girls like us). She would also announce the date for when the music video for it releases.
The teaser has nothing relevant to the Wallsocket story, but it does show Underscores and Gabby Start at some sort of event.
7/12/23
The release date for the album and details for it were announced:
“Wallsocket is a loose concept album about the American town of Wallsocket and the people that live in it. I first started making music purely on the computer, so my challenge for this album was writing the songs acoustically first and adding production afterwards. A lot of the themes of the project can be summed up by taking something natural and trying to sterilize it.
At the time of writing, I was obsessed with using the 'horseshoe theory' in an apolitical context. Where in our lives are we so one thing that we wrap back around and become its opposite? That theory is riddled throughout the album.” - underscores
7/15/23
The music video for Locals (Girls like us) would be released.
For an in-depth description of the music video and it's story go here.
8/14/23
Underscores would post a fancam teaser for Old Money Bitch's music video. The release date for it was also announced.
The fancam shows different clips that can be found in the upcoming music video. the trailer mainly focuses of Mara and Old Money Bitch herself, a clip of S*nny is also shown.
8/15/23
The next day, Underscores would post a tracklist reveal to all of her socials.
Fans would notice that there were 12 songs, which meant that the 12 questions asked in the Wallsocket era-trailer could be connected, with each song possibly aligning with a question asked.
8/16/23
The very next day would be when the music video for Old Money Bitch would release.
For an in-depth description of the music video in relation to the story, check here.
9/22/23
Wallsocket would be officially released this day! History was made. Alongside the album's release, Underscores posted an album video.
The video has each song of the album, with Underscores singing along with it in the back of a truck.
STORY
The story of Wallsocket as an album takes place in a fake town in Michigan called "Wallsocket". As mentioned earlier, Wallsocket is a small town that was known for being a horse town, and which soon became a victim of gentrification after wealthy individuals started moving in after the pandemic. The real events of the story kick in once it is revealed that Joshua Domingo stole $425,000 whilst he was working as a bank teller. The album details his embezzlement in the first song, and references of it are made throughout the album.
The meat of the story comes with the main protagonists: S*nny Domingo, Mara Albright and Old Money Bitch. The three girls have lived in Wallsocket their entire life, and the album is in each of their perspectives as they journey into adulthood.
Starting off with S*nny, one of the protagonists of Wallsocket. S*nny's life is difficult, with her being a Filipino trans woman while living in a religious family and living in a small, predominately white town. Her life becomes even more difficult with recent news of her father's recent embezzlement, making her family shunned from the town even though her and the rest of her family had nothing to do with it.
Throughout the album, S*nny begins to question her gender identity and faith, in songs like Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and Geeze louise. S*nny wonders who she is and for the first time is directly confronting her dysphoria, and even comes to terms with her Filipino identity.
Warning: Descriptions of grooming.
S*nny meets an older man by the name of Johnny on Grinder, who grooms her and takes advantage of her by validating her gender identity. She later on realizes that Johnny doesn't truly care for her and love her for who she truly is, and was just using her. Thankfully, she is able to get out of the situation in the end.
Her story doesn't end quite yet here, however.
The next protagonist is Old Money Bitch, a girl who descends from a wealthy family. While she's very much well-off, Old Money Bitch tries her best to separate herself from her wealth. Many people in the town shun her for her wealth, leaving her to bottle her emptions. Thus, leaving her best friend Jack the only person she can be herself around. Her life turns for the worse when Jack joins the army, and she fears for her friend's life. Old Money Bitch completely disagrees with joining the army and can't understand why her friend would want to join it. Her greatest fear is of her best friend dying, which is stated in Shoot to kill, kill your darlings. Unfortunately, this fear becomes true as Jack does die at some point in the story.
Old Money Bitch, unable to properly communicate her emotion, she falls into depression and becomes suicidal. Though, at the end of the story she talks herself out of it, stating that she’s postponing her suicide indefinitely.
Mara is the last protagonist of Wallsocket. Mara, like Old Money Bitch, is also from a wealthy upbringing. However, Mara belittles Old Money Bitch for her wealthiness, shunning her and turning the town into thinking that Old Money Bitch is just a stuck-up rich girl.
Mara's story intertwines with S*nny's the most, as it's revealed throughout many songs in the album that Mara has some pretty obsessive tendencies, with her main target of that being S*nny. Mara is S*nny's neighbor, as revealed in a title of a song from Underscore's previous album: "Tongue in cheek: S*nny, I Think the Girl Next Door has a Crush On You!". The song is very similar to many of ones on Wallsocket in Mara's perspective, where it tells of her obsessing over someone and wanting to be just like them.
Mara is obsessed with S*nny, as she romanticizes her rough upbringing. Her obsessive tendencies become full on stalking as Mara breaks into S*nny's home, wearing her clothes, makeup and taking her pills in an attempt to be just like her, as shown in You don't even know who I am.
In the song Old Money Bitch, Mara tears Old Money Bitch down as described earlier. It can also be infired that Mara also used to be obsessed with Old Money Bitch like she is with S*nny, but at some point, after learning more about her started to resent her. The song also describes how at some point Mara and Old Money Bitch confronted each other, and had their first big fight about their similar upbringing. Mara can't understand why Old Money Bitch presents herself as she is, and her attitude towards her wealth.
Though under her bitterness and obsessiveness, Mara deep-down hates herself for who she is and takes this out by pretending to be someone else or tearing down others like her. However, in Seventy-seven dog years, Mara tries to make things right, having a conversation with S*nny. She admits to stalking her, explaining how she would do so as well. S*nny would also open up to her relationship with her father and how his actions left a mark on the family. It's revealed that her dad wasn't really in the picture and was basically like a stranger to her. Even with Mara's confession and apology, her story also doesn't end here.
One day, Mara wakes up with her arms longer than normal. Whether this is a real thing that happens in the Wallsocket universe or is just a way to tell a metaphor I can't really tell you. Either way, Mara is horrified at her new-found reach, symbolizing the effects she has on other people such as S*nny. She later gets an arm-reduction surgery done by Secretariat, and in the process of her procedure, dies. During the amount of time that she's dead, Mara realizes that she doesn't want to be the person that she is anymore and doesn't want to die like this. Mara is brought back to life, and now becomes determined to change her ways and make amends.
At the end of the story, each of the girls are shown to all be leaving Wallsocket on their own, as they begin to navigate adulthood. Mara is shown to have a dream about missing the train out of Wallsocket, and how she threw away all of her money on the train ticket due to missing it. When she woke up, it’s shown that even though she's trying hard at changing her ways, she has a hard time getting rid of old habits. After waking up, she decides to buy a stranger some breakfast, and afterwards searches the entire station to try to find him again.
S*nny also takes the train to leave Wallsocket, describing how she gets off at different stops and walks around until she gets bored. S*nny discoveres that the only person she really needs is herself, and that she doesn't need people like Mara anymore as she journeys into accepting herself and moving on.
Old Money Bitch, as mentioned earlier, talks herself out of suicide after the reveal of her best friend's death. She is also on a train to get out of Wallsocket and is able to finally be herself and takes the time to let everything that she's been holding in out, as well as mourn her friend's death.
Each of the girls bid their farewells to Wallsocket, the town they've all lived in forever and to each other as they begin to face adulthood by themselves.
In an epilogue song in the perspective of S*nny, after living away from Wallsocket for years now years to return to Wallsocket. She feels that she has nothing to do anymore in the city that she lives in now, and her urge of escaping has turned into an urge to head back to Wallsocket, even after what she endured back in that small town.
REOCCURRING THEMES/ELEMENTS
Mentioned way earlier, one of the main reoccurring themes is the "horseshoe theory". For a recap, the theory is described by Underscores as "Where in our lives we are so one thing that we wrap back around and become its opposite?".
Underscores uses this theory in an apolitical context, and its shown many times throughout the album. An example of this is S*nny and Mara's stories, where Mara's acceptance of S*nny is ultimately bad due to how obsessive she is over S*nny. Another prime example of its mention is in My Guy (Corporate Shuffle), with the lyric "Have I told you 'bout my theory yet? It proves we might be more alike than you think."
Another occurring theme is the constant mention of "Good Luck!" that be heard in almost every single song, and is even in the title of the last song.
Names beginning with J are also a reoccurring theme in Wallsocket, examples of this are Joshua Domingo, Jack, Johnny, Jerry Bowman, Jordan and the other names mentioned in Johnny Johnny Jonny such as James, Jake and Jimmy.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Underscores would release videos titled "Wsk life". These would all be sort of behind the scenes videos and also just snapshots from that era. Very fun to watch!
Underscores would also go live, having 3 streams titled "underscores "Wallsocket" any% production speedrun", where she shows how she made each song in Wallsocket.
EXTRAS/FUN FACTS
As mentioned before in the story section, there is a direct callback to Mara and S*nny's story in a previous album: "Boneyard aka Fearmonger", with the title "Tongue in cheek: S*nny, I Think the Girl Next Door has a Crush On You!".
"Pinch me so my feet find their way to the ground
(It'll wrap back around)
Touch me, chew me up, and spit me out
(It'll wrap back around)
Everyone's a critic
Everything is business
I'm running out of ideas
(It'll wrap back around)
Uh, we're wrapping back around
We all should talk it out
'Cause there's no community here
(It'll wrap back around)"
"Watch me split my hair in six sections
I don't think I knew why I did, but I do now
And I can't press my palms in repentance anymore
I bet you wouldn't either if you found out
Yeah, yeah
This isn't my politics
Read about our apocalypse
We swapped out shamans for conquistadors
In another world they'd kill me off
This isn't delusional
The past is immutable
We swapped out higher ground to spiral down, pray to someone else's god
(G-G-G-Good luck)
Isn't it so convenient for us, but we didn't know?
Isn't it so wonderful that we were never alone?
Isn't it so convenient for us, but we didn't know?
(We don't have to talk about it, no we don't have to talk about it)
Isn't it so wonderful that we were never alone
(We don't have to talk about it, no we don't have to talk about it)
(Geez Louise)
And I've had it way better than most, I won't hide my luck
(We don't have to talk about it, no we don't have to talk about it)
(Geez Louise)
My mom stayed away to make me feel safe so I could dodge that .41
(We don't have to talk about it, no we don't have to talk about it)
(Geez Louise)
And I'm wrapped up in waste of those who won't know, but I'm 'bout to find out
(We don't have to talk about it, no we don't have to talk about it)
(Geez Louise)
And I wanna live to try to exclaim with my hands in my mouth
(We don't have to talk about it, no we don't have to talk about it)"
You don't even know who I am is a reworked demo song that Underscores made called New world 2007 (You don't even know who I am). The song is not completely the same as what it is on Wallsocket, as it has some different lyrics in it as well. The song was originally shown in "The Story of S*nny".
The last verse in Uncanny Long Arms is a direct callback to Kinko's field trip 2006, from Underscore's album Fishmonger.
The sample used in You don't even know who I am comes from Dance Dance Revolution 4thMix.
The horseshoe monument from the cover of the album can actually be found in Manchester, Michigan! It's located near where the town would be if it was actually real.
The text reads:
The text on this answer reads:
The text on this answer reads:
The title for the post reads: "**URGENT** COLUMBIA BANK ROBBERY" with the caption "This is horrific!!!!! Please tell me y’all saw this!"
The poster shows many different scenes, some highlighting specific things in the story, like Joshua Domingo running away with the money in the top section and Mara stalking S*nny in the section below.