Chances are if you haven’t heard the new vinyl find of Noah Alsace, ’05, then you aren’t anybody worth knowing. Allons-y: Discovering Basic French Phrases, volumes 1-7, the box set of vintage 45s that Alsace found in a bargain bin of a New York record store over Thanksgiving break, has inspired renewed awe and admiration for the student’s taste in obscure albums.

Students got their first sample of the records in the early evening on Dec. 4, when Alsace played a track from volume 3, “What Does One Say in a Restaurant?” The 15-minute track consists of a man repeating restaurant-themed phrases, twice in French and then once in English.

The liner notes identify the speaker as Roland Bride, the editor of a series of 1950s textbooks. “He really believed that people would learn the phrases better if they heard them instead of read them,” says Alsace. “So he put up the money and recorded these albums himself––and in, like, two weeks. That is so punk rock.”

Alsace, who has also referred to the records as “underground” and “outsider/experimental,” says that “What Does One Say in a Restaurant?” generated a record number of call-ins to his show. “I think a lot of people responded to it because they hear the roots of a bunch of their favorite bands. A friend of mine pointed out that Stereolab must have listened to a ton of Roland Bride, because they repeat stuff in French all the time.

“And you can hear a lot of Allons-y in early R.E.M., too. I remember reading a retrospective piece on them in Wire, and when the critic got to “Talk About the Passion,” he said that they were really getting into basic French phrases in their lyrics at this point. Now I know what he meant.”

Alsace noted that on a track of volume 4, entitled “Units of Time,” Bride repeats the phrase “Combien de temps”––just like Michael Stipe would do some 25 years later. “It’s so much more effective when [Bride] does it,” Alsace explained. “Since it was just him alone in this room with the microphone, you really hear the purity of the sounds. Even though he’s speaking in a monotone, it’s really emotional.

“Plus, he tells you at the end that it means ‘How many times.’ There’s none of that enigmatic bullshit you get with Michael Stipe.”

Unfortunately, few have had the chance to hear these emotional recordings, since Bride’s limited budget only allowed him to distribute Allons-y to a few hundred grade schools (“Just like [Belle and Sebastian’s debut album] Tigermilk,” Alsace noted).

When record players were no longer popular educational aids, it is highly likely that most copies of the set were thrown away.

“Yeah, it really blows that so few people have heard Basic French Phrases,” Alsace said ruefully. “At the same time, though, I feel pretty happy to have my own copy of it.” Alsace admits to having toyed with the idea of putting the collection up for bid on Ebay, although he has no plan to get rid of it any time soon.

“At the very least, I can play something on my show that nobody else has heard. I bet this is what it was like to play [Pavement’s ep] Westing (by Musket and Sextant) before they got signed by a bigger label.”

Alsace went on to assert that Allons-y was to 1950s educational records as Matador Records were to early 90s indie rock. Both, he argued, were getting “great stuff out there to the [few] people who were cool enough [to listen].”

Alsace sees himself as continuing this legacy. “I just might play the entire box set on my show some night,” he mused. “Except for volume 6 [“Members of the Family and Household Chores”]. Volume 6 is shit.”