yewknee
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An internet waystation.

it me - michael eades

👋 Hi, I'm Michael Eades; a long time Internet dweller, design dabbler, dangerously amateur developer, online social experimenter and frequent curator.

Currently working as a Product Manager at Mosaic. I also keep the lights on at a boutique record label called yk records, a podcast network called We Own This Town and a t-shirt shop called Nashville Galaxy. Previously, I built things for Vimeo OTT, VHX, KNI and Spongebath Records.

This site is an archive of ephemera I find entertaining; tweets, videos, random links, galleries of images.

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find me elsewhere

 

contact

Reach out via twitter or good ole email if you have anything to discuss. I do my best to reply in a timely manner.

for the record: "yewknee" is a nonsensical word with no literal meaning but a unsurprisingly nerdy etymology. It is pronounced, "yoo • knee."

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ongoing projects

yk Records →
started in 2009 as a conduit for music that friends had no plans on releasing. now it's a full fledged boutique label focused on releasing quality music from a variety of styles. you know, like a label does. Here's a sampler on Soundcloud and a different one on Spotify. Options.

We Own This Town →
Originally a Nashville area music blog, this site has grown into a full blown podcast network as of 2018. It's an attempt to bring together creative folks about a variety of interesting topics.

I host this show all about Nashville local music outside the expectations of the city. I'm biased but all the shows are good.

Nashville Galaxy →
An online t-shirt shop featuring beloved and defunct Nashville area businesses. Very niche audience on this one but I tend to think niche is good.

some noteworthy other things

Chris Gaines: The Podcast →
published along with co-host Ashley Spurgeon; a limited series podcast that takes an absurdly researched deep dive into the time that Garth Brooks took on a fictional personality named Chris Gaines.

Garth Brooks Chris Gaines Countdown →
to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the time Garth Brooks took on the fictional personality Chris Gaines and appeared on Saturday Night Live in character, I GIF'ed the entire episode. It's a lot of GIFs; please use them.

Whiskerino →
a social network built around communal beard growing for four months. yes, it was as weird as it sounds but equally fascinating and enjoyable.

Moustache May →
an offshoot of the beard growing contest mentioned above. equal amounts of oddball fun but only a month long.

Summer Mix Series →
before all music was streaming everywhere, Internet music fans would swap zip files of music. it was truly a strange and wonderful time.

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I'm extremely happy for the gals of Birdcloud for how heavily they are featured in this Rolling Stone piece, "Raunchy Country: Inside the Genre's History of Comedy and Irreverence." The piece covers a good deal of historical irreverence in the genre it also highlights several more modern acts, like Jonny Fritz, that ride the line between sincerity and questionable expression.

The reason I enjoy the article so much is because I find Birdcloud hard to explain to folks. Their songs can certainly be blunt but there's a pathos to many of them that gets overlooked. A prime example is I Got Problems, a song that appears to be about the celebration of over indulgence but, if you decide to take it seriously, is also be a scathing personal commentary on bad behaviors. Songs like "Indianer" and "Livin' with my Granny" seem like offensive jokes or silly storytelling but if you're familiar with growing up in The South, these songs are accurate portrayals of attitudes, behaviors and experiences from the region.

On the whole, I'm just happy to see them getting some recognition for being more than a throwaway joke. Sure, there's plenty of work there that you wouldn't play for your mother but, underneath it all, there's more than just crass words.

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