To start, I have no idea who Devon Rodriguez is, nor have any context on their popularity on social media. I am sure I have seen some of their videos just by virtue of being online but my familiarity is near zero. The same goes for writer Ben Davis, who wrote a review of Rodriguez's recent art show and got massively piled on his fans.

Fortunately, its not necessary to know who either party is to enjoy this opinion piece, The World’s Most Popular Painter Sent His Followers After Me Because He Didn’t Like a Review of His Work. Here’s What I Learned. In it, Davis spells out exactly what happened but more importantly provides the context around art criticism in general and how Rodriguez's internet fame is part of his art, whether he realizes it or not. It also touches on "parasocial relationships" - in which fans of a person think they are actually friends with that entity when, in fact, they are not.

It's a bit of a lengthy writeup but well worth the read. Soak it in and then go have yourself a meaty conversation with a real life friend about how weird the Internet is. It's so weird.

If you have been tinkering around on the Internet for roughly the same period that I have been, you likely remember a time when "Webmaster" and "Web Designer" were not titles that inspired chuckles. This piece from Heather Buchel - It's 2023, here is why your web design sucks. - it's a bit of an ode to that time. Back then, you could design a site and write the code for it; both requiring their own sets of skills but both very much dependent on one another.

My experience does not match those of Buchel's exactly but I entirely agree with the sentiment of the piece. There is a lack of understanding from "front end development" about how web design should be executed. Conversely, there's an equal lack of understanding from designers about how the web gets implemented; from the DOM to proper responsiveness. I hardly think of myself as a thought leader in this space but I can't help but feel a bit of pride that I came up in a time where knowing both was healthy.

Definitely a great read. Happily following Buchel on Mastodon and loving the responses related to this article.

Thanks to Nashville Galaxy, I spend a bit of time learning more about the history of Nashville than I have ever done before. Recently I stumbled upon this fantastic article - Coming Home: A History of Queer Nightlife in Nashville. It's exactly as the title suggests - a primer on LGBTQ focused clubs, restaurants, bars and more in the Nashville area.

"Nashville" has a long history of being combative and unwelcome to the LGBTQ crowd. The article touches on that a little bit but largely just celebrates the existence of these places. It's a great jumping off point to learn even more and you'll get plenty of visual treats along the way like that fantastic brand mark for The World's End!

Recently I've been enjoying the short films of Allison Inman; the Education and Engagement Director at our local indie theater powerhouse - the Belcourt. This particular 10-minute piece, Hi Tech Service, is a slice of life look at an electronic repair shop in Nashville on their closing day. It's a heartwarming little look at how a small spot can be an important part of a neighborhood.

As neighborhoods get gentrified and more corporate chain businesses make their way in, we lose these kinds of businesses. It's understandable that Hi Tech Service would close after a successful operation for several decades (you work to reward yourself with non-work) but you lose the personal vibe that actually make a neighborhood. Inman has done a wonderful job of capturing that.

Randomly stumbled on Ozean, a shoegaze / dreampop band from 1991 based out of San Jose. They played exactly one show and only three songs from their demo recordings have made their way out into the world - just enough to make the vinyl pressing go for $400. Generally, I would say such a backstory was completely absurd as it sounds exactly like something an elitist record store clerk from High Fidelity would say. But listening to the recordings... they're good. Real good. Exactly what you want from a shoegaze / dreampop band from the early 90's.There was certainly some magic happening with the foursome that made the songs.

There's a 2017 interview with members Eric Shea and Lisa Baer talking about the history of the project, the surprise success of its Internet unearthing and what they may be up to next. Baer says she is going to Nashville to record vocals for the first time since the Ozean project, 25 years later. She does not say for what project specifically. A shame really because I'd love to hear that too.

Despite a number of highly concerning events with Bandcamp and their new owner, Songtradr - the Bandcamp Daily continues to publish for the time being. They recently released a piece of "Space Disco" and many of the unsung records that help form it.

Part of that article cites Cosmotropics, an album by German outfit Supersempfft. The 1982 album was, apparently, intended to be accompanied by an animated film but neither came to fruition. In 2020, the record was finally released and somewhere along the line, the animation was too. It is, unsurprisingly, an absolute trip.

It's certainly unfortunate it was never released when the artists intended it to be unleashed but it's great that it has eventually made its way into the world.

Having all of your pessimistic fears validated is not a great feeing! Vulture is reporting Bandcamp Hit With Layoffs Amid Sale to Songtradr and that's pretty much what everyone thought was going to happen. The article has all the necessary details but it looks like about 50% of the company was let go and only three editorial staff remain.

I've been a huge Bandcamp fan since 2008; fifteen years is a long time to be a fan of a service and not have them screw it up royally! Maybe that time has come to an end.

Doing my best to be optimistic on this one but layoffs of this size are not a good look.

Eardrummer is the collaborative project of Eve Maret and Adrienne Franke; two Nashville based electronic musicians that make some great work on their own AND managed to make something quite enjoyable together.

Dancey, Krautrocky and sometimes Ambient - an excellent blend start to finish.

Incredibly good rundown from Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day entitled Content Moderation Is A Failed Project, wherein speaks on social medias complete lack of usefulness for real time events and the unbelievable lack of moderation - both from the angle of shocking content and misinformation. This was my favorite bit:

When Musk bought Twitter a year ago, I naively believed that users, especially irl important ones, would react to the increasing noise on their feeds by simply leaving the platform. And, if my own following tab is an indication, many have. But what has actually happened is much more dangerous. Instead of X dissolving into a digital backwater for divorced guys with NFT debt, it has, instead, continued to remain at the top of the digital funnel while also being 4chan-levels of rotten. It is still being used to process current events in “real time” even though it does not have the tools, nor the leadership necessary to handle that responsibility.

Nailed it. Lots more gold where that came from.

I’ve been listening to sugar sk*-*lls for a long time. I recall a performance years ago at the, now closed, Mercy Lounge where Ben Marcantel went on stage, plugged in a Gameboy and proceeded to blast the audience with his chiptune compositions. I’ve never seen anyone do that in Nashville before or after. I loved it.

Over the years, sugar sk*-*lls has morphed and explored other sounds; Marcantel was crafting AI compositions back in 2019, way before it was cool! Looking through the back catalog of works, you’ll encounter a number of collaborations. Matt Glassmeyer of Lambchop and Lindsay Johns of Nudity appear on “tethers.” Kyle Hamlett and Ryan Norris of Coupler appear on “Right Hand Hand.” G Seth West, Tye Bellar and Tom Senter of Financier appear on “Gini Rising” back in 2016.

That Financier collaboration grew into something more concrete. G Seth West and Tye Bellar started working with Marcantel more and more; eventually forming a new Voltron version of sugar sk*-*lls.

As the story goes, they met up every weekend and crafted dozens of songs; scrapping entire compositions, merging ideas together, exploring bigger and bolder sounds. They invited Cortney Tidwell to perform on a song and realized the intended track was not good enough - West remarking “we had a diamond on a paper plate.” They kept going, pushing their work further into something they loved to hear.

All of those efforts culminated into Star Time, the album that is released today. It’s the biggest record from sugar sk-lls yet. Not only because it’s a collaboration of three minds but the production is thicker, more immersive and more inviting of repeated listens. Most importantly, and possibly most overlooked, it’s also an incredibly emotional record. Every track features vocoder leading the way, which can be easily written off as just another instrument or, worse, a gimmick. But pay attention to the lyrics, there are incredibly poignant, introspective and moving moments from start to finish.

I’m incredibly proud to be involved with the release. I’ve been a fan of sugar sk*-*lls for so long and now I get to help spread the love to more folks. It’s a record that requires your attention to fully appreciate but will still yield enjoyment even if you’re blasting it as a dance track in the background. It contains multitudes.

Pick up the 2xCassette Rave Case and digital on Bandcamp or Stream and Share wherever you like to listen.

Back in 2019, Ashley Spurgeon and I made a Chris Gaines podcast investigating that whole Garth Brooks alter ego situation that happened in 1999.

In one episode, we discuss that there were two music videos created for the ill fated project - both directed by Jon Small. Most people are familiar with the video for "Lost in You" - where a barefoot Gaines poses dramatically while ghosts whip around him as he croons an R&B song. However, the "Right Now" video seemed to be lost to time. Neither of us had ever seen it and some fairly robust searching yielded no results.

Today on Twitter, Rach Ellie Lee reached out to ask if I'd seen this Facebook video? Amazingly, the "Right Now" video had been posted 1 month after the final episode of our podcast. I'd like to believe we inspired its discovery but I think something was just in the air.

TDLR: here's a Chris Gaines music video you probably haven't seen for a song that is a very good example of how weird the project got. Hopefully it doesn't get taken offline!

I find myself in a real conundrum. I only recently became aware of The Pinkerton Diaries, a book of actual diary entries from Rivers Cuomo documenting 1994 to 1997; prime time for Weezer's rise to fame and his struggle with making the followup record. Along with that book was a batch of demo recordings called Alone III: The Pinkerton Years. It's streaming on Youtube of course.

My conundrum is this: both were released twelve years ago and in Internet time, that may as well be multiple lifetimes. In short, this is very old news to anyone that might care. Added to that, talking about Weezer in any form is a topic I attempt to avoid at all costs. Everything that needs to be said, has been said.

I'm not interested in them as a band now but my nostalgia for this era is undeniable. Additionally, I love a demo. Love a demo. So, yea, that's my conundrum. It's not an interesting topic to discuss but it is a good listen and, I suspect, a fascinating read.

Back in March of 2022, my beloved Bandcamp was acquired by Epic Games. I commented on it at the time but never fully felt like the match made much sense. A few journalists shared their thoughts on why it happened at all (Spoiler alert: Epic wanted to use Bandcamp as a weapon in litigation against Google and Apple) but, again, it really never made much sense to me.

Then, perhaps more shockingly, Epic announced a large round of layoffs and a divestment in Bandcamp. They sold it off to Songtradr, a platform aimed at helping artists distribute their music to streaming platforms and seeking licensing agreements for film and TV.

I don't know much of anything about Songtradr. I've read some complaints that they charge too little for licensing or behave too complicitly with the horrible royalty rates from streaming platforms but despite all that, they still make more sense than Epic Games as a parent company.

I mentioned this during the last acquisition but I still find the entire thing baffling. Supposedly, Bandcamp is a profitable company. They may not have as much growth or as much super profit as a corporation may desire but they aren't in debt. At least, so I've read. If that's actually true, I don't think I'll ever really understand selling at all.

All and all, I'm happy they are not under the wing of Epic anymore. I'm glad the new parent seems a bit more sensible. And I remain cautiously optimistic that history does not repeat itself and that the new parent company tries to change things too drastically.