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.

First new music from Charles Bissell, the singer-writer-producer of the Wrens, in 20 years. Releases mid November and I'm quite intrigued!

eight hours of ambient, drone, relaxation tones and field recordings. there's a billion youtube videos meant for sleep and relaxation but this longform composition feels far more intentional.

wonderful writeup on the power behind Talking Heads cover of Take Me to the River. Take 2 minutes, read it.

Took 54 years for this lost media to surface but here it is! I’m more fascinated by the analysis and history than the show itself and I’m willing to bet you will be too. via Davis.

TIL Apple has a way to let a trusted person have access to your account in case of death.

Some very impressive creations. Can’t wait to see full length movies coming out via Unreal.

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!

You know that nationwide alert that went out in October 2023? Turns out, it's illegal to play that sound! The more you know.

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.

Another tech mogul profile but enjoyably humble and hesitant. Still hugely problematic for one cult of personality to wield so much influence but at least he’s aware of it.

Honestly, the similarities between Musk and Trump are obvious and abundant. For some reason, being in tech gets him a pass more often. Anything he has accomplished was done despite him not because of.

an enjoyably scathing, well deserved, read

I have zero familiarity with Bill Willingham or his series of Fables comics with DC but I am impressed by his decision to release it all into the public domain. A great read even if you, like me, have no idea who this person is.

Speaking of Upright T-Rex Music and Justin Lawes; the two have collaborated together and released the self-titled album Computer Jazz. The songs were all written and recorded by Lawes, Wariner and Uhler together. Given that I've been listening to Wariner and Uhler make music for 15+ years, I can hear their influence very heavily but Lawes is definitely putting his own spin on that work.

If you like bleeps and bloops combined with sweeping movements; they got you covered. I am absolutely loving it.

Waaay back in 2017, I launched the portfolio website for Upright T-Rex, the production studio that my buddies Ross Wariner and Cody Uhler operate for sound & music design for all kinds of media. I am happy to announce that here in 2023, six years later, they have outgrown the site I built for them and relaunched the whole thing! Check it out at utxmusic.com and be sure to spend some time in each section - keeping an eye out for gems like "The Game That Never Was." To be clear, I did not build this new site but I am overjoyed to see their work maturing beyond what I provided!

Ross and Cody both make music independently as Uncle Skeleton and Cody Uhler, endeavors also worth you ears should you enjoy what you're hearing from UTX.

If you find yourself needing any sort of audio, you really should hire them - they do a bang up job.

Been a minute since I immersed myself in portfolio site but the work of Justin Lawes certainly deserved my time. I am particularly fond of the playful work, the behind-the-scenes insights and collaborations. There's a ton to see - go enjoy!

The most bizarre thing about this trailer for Poor Things is that its hosted on the Kodak Youtube account. That’s saying a lot considering how bizarre this looks! Early reviews confirm it's quite enjoyable too. Looking forward to it.