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 VP of Product at Smarter Apps. 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 threads 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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Seinfeld and its Movie References.

Some are obvious, some slipped past me. Lovely compilation

Palm Ghosts - The Lost Frequency

new album up for pre-order. If you're into late 80s post-punk / gothy bands, this is 100% up your alley.
I cleaned out my basement recently and came upon a large repository of old MP3 CDs from my college years in the late 90's, early 2000's. Like most people my age, I downloaded a bunch of music and archived a great deal of my CDs to digital just because.

I've slowly been going through the archive and documenting the findings but I'm also sort of baffled as to what to do with all of this digital ephemera? I don't foresee myself going back and listening to a Deftones bootleg from 1998 but maybe I will?

Should I find some longterm AWS storage for all of this? Post them for download somewhere? Delete them and just enjoy the memories? Not really sure but I am enjoying the trip.

Norm Macdonald Failed Sketches and Fake Pitches on SNL

the Brian Fellow's Safari Planet anecdote is some real gold

EELS - "Good Night On Earth"

first single from the new album; produced with John Parish. Definitely feels like a Souljacker track

Halfnoise - Two Of Us

you won't find better sax content this week

Yellowstone Zone of Death

a Constitutional loophole creates a lawless zone in Yellowstone. Crazy.

RIP Clive Sinclair, inventor of the ZX Spectrum personal computer

Not someone I knew a lot about but these inventions are absolutely ahead of their time. Do read more about him.

Tom Nussbaum Public Art

Check the East Side Boogie Woogie

Good 4 who? How music copyright has gone too far

Very good read about copyright. Some may argue the “gone too far” bit but it’s hard to dispute that it’s all so convoluted

The Best, Worst And Weirdest Outfits From The 2021 Met Gala

100% disagree with this headline. These are all amazing.

WOTT Music 268: You’re Not Ready For This

I try not to inundate my own blog with promotions about my podcast but I really enjoyed this episode. The last set of 4 songs came out very nicely.
Last Bandcamp Friday, my lil label released a new EP from The Robe entitled The Jason EP. I posted it there exclusively for a week to drive possible purchases but now it's streaming everywhere.
For the unfamiliar, The Robe is the pseudonym of Rollum Haas; a multi-instrumentalist and collaborator in a number of projects. He's currently the drummer for Soccer Mommy, has previously played a large part in the electronic outfit Coupler and has played with countless bands. His 2019 full length is a wonderful combination of pop and krautrock; krautpop if you will.

This latest release, The Jason EP, is a collaboration between Haas and his longtime friend JB Bennett. They've known each other for some 20-years, just so happen to work at the same record store and have a lengthy list of shared influences. The resulting EP is a wonderful collection of songs that, for me, harken back to the best dark pop of the 80s. It's a cheap game to cite what previous band a current release sounds like but it does provide some enticement and context. If you're into Echo and the Bunnymen, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and their ilk; I think it's safe to say you'll like this. It's a fantastic blend of dark vibes, melancholy and memorable pop elements. I can't articulate it super well but I love it.

Give it a whirl! Streaming here or on Bandcamp here.

The Lost Version of The Goonies

I knew about the octopus, did not know about the gorillas
Not sure where I stumbled upon it but Bndcmpr is a playlisting tool for Bandcamp. Before finding this, I've been using Buy Music Club for compiling lists of Bandcamp releases but the playback has always been less than desirable. With Bndcmpr, it seems like developer Lon Beshiri has cracked the code!
I made a quick playlist of yk Records 2021 Releases (embedded above) and it works just like you'd expect a playlist to work - it plays continuously. I love it!

I know Bandcamp isn't interested in recreating the same experience as the major streaming services but a playlisting feature like Bndcmpr is an excellent addition to their service. I swore I heard someone mention that the Bandcamp app supports this natively but I've not been able to find it.

Definitely going to keep an eye on this site and hopefully more features are continued to be added. Or maybe they get acquired by Bandcamp; win win all around.

Everything is a Remix Part 1 (2021)

Kirby Ferguson returns with his popular series in a new form. Remixing himself perhaps? Part 1 of the 2021 version is up now and I'm excited to watch.

4004 — DΛVID OREILLY

Always good to see an OReilly piece

The Universe is Hostile to Computers

This video might benefit from being 10 minutes instead of 20 BUT it's a fascinating walk through how the nature of the universe interferes with our technology.

Grandaddy: Frasier (TV Theme)

Part of the Stay Tuned series in which various artists cover TV themes. This is some quality old school Grandaddy

DODONGO

ZELDA TUNES, IN RATATAT STYLE

:headexplodes:

Curious Music label / Ambient Music episode

Radio show featuring a label I wanna know more about. To listen.

Frank Oz on life as Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and Yoda

Really fantastic piece on Oz, Muppets and life with Henson

Larry Cuba - Calculated Movements

1982-1985, Custom written in Z-Grass Programming Language An absolute beauty, via @vanityset
Ampled is, as I understand it, a service for musicians to offer subscriptions to fans with a focus on transparency for how the service itself actually works. They've adopted a co-op structure where the Artists and workers of the service "own 100% of Ampled - not venture capitalists."

Honestly, it looks a whole lot like Patreon in terms of the functionality that it provides. A musician signs up and posts regular exclusive content to garner subscriptions from fans. The difference here being that Ampled does not offer tiers and the artist account determines what percentage share goes back to Ampled; so you aren't forced into a particular rev share.

Looking at the artists pages, they seem well put together and, when the artist is using the service properly, seem like a good deal for fans.

I've always want to pursue something like this for a yk Records artist but never really had one that had enough content to make a subscription even possible. I'm curious to hear if anyone has used this as an artist or subscriber and had any thoughts.

At War With Radio

my buddy Dave G restarted his radio show as a podcast. if you like punk, metal and noisey things; Dave's your guy.

The Green Knight’s Ending, Explained

Director David Lowery tackles your most burning questions.

Actually helpful… somewhat

7 Classic Movie Tricks That Led To Modern CGI

Better than your average listicle video. Nothing surprising here but just pleasant to watch