Reinvention No. 1

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yewknee.com

An internet waystation.

👋 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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Back in March of 2021, yk Records released the debut EP from No Stress, entitled Prelude No. 1. It's a wonderful combination of jazz, hip-hop, glitch, ambient and all sorts of styles that blend together masterfully. It's only 18 minutes long but it's a wonderful ride from start to finish... in my biased opinion.

The EP struck a chord with Ryan Norris, aka Coupler, and he started working on a remix EP. The fruits of that labor are now available everywhere in the form of Reinvention No. 1.

The writeup for the record goes into some detail about some of the original seeds of inspiration for Norris being Madlib, DJ Shadow, MF Doom, J Dilla and other "left-field hip hop" artists. Over the years, Coupler has become more associated with ambient music than hip-hop but hearing Reinvention No. 1, it's clear that Norris is getting back to his roots.

Obviously I'm biased whenever a yk Records release comes out but I think this is a wonderful piece of work. These reinventions manage to have their own identities but don't lose any of the magic of the original tracks. They are much longer form than the original songs but if you let yourself be a little patient, it really pays off. The drums on "Wake Up (Wide Awake Remix)" are stellar.

Get it on Bandcamp or streaming.

Fri. February 4th, 2022, 7:16am — #blog

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