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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Really been enjoying Never Post recently. It's "a podcast about the Internet" that finds the balance between being extremely online and having some cognitive distance (not dissonance). It's often a group of smart and affable people talking about something that may seem meaningless but is actually highly influential.
This recent episode, The Sound Files of Summer, is a discussion on MP3 collections, metadata and how streaming services have rewired how we approach music. I don't agree with their takeaways 100%* but I certainly felt engaged by the whole thing. It's rare that I just sit in my car and keep listening because of a hot topic; they managed to do that - on an episode about music files no less!

I'm still diving into the archives but everything I've heard thus far is a treat. I also really appreciate their slight to Spotify on their homepage. So, subscribe on Apple or Overcast.

* Multiple times in the episode the hosts complain that Apple renamed their music software from "iTunes" to "Music" and that the new name implies some grandiose statement from Apple about it now being the singular experience for all your music, rather than a place for your files. I get their point but if you have ever seen someone use an iPhone that isn't deeply entrenched in computer culture, you do not want to name your music app "iTunes" in the same way that you don't want to name your web browser "Safari" or "Chrome." Apple's renaming functions as an easy gateway to find the right app and as a advertisement for their Apple Music service.

All told, this is a minor quibble for a show that I very much enjoy but I was shocked that they did not offer up a more straightforward reason for renaming the app to "Music."

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