Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
Co-creating with AI. Fascinating stuff.
New technologies have fundamentally changed the way we make and experience music. In this session Claire Evans, artist, author and one half of the pop duo YACHT talks about deep learning as a tool in their creative process. Their new album explores Google AI’s research project, Magenta, an open-source music-making package using machine learning models.
For The Replacements, I mean. This is the demo version of “Raised in the City,” which I hadn’t heard until Other Other Elvis hipped me to that song-ranking site. Far superior to the album version.
The band soon recorded a four-song demo tape in Mars’s basement and handed it to Peter Jesperson in May 1980. Westerberg originally handed in the tape to see if the band could perform at Jay’s Longhorn Bar, a local venue where Jesperson worked as a disc jockey. He eavesdropped as Jesperson put in the tape, only to run away as soon as the first song, “Raised in the City,” played. Jesperson played the song again and again. “If I’ve ever had a magic moment in my life, it was popping that tape in,” said Jesperson. “I didn’t even get through the first song before I thought my head was going to explode.”
As heard on Underground Garage this morning. Good stuff!
The Coolies are a new collaboration between Muffs frontwoman Kim Shattuck, former Friggs guitarist Palmyra Delran and Muffs / White Flag member Melanie Vammen. This supergroup of sorts has released their debut 6 song EP on Wicked Cool Records. Some amazing guest musicians are along for the ride.
Because he’s a mutant.
MIND BLOWN by this odd vinyl/tape hybrid. Just think, if we’d lost WWII we might be experiencing a TEFI revival right now.
New single from Everything Hits At Once: The Best of Spoon, coming July 26th.
Check it, yo.
Here’s a great 32-year-old article from SPIN’s archives, from around the time that I was getting into them. (Yes, I was late to the party and had to work my way back through the Twin/Tone albums.) The band had just parted ways with manager Pete Jesperson, fired lead guitarist Bob Stinson, and released one of their best albums, Pleased To Meet Me. Recorded right here in Memphis!
“When we started,” [Westerberg] says, pausing to sip from a midmorning Schmidt, “we definitely had a fear of success. We had a fear of everything. We were all very paranoid, and I think that goes hand in hand with the excessive drinking thing. We’d get drunk because we were basically scared shitless, and that snowballed into image. Now we’re a little more assured of what we’re doing. We’re not positive which way we’re going, but we think we know what mistakes lie ahead, and we’re trying to sidestep ‘em.”
Full article here.
https://youtu.be/FQDc9loiFuk
Prime Cheap Trick, one of my great obsessions.
Ok this is a great documentary. Clarence Avant freakin’ was into everything, and everything he touched turned to gold. I have to admit that I didn’t know much about him before I watched this, but now I’m fascinated. Login to the Netflix and watch this posthaste.
https://youtu.be/qGdxX5qzeW8
DEVO’s first single, released March 12, 1977 on Booji Boy Records. (B/W “Jocko Homo,” of course.)
About the video …
“Mongoloid” was Devo’s second music video, after The Truth About De-Evolution. It was not actually made by the band, but by assemblage artist and experimental filmmaker Bruce Conner. Conner combined 1950s television advertisements, science fiction film clips (including a scene from It Came from Outer Space), and scientific documentaries with abstract animation and original film work. Devo marketed the film as “A documentary film exploring the manner in which a determined young man overcame a basic mental defect and became a useful member of society. Insightful editing techniques reveal the dreams, ideals and problems that face a large segment of the American male population. Very educational. Background music written and performed by the DEVO orchestra.”