If you haven't yet checked out Liz Pelly's remarkable book Mood Machine, this film is your entry point. I speak at the 20-minute mark, but I suggest watching the entire film—there are perspectives from Horsegirl, TV On The Radio, and others. #MorePerfectUnion #MoodMachine #MusicIndustryInsights
perfectunion.us. I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the insightful Liz Pelly and the talented crew at More Perfect Union for a fantastic explainer film that dives into how Spotify—and the larger frameworks that musicians depend on—diminish the worth of our work.
Gil is the Absolute best.
tell me about it...
Well, considering how good your last work has been, I'm ready to have my mind blown...
paying attention.
What a great Interview @annkpowers.bsky.social did with @jarviscocker.bsky.social This is exactly what a conversation about creativity and life should be... balancing the weight and the lightness.
In this week's chapter of Visionaries With Guitars: Tsunami's @jennytoomey.bsky.social and Kristin Thomson, and how they helped indie music adapt and push forward into the digital future. bit.ly/4kAYDVc
If you read one thing today....This short perfect piece by @mariabustillos.bsky.social is one of the cleverest, clearest and cleanest descriptions of how we regularly hand the reins of our lives over to the charismatic advertisements of the tech-huxters. flaminghydra.com/movie-review...
Thanks. We are all just shadows crossing.
“There is a loneliness that can be rocked.” — Toni Morrison
“If there is a loneliness that can be rocked, I want to punk rock it with you.” — Jenny Toomey
I've got a new website...come take a look. Sign the mailing list so that when social crumbles we can find each other. jennytoomey.com/news
They aren't coming for the art accidentally. ALL forms of expression, collective labor, empathy and imagination are under attack. For me, punk rock, DIY, storytelling and gathering together is the center of resistance. Looking forward to being with you in the uncertain future.
Planning for my first tour in 30 years, I've been feeling extremely conflicted about playing music at a moment when so many of the humans, norms, and right-systems I believe in and depend upon are under attack.
60 Minutes bravely makes concert to happen, broadcasts it and gives a megaphone to the silenced. A masterclass in centering and empowering the targeted humans to tell their story in a climate of rights destruction & casual violence too overwhelming for many to even acknowledge or engage.
This 60 Minutes piece is worth watching. I wept! Brilliant musicians compete to play with the US Marine band find their concert canceled because of this administration's cruel executive order animated by a fear of having to compete in an environment of true equity. www.cbsnews.com/video/marine...
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I love to hear that because, as of course you know. Those ideas that went into Simple Machines are not our own but came from others who inspired us... It's the great recirculation of generocity.
You'll just have to find several dozen grenadine singles and paste them together.
for us too. took some time to find deadstock wallpaper.
Grenadine - Triology ('Fillings' & 'Gillan') 7" single, the sleeve is flock wallpaper with a stamp on it and a gold star stuck to it
simple machines catalog text: "yeah it's pop. but I still wouldn't want to bake a souffle near it" weeeellll simple machines has been mighty busy in January and february. So busy, in fact, that we have to expand. with any luck we'll be in a new corporate headquarters with a bigger kitchen by spring. but in the meantime we've got a p.o. box. please use this address for orders and love letters from now on. in the wax department, we've got three new releases in early march. with only wIth only inclined plane left to complete the original project of putting out six 7"s dedicated to the simples machines, we're forging on with other projects. the neo-politan metropolitan triple 7"' box set is almost ready to go, followed by a tear jerks 7" and another tsunami 7". we've got three new additions to the surprisingly popular TOOL SET our series of all-cassette releases (and by the way, it's incredibly cool the number of you who have taken the leap to cassettes. we've sent out at least 30 sets). on a sad note, the "five-tapes-at-once' high-speed dubbing machine that we bought from some scheister in the want ads turned out to be a lemon, so we've been keeping both of our personal dubbing decks going about 16 hours a day (an act of love and insanity). meanwhile, in the indie rock world, the tsunami split single on Sub/Pop with velocity girl beat the homestead single to the record stores, while we're still slotted for a single for smiling ear records in texas, a tune for the meat "stew" 10" compilation and the next C/Z teriyaki asthma 7" with superchunk and poster children (we'll have limited copies of all of these releases for $3.25 a single when available. call before ordering or be prepared to walt). if you don't already know, d.c. pop losers have passed the (fire)ball to the band small factory who are setting up the next mega-pop ex- travaganza, this time in provldence r.i. march 27, 28, 29. from what we hear you'll kick yourself if you miss this
simple machines slumberland text: the slumberland la-la indoctrination project we can't believe that we hadn't thought of this sooner. how much crack have we been smoking? after all, we love all the slumberland releases and mike schulman lives in our city so it would be easy to tackle him 1f he ever considered being a slacker and not sending us stuff. and since he's too busy charting the course for the la-la revolution to do mailorder we're happy to serve as a pop loser merchandise outlet.
Teen Beat catalogue flyer, has the logo and drawings of two '90s punk girls, then all the releases listed
Found a Grenadine (@jennytoomey.bsky.social) 7" in Upside Down Records in Deptford today. It has Teen Beat and Simple Machines catalogue flyers from 1992 tucked in it. The Simple Machines one mentions selling @slumberlandrecords.bsky.social releases on mail order
Mark and KT and I cut every strip of flocked wallpaper by hand and made every seal and stamp.
Agree! Just this... makes it a must listen. "Cara’s may be best known as a longtime Billy Bragg collaborator, but she’s played with an array of other outstanding artists, among them Everything But The Girl,Au Pairs ...etc"
I see what he did there.
Thanks for the interview. Turned out great.
I agree with these demands.
"You're taking the fun out of everything
You're making me run, when I don't wanna think
You're taking the fun out of everything
I don't wanna think at all
… There's no other way
There's no other way
All that you can do is watch them play"
I was thinking about that when in the background the Blur song "There's no other way" came on as a perfect soundtrack to our defiant sleepwalking. I remembered... how much I always hated the proudly dumb sentiment of that song.
This idea that the tech we are forced to live within had to be an expensive predatory grift and the music we are forced to listen to had to be extractive jingles wasn't a forgone conclusion then and it's still not now.
I found myself at an AI conference at what was once the Experience Music Project last week. So many music and tech memories came up from the past 30 years. I felt how my optimism turned to deep cynicism.
