Jimmy Ether

So, when I put out a 100-song psychedelic horror-core concept album called “At War With Rats”, know that it’s not metaphorical. I’m not railing against corporatism and bootlickers. Well, I am, generally but … no, it’s my literal current life. And so far the varmints are winning.

I don’t believe in ghosts. But I kinda wish the house we’re renovating was haunted by the guy who built it. I have a lot of questions for him.

It's kind of crazy renovating an "old" house and discovering all kinds of "old" building techniques and "old" and heavily lived-in quirkiness, only to realize the house is only three years older than I am.

… Got fiber internet installed so I can work there during all the build and renovation. Have to get tree people out today. The wife and I have weeks of interior patching, painting, and moulding work ahead of us.

I’ve somehow squeezed two weeks into the last two days. Talked all day yesterday with septic guys and building contractors. Trying to uncover the construction history of the house add ons. Going over all the options with the barn studio build, which keep changing for the better.

We closed on a 1970 built property with a big goat/chicken barn yesterday. Going to build my dream “barn studio”. This will be my 7th studio build, but the biggest and most no-holds-barred. I’ll try to document the whole experience.

Victory Hands and the Richard Nixon White House tapes Victory Hands are an Atlanta-based quartet of veteran musicians playing angular rhythms and anthemic melodies with lyrics taken straight from the tapes and speeches of Richard Milhous Nixon.

@losingmyopinion.bsky.social “and what exactly is Nixon rock?”

Well, since you asked:

victoryhands.com

😂

It’s streaming on Max. It’s very good.

Watching the Yacht Rock doc and it occurred to me that Christopher Cross is Billy Corgan if Corgan wasn't an douchebag narcissist. Like, Billy Corgan is Bizarro Christopher Cross. I don't know why this is the case, but it is an absolute fact.

Same.

If you’re weeding alone through all the garbage, yes. But befriending music nerds with different genre focus and reading underground music pubs snd newsletters goes a long way. I find something new to me monthly just as a matter of course.

It’ll also screw up practically every application on the planet. But more work for me I guess?

YouTube video by vacantmoon Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Live 1994 - Full Show

Literally 30 years ago today I saw this Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 show at The Point in Atlanta. They twisted my mind permanently.

Video Ed is yet again deserving of thanks for documenting this era.

youtu.be/VBfO4FRA6ps?...

I just wanna make the world a much less painful place... An essay on "Why Write A Letter That You'll Never Send" by The Dones

An essay on "Why Write A Letter That You'll Never Send" by The Drones.

I can’t think of a single song that better encompasses my feelings about the world at the moment. It’s painful, angry, desperate, and pleading. But entirely beautiful.

open.substack.com/pub/jimmyeth...

Why Does AI Music Suck? A conversation with music theory professor Christopher White

A great technical breakdown of why AI in music creation produces poor results.

open.substack.com/pub/patrickh...

Big thanks to Chad Radford for the Victory Hands write up in the latest issue of Record Plug Magazine.

Hope to see you all at Bogg’s July 9th, Atlanta!

Music is not getting worse. Perhaps, your discovery process is simply lazy.

Yesterday, Rick Beato claimed that “music is getting worse”. I wonder what he and his legion of subscribers qualify as music. Is it merely what’s on the radio? What’s rising in the streaming charts? What’s getting press attention?

Read more here:

open.substack.com/pub/jimmyeth...

The wise artist is the one who unabashedly shows themselves—flaws and all—and highlights the things that no technology will ever be able to replicate convincingly to the discriminating listener. Artists just have to figure out what is uniquely human about what they do and lean into it.

That said, there will be an AI backlash. People are looking for authenticity and a human connection.

Many will use it to copy popular trends. And absolutely nobody is going to stamp “created using AI” on their album. You can’t legislate that line, because it goes back to the invention of recorded music. We’ve all bought into the manipulation from day one.

So, where’s your line in the sand? Artists will use technology to conceal inferiority. Some will use it to explore new artistic territory. Recoding engineers will use it forensically to enhance imperfections in recordings.

How the Music Business Can Tame the Dangerous AI Dragon Here's a five point plan that makes a difference (and not just for music)

But practically everything a musician does is a manipulation using technology no matter how authentic they purport to be. The moment you stick a microphone in front of someone or something, you are fabricating a false reality.

I don’t see how this technology is any less of a manipulation than, for instance, autotune—possibly the most recent equivalent tool and a favorite poster child of lameness in production.

How the Music Business Can Tame the Dangerous AI Dragon Here's a five point plan that makes a difference (and not just for music)

I don’t necessarily disagree with anything Gioia says here. But as someone who’s consistently grappling with the concept of authenticity in music production, I’m neither concerned nor terribly interested in any changes AI technology professes to bring to it.

How the Music Business Can Tame the Dangerous AI Dragon Here's a five point plan that makes a difference (and not just for music)

Ted Gioia posted this about AI in music to his The Honest Broker music newsletter:

open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia...

I don’t necessarily disagree with anything Gioia says here. (Con’t)

Jimmy Ether's Striking Kooks Inaugural ramblings from my brand spankin' new Substack. There will be talk of songwriting, music making, recording, releasing, and all the things surrounding that lifestyle.

I started a thing. Ahhhhh Newsletters: humanity's manna in an emerging robot world. Subscribe (for free) if you want to hear me ramble about music. It's like LiveJournal with slightly fewer Russians.

jimmyether.substack.com/p/jimmy-ethe...

I agree on Fridmann. His obsession with low bit rate distortion and anti-dynamic, crushing hard-limiting ruined a generation of recordings.

Overall, the trend moved away from performance being priority to artifice coming first.

Not God, by Finom 9 track album

This album is exceptionally good. Jeff Tweedy and son loft production too.

finom.bandcamp.com/album/not-god

Which is a problem. I prefer the move toward Nigel Godrich production-wise.

Day 3 of recording sessions for the excellent Small Moving Parts (6 songs tracked so far, 4 with vocals - a pretty good pace) and just finished playing a short Loud Humans/Victory Hands set at Corndogorama. I’m running on pure adrenaline at this point.