Alec Hanley Bemis

YouTube video by J.Simone Media Vice President Kamala Harris Marching Band

my president
www.youtube.com/shorts/DRzAY...

Remembering Mark Lanegan & The Sadies' Dallas Good Artist primers on two beloved musicians, recently passed

Mark Lanegan died four years ago today in the same stretch of time as the death of The Sadie’s’ Dallas Gooid & the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

It presaged a dark era to come…

🖤 alechanleybemis.substack.com/p/lanegan-and-the-sadies

AHB's Goodies | Alec Hanley Bemis | Substack Every month or two I make a streaming playlist. (Back in my day we used to call them mixtapes.) You'll be the first to be notified. Paid subscribers get access to archival mixtapes. Click to read AHB'...

Really I’m just here to tell you I have a 📼 mixtape delivery service 📼

alechanleybemis.substack.com

🖇️ alechanleybemis.substack.com/p/david-lynch

Click in to hear the work of Lynch collaborators like Angelo Badalamenti, Alan Splet, Peter Ivers, and Julee Cruise—and a vibe that brings to mind Americana, surreal nostalgia & the uncanny.

On David Lynch’s death day (January 16th) I shared a 140-min playlist exploring the sound world he created for his films.

🖇️ alechanleybemis.substack.com/p/david-lynch

What does night-blooming jasmine on a Hollywood summer night sound like?

♡ LOVE SONGS ♡ …and an interview with a kid who appeared in The Smile's new video directed by contemporary auteur Paul Thomas Anderson. I also talk to the kid's mom.

🍅 MUSIC for ST VALENTINE ❤️‍🔥
open.substack.com/pub/alechanl...

alechanleybemis.substack.com

Ok I took a go at it.

Someone should start a newsletter specializing in eclectic, human-curated music discovery ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I am not as good at spotting music AI slop as I am at spotting AI writing (which affects me like a cheese-grater on the soul).

However, someone said to me a few weeks ago: doesn’t the But shuffle music on Spotify sound *cheaper* now than the music on Apple Music? And now I can’t un-hear it.

Apple Music isn’t serving AI stuff in its pre-made mixes - they are still curated by a human editor - and Spotify is, and curates algorithmically. That’s the sound of AI music, it sounds cheap.

periodic reminder that your creative and artistic work has ripple effects beyond your field of view, and that it's good for your soul and happiness, and yes that's important. please keep going, keep making and sharing, especially when it's grim. don't ever stop, we need you

2/ And yes, in an era of openly Nazi saluting Republican fellow travelers he‘s centrist. (America is really blasting open the Overton window these days, ugh.)

1/ I think by “charismatic” he means “likes public speaking & is memorable (albeit often reprehensible) when he does so“

Hard for a quick typing journalist/ commentator to pass on the more catchy centrist/charismatic pairing.

Hiya, I’m on @letterboxd.social if you’re on there: letterboxd.com/alechanleybemis

Truly embracing any excuse to spend less time… here.

I like poems

🪵 by H. C. Westermann

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

📚 that cover art ❤️‍🔥

The newsletter went out January 2.


Email remains the most reliable & timely format to follow along with my mixtape delivery service — so sign up!

🌐 alechanleybemis.substack.com/p/gentle-entrance 🌐

A Gentle Entrance Into the New Year some thoughts about boycotting streaming music—plus four instrumental LPs from 2025

👋 Happy New Year 🎊


For my mixtape delivery service, I picked four albums that might help you ease gently into 2026.

🌐 alechanleybemis.substack.com/p/gentle-entrance 🌐

I’ve been accused of being a buzzkill at times.

This Christmas I’ve decided to embrace it.

🌲🎅🏼🎈💨📌

Sometimes yr trying to log off social media for the holidays…and then this happens: a track from one of my fave Brassland releases, isomonstrosity, shows up in the trailer for a big, fancy movie😲

Hoping it creates a breadcrumb trail back to the excellent original LP🖇️ brassland.ffm.to/isomonstrosity

“free” social media tropisms towards enshittification the way plants seek light

wishing a very happy let’s-circle-back day to all who celebrate

If you want to revisit the performance that got me (and large swaths of music nerds on the Internet) intrigued by Daemyan in the first place.

My main takeaway from our conversation: the kids are gonna be alright.

🌀 a good place to start if you want to check out the music: industrystandard2004.bandcamp.com/album/bokmon

Experimental musician Daemyan Tang (Industry Standard) on staying self-contained – The Creative Independent Experimental musician Daemyan Tang (Industry Standard) discusses the childhood nostalgia that informs his work, using Instagram as its own art form, and trying not to land on his head.

I interviewed Industry Standard for @thecreativeindependent.com

In late October, the musician & artist (real name: Daemyan Tang) got a fleeting moment of algorithmic renown for his wild 10-second noise performance on a local upstate NY morning show

I was curious what lay beyond this viral moment.

Now spinning on my mixtape delivery service: anti-algorithmic music to fight the AI monster until Terminator finally Skynets our asses. 

Human translation: 6+ hours of music that made an impression on me in 2025.

🌐 alechanleybemis.substack.com

Thanks for listening.

Year-end critics’ lists exist for people to fight over, so I’m happy when people complain about them. But the complaint I will never get is, “I’ve never heard of most of these movies/albums/shows.” Yes, and? Why be mad about learning about stuff you didn’t know before from the news?

saw Moor Mother perform a music concert. it was excellent.
not pictured: the dancing