Less Convenience, More Fun

It’s a common saying that convenience always wins. So we went from going to the record store, browsing, buying a record, going home, putting it on the turntable, sitting down, and listening to reaching for our phones and tapping play on personalized playlists. The same shift has happened on the other side of the process: what once required hours or days of recording live musicians can now begin with a prompt entered on a computer at home.

If you make a linear projection of the future, the masses will listen to playlists of AI-generated music tailored perfectly to their mood (perhaps by using vitals from their watch), while purposeful, artistic pop and rock music will be appreciated only by a small number of enthusiasts, similar to classical or jazz music today. But the future does not develop in a linear fashion. There are signs that people are starting to realize that convenience and happiness often move in opposite directions. With the ever-growing level of automation, it is time to think about doing things in a way that is fun, even if the result is not necessarily better.

For quite some time, here at glamglare, we have had an inkling that we are receiving more pitches for bands again, as opposed to solo musicians with a production team¹. No approach is inherently better, but bands – a group of people who make and record music together – seem to be a more obvious counterpoint to computer-generated music. Bands also always need to have a strong, music-focused live performance in mind.

Pigeons & Planes ran an interesting piece, “An Anti-Algorithm Rock Scene”, about a new Chicago rock scene that loosely formed around a zine called Hallo Gallo. Founder Kai Slater says that using computers “looks bad and it’s no fun.²” If everybody can do a professional, corporate look for their publication, why not go the opposite direction? Needless to say, all the artists featured in the article are bands that prioritize live performances over social media exposure.

What if the young generation, having grown up with all this technology, has a sense of where it is useful, like having a regular FaceTime call with your mom, and where it is not, like mindless 24/7 entertainment at home?

Discovery of the Week: Lalit Sritara

When someone drops into your conversation with “Hi, I write musicals” at a NYC Music Month mixer, you’re probably skeptical at first. Clearly, she was neither Rodgers nor Hammerstein. Guess what? In the 2020s, you can. Not necessarily on Broadway, although Lalit might get there too, but with creativity, resourcefulness, and the tools you have in your pocket.

Check out “Feral,” which is only lighthearted on the surface. We don’t know the full story behind it, but it surely is a cautionary tale.

Cover Song of the Week: Pulp - The Day Before You Came (with the BBC Orchestra)

Only Jarvis Cocker of Pulp could have cranked up the melancholy of Abba’s “The Day Before You Came” to such a level of drama with the help of the BBC Orchestra without turning it into a farce.

This Week in glamglare history

1 Year Ago: Cate Le Bon - Heaven Is No Feeling

We had a little mix-up; today, one year ago, our Song Pick of the Day was Avery Lynch. Last week, it would have been Cate Le Bon’s first single from her seventh studio album, Michelangelo Dying.

5 Years Ago: Imogen - Bloodbag

“Bloodbag” is a dark cinematic track about “the feeling of being out of kilter with yourself.” After the EP of the same title, Imogen released two more EPs under the name Imogen And The Knife.

10 Years Ago: Jon Prezant - Heartstrings

We featured Jon Prezant two times on glamglare, and he played our showcase in July 2017 (Pardon our appearance; some photos are currently not available). He released an album, Oceanic, in 2018, and might have put music on the back burner since then.

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to all seven songs on YouTube, or follow our daily updated Song Pick playlists on YouTube, Apple Music, or Spotify.

• Odd Beholder - Ring Light
• Piper Connolly - Beautiful Life
• Marina Yozora - Snow Heat
• BROCKHOFF - Blue Star
• Fenne Lily - Uh Huh
• Freyja Elsy - In My Veins
• Lily Hain - Start Over Again

We publish one Song Pick of the Day every day. You can subscribe to receive them by email.

A Little Time in the Alps

Last week’s newsletter covered ten busy days on the road. This week, I’m lingering a little longer in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where I grew up in the Bavarian Alps. Between train rides, family visits, quiet streets, and mountain lakes, here are nine moments from our stay.

1. Dublin Airport, Ireland. Waiting for the next flight.
2. Münchner Hauptbahnhof. Waiting for the train south, which was heavily delayed.
3. From the train window: the Staffelsee near Murnau, between Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
4. Garmisch-Partenkirchen's main street, the Bahnhofstraße, has become remarkably quiet since traffic moved into the tunnels.
5. An afternoon at the Pflegersee, my parents' favorite lake.
6. Nestled in the mountains above Burgrain, the Pflegersee.
7. Breakfast at Biohotel Bavaria.
8. Evening glow from our hotel balcony.
9. Night falls over Garmisch.

1. Unfortunately, our last seven song picks don’t prove the point. But all song picks we choose – to the best of our knowledge – are done by real artists with intent. ↩︎
2. In 1990, I helped introduce computers to a University zine that Elke and her friends were publishing. Apparently, we have come full circle since then. ↩︎