Good Finds #3
New Daft Punk, Tyler, the Creator's enduring festival, life as a Black woman DJ, rescuing a critical music archive, and Mike Schreiber's hip-hop Polaroids
The Law of Attraction says that our social media feeds will reflect whatever brand of dialogue, confirmation, or tribalism we desire—consciously or otherwise.
In recent weeks, I’ve made a concerted effort to dial down the temperature of my daily browsing. But instead of putting my head in the sand, I’ve invested my time in reading, listening, and learning. I’ve unfollowed darker threads or those who shout intransigent positions or claim the moral high ground. I’ve blocked a few folks out of mental necessity. But I’ve practiced tolerance as I listen to voices that challenge my ideas, and my position evolves.
Even with these efforts, it’s impossible to avoid propagandistic online content. While universally available, facts can say different things depending on your POV. This leads some to argue that the issues in front of us are black and white. But for me, nuance and complexity is a required skill. Without it, there can only be winners, losers, and stalemates.
Nurturing my better instincts, curiosity, and compassion, I’m using this moment to seek out a balance of opinions and lived experiences. I’m searching for truth, whatever or whoever the source. I’m doing my homework and challenging my beliefs and biases. I’m asking the same of others.
Pro tip: I’ve been using the free Libby app to consume more books. If you haven’t gotten turned onto this incredible hack, it’s a library, Audible, and Kindle in one. And it costs nothing. Library books can be checked out in the app. These are a few of the titles on my reading list:
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbors by Yosi Klein Halevi
What are you reading, listening to, and learning from to understand this moment better? Please leave me a comment below. Maybe it can help others expand their compassion and understanding.
This week’s Good Finds:
New Daft Punk
Camp Flog Gnaw Livestream
DJ Paulette’s new book Welcome to the Club
Hip-hop photographer Mike Schreiber
Saving the ARChive of Contemporary Music
Daft Punk refuses to leave us, which seems fine to everyone. After retiring/self-detonating (we’re still crying), it’s natural that their focus turns to reflection and storytelling for posterity. Considering their truly legendary status, I hope these campfire tales continue.
Besides this week’s “Motherboard (Drumless Edition)” release from Random Access Memories, their Memory Tapes series is on YouTube, with episodes featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers.
Directed by long-time Daft Punk collaborator Warren Fu, each episode includes a new interview as well as archival footage and never before seen studio footage of Daft Punk as they crafted their final album.
Robot merch? Random Access Memories (Drumless Edition) is available for pre-order and will be released on November 17, 2023.
Live Stream: Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival
In 2012, Camp Flog Gnaw (originally billed as OFWGKTA) began as a scrappy experiment by Odd Future’s Tyler, the Creator, in a Downtown LA parking lot. After being on hiatus since the pandemic, this year's return is back at Dodger Stadium over two days, November 11-12.
A decade ago, Tyler was telling YouTube to suck his dick, yelling at photographers to clear the photo pit so true OF fans could enjoy the show, and getting kicked out of Coachella. This weekend, I’m taking my young daughters to see this world-renowned cultural ambassador showcase the current state of youth sounds.
As always, the lineup reflects Tyler’s technicolor worldview. It’s long been a preview of next-wave stars like Billie Eilish, Omar Apollo, and Dominic Fike. 2023’s bill includes d4vd, beabadoobee, and PinkPantheress, which will confirm or renew your faith in music’s perpetual state of invention and revitalization.
Being in the mix at CFG is witnessing the vibrancy of youth culture without the angst and insecurity. Can’t brave the crowd, score a sold-out ticket, or prefer a sofa experience? The live stream is free on Twitch and Amazon Prime Video and starts Saturday, November 11, at 3 p.m. PT.
In Print: Welcome to the Club: The Life and Lessons of a Black Woman DJ, by DJ Paulette
From the cover: In Welcome to the Club, Manchester legend DJ Paulette shares the highs, lows, and lessons of a thirty-year music career with help from some famous friends. One of the Haçienda’s first female DJs, Paulette has scaled the heights of the music industry, playing to crowds of thousands all around the world, and descended to the lows of being unceremoniously benched by COVID-19, with no chance of furlough and little support from the government. Here, she tells her story, offering a remarkable view of the music industry from a Black woman’s perspective. Behind the core values of peace, love, unity, and respect, dance music is a world of exclusion, misogyny, racism, and classism. But, as Paulette reveals, it is also a space bursting at the seams with powerful women.
“My intention in writing Welcome To The Club was primarily to point out and help people to read about some important hidden histories of DJing, events, clubs, electronic dance music, and the music industry that so rarely get name-checked in the books that matter. I hope to put a massive spoke in the wheels of the rolling wagons of historical denialism and prove that Black people, people of color, women, gay and non-binary, have significant roles and play an important part in its evolution—past, present, and future.”
—DJ Paulette
More information on Welcome to the Club and Paulette is here.
Hip-Hop Photographer Mike Schreiber’s Bright Moments
In 2013, photographer Mike Schreiber hung out with his friend Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) at a few live shows in Paris. A decade later, the Polaroid images he captured make up the exhibit Bright Moments, opening this week at NeueHouse Venice Beach.
The author of several photo books, Schreiber’s work appeared in URB and numerous publications in the nineties and 2000s. This unearthed collection, squirreled away in a shoe box for a decade, reflects a more imperfect and spontaneous side of his work.
Bright Moments is on view in Annex 73 at NeueHouse Venice Beach from November 9 2023-February 8, 2024.
Saving The ARChive of Contemporary Music
I didn’t even know this place existed, but I’m grateful it does. Founded in 1985, The ARChive of Contemporary Music (ARC) is a not-for-profit archive, music library, and research center in New York. But it’s in trouble and, according to a press release, “in great need of support as it faces an uncertain future.”
This is probably a good time to put a fine point on what I’ve preached in this blog since I launched: preserving our shared music culture isn’t guaranteed or by accident. Large-scale projects like ARC need dedicated teams and fans' support to survive for generations. A press release says, “The recording industry had long neglected the preservation of its heritage, with many historic recordings and artifacts misplaced and destroyed throughout the years.”
Think about that.
Without a new home, more than three million recordings, as well as millions of historic materials spanning all cultures and races, could disappear forever. Collections that are currently at risk include Keith Richards’ Blues Collection, one of the most extensive collection of blues and R&B recordings in the world, funded by ARC board member Richards for more than 16 years, as well as their Zero Freitas Brazilian Music Collection which has made ARC home to the largest collection of Brazilian music outside of Brazil.
Donations for a new building are not only essential in supporting the archives and collections themselves, but will help the expansion of educational programming, community gatherings, listening events and more towards ARC’s ultimate goal of transitioning from an archive to a thriving, living public institution with the creation of The Center for Popular Music.
Go to our story to learn more about ARC, or visit our website arcmusic.org.
https://youtu.be/mw8s4GQofCA?si=GiEqNN1rJp_LgRVZ