Shows
FlavortoneEpisode 53: Tradition, The Future & Music, PleaseAlec and Nick reconvene to discuss concepts of “tradition” and “futurity” as they relate to music. Picking up on our ceaseless cultural pull toward both the past and future, the conversation focuses on how contemporary’s music’s impulse to represent history and postulate a future for itself has developed its own kind of suspended, tense aesthetic condition. The conversation touches on Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities,” Bang on Can’s Longform Festival, Accelerationism vs. “trad” culture, neorationalist philosophy, ethical and/or relativist music appreciation, Sylvere Lotringer, The Beats, Post-Internet Art, the problems of using collapse as a vision of the future, the dubio...2023-06-301h 16
FlavortoneEpisode 52: Musician's Friend, Drum EditionIn this episode Alec & Nick revisit the periodic Musician’s Friend series with a Drum Edition. Considering “drum” as an instrumental category that encompasses much of contemporary musical sound, aesthetics and cultural orientation, the episode navigates various histories and practices across a spectrum of percussive sound, recording and musical philosophy and inquires into the meanings of percussion in the 21st century. Topics include global historical reckonings with resonance, Sarah Hennies’ composition and notion of queer percussion, James Tenney’s “klang” concept, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, exoticism in Western art music, the rhythmic properties of harmony, sample packs, electronic drumming workflo2023-06-011h 13
FlavortoneEpisode 51: Cursed Be the One Who Be Listening to Music [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec and Nick bust out the evil eye amulets to discuss varieties of “cursed music” and what constitutes music feeling or being “cursed.” Following a line of thought from the archetypal Faustian bargain, malediction, ritual and sacrifice, the sacred and profane, and other concepts of curses, the discussion explores music’s relationship to shit talking, punk ideology, Althusser’s interpellation, Torn Hawk’s performance of “Trustfall” at Emily Harvey Foundation,” experiences with live ambient and drone music, Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher’s new “Music Songs,” Cornelius Cardew’s political-aesthetic agony, the gospel-like quality of metal and noise communities, presumptuous futuristic musi...2023-05-1409 min
FlavortoneEpisode 50: Captain's Log, Transcendental [PATREON PREVIEW]In this 50th episode of Flavortone, Alec and Nick settle deep in cups of “earl grey, hot” from the replicator for an entry into the Star Ship Flavorphonia Captain’s Log. Citing Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the duo take this ancient maritime convention of record keeping at sea to trace various other epistemic fault-lines in the practice and theory of notation. The duo consider the “log” as a mundane account which transcends its quantitative form in generating unanticipated moral and aesthetic inventories. Branching from this analysis, the broader discussion includes consideration of a tweet by Holly Herndon on the stake...2023-04-2110 min
FlavortoneEpisode 49: Foibles and The Meaning of Tossed Salad & Scrambled EggsAlec and Nick pull back the Flavortone curtain and take up influential sitcom Frasier to discuss the decorum of Foibles as a primary engine of music. Known as a minor weakness or eccentricity in one’s character, or the weaker part of a sword blade—the conversation uses the Foible to explore wide-ranging commentary on Christianity, the trial of Socrates, sites of contested authorship in American minimalism, Rip Van Winkle sleeping through the Revolutionary War, comedy, Fluxus, the work of Torn Hawk, and more. Ultimately, the duo asks: is the foible of a blade actually the avant-garde? Are the aest...2023-03-091h 29
FlavortoneEpisode 48: Fratres In FlightAlec & Nick take to the proverbial skies with this discussion around the dreaming and engineering feats which make possible the various metaphorical and real forms of Flight. Diverting from some of FT’s established conversations dealing with cultural and musical wreckage, this episode looks into moments of lift and inspiration, as supported by efforts of imagination, study and experimentation. The discussion ranges from a consideration of passive and active flight, the commercial airline experience, musical tuning systems and just intonation, the tensions inherent in human progress, the journals of Leonardo DaVinci, synthesis and synthesizers as instruments of belief and kn...2023-02-281h 13
FlavortoneEpisode 47: Thus Shook Zarathustra's Groove Thing (Politics & Poetry) [PATREON PREVIEW]Following on from Flavortone’s previous episode exploring Excellence, Alec and Nick pick up Charles Keil & Steven Feld’s “Music Grooves” to discuss “the Groove” as a political concept that illustrates musical discrepancy and assembly. The episode continues a “back to basics” and “first principles” line of inquiry, approaching essential ethnomusicological ideas such as “Participatory Discrepancy” that describe how a simultaneity of difference can give music its power and meaning. The conversation also discusses riffs and phrases, contrasts the Groove to Attali and Nieztche’s ideas of carnival and the Dionysian, creates a comparison between “literary” and “linguistic” musical orientations, re-discusses “Agave...2023-02-0710 min
FlavortoneEpisode 46: Could Not Music Be Excellent? (Editorials & Opinions) [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec and Nick kick off the new year of podcasts with a discussion of Excellence. Taking on critical histories of the composer as fodder, the episode surveys musical success paradigms and the narcissisms of small difference which feed debates over musical interpretation. Topics include Alec and Nick’s recent performances as participants in Random Gear Festival, a recent viewing of Tár, the parasite as a metaphor for interpretation, old-school classicism, Harold C. Shonberg’s book, “The Lives of the Great Composers,” musical idealism vs. counterculture, music as text, and more.2023-01-1713 min
FlavortoneEpisode 45: Acting As If I’m PinocchioIn this year end reflection, Alec and Nick discuss the folkloric figure of Pinocchio—a “constantly lying wooden marionette,” whose dual consciousness (as both an abject dummy and an aspiring human) suggests a parable for understanding musical problems of “liveness” and “deadness” and the puppetry of musical commodification. Taking up Carlo Collodi’s late 19th century series “The Adventures of Pinocchio” as a text that precodes social and political movements in the 20th century—including local and global perspectives of artisan class-politics, Marxism, Italian unification, and fascism—the conversation follows into an analysis of the puppet-like dramaturgy of musical political economies. Matte...2022-12-131h 06
FlavortoneEpisode 44: The Roast of Hans ZimmerAlec and Nick continue their occasional roast series with a roast of German film score composer Hans Zimmer. The conversation surveys and critiques his work across the new wave and new age soundtrack exotica of the 80s and 90s (Rain Man, Gladiator, The Lion King), to the cinematic revelry of his Christopher Nolan-directed epochs (Inception, Dunkirk, Batman) to recent scores such as Boss Baby. The roast also probes his methods of budget-savvy musical fabrication, his management of authenticity and appropriation, and the current ubiquity of his overall sound. The episode then makes broad comparisons between Zimmer, globalist/neoliberal ideology...2022-11-121h 27
FlavortoneEpisode 43: Fear and Being Interested in Many Different Things (Politics & Poetry) [PATREON PREVIEW]For a Halloween special, Alec and Nick take up Søren Kierkegaard’s frightening text “Fear and Trembling” as a starting point to discuss fear as it relates to philosophy, music, film, and life. Discussing the chilling crisis of faith during Abraham’s binding of Isaac and the subsequent “Teleological suspension of the ethical”—the conversation evolves into a broader exploration of universal vs. situational fear, affects of fear vs. the motivations of fear, and the administration and control of fear in everything from the music of Scott Walker, Kubrick’s The Shining, Krzysztof Penderecki, climate protesters actions toward paintings, alien...2022-10-3108 min
FlavortoneEpisode 42: Phenomenology of Fantasy FootballBlue, 42. Hut. In this 42nd episode of Flavortone, Alec and Nick delve into the analytic imaginaries of Fantasy Football. Having recently joined a friendly fantasy league, they reflect on recent W’s and L’s and the characteristic fantasy sport experience of a speculative, detemporized form of spectatorship. The discussion revives a favorite Flavortone question — “How are sports NOT like music?” — in considering the role of chance, ephemerality and stochastic models of probability in the aesthetic experience and in the forms of sport and avant-garde music. Discussion includes gestalt psychology, James Tenney’s “Meta+Hodos,” the stochastic compositions of Iannis Xenakis, th...2022-10-201h 30
FlavortoneEpisode 41: Come On Feel the Avant-Garde (Editorials & Opinions) [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec and Nick discuss the implications of American and European musical avant-gardes as participating in militaristic and nationalist rhetorics that precode our contemporary “culture war” discourse. The conversation explores how aesthetic “war-games” — in their varyingly diplomatic and contentious outcomes — are imbricated in the broader colonial trajectory of 20th and 21st century institutions. Topics include the correspondences of Cage and Boulez, Julius Eastman’s controversial performance of Cage, Alvin Lucier, the American hotdog, Charles Ives, Hamilton, anti-Italian Twitter, the US Open, John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” the Cold War-era military funding for abstract expressionism, Henry Flynt and Tony Conrad’s anti-Stockhausen demon2022-09-2810 min
FlavortoneEpisode 40: Remembrance of Things CraftAlec and Nick discuss the concept of craft and craftsmanship as a paradigm that dictates behavior in cultural production and art. The conversation explores differences between the utility of craft and the performativity or representation of craft as an aesthetic repertoire. Topics include regionality and nostalgia in everything from indie rock and country music to experimental music that references 20th century composition, as well as recording techniques, artisanal food culture, Aristotle’s “Nichomachean Ethics” which distinguishes between “Episteme” and “Techne,” Plato’s Republic, refinement culture, reissue culture, gentrification, and the industrial and material conditions that surround craftsmanship. Ultimately, a continuum betwee...2022-09-161h 17
FlavortoneEpisode 39: Charles Ives, Sunday ComposerAlec & Nick engage the music of American iconoclast and life-long amateur composer, Charles Ives (1874-1954). The episode traces Ives' experimental aesthetics in relation to his transcendentalist-inspired notion that music is comprised of Substance and Manner (described in his “Essays Before a Sonata”). The discussion situates Ives’ compositional techniques, historical positionality and unique perspective around popular and folk song in American culture to pursue questions within the geneology of experimental music in the U.S. Topics include John Cage, Henry Cowell, the musical quotation vs. the sample, Emerson, Thoreau, American pragmatism, European and American nationalisms and the role of musical practi...2022-07-071h 20
FlavortoneEpisode 38: Weesa In Big Doo Doo Summer (Politics & Poetry) [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec and Nick discuss the politics and poetry of Jar Jar Binks as a fraught, irredeemable, and complicated figuration of online media culture. Christening summer 2022 as a “Weesa In Big Doo Doo Summer,” the duo discuss a “Binksian paradigm” as an imagistic cultural impasse and toxicity meter that encodes a variety of recent contemporary cultural tropes: the re-emergence of everything from caricature and Catholicism to ambiguous political discourse, Nu Metal, rabid fan culture, and aughts humor. The conversation opens up into an examination of the tensions between archetype and stereotype, models of insufficiency and fiction found in the thought of Franc...2022-06-1610 min
FlavortoneEpisode 37: The Way of HoudiniPresto! In this episode, Alec & Nick discuss the legendary illusion arts of Harry Houdini as an analogical frame for considering artistic strategies and aesthetics of escape. Discussing the work of Mattin and Pascale Criton in particular, the episode accounts for performance, audience and spectacle as planes of musical consistency in which the illusion of “escape” is realized — as the risk of conceptual or interpretive failure is leveraged towards thrilling feats of musical cogency and enjoyment. Topics include Mattin’s “Social Dissonance,” the conducting of Pierre Boulez, Deleuze & Guattari’s “Lines of Flight,” the solo computer set as spectacle, the athleticism of int...2022-06-021h 16
FlavortoneEpisode 36: Friedrich Nietzsche’s "The Case of Wagner" (Study Group) [PATREON PREVIEW]The Flavortone Study Group sub-series continues with Alec & Nick discussing Friedrich Nietzsche’s text “The Case of Wagner: A Musician’s Problem,” his last work completed only days before his mental collapse in 1888. The conversation delves into the historical context for both Nietzsche’s thought and Wagner’s music and delves into the text’s themes of decadence, exhaustion, sickness, philosophical affect—analyzing Wagner’s work as a possible litmus test for the role of music in philosophy, and, in broader terms, in ideology.2022-05-2912 min
FlavortoneEpisode 35: The Neo-Feudalist Captive Music SocietyAlec & Nick conduct a first meeting of the “Neo-Feudalist Captive Music Society,” an invented club that takes shape around how contemporary musicians are obliged to live on borrowed land and provide homage, labor, and shares of their “produce.” The discussion describes how local music networks often exist outside the castle walls of the various abstract systems they operate within. Attempting to trace the limits of political economy, music scenes as liberatory associations, and the critiques of late capitalism from theorists like Franco “Bifo” Berardi & Christian Marrazi, the conversation arrives at the production of a “Captive Music”—an embodied, local, entrapped, but warr...2022-05-121h 21
FlavortoneEpisode 34: You Must Stay Drunk on Writing So Reality Cannot Destroy You (Editorials & Opinions) [PATREON PREVIEW]Teasing their forthcoming music writing website (TBA), Alec and Nick delve the epistemic guts of music and the written word. The episode traces broad historical discussions of music criticism in relation to current trends in publication and music production. Topics include Substack, The Village Voice, the "critic-as-artist" the Schumann-founded journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, genre discourse, Alan Licht, Greg Tate, Tiny Mix Tapes and more.2022-05-0610 min
FlavortoneEpisode 33: Sinatra At The SandsAlec and Nick consider the music and cultural impact of Frank Sinatra through a discussion of his album, “Sinatra At The Sands” — recorded in 1966 at the famous Las Vegas hotel and casino. Drawing from observations about Sinatra’s iconicity as a stylist of American popular song, a persisting contemporary signifier of celebration and kitchen-sink comfort and a high water mark of traditional masculinity and coolness, the conversation explores broad cultural dynamics of authenticity and “normalcy” as an aesthetics of traumatic, reparative coping. Topics include the Lindy effect, the old Hollywood/New York divide, PC Music, Jean Baudrillard’s 1996 headlining appearance at...2022-04-231h 13
FlavortoneEpisode 32: Why This Experimental Music Festival? (Politics & Poetry) [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec and Nick discuss the poetry and politics of the experimental music festival. At first exploring the history and economy of music festivals such as Big Ears, Moogfest, Hopscotch, Red Bull Music Academy, and the European Festival circuit—the conversation then launches into a personal discussion probing Nick’s curatorial role at ISSUE Project Room and Alec’s curatorial role in the Neo-Pastiche: Changes In American Music Festival. Notions of community, consumption, and audience take shape around anecdotes of DIY organizing, non-profit culture, Dick Higgins, Black Mountain College, Alvin Lucier, George Lewis, and more.2022-04-1611 min
FlavortoneEpisode 31: Tarnished by the TweetAlec & Nick delve into the lore and mechanics of the video game Elden Ring, drawing a layered comparison between “The Tarnished” and our plight as musicians, cultural participants, and social media users. The discussion takes Nick’s recently pseudo-viral tweet proclaiming that “a truly new insane and unforeseen music can and has yet to be made” as a point of departure to discuss anti-communication, Jeff Witscher & Jack Callahan’s recent performance of “Futility 2022” at Union Pool, Morton Subotnick, Godrick The Grafted, decadence, and the dismembered dynamics of media.2022-03-311h 18
FlavortoneEpisode 30: Tomato Town Composer’s Workshop (Editorials & Opinions) [PATREON PREVIEW]In this 30th episode of Flavortone, Alec & Nick talk through the recent acquisition of Bandcamp by the massively successful creator of Fortnite and Unreal Engine — Epic Games. Examining the broader indie music scene’s antagonism towards this merger, the conversation interrogates the microtransactional status of digital media economies shared by both music and video games. Topics include music distribution, video game chat rooms, the NYC experimental music Fortnite contingent and the state of avant-garde discourse in light of the proliferation of metaverses.2022-03-2607 min
FlavortoneEpisode 29: A Bad Day of Fishing is Better Than a Good Day of PodcastingReturning from a trip to the sunny coast of Sayulita, Mexico, Alec & Nick reflect on their recent ocean fishing excursion and drop a line into the psychogeographies of the fish, the fishermen and the high seas. The episode considers aquatic ecologies as networks of geo-political power and discourse as well as sites of leisure and solitude. Topics include Annea Lockwood, Donna Harraway, Bruce Sterling's "Pirate Utopia," Temporary Autonomous Zones, Buckminster Fuller, and more.2022-03-161h 11
FlavortoneEpisode 28: Jacques Attali's "Noise" Part 2 - "Sacrificing" (Study Group) [PATREON PREVIEW]The Flavortone Study Group sub-series continues with Alec & Nick progressing in their reading of Jacques Attali's "Noise: The Political Economy of Music." Discussing the book's second chapter, “Sacrificing,” this episode gives a deep reading and commentary on Attali's position that the earliest essential social role of music was to serve as a substitute or simulacrum of sacrifice—and was a way of controlling and vanquishing noise by creating a harmonious order that legitimizes a social order.2022-03-1209 min
FlavortoneEpisode 27: Flavor of LoveAlec and Nick meditate on the Valentine's holiday with a consideration of musical romance and romanticism. Charting a history of musical thought regarding topics of love, collectivity and intimacy, the episode investigates deeper foundations of romance as well as its contemporary commercial and social constructions in sound. Topics include Edgard Varèse, Johannes Brahms, João Gilberto, Éliane Radigue, Roland Barthes, Michael Franks and more.2022-02-141h 16
FlavortoneEpisode 26: Down The Road, Where The Blacktop Ends (Politics & Poetry) [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec & Nick inaugurate the new patron-exclusive Politics & Poetry sub-series with a deep dive into the politics, poetry, and music of 17-year-old country music / emo-rap star Kidd G. The discussion touches on trans-american rural aesthetics, reciprocities of youth and aging, binaristic partisan politics, and the postmodern synthesis of “country-rap” as it plays out in Harmony Korine, Ryan Trecartin & contemporary life. The duo also discusses how the politics of populism flow into recent dramas such the Neil Young & Joe Rogan Spotify stand-off, independent music Twitter’s recent meltdown on NFT music “scam” HitPiece, and more.2022-02-0908 min
FlavortoneEpisode 25: We Like The ArtAlec and Nick discursively cross the river Styx that is Web3 and NFT culture. Charting a recent history of music’s own volatile and speculative economies, this episode tracks analogical implications within sound and blockchain technologies. The duo borrow the crypto degen epithet “we like the art” and speak about the visualization and tokenization of music as its transpired within the industrial conditions of Web2 as an audible musical imprint. The conversation touches on recent music distribution protocol Nina, the upcoming Tiny Mix Tapes DAO, the rise and fall of SoundCloud, Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, Simon Reynold’s Conceptron...2022-02-021h 14
FlavortoneEpisode 24: Jacques Attali's "Noise" Part 1 - "Listening" (Study Group) [PATREON PREVIEW]In this first podcast of the Flavortone Study Group sub-series, Alec & Nick begin their reading of Jacques Attali's "Noise: The Political Economy of Music." Discussing the book's first chapter, "Listening," this episode offers introduction and commentary on Attali's central theme of music as a prophetic social force and as a mirror of political and economic circumstances.2022-01-2914 min
FlavortoneEpisode 23: Musician's Friend 2 (Father & Son Edition)Alec and Nick continue their “Musician’s Friend” sub-series, dedicating an episode to discuss a selection of father & son musical relationships including: Mark Fell & Rian Treanor, Terry & Gyan Riley, Thom & Noah Yorke, La Monte Young, as wells as The Hank Williams & Bach musical dynasties. The conversation touches on topics such as uncanny music industry alliances, simple family jamming, notions of the original and the copy, Jacques Lacan’s “Nom du Pere,” patriarchal political economies of music, and the fragmentation of American familial structure.2022-01-171h 17
FlavortoneEpisode 22: I Did Not Listen to That Music (Editorials & Opinions) [PATREON PREVIEW]Alec & Nick inaugurate the new patron-exclusive Editorials and Opinions sub-series with a sportsmanly report on music they did not listen to in 2021. Topics include The Wire Magazine, the live music show, Coldplay, Fuerza Regida, Klein, aesthetics of failure and participatory discrepancy.2022-01-1108 min
FlavortoneEpisode 21: The Cochlear WindIn this final episode of 2021, Alec and Nick wrap up the year by revisiting an early concept from the Flavortone archive: the Cochlear Wind. The Cochlear Wind is a figurative mascot, intended to both cheer and taunt the way composers bamboozle listeners (and often, themselves) through flurries of tactical language, technological posturing and evocations of site-specificity. Poking fun at platitudes found in sound art and phenomenology, this idea is a parody of "the mystery of sound," where sonority and noise disorient the always beleaguered, insufficient Ear as it attempts to understand an audible world. Topics include: the Trap Card...2021-12-231h 04
FlavortoneEpisode 20: Mise En Scene [PATREON PREVIEW]Inaugurating the launch of their Patreon and merch projects, Alec and Nick discuss their ambitious “mise en place” for a new year of podcasts, guest appearances and exclusive publications. “Mise en place”—the french culinary term for "putting in place" or "gathering” an array of ingredients—serves as a way of framing these new Patron benefits. On the menu: The “Editorials & Opinions” sub-series, focusing on hot takes on the topical music issues of our times; The “Politics & Poetry” sub-series, focusing on kitchen sink discussions of current events and various subjects of human interest in music; and, the “Study Group” sub-series, focusing on cl...2021-12-1404 min
FlavortoneEpisode 19: Let's Talk TurkeyIn preparation of cooking their own turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, Alec and Nick make a broad comparison of the venerable bird to the production of music albums and the heights and depths of American culture. Topics include tensions around suspicion and comfort, the trauma of American capitalist and familial ritual, obsessive indexing and preparation tactics, gratitude as radical subjectivity, and the carnal reveries of desiring-production. Referencing everything Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" to Fernando Zalamea's "American—An Integral Weave: Transversality, Borders, and Abysses in 19th & 20th Century American Culture," the discussion ends up staging a culinary conversation that hybridizes wet an...2021-11-241h 19
FlavortoneEpisode 18: Honey I Shrunk The SoundsAlec and Nick discuss a concept of the miniature in this one. Touching upon music from the onkyo, wandelweiser and microsound genres, the discussion approaches various methods of compositional and improvisatory reduction. Topics include Gaston Bachelard's "The Poetics of Space," Participatory vs. Presentational music, the Time-Image of Gilles Deleuze as well as Marvel's Ant Man.2021-11-061h 17
FlavortoneEpisode 17: The Roast of James BlakeAlec and Nick inaugurate a BBQ Roast sub-series of the podcast, where a guest of honor is subjected to jokes and analysis at their expense. The series begins with a roast of British singer, songwriter, and producer James Blake as a relatively “neutral” starting point for these juicy, sizzling take downs. The conversation discusses the cringe-to-cool and UK Bass continuums, hauntology and paradoxes of post-modernity, personal expression and songwriting, adolescent listening experiences with spatialization, silence, and transparency + more.2021-10-231h 16
FlavortoneEpisode 16: Tasting Menu 2 (Stinky Edition)Reprising the "flavor-phonic," "gastro-acoustic" discussion charted in Flavortone Episode 4: Tasting Menu 1 (Dégustation), Alec and Nick step into the kitchen once again in this second edition to the Tasting Menu series, as they articulate a concept of the Stinky. Considering a range of malodorous musical and culinary selections, this episode takes up the olfactory sense as reference for how perceptions of the repugnant vs. the delicious are embodied in nuanced discourses on cultural value. Topics include: steamed broccoli, ranch dressing, fish as well as the dubstep producer Stenchman, the Pulitzer Prize winning music of composer Caroline Shaw and the me...2021-10-091h 51
FlavortoneEpisode 15: The Fudd-Flynt Complex for Editions Eric Schmid (Montez Press Radio)Flavortone has produced a mini episode for Edition Erich Schmid on Montez Press Radio. Alec & Nick articulate “The Fudd-Flynt Complex” which charts a Fuddsian analysis of the work of Henry Flynt as splicing the species war between Math & Language (Rabbit & Duck Season) into the world of Elmer Season—where Flynt’s ideas of “Meta-Technology,” “Concept Art,” “Veramusement,” “Brend,” and “Acognitive Culture” turn the hunt inward & beyond. The work was presented alongside other work by Benjamin Scott and Matt Voor. 2021-09-2520 min
FlavortoneEpisode 14: Music Is Not Like TennisFresh from a visit to the Billie-Jean King National Tennis Center for the U.S. Open Grand Slam tournament, Alec & Nick consider a comparison between the sport of tennis and music. The episode charts out three conceptual spaces shared by sports and arts: the cultural production of iconic figures, an emphasis on the management of time, and political economies of Winning and Losing. Discussion of amateurism vs. professionalism, Jacques Attali's book, "Noise," and the Marvel cinematic universe all feature in this deliberation on constitutive elements in sport and music. Opening theme music: Xander Seren Closing...2021-09-181h 11
FlavortoneEpisode 13: What Is An Experiment? feat. Ying LiuHaving recently celebrated experimental hodgepodgeist and artist Ying Liu’s 10th anniversary as a resident of New York City, Alec & Nick embark on discussing a central question she has asked Flavortone: what is an experiment? The episode features a self-checklist of questions Ying asks herself when inquiring if something “is an experiment.” The conversation responds to these questions and broadly discusses Ying’s two recent works PLAYDATE and PIGTAIL—centering questions around the production of willingness, commitment, our technological reality, the shifting reality paradigm, and the implications of Ying’s work and approach for experimental music, specifically.2021-09-031h 38
FlavortoneEpisode 12: A Tale of Two ComputersIn this episode, Alec and Nick discuss the daily life poetry of digital workflows. Through a range of topics including the media art works of Yasunao Tone, Walter Benjamin's paradigm of Distraction vs. Concentration, Ableton Live, iOS, and more, the episode conceives of the laptop computer as a kind of “Flat Stanley,” which accompanies us in life’s mundane adventure and tacitly frames our normal actions as momentous events.2021-08-0659 min
FlavortoneEpisode 11: It's Not a Skill, It's a Curse feat. Theodore Cale SchaferNamed after Theo’s recent Longform Editions release, the episode features Alec, Nick, and Theo embarking on a slightly turnt post-red-sauce conversation that discusses his work as well as ideas around sincerity, duration, ambient music vs. ambivalent music, the piano, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Tim Hecker, Phillip Corner, Dark Souls, and more. Opening Theme Music: Xander Seren Closing Music: "window" by Theodore Cale Schafer2021-07-231h 24
FlavortoneEpisode 10: In Defense of BlighttownAlec and Nick discuss Blighttown, a notoriously punishing level in the video game Dark Souls where everything wants to poison you, or give you toxic status. The discussion uses the level as way of talking about “condemned structures” in contemporary music & discourse. Subversions of ascent and reward, the curatorial platform Blank Forms, anarchy, impermanent structures, cartography, reverb and more are all discussed—as well as the microtonal music of Pascale Criton and Harry Partch. Opening skit audio: A collection of Dark Souls "rage quits" overlaid with "Toxicity" by System of a Down Opening theme music: Xander...2021-07-101h 03
FlavortoneEpisode 9: Just When We Thought We Were Out ...Alec and Nick discuss some of the quandaries of reopening the live music and performance economy. Ideas around liveness, civic engagement, participation, self-determined infrastructure, commitment, diminishing returns, site, assemblage, and citation are discussed—specifically in experimental, improvised, and popular music, as well as in the work of interdisciplinary artist Ying Liu. Opening and closing theme music: Xander Seren2021-05-281h 08
FlavortoneEpisode 8: Bloomin' Onion BrainAlec and Nick discuss the self-invented concept of the Bloomin’ Onion Brain, conceived while drunk on a trip to Lake Gaston, NC. The discussion situates the dippable dish as a figure of Dionysian abstraction, wherein frenzies of self-forgetting give way to a primal unity that we experience in music and social life. Outback Steakhouse, intermedia works, the “groove,” the “para-textual,” composers Robert Ashley and C. Spencer Yeh, and philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, and Gilles Deleuze are all examined within the context of this new concept. Opening skit: Matthew McConaughey voice reading over “The Backyard” from “Private Parts” by Robert...2021-05-141h 07
FlavortoneEpisode 7: Slapping NarcissusAlec and Nick discuss the role of narcissism in the history and production of experimental music. The episode gives a close account of the paradigm introduced by art historian Branden Joseph in “Beyond the Dream Syndicate: Tony Conrad and the Arts after Cage” with special attention to how problems of authorship, the archive’s role in framing genealogy, critiques of institutionalized culture, and the “dark triad” (narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism) all play out in “minor histories” of music. La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, 4Chan, Bandcamp Friday, Charlemagne Palestine, Sigmund Freud and more are all discussed. Opening theme music by Xande...2021-04-301h 11
FlavortoneEpisode 6: Musician's Friend 1 (Guitar)Alec and Nick discuss the guitar. This episode inaugurates the “Musician’s Friend” sub-series of the podcast—where an entire episode is dedicated to discuss various techniques, approaches, and cultures of and around specific instruments. Guitarists mentioned include: Pat Methany, Buckethead, Allan Holdsworth, Abraham Leonard, Shane Parish, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Sister Rossetta Tharpe, Jimi Hendrix, Taku Sugimoto, Loren Connors, Oren Ambarchi, Bill Orcutt, Eugene Chadbourne, Rhys Chatham & Glenn Branca. Opening theme music by Xander Seren (Flavortone guitar edit) Closing music by Jimi Hendrix, “Little Wing (Live)”2021-04-161h 15
FlavortoneEpisode 5: A Theory of the Byoing SoundAlec and Nick present a “Theory of the Byoing Sound,” exploring the primacy of the dynamic, paradigmatic “byoing,” “boing,” and “bya-yoing” sound in experimental music. What exactly is it about this sound that makes it so prevalent? This episode accounts for a narrative of sound originating in primordial phonetic language formation, to scientific studies in physics and sound spatialization, to contemporary and post-industrial music. The conversation loosely situates the byoing as challenge to consistency as its seen in the world through the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Harry Partch, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Arnold Schoenberg, SOPHIE, Maryanne Amacher, and more. Opening the...2021-04-021h 02
FlavortoneEpisode 4: Tasting Menu 1 (Dégustation)Alec and Nick make a first foray into a gastro-acoustic, audio-culinary, flavor-phonic approach to listening and talking about music. In the spirit of Dégustation ("tasting menu") and experimenting with what music can be, this episode samples and discusses various music in culinary terms, and various foods from the perspective of sound. This menu includes Oysters on Half Shell, Souvlaki, Iannis Xenakis, Wold, Witecka Friedemann, the Black Velvet Cocktail, the “You Pick Two” Special, Evanescence, The Gentle People, the Sour Cream & Onion Chip, Ambrosia Salad, Pierre Boulez, and Peter Evans. This will be a semi-regular sub-series on the Flavortone podcast...2021-03-192h 06
FlavortoneEpisode 3: Opus DinoAlec and Nick take up Dino the Dog-Dinosaur and other "wild facts" from the Flintstones, as an analytical frame for discussing music, fabulation, and hybrid species. Topics include: David Tudor, Scat, Dropkick Murphys, "Non-Music," Donna Haraway and Anthony Braxton. Opening, closing theme music by Xander Seren.2021-03-051h 24
FlavortoneEpisode 2: A Conservatory of DuncesAlec and Nick discuss the concept and history of the archetypal figure of "The Dunce" in experimental music through a procession of characters including Henry Flynt, Daffy Duck, Girl Talk, The Scratch Orchestra, Luc Ferrari, Patrick Star, Guy Fieri, John Cage, Erik Satie, and more. Artwork by Char Esme @char_is_me. Opening, closing theme music by Xander Seren.2021-02-181h 29
FlavortoneEpisode 1: Yugiology of MusicIn this inaugural episode, Alec and Nick draw comparisons between popular manga, anime, and trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh! and experimental music. Closing Theme Music: Xander Seren, "Monastery," 20152021-02-051h 32