Case Study: UFO
Beam me up!
My album UFO turns seven next week.
Not a traditionally important year of observance (married ppl get wool, gross) but hey, give it up for rando milestones! Elvis Costello is currently celebrating a 49th anniversary (“I thought the whole idea of celebrating a 50th was preposterous”), and My Aim Is True is stuffed with all-timers.
I merely made some bleep bloops in 2019.
But as my dog Steve Miller says (not Stephen, double gross), time keeps on slipping slipping slipping into the future (doot doot doo doo) so if you find yourself with anything worth commemorating, grab a candle and blaze it.
Along with the aforementioned bleeps, UFO showcases vocals from Nasty Nigel, Mattie Safer, Mr Muthafuckin’ eXquire, Fire Alarm and FATHERDUDE at their waviest. There’s also remixes by Shash’U (still the funkiest thing anyone has ever done to one of my songs), Masayoshi Iimori of Trekkie Trax, Tony Quattro and more.
I don’t know if I would classify the release as a “win” by most commercial metrics (streamed double wood, tho we moved all 300 vinyl copies) or critical ones (6.6 on da Fork, crickets everywhere else).
As the artist, I’m OK with that.
As the designer, it remains one of my favorite projects to date.
I am my own dream client!
I’ve always loved collage art in all its forms; UFO was a cut-and-paste process sonically, even more so visually.
Each single and remix featured its own cover that I would create layer by layer out of crusty newspaper scans, vintage sci-fi / girly mags, recycled textbooks, janky fonts, old comics, electrical diagrams, Zipatone, clip art esoterica…
A glue stick universe of unfiltered Nickness.
I animated each drop as well, culminating in a full club flyer music video for “Ecstasy Hot Line” with Nigel. We threw a release party in NYC, another one in Los Angeles, then got pandemic’d lol.
Pahty dun!
I’ve kept making music in the years since, but haven’t felt the itch to drop anything new in album format (yet). But a half decade and change later, I still appreciate that every single element of UFO was made by a crazy person with love, an obsession to detail, and a bespoke, original creative language.
In a world of shark biters and data center slopadelica, that ain’t nothing.
Before internet search becomes completely useless, I wanted to collect all these in one place on their birthday and share ‘em. You can also hire me to flex this skillset (amongst others) for your own projects, btw.
Now back to the future…
Twisted Teens, “Florida Water Blues” (Dir. Jack Massucci) — darkly mischievous music video from one of my fav recent releases (and TT’s second this year). Lo-fi punk / country / Strokes-circa-This Is It vibes, with a whisky bottle wistfulness that gets its hooks into you.
Gold Cup, “I Feel Incredible” (accurate)
Papo 2oo4 & Subjxct 5, Bacc Onna Roids (Elizabeth NJ 4L)
Brava & Bella Kanela, “Yo No Soy Tu Mama” (latin juke pop, sí)
Lyanna, “gg’s” (spot-on ‘90s Timbaland drums)
Neel Ghosh standup — “musical comedy” is a place where things go to suck. But in the rare cases when it doesn’t (i.e., Neel’s absurdist hee-hees) I’m all in.
Cadets pilot (“lost” 1988 Soleil Moon Frye x Jaleel White show)
“It’s The Summer Of Butthole Surfers” (told u also vinyl reissue looks sick)
Melissa Auf der Maur Unveils First New Music in 16 Years (and it slaps)
How to Spend a Bookish Afternoon in Midtown Manhattan (my culture is not your costume)
Playlists updated!