Flavortone

Alec 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 Ashley (1978).

Opening and closing theme music: Xander Seren

Alec 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 Xander Seren.

Closing music: unreleased recording of Tony Conrad & Charlemagne Palestine, presented by ISSUE Project Room at First Unitarian Congregational Society on March 3rd, 2015

Cover image: Tony Conrad performing Sunbow (1977) at the 3rd S.E.M. Spring Festival, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, June 4 and/or 5, 1977. Performance with bowed mirror, sunlight, projector control mechanisms, and slides. Photograph by Kevin Noble.

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)”

Alec 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 theme music by Xander Seren.

Closing music by Max Eilbacher & Duncan Moore live at Green House, Cleveland 12/07/19

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.

Opening, closing theme music by Xander Seren.

Alec 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.

Alec 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.

In 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," 2015