Spencer Tweedy

Indianapolis

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

The sky on the way to Indianapolis from Bloomington this morning looked like pink striated muscle. And fog covered all the soybean fields along the way. It’s kinda funny how often we have to wake up at 5AM to get where we need to go on tour. I wouldn’t dare complain about it because the work at the other end of the travel tunnel is… well, you know what it is.

I do make stupid decisions when I’ve had three hours of sleep, though. This time, another Blender Bottle left behind in a hotel room. And I decided to gate-check the acoustic guitar I’m carrying, why? They’re gonna give me grief for having three items. (The cymbal bag on my back is impossible to miss. I’m like a plush turtle.) It’ll be fine.

In Europe, where Case Oats was on tour a few weeks ago, the airport food is priced like any other food. At most airports in the US, the worst breakfast burrito you’ve ever had is $24. I won’t complain about the sleep deprivation but I’ll complain about that. Rent for restaurants in airports must be real steep, for them to charge over twenty bucks for a Sysco flour tortilla with powdered eggs in it.

Casey and I are on our way to open for SG Goodman in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster. We’re playing duo style with acoustic guitars. I’m so grateful to SG for asking us. She’s also been one of the biggest champions of Casey’s record.

We’ll miss the full band, but I’m looking forward to fewer moving parts. Two of us in a minivan. Hotels not apartments. Walking to venues. I may be sleep-drunk but the sun’s coming up.

Switchyard Park

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Playing Switchyard Park in Bloomington, Indiana, today with Waxahatchee! And Kathleen Edwards supports.

Dylan 80

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

One type of writing: boring and precise. Drug facts, legalese. The worst kind of essays. I’m always trying to bat this type of writing away in myself because I like being precise but precision means nothing without fun.

Another type of writing: inscrutable and unintentional. Can still have meaning, but only by happenstance, and nothing is being carefully expressed. Beat poetry and kinds of syllabic sound-based writing are like this. Monkeys at a typewriter. It can thrill, and it can also leave you wishing someone were at the reins.

One more type: shocking and meaningful. Saying something on purpose, but in an unexpected way. The unexpectedness makes it seem like inscrutable writing, but the purpose of the words is clear and comprehensible, so it’s scrutable after all. The words aren’t chosen for shock value and yet they shock anyway. I think this is the most genius kind of writing and Bob Dylan’s answers to the New York Times “Trump turns 80” questionnaire are a great example of it. I’ve read it over and over for joy. It all sinks in on the first go.

Maybe it comes down to being great at metaphor. Bad metaphorists dash them in to make themselves look profound. Muddying the water to make you think there’s something worth seeing down there. Good metaphorists make everything easier to understand.

Also, I love that he declined to give Trump advice. Fuck that.

Mirror Sound Warehouse

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

I recently discovered there are 550 copies of Mirror Sound sitting in a warehouse in England.

I don’t wanna do a big sale again — focused on new things! — but I’d hate for all of them to get pulped, so I’ll order enough for anyone who wants them, at a heavily discounted price. Order here.

Jt Case Oats

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

My dad’s going on a solo tour this fall, and Casey and I are opening for him! Tickets here.

Oliver Tree

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Sad about Oliver Tree.

I only learned about him a few months ago but I was immediately inspired by his relentless creativity.

So. Much. Art.

Was his brilliance about quantity or quality? Kinda both, but more accurately I think it was about breadth. He tried so many things, and did them well.

It’s hard to say whether songs in the traditional sense were the main point for him… I think performance, and living an artistic life, might have been his true medium.

Whatever the case, he covered a lot of ground, and he makes me more excited to make art, even while the world he occupied feels lightyears away.

I think that any artist, at any level, can look at his life and be encouraged to make make make. Make more stuff. Try a new medium. Invent a character. Change your appearance. Be ugly. STOP thinking that presentation and packaging are a chore to begrudgingly complete. It’s all part of the opportunity to excite yourself and try to make something fresh. An opportunity!

If your current approach isn’t clicking (to you, let alone an audience), roll the dice again. The slow-motion death that eats so many artists, maybe even more than drugs or self-destruction, at least among the people I know, is a lack of exploration. The idea that you can make a tiny amount of things all in one style and count on the world to eventually come around to them—that virtually never happens. Oliver Tree was the antithesis of getting stuck. Compare the 2012 “Karma Police” cover to his 2017 pink-and-purple windbreaker era to his present-day globe-trotting long black mullet. There’s a core personality, a himness you can see all the way back to Vine-style videos from the 2010s, but the particular dish being served and the presentation of it were always changing. No “set it and forget it.” Yes “what’s next?” (And he actually served the dish. You have to serve the dish!)

He used “the system” to realize his visions. He said he sought out a major label deal and took it because he wanted the funding and the “army of people” to help make his dreams come true. Architects don’t build buildings alone. Directors don’t make films in a bedroom, etc. It’s ok if your dreams are single-person scale. But if they’re not, try to go for scale. Make it all possible! The gates aren’t easy to hop, but if you dream of building something big, at least try to find the gate.

Best of all he seemed to have been a great friend. I asked the algorithm with my heart to show me more tributes, videos of Oliver all night and day, and it obliged. And I see what a generous person he was to his collaborators and basically anyone who crossed his path. All the songs and videos mean that much more, that he seems to have treated people well in daily life.

He was a circus creature, like most of my heroes. He rode into the world on a gigantic kick scooter. And we’re lucky he used his powers to tell people to love themselves. I love myself more, having watched him love Oliver Tree.

Zaid Pickpockets

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Traveling in Europe. Sad I’m not getting an email or a phone call from Zaid imploring me to look out for pickpockets, or about some safety bulletin the FBI had released to American travelers.

Sloan Next Token

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Robin Sloan, “Where is it like to be a language model?”:

Do not mistake this assessment for the deflation that goes: Oh, these things are just next-token predictors. I mean … there’s no “just” about it. Like waving a hand & saying nuclear fission is just uranium atoms releasing some neutrons: technically true … but … BOOM!

And:

I suggest that if you want an honest answer from a language model — the thing itself — you should pose your question such that it can be answered with a single token; answered, that is, by a single flashing forward pass that really exists, however briefly, somewhere on Earth.

Wow.

Online Offline

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Instead of “go offline, touch grass,” I’d rather have a better online. But in the absence of improvements, “throw your phone into the ocean” will do.

Kelly Hallucinations

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Kevin Kelly in “AIs Want to Be Honest”:

Hallucinations are the price a mind pays for creativity.

Cindy Lee

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

I’m glad that Cindy Lee got his due for Diamond Jubilee. It’s amazing.

Chorizo

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

In Barcelona, Casey got hit in the face by an automatic sliding door. We asked the hotel concierge for ice. He had none, but offered a frozen chorizo instead.

AtvBt: Emotions Are Reactive

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

This is ringing around in my head a lot.

“We just have to make sure we are applying our willpower to the horses and not the cart.”

Is AI Cool?

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Robin Sloan:

The big centralized AI models might be powerful; they might be technically impressive; they might even be wildly profitable; but there is absolutely nothing about them that is cool. Like, you can’t even make the argument. …

You might say, so what? It doesn’t matter if any of this is cool or not. Practically, I agree. Morally and politically, though … I will suggest that looking back at what kinds of computers, and computing technologies, were and were not cool might be instructive. This isn’t just a vapid assessment, after all, even if it’s subtle, or hard to pin down. Coolness has to do with independence, sovereignty, and, very often, stubborn commitment — all good things to have in a computer.

Oslo Scooters

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 -0500

The employees at Oslo Gardermoen Airport have kick scooters to get around on.