#if nobody else will post faye then i will do it myself

[wybienova]

worlds in your hands

[elitegymnastics]

Q: What is this?

A: It’s a flyer for a virtual fundraiser on June 4th that Elite Gymnastics is playing. You can access the show at quietyear.com

Q: Hasn’t Elite Gymnastics been inactive for like, ten years?

A: Yes. This is the first Elite Gymnastics performance of any kind since November 30th 2012, at the Horn Gallery at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. 

Q: Why did Elite Gymnastics stop playing shows?

A: Elite Gymnastics started out as me (Jaime) and a bunch of my friends agreeing to help me play my songs live back in 2009. I made a lot of weird demos in GarageBand and my friend Dominique Davis from the band Dearling Physique got tired of watching me sit on them. So, he booked me to play at a show he was curating as part of a small local music and arts festival called Clapperclaw. For several months that’s mainly what EG was. At some point the focus shifted to making recordings rather than playing shows, to participate in the emergent culture of new music distributed via MP3 file-sharing. The lineup winnowed to just me and Josh Clancy, who began creating digital EPs that we posted on this Tumblr page as ZIP files full of MP3s accompanied by a PDF of artwork. This is the incarnation of the group that most people are familiar with.

This was before Patreon existed. If Bandcamp was around, we’d never heard of it. Though MP3 file-sharing culture and file transfer sites like MediaFire and MegaUpload allowed anyone to distribute music freely across the world via the internet, it was still pretty difficult to get people to pay you for it. I think it was for this reason that a lot of internet music back then featured a lot of sampling. A lot of artists’ first forays into the world of DAWs and production took the form of mash-ups, bootleg remixes, and DJ mixes. Artists like Animal Collective, MIA, Kanye West, and Daft Punk for whom sampling was a pillar of their creative process were extremely influential. Elite Gymnastics was no exception - the first song of ours to gain traction online was “Is This On Me?” which made no attempt to hide the fact that it heavily sampled Faye Wong’s “Eyes On Me.” The fact that it was so difficult to make money off MP3s pushed people to make different creative decisions than they would have otherwise. It was sort of a free-for-all.

Eventually, all of this started to change. The major labels started getting a lot more aggressive about trying to destroy MP3 file-sharing culture. Platforms like MegaUpload were raided and taken offline. The replacements that sprung up to replace them were increasingly infested with ads and malware. Corporate platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud adopted Content ID filters to prevent the proliferation of copyrighted music there. Blogs and private torrent trackers being taken down meant thousands of hours of labor were wiped out in an instant. Some of the best archives of the history of recorded music ever created were destroyed without hesitation. Even the most devoted participants lost the will to keep repairing and re-making the stuff that cops and record companies kept obliterating.

Josh and I both dreamed of being able to make a living as musicians. We still do. Back then, we were willing to accept a lot of changes in order to make that possible, which seemed necessary. A lot of the stuff that we were great at just didn’t make any money. Once, we were asked to do a remix of a song called “Sa Sa Samoa” by the band Korallreven. I did the remix by myself, which was normal for us, and Josh was so inspired by it that he spent a week working non-stop to create a video for it. People loved it - the day the video dropped, Pitchfork designated the song as a “Best New Track” and New York Magazine wrote about it in their “Approval Matrix.” The video led to a ton of exposure, but from a financial perspective, it just did not make sense to put that much effort into promoting a remix of someone else’s song. The stuff we were personally excited by just seemed to have less and less to do with what actually makes money.

A lot of internet bands during this era began to palpably shapeshift in an effort to succeed in music as a career. Artists who’d first attracted notice for sample-based bangers they made on a laptop started posing with vintage hardware in their press photos and trading in their laptops for live bands and recording studios. It became harder to distribute DJ mixes or mash-ups that contained copyrighted music in them. Influential bloggers either closed up shop or were absorbed into the traditional music industry in some way. Feeds that once touted bizarre songs by laptop-toting weirdos with no industry connections started to become populated mostly by artists with labels and publicists. The bottom rungs of festival lineups started to consist mostly of new major label signings who have lots of money to spend on stage production but not much in the way of grassroots fan enthusiasm or media buzz. 

Internet music and what people tend to refer to as “indie music” split off into two separate streams. Today, there’s a pretty intense firewall between internet culture and whatever you want to call the culture of vinyl records, mid-sized indie labels with publicists, and positive reviews from the few remaining websites that still pay people to write about music. I call it “publicist indie,” “lifestyle techno,” or “prestige electronica” depending on whether or not the music features guitars and/or vocals. The recent online kerfuffle about NFTs really emphasized this split. The worlds of digital illustration and game development campaigned aggressively against mass adoption of cryptocurrency - if you saw any Medium posts explaining crypto’s environmental issues, chances are they were written by someone from those fields. Every new announcement by an artist that they had minted an NFT was met with a swift and vocal backlash from fans. Though I’ve never really been much of an Aphex Twin fan, it was still pretty startling to look at the replies under his NFT announcement tweet and see hundreds of furious people announcing that he was now dead to them. That’s an artist who has seemed more or less unimpeachable for most of my life up until this point! All of that seemed to change in an instant.

There is a massive disconnect between the insular world of the industry establishment and the cutting edge of online counterculture. We saw this again a couple of weeks ago with the online response to the crisis in Gaza. We saw passionate advocacy for Palestinians from games journalists and developers much more often than we saw it from musicians. This is a very serious problem for music! I do not believe it is possible to please both sides - that is to say, I do not believe it is possible to be part of internet counterculture and the industry establishment simultaneously. The music industry is too conservative, too compromised, too corrupt. If it weren’t for the ocean of valuable copyrights that labels are sitting on, most of them would be bankrupt within a year. If the industry was forced to live or die based on how they handle what’s happening right now in the present, it would most assuredly die. The only people who don’t realize this are those who are being paid to stay ignorant. 

Josh and I did not know this back then. From where we were standing, it looked like internet culture and established media industries were on track to converge. A career in the arts seemed genuinely, tantalizingly possible, right up until the moment that it no longer did. 

In my case, I had really been struggling up until that point. My life had been this ongoing sequence of evictions and hospitalizations, and it seemed to be getting worse, not better. I donated plasma twice a week to pay for groceries and while I was sitting there with a giant needle stuck in my left arm for an hour I would see my picture in The Fader or my songs being recommended by one of the Kings of Leon on Twitter or whatever. Music seemed like the only thing the world thought I was any good at. It felt like my only chance at a peaceful, happy life was somewhere out there in a world I could only perceive through a laptop screen. 

Gender, for me, was a big factor in all of this. The more invested in the craft of songwriting I became, the harder it was to repress or ignore my gender stuff. At that time I’m not sure I even knew what the word “transgender” meant - I just knew that when I showed up at a venue wearing a skirt, no one would talk to me or look me in the eye, and that reading about people like Anohni or Terre Thaemlitz or on the internet made me feel like if I could get out of Minneapolis maybe I could find a place where people would accept me. The internet was like, a pretty toxic place for someone in my position. When I tried to find people to talk to about what I was feeling, nobody tried to tell me to read Judith Butler or ask me what pronouns I preferred. The internet was just like, overrun with predators who just wanted to fetishize me and exploit me. Music seemed like the only way I’d ever have an actual life as myself. I was desperate for that. I was well and truly desperate.

Between all the big changes that were happening to us individually and the music industry moving farther and farther away of the anarchic free-for-all of MP3 file-sharing culture, the strain on us just got to be too much. We stopped trusting each other. We became the unstoppable force and the immovable object, crashing haphazardly against one another’s resolve in a dazzling display of youthful futility. Our partnership ended, and after finishing out the remaining live shows on the calendar by myself, I retired the name “Elite Gymnastics” and started making music on my own under other names. That was that.

Q: Why is Elite Gymnastics coming back now, then?

A: Over the years, Josh and I eventually started talking again. Though there was a lot we did agree on, and potential future projects were discussed, nothing truly felt right. We haven’t been in the same room since Summer 2012, and we’ve both changed a lot since then. We both have other projects and we’ve both developed other ways of working since we stopped working together. It’s a pretty big commitment to put all of that aside in order to join your fortunes together with someone you haven’t seen in a decade.

Recently, Josh decided to leave Elite Gymnastics. His reasons are his own, and I was very surprised by his decision, but after having had time to adjust, I’m really grateful to him. I had kept these songs at a distance for many years, because it seemed foolish to allow myself to get too attached to songs I didn’t feel like I was allowed to think of as mine, if that makes any sense. The songs felt like casualties of a conflict that I had to bury in the ground and try to forget about. Being able to embrace them again felt like re-growing a severed limb or having a loved one come back to life, almost. Feeling like it was safe to love these songs again made me feel whole in a way I didn’t expect to. I became really excited by the prospect of revisiting them, so that’s what I decided to do.

Q: Does this mean you’re going to put RUIN back on Spotify?

A: No. Taking the record off Spotify was the right thing to do. That record was only ever intended to exist during the era of MP3 piracy. I never envisioned a world where the music industry would be so aggressive about policing the way that copyrighted music is allowed to exist online. If we hadn’t opted to take the record down when we did, someone would inevitably have forced us to. If you want to hear those specific recordings again, you’re going to have to do it the way we originally intended: by downloading MP3 files from the internet. Try SoulSeek.

Q: What’s next for Elite Gymnastics, then?

A: Here’s the situation currently. There is no Elite Gymnastics music available to stream or purchase in an official capacity anywhere on the internet. It wouldn’t really be possible for me to put the old stuff on Spotify or Bandcamp now because of all the samples. Like I said before, it was a different time. Those records were created to thrive on a past version of the internet that no longer exists. They weren’t designed to be compatible with the 2021 internet.

Technically, Elite Gymnastics didn’t ever release a debut album. We had EPs, a compilation, and a remix collection. We didn’t make an album, a record that existed as the distillation of all that experimentation that contained all of the songs that fans of the EPs would want to hear, all in one place. It’s like we did Good Fridays but stopped before we made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

So, I am currently working on the first Elite Gymnastics album. If you were following my stuff as Default Genders, you may have noticed me posting demos on my SoundCloud page from 2015-2018 that were all eventually reworked into the album Main Pop Girl 2019. The album I am making is taking that approach to all the old EG songs, including some unreleased stuff. I’m collaborating with others on some songs and I honestly feel like it has resulted in some of the best and most exciting music I have ever been involved with. It is a drastic reinvention, but iteration and reinvention have always been a big part of what I do. I want to make something that feels like the culmination of everything that came before, and so far, I think I’m succeeding.

Q: When will I be able to hear this new music?

At a virtual fundraiser on June 4th, 2021, where there is a suggested donation of $10. You can access it at quietyear.com

[epicwinsauce]

End of Year Meme

Just gonna do these as a survey because I want to!!! Tagging a few peeps I mentioned.

First things first, did you have a good year? For me personally, it wasn’t all that bad. I mean it wasn’t the best it could have possibly been, honestly, but I did the best I knew how to. I worked a lot and even got a step up doing something totally scary to me but so far I am rockin’ it.

How old did you turn this year? 25.

Do you feel your age? I feel old, man.

Did your appearance change in anyway? I bought a black jacket that I fuckin’ love and wear almost every day. I wear my anchor necklace and I JUST lost my ring right before I left back for Tampa from home, but that’s about it.

Post your favorite selfie. no.

If you traveled, where did you go? !!! I went to Canada to meet Alaetra and see a July Talk concert, and I went to Chicago to meet my sisters and my mom, and I went back to West Virginia for Christmas.

Which fashion trends did you love? I don’t keep up with fashion

Which fashion trends did you hate? ones that don’t involve me (most of them)

What was your favorite article of clothing this year? Post a pic if possible? damn I already did. lemme find one:

What song sums up this year for you? “25″ by Chad Sugg, lmao.

What album came out and has been on heavy rotation since then? Well, Was and Somewhere Far From Now didn’t come out this year, but I have been playing them for months.

What was your favorite movie of the year? I really didn’t see many or really ANY movies until literally this Sunday and I saw Moana and it was BEAUTIFUL. I cried like three times.

Did an actor/actress catch your attention for the first time this year? not that I remember?

Favorite new TV show? Yuri!!! On Ice

Which new ship/fandom has taken over a lot of your time, attention, and tears? Yuri/Viktor, me/sleep, food/mymouth, etc.

What food did you try for the first time? I got a bentou box at the Morikami!!! So I tried a few new things that I didn’t ask what they were because I wouldn’t have thrown it in my mouth if I had known. So I still don’t know, but some of it was delicious.

Did you make any big permanent changes this year? well I mean I got somewhere in my job, which was cool af.

What was one nice thing you did for someone else? I’m not sure I had one in particular.

What was one nice thing you did for yourself? I went to a Japanese culture festival in Orlando! All by myself. I did it for nobody but myself.

Did you develop a new obsession? not a new obsession, really.

Did you vote? yes.

Did you move? no.

Did you get a job? I moved up in my current one, so yes and no?

Did you get a pet? no. Ann wants me to get a puppy but I don’t want any pet.

Do you regret not doing anything? probably.

Do you regret doing something? even more probable.

Have you done anything that scared you? yes!!! I had my own class. and I’m about to have a classroom class. a class of my own.

Did anyone/thing make you so mad it stayed with you for days? nope, not that I can recall.

Did you lose anyone close to you? luckily not.

Did you fall in love? juust a bit, yeah.

Did you fall out of love? no.

Did you start a new relationship? no

Did you go through a break up? no.

Did you have to cut ties to someone? no.

Who was important to you this year but wasn’t important last year? besides the people I haven’t met, Alex, I suppose!

Who wasn’t as important to you this year as they were last year? Karyn, but only because she had a hell of a year this year and lots of shit happened for her. Still wish I could have seen her for more than, like, five minutes at Megacon, lol.

If you could have a do over on one thing you did, would you take it? yes.

What was the best moment of the year for you? Getting a hug from Leah Faye after the July Talk concert!!! I didn’t even ask for one. But she hugged me. And sometimes I just think about it and it makes me feel fuzzy inside.

What was the worst? Day 3 of training my first class. I was so unprepared for that day and I was winging it the whole night, so I made the commitment to be ready for all the other days. I pulled off hella overtime, but I did make sure they were ready for the calls, goddammit.

Did anything happen that you were sure would change you as a person but it really didn’t? no?

Did anything happen to you that you were sure wouldn’t change you as a person but it did? working for a certain company at work, lmfao. AND I’M GOING BACK TO THEM AS SOON AS TOMORROW~~~ fun stuff.

What are you most proud of accomplishing? Honestly? Right now I’m making more money than I can spend, and that’s pretty fantastic. That’s something to be proud of, I think.

What have you learned about yourself this year that you didn’t know in the years prior? Nothing too complicated or meaningful, just that I need to be prepared because literally zero percent of my intellect will ever protect me from my complete lack of common sense. Which is something I knew for over a year now, but I learned how to counteract it better.

Did your opinion of anyone change for the better? I think so, but it was just at work so it wasn’t even like a big thing.

Did your opinion of anyone change for worse? no.

If you make resolutions, did you complete them this year? My resolution was to be awake more often so I could live my goddamn life, which I don’t think I did very well. lmao.

If you make resolutions, what will your resolutions be for the coming year? I’m gonna live more like Sanji. Cook more, love more, expect nothing in return (except maybe some honest feedback, especially from the cooking).

If you could go on an adventure during the remaining days of the year, where would you go and what would you do?  Who would you go this? I mean I guess I did, it’s already past but for New Years I went to West Palm Beach. Ash and I went to see the movie Moana which was BEAUTIFUL (did I mention that already? I’m mentioning it again. it was beautiful) and then we saw fireworks out on the intercoastal (which is like a body of water that has West Palm Beach on the west, Palm Beach on the east, but not really any borders on the north or south). And Ash and I went to his auntie’s lunch and I got a bit too drunk, her mom’s now-girlfriend Jill took us to the beach in a convertible, and we watched the new Sherlock. So it was pretty damn awesome actually.

What do you wish for others for the coming year? To try your best and not to let laziness have you. Dying and resting is easy. Living is a challenge, that’s why it makes you tired. If you are able, do it.

What do you wish for yourself? To take my own fuckin’ advice. LOL. I also want to take some more trips, like I think I may be finally going to Europe this spring, and this summer I may take a trip up to Oregon. Maybe New York in the fall? Too far ahead. I’ll have to see.