THE jLOG IS BACK, GHOULS
I used to have fun on the internet.
When I started this in 2002 (joeychaos.com since 2003 baby) it was as much a new media project as it was music. I think I was bad at both. Still might be. But I’m done with social media. I’m done being cooked by Meta, with letting platforms run rampant with content offerings that lead nowhere.
And I have fears. I feel hypocritical that I posted a link to this on socials. I worry that a proper will overlook us because we don’t have the metrics to prove a draw. I fear I’ll be missing out. From something I hate. From something that I spend way too much time on.
But the web used to be an unknown place that wasn’t always easy to navigate. Search engines were terrible. I remember that my closest friend in high school would find out about bands through the Kitty (Canrock legends) message board. We’d take the bus to a bigger city to buy CDs and band t-shirts and listen to them while nodding off on the ride home.
Even my friends artistic endeavours with success are having a hell of a time in the current digital hellscape. And you know what? They’re doing just fine without it. Dark Chisme did a sold out show at the Astoria the other night and their insta is nerfed because they made anti-ICE posts. Ringfinger launched a new single and the crowd lost it when they started playing it.
Social media sucks. It’s a gated community, the landlords are fascists. The bigots ruined it and they’re on track to ruin the world. Influencers and content creators claim that being prompted by an Ai makes you an artist. It doesn’t. You suck.
Don’t agree? Hit unfollow. Done.
It’s pay to play. It’s destroying the fucking planet. It sucks it sucks it SUCKS.
We’re going back to hand coded. Spelling mistakes. Free MP3s. Let’s trade links. I used to make my whole website in a text editor and honestly WYSIWYG hasn’t improved things much. What a load. Look at this shit – I shouldn’t be surprised that WordPress is shovelling the Ai creation tools. Nasty.
Yikes. That’s disappointing. I went with WordPress years ago because I wanted a simple blog format for my site. How far it’s come 😦
My friend Alex was at that same show. I brought up wanting to start a zine, how I wanted to get back into writing. He said that writing is a practice that everyone should partake in. He is a great writer, and has been running the blog idieyoudie.com with his friend Bruce for a long time. I’m also inspired by my friend Violetta Leigh, she is a poet, author and independent arts journalist with an amazing substack.
It might not appear so with my stream of consciousness writing style but I do intend to write here with intent. It might be eloquent, it might be a slop fest. But at least it’s mine own! Let’s put this masters to use, brain. 🧠
Anyways. Here’s a banner.
Let’s start a webring.
❤
PS: Sorry Megan and Walker, Joey needs his blog so he can exercise his brain demons and focus on creating with you two. This is better than the amount of time I absolutely destroyed on social media.
Lastly, I wrote this while listening to an old release, Polarizer. Listening to it again, I got into the headspace I was in when I first started. Messy, at home, dreaming dreams too big for me. It’s nothing like what we’re cooking now.
JOEY CHAOS AND THE GHOSTS 