But when I went to the artist's Gowanus studio, an assistant was sketching up the layout for the show on a computer, and Arcangel appeared to be totally earnest about the merch line and its weird, mid-90s aesthetic.
Johnny has directed animated music videos for artists like Hooray for Earth and Big Boi that explore the uncanny valley that weird and uncomfortable aesthetic when something looks almost, but not exactly human.
46 years later there are still hundreds of these things out there… And so, The Split Level, who released just one LP on Dot Records in late February 1968, arrived as artists like The Free Design, The Rotary Connection and Cashman, Pistilli and West were shaping a new, highly-melodic, gently-weird, post-freakout aesthetic.
Did Generation L despair of Generation M? With their steam locomotion and weird-looking bustles and aesthetic art?
A few years ago I was chatting to James Bridle —the self-described, "writer, artist, publisher, technologist and a number of other things"— and I suggested to him that a lot of the strange digital flora he was collecting on his New Aesthetic blog —glitches, weird loops, texts spontaneously generated by AI bots or across distributed networks— had been going on in music for years.
Rest assured, in keeping with his general aesthetic, it's weird as shit and includes some scripted moments that you'll wish weren't there, but for the most part, it's just Prince onstage at the height of his creative powers.
Over 90 minutes on Saturday afternoons, it had a "something-for-everyone" aesthetic of conventional and weird sports.
One of Austin's most accomplished groups, Stag blends witty, weird sketch and video, with an aesthetic that's half Tim and Eric, half The State, and always awesome.
In the past sour colors and weird proportions had created a powerful "ugly" aesthetic, but here cocktail dresses traced with jet beading were a case of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" with none of Luis Buñuel's rich irony.
And all of that was just a weird salad bar next to the emotional and aesthetic pummelling of the "Yeezus" show.
