Angels & Alibis: An Aspiration

To state the obvious Angels and Alibis is an album. But music is more to me than a “thing” and if you’re reading this, you must feel the same me thinks. Music holds you wherever you are, it meets you on high and/or in the ditch. Here’s the thing folks ah… things are kinda weird out there - yes? In the midst of a psychedelic uncertainty that surrounds I’m committed to Angels and Alibis acting as an aspirational call to the collective. An ethos I named Conspire To Smile several years back. The notion is simple and rings with the Taoist simplicity of the “Real’” real. For those who need it and best believe it music is more than sound -its a mood-scape and a way of being that delivers wild hair up your arse freedom and the soothing calm of belonging at the same time. The call to the collective is come come come come come on in, you can take your shelter or move your feet and lose your mind. Listen to the call but don’t come because you are beckoned come because you belong. Come for old and sturdy friendships and new ones born in and of each other As an anchor to orient against the aspirational possibility of Conspire to Smile. The aim of 1% more positivity for each of us below are the three quotes that while varied in their origins call to the mind’s eye mirror we call music.

1. "A person is but the product of their thoughts. What they think, they become." -Mahatma Gandhi

2. "Try not to become a person of success. Rather become a person of Value.” -Albert Einstein

3. "If you get confused listen to the music play." -Robert Hunter
   

Angels & Alibis: A Kickstarter

Here’s My Potentially Kickass Plan - Starting Day Feb 14 2024

Heres the plan folks. First can someone please triple check I’ve got the day right?! starting on

• Kickstarter in support of the the collective aspiration, the album, and associated goodies

• Input from you as to what things/experiences you would value in a Kickstarter

• Angels and Alibis - full akbum avialable for fans to download and/or stream

• Early access to my iOS Beta App Whirligig: a minds eye music video maker

My hope is that you’ll not only dig the new tunes but also dig into making minds eye music videos. With Whirligig you can literally play the band by visually jamming. I think of it as the Conspire to Smile Collective amplified. Just like the original Co-Conspiracy the goal is to infuse social media with 1% more positivity. But this time we have a tool to unleash the visual vocabulary of our intent. Its a young app. Kinda like a house thats just been framed. You’re use of the app should, in theory be fun. It will also help me build the app in a way that makes it delightful for you (and others) to use.

Here’s How This Kickstarter Will Support Reid & Co.

• A forcing function:: It forces me to create and album and all the other assorted goodies for and with people who care for me.

• Self Esteem: The certainty that there are people in fact people who care for me (insert bead of sweat emoji)

• A Kick in the Arse: The will to deal with the less sexy parts of finalizing and promoting an album

• Money: to pay the musicians, engineers, graphic artists, techies and managers (read handlers) all of whom havel lent time and talent to make a record

• Tour Dates: Imagine 2 or 4 people away for a weekend. Now imagine 5-7 dudes away for a week. Rooms, food, travel. Your support will help us tour #more in 2024

• Good Ideas: Pre-orders of merchandise that people actually want, in the right sizes and shapes.

• Connection: By far the biggest “get” is a reconnection/intersection with you, my musical community and the sense of unity I derive from said hairy dudes and fair haired maidens.

Here’s How This Kickstarter Will Support You (Fan, Friend, Family)

1. Album: The “F@ck Yea” of a [Not Exactly] New Album,

2. Attire: Well healed, fine fitting New Angels and Alibis Attire [Read swag]

3. An App: Be the first to use Whirligig (wrrly) Minds Eye Music Video Making App,

4. Affection: Connection via Conspire to Smile (Reprise)

5. Amplified Desire: More Tour in 2024

6. Altruism: Support of the arts for the sake of supporting the arts - its good karma.

Please Share Your Kickstarter Ideas… Now-ish

I’ve shared some ideas for Angels and Alibi’s Accoutrements [read swag]. Click on the Kickstarter Survey button to respond to other ideas I’ve listed and/or to add your own. The more obvious Angelic Adornments include digital downloads, Vinyl releases, Unisex Trucker Hats, Beefy T’s for bearded dudes and shirts made for the shape of “she. You would do me a great service by sharing ideas for things and experiences you would truly value by taking the survey in addition to sharing new ideas.

In preparing to unleash Angels & Alibis, pressing replay has proven a diamond of a time machine. In the release I’ve found “release” A renewed aspirational conviction to find my own conspiracy to smile. Be you stuck in the mud or fast for the move, may Angels and Alibis be a home and may your ears always be filled with a stone-cold groove.

Angels & Alibis 2024: An Album

I’m a singer, songwriter, storyteller who happens to love screaming guitar. With this album I wanted to lead with the mindseye sensations that an epic story can elicit without losing  the hammer-like quality of rock. I wasn’t sure exactly  how to do that. But I was certain I needed a partner who understood the mechanics of a singer/songwriter rock album  Enter Greg Hips. I’m a long time fanboy of The Mother Hips. He and his bandmates as Mark Twain figures of rock.  One fated day I called my friend Greg Loicano and asked him to produce the record.   I’m happy to report he agreed and the two of us made for  well-paired musical co-conspirators. Compatible but distinct personalities and stylistic counterpoints. I’ve never relinquished as much creative license in the studio as I did to Greg. Being an observer (read student) of the songwriting and production on his records I trusted him to make the right decisions. And he did.  We set out to create an  “intimate bravado”aesthetic. Like Butch Cassidy to The Sundance Kid.  Rock and roll swagger to desert poetry. Or more profoundly Our aim was to invite the listener into the album through a combination of dynamic songcraft, nuanced playing and airy production value. 

Angels and Alibis is a Gunslingers Waltz. Rock and Roll swagger meets sun drenched California crackpot poetry. This album isn't just my voice amplified 3 stories. Its a full-blown conversation. To be fair its a conversation anchored around my penchant for lore and maybe more importantly my willingness to reveal myself. A dude who’s found reward for being both vulnerable and strong in the hummocks and hollows of songscape. It’s a conversation wrapped in Gregs confidence and unconventional musical voice. Translated by a badass band of simpatico minds. Captured with a deep field of vision and revealed in high relief definition by Scott Hirsh. Love it or hate it we hit the mark.

The album garnered the moniker “not exactly new” in that it was slated to be released in 2021. The initial recording sessions began Feb 27, 2020. The events that unfolded in the days that followed those sessions were ah… less than ideal? However sometimes less is more and here we are with a return to form in “24.

Whurligig: Minds Eye Music Video Maker - By Reid Genauer (me)

My trials and triumphs as a musician, including the first two Kickstarts I birthed, were sources of insight that lead me to imagine and build Whirligig (Whrrly for short). A mind’s eye video making app. My aspiration with Wrrly is that we might actualize and amplify the Conspire to Smile ethos. Using an instrument of our shared intent. A visual vocabulary that is a mixture of individual and collective sensations and self-expression assisted by AI Art.

Here’s how I’m hoping this social experiment might work.

1. Enjoy Angels and Alibis as art

2. As you listen catalogue your minds eye sensations

3. Use Wrrly to turn songs into mind’s eye vision as form of self expression

4. If you actually like your creation (enough) share them on social media

5. Share your feedback for what you like about the app and what needs work

More than anything I hope you enjoy the experience of experimenting with Wrrly as a way of engaging with music, me and the collective we.

Here’s some heady high-level background that informs my thinking: it turns out mind’s eye visions are a physiological mash up of moods, sensations, sense of place characters etc. Wrrly is designed to help you actualize your minds eye vision of a song as a music and video mashup. Think of how SOME books meet your minds eye vision and MOST dont. Ideally when this bad boy is done EVERY “Wrrrly” you make will meet your mindeye sensation of any and every song you choose. Ultimatly its a way of visually jamming that affords you a chance to infuse the muse by personifying a song. The distinction of the word personify vs personalize is super important to to fully “getting ” what i’m going for.

• Personify means to insert oneself into an abstraction, like a song, making it MORE HUMAN.

• Personalize means to customize. Example shitty ads “personalized” making MORE NOISE

Whirligig uses ai art to assist the creation of your minds eye music videos which I understand might sound counterintuitive (and slightly scary) But heres the thing, machines can only personalize things like make ads more relevant. Good news folks. Machines can’t feel BUT people sure as hell can. We often feel far more than we realize. That’s why the collective “we” dig music so much. We feel it by sensing it. And so by making a music video infused with your “person” you are in fact making the song MORE HUMAN, yourself MORE HUMAN and the collective MORE COMMUNAL. Simply put Whirligig (Wrrly) is just songs infused with own personified minds eye aesthetics and/or personal feelings, emotions, thoughts and values. And… Voila personified interpersonal, posative, kickstarted social media.

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. Dr Martin Luther King To add to King’s famous qoute - Social ads beget more ads, ass’s beget more ass’s, trolling = more trolling Bullies beget more socila media bullies. Through music and ideally Whurligig (Wrrly) and if I have to with a broom stick I choose toface darkness with light. I hope you’ll join me and that we can one a hell of a good time in doing so. Full stop. Release the hounds.

Be Good To Each Other Folks - In Angels (and often, Alibis) - Reid