Month: January 2026

Charlie Puth Talks with Rolling Stone

Charlie Puth
Jason Tate

Charlie Puth sat down with Rolling Stone for a new interview:

I remember it was my wife Brooke’s birthday. I was on my way to this wonderful restaurant in Sherman Oaks, and these songs will just pop into my head. And I heard this lyric called “I Used to Be Cringe.” And the title itself is cringey. It’s like, “What do you mean?” You can smell the comments, as they say — “Used to be?” I’m like, “That’s an interesting song title. What would that sound like?” And I’m just talking to myself while Brooke’s on her phone. It’s like a 30-minute drive down the hill, and I just start writing this whole song in F major. And it has a very flowy McCartney-esque chord progression. And it’s all just because Taylor had said something about me. It gave me enough excitement to write another song in my head. And now we’re ending the album with that.

Emotrix: A Matrix Inspired macOS Screen Saver

Emotrix
Jason Tate

I’ve been (slowly, oh so slowly) trying to teach myself Swift (the programming language, not the pop star).

The main reason, besides being a distraction to the everyday hellscape news cycle, is that I’ve been working on a small Mac app for over a year that runs as a menu bar app and connects to Last.fm to scrobble songs and do a few other things. I wrote almost all of it in Python because I know Python really well. But, I want to end up converting it to be a fully native Mac/Swift app.

Problem is … I don’t know Swift very well at all.

So, I’ve been trying to get better at it. To start the year I challenged myself with a new project: make something in Swift. The first idea that came to mind was a Matrix-inspired screen saver. The goal was to make something that was written entirely in Swift, could run natively on a Mac, was as resource friendly as possible, and I could only use Chat-GPT for help in troubleshooting, debugging, or looking up functions. I wanted to try and write the code myself as much as possible since I’m trying to learn something. I got stuck a few times, but, that’s programming for you.

The result is Emotrix. A screen saver that is inspired by the Matrix digital rain effect but every so often will throw in some chunks of pop-punk song lyrics down the screen as well. It’s silly. But it makes me happy.

I wrote and tweaked it to display the characters in a way that I like the look of more than to be “movie perfect.” (The best movie version of the effect I’ve seen is this one. I did a lot of inspo-browsing over the past few weeks.) The finished and compiled version should be downloadable here. It should be installable on the latest version of macOS, but I’ve only tested it up to Sequoia (15.7.3).

Nick Flessa – “Medicine Hat City Slogan” (Song Premiere)

Nick Flessa
Adam Grundy

Today is a great day to share the latest single and visualizer video from LA-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Nick Flessa, called “Medicine Hat City Slogan.” The song comes from Flessa’s forthcoming new album, A Different Kind of Energy, that will be released everywhere on April 17th via Anxiety Blanket Records. The fully instrumental album showcases Nick Flessa’s ability to convey a wide range of emotions without uttering any vocals. If you’re enjoying the new song, please consider pre-saving A Different Kind of Energy here.

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Dustin Kensrue Partners With Iris Guitar

Dustin Kensrue
Jason Tate

Dustin Kensrue of Thrice has teamed up with Iris Guitar for a new acoustic guitar:

When he reached out to us, he expressed he’d been searching for the right combination of tone and aesthetic and that he’d found it with Iris. We immediately got to work and recently completed three custom 12-fret acoustics for him: an OG, an RCM-000 and a DF. We’re honored to be a part of his creative process and can’t wait to hear what comes next. 

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Eric Melvin Files Civil Suit Against Fat Mike

NOFX
Jason Tate

Eric Melvin of NOFX has sued Fat Mike in civil court:

Eric Melvin is not here today with us because of the following reason: at 8am on Monday morning, after the final NOFX show ever, Eric Melvin’s lawyers served Fat Mike legal papers accusing him of financial malfeasance. Ten hours earlier we finished playing the final show of our 42-year career. It was the most amazing and emotional send-off ever, nothing but love, family, tears and love. That letter broke my heart, as well as the rest of the band and the crew. It still hurts today, and it hurts right now saying it.

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