Dead, Loud and Snotty
AI and the coming of slop culture.
In 1978, when I was clinging, like a rabid monkey, to the last days of teenagerhood, I went to a club in Connecticut to see the Dead Boys, whose first album, Young, Loud and Snotty, was a favorite. Early in the show, the leopardskin spandex tights worn by the lead singer, Stiv Bators, split open, and he spent the remainder of the set with his scrotum on display. It was quite a performance, and it became one of the touchstones of my punk youth. (If there’s a pun lurking in that last sentence, please ignore it.)
The memory came back to me, unexpurgated by the years, when I read Rob Horning’s recent piece about a plan to use generative AI to re-create the voice of the long-dead Stiv on an upcoming Dead Boys album. (The band has just one original member left, guitarist Cheetah Chrome, who now also handles vocals.) The Dead Boys’ label, Cleopatra Records, announced Stiv’s second coming in a cheery press release last year:
Select tracks o…