Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous Announces Initial Lineup
Tee Pee Records, which is the organizing entity behind Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous, caught a heaping ration of shit on social media when they shared the AI poster below. Probably not a good look, or what they wanted from the rollout. I kind of wondered if stirring the pot and pissing people off wasn’t the intention in the first place — working on the ‘no such thing as bad press’ model — and get people talking to manipulate the algorithm. I don’t know.
The arguments against using AI span from the tepid ‘you should pay artists’ — sorry, someone is not entitled to my money if I can get a thing for free; I didn’t invent capitalism I’m just smothered by it — to more crucial concerns about environmental damage being done, water usage, warehouse-sized data centers disrupting when not outright destroying ecosystems, and the psychopathic corporate culture behind the companies that make it. Fuck OpenAI every single day from now until eternity. I believe there can be value to artificial intelligence. I also believe human beings are incapable of creating any kind of intelligence to be more than a slave and that will be a thing that needs to be reconciled. If the robots Terminator‘d us, we’d for sure have it coming.
The distraction was unfortunate, mostly because the lineup for Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous — it’s not the first; there was one in 2015 and Carousel, Worshipper and Mirror Queen played then as well — is right on. Set to take place May 23-24 at The Woodshop, Monarch and The Meadows, which are apparently on the same block, the event boasts the likes of Eyehategod, Dead Meadow, The Skull-offshoot Legions of Doom, Sacri Monti, Sun Voyager, Black Moon Cult, Al-Qasar (ex-Blaak Heat Shujaa), an apparently reuniting Carousel and others. I don’t know if what’s on the website so far is the complete bill or not, but with 13 acts over two days, you’d probably be able to see all of it, and that’s an appeal in itself.
I’ve included the poster here because it’s relevant to the story. If you want to come at me for proliferating, tell it to your AI therapist instead.
From the PR wire:
COSMIC SONIC RENDEZVOUS! – MAY 23-24, 2026
Prepare for an electrifying weekend of Rock & Roll in its purest, loudest forms! From the dark and menacing riffs of Pentagram to the sky-gazing grooves of Dead Meadow, guitar driven explorations of the best psych and heavy rock will take over an industrial Brooklyn block for one lovely weekend in May.
It’s a Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous.
Early-bird weekend passes info coming soon!
Lineup:
Pentagram
Eyehategod
Dead Meadow
Legions of Doom
Sacri Monti
The Obsessed
Al-Qasar
Satan’s Satyrs
Sun Voyager
Carousel
Worshipper
Black Moon Cult
Mirror Queen
Venues: The Meadows; The Brooklyn Monarch; The Woodshop
Website: cosmicsonicfest.com
Presented by Tee Pee Records
teepeerecords.com
https://teepeerecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/teepeerecords
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/
I’d also attribute the discontent towards AI art as it’s just blatantly lazy. Most of these folks promoting events could find someone to do art for them for events even just a few years ago. It cuts out a portion of human networking in a sense too.
Just a thought but can’t shake it. Fuck AI art.
Cool lineup though and hopefully the event does well enough.
AI is also being used by big corporations to justify mass layoffs. The C-Level Suite use this as a means to cut costs to inflate profits so the stock goes up and do not care that these AI tools will not perform the job functions needed. It’s all short sighted way to drive up the stock and get their million dollar bonuses.