Which comes first, the music or the video? The question is moot now that artisan Ben Lewry of Visionary Instruments, has built an LCD video display into his guitar. After several prototypes, his custom video guitars now can run visualizations or movies by simply popping in a USB thumbdrive into a back panel. Visualizations can even be triggered with MIDI signals by playing the guitar. Steven Wilson, of Porcupine Tree, was so taken by Ben’s designs that he’s now rocking a video guitar to sold out shows around the world.

Episode links: Visionary Instruments, Porcupine Tree, Diane Nitschke [photos], Maker Faire

Insert Ad Here and We All Get Paid. By the time we stuffed a mic in their faces, Revver co-founders Steven and Oliver had been drinking their own Kool-Aid for hours at the Revver 1.0 party in the City of Angels. But we’re ok with that because Revver Kool-Aid tastes good! And to some people, it tastes like dollar dollar bills, y’all! Hear what they have to say about inserting things for money.

Episode links: Revver, Steven Starr, Oliver Luckett, ad1, ad2, borscht, Mentos dudes