| New track, Goths on a Boat, up on our MySpace page |
[09 Jul 2009|12:02pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
metal |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Mastodon - Naked Burn (Leviathan) |
] |
Check it on out! The Dark Clan MySpace page
So back at David Schock's birthday shindig at Darkroom, I promised Kassi from Cruciform Injection that I'd write her a song because A. she's just that cool and B. she let us use some of her gear to speed up changeover. She requested that the song be called (and be about) Goths on a Boat since they're slated to play the upcoming Gothic Cruise that All-Genre Travel is putting on. So I got to thinking about Gothic/Industrial stereotypes and the types of people that might end up on such a cruise, paralleled it with my own experiences at Convergence in NOLA back in '06, and ended up with this song.
I do so hope you enjoy it.
Let me also remind you that this is the title track for an EP I'm releasing on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) djron1n's DLVN Records this fall, and more on that soon; just waiting for one guest performance to come in and that sucker is done! I'm also still on track for a Spring '10 release of the new Dark Clan full-length, a DOUBLE ALBUM! and in addition I have a couple remixes coming out (for Null Device and The Deephearted) very soon.
ETA: THIS IS NOT AN ANDY SAMBERG PARODY! Should've said that in the first place. I realize probably there go most of my listeners, but oh well. :-(
|
|
| An album but yeah also an EP |
[30 Jun 2009|08:43am] |
| [ |
music |
| |
a-ha - Take On Me (Hunting High and Low) |
] |
So I'm working on a new album, a double-album. One record of giant guitar-and-synth driven powerpop and one record of ass-rattling bass-bombing vocal dance music. This is all true, and fun, and awesome.
I am also, however, currently putting the finishing touches on an EP.
Goths on a Boat, coming to you later this summer on djron1n's DLVN records.
Word is bond.
(this post brought to you by the Matt Fanale School of PAY ATTENTION TO ME DAMMIT self-promotion.)
|
|
| On Booking |
[17 Jun 2009|12:05pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
busy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Three Hits - Indigo Girls (Rites of Passage) |
] |
There was a time when I was a lot angrier about the state of booking shows in the music world. Granted I was younger then and more apt to be angry about pretty much whatever, but the hodge-podge of bizarre, baroque, weird, mysterious, and sometimes downright aggravating behaviors exhibited by bookers, sometimes the same one at different points in time, was a frequent target of a singular and exceptional vitriol on my part. Past polemics were written from the following perspective; I, a quasi-professional musician, was trying to play by what I had been assured were "The Rules," and was getting irritation and -- notably -- no shows for my troubles. I assumed all bands played by "The Rules" and couldn't understand why bookers were so difficult to work with. Since those heady days of youth, I've learned a few things and gained some perspective, and I feel I have some insight as to why booking is so difficult, but I still feel it shouldn't be that way, and I'm still angry about it, I'm just not angry at the same people, or in the same way. I mean, live music venues want to have bands, and bands want to play at live music venues. Why is this so difficult? The short answer is: people. People are involved, and people are difficult. Too many people, too many bands, too many who want too much.
Let's set up some hypothetical characters in the tragic play that is a typical booking.
( continued... )
|
|
| I love Joey Comeau too much. I should just eat him. |
[20 May 2009|02:55pm] |
"When summer starts, there are suddenly an awful lot of very pretty people dressed in summer clothes, which are sexy in a different way from winter clothes. And I find myself swinging wildly back and forth between thinking, "Calm down, Joey. These are real people, who should be treated with respect. I wonder what she thinks of that book she's reading?" and half a second later thinking, "I want to spend the rest of my life just kissing that one spot on her neck oh god oh god."
--from the asofterworld.com news feed today
|
|
| New Dark Clan track up on MySpace, plus shows this weekend! |
[12 May 2009|08:49am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
slackerly |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Weakerthans - Aside (Left and Leaving) |
] |
Hey y'all, so the next Dark Clan record is going to be a double album (an album of rock music and an album of dance music), and to get a taste for what one of those albums is going to sound like, you can head out to the official Dark Clan MySpace page to dig on the pre-master version of the title track Fade if you are so inclined.
Also! This Saturday we're playing with our good friends Thosquanta at Zad's Roadhouse in Milwaukee at 9pm, and then at the Underground Lounge in Chicago on Sunday, come out if you can, we'd love to see you!
|
|
| I been seein' some rock and roll shows |
[11 May 2009|01:02pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
fine, thanks |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Hinterland - Dangerous Things (The Picture Plane) |
] |
So I've seen a bunch of shows recently. Now, rather out of character, I'm going to talk about them in more than one-sentence "great show!" blurbs.
( reviews ahoy! )
|
|
| So my other bands... |
[21 Apr 2009|09:27pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
busy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
mixes |
] |
Some of you may recall that I'm always active in at least like a half-dozen bands/projects/musical outlets/etc. at any given time. A smaller number of you may even know -- or, well, care -- about these bands. An even smaller number of you yet may recall that one of those bands, Siv, my metal band, has been working on a new album for a fair while now.
That album is now done.
How does it sound? Well, it sounds like this: Download "Flamenco," by Siv, off the forthcoming album "Monsters & Martyrs".
We have three other tracks beside this one uploaded on the Siv MySpace site for your enjoyment, so please check 'em out and lemme know what you think! We'll be sending the CD off for duplication very very soon so you will be able to buy it from the usual internets pretty quickly, BUT!! if you are in the Madison area, come by our show April 29th at The Annex, where we will be opening for the mighty Jucifer, one of my favorite bands of all time and a big influence of ours.
|
|
| I knew all this anyway, but worth a link (on introverts) |
[14 Apr 2009|10:54am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
insanely busy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
bis - Theme From Tokyo (Social Dancing) |
] |
"This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. [...] Our motto: "I'm okay, you're okay—in small doses."
I can't believe the number of people who tell me emphatically that I am not an introvert. Trust me. I am. I know. And it's okay; I'm not proud of it or whatever, it's just a thing, man. I also know that when you see me at a party or at a show I am being gregarious and jovial and social and c. and so it's tough for you to believe. But what you don't see is that I then need to be around no one at all (or these days, maybe just the cat) for an equal amount of time or more to regain balance and process everything that just happened. This is also why I'm so bad at small talk and networking is difficult for me in the way it usually occurs. If I can get some (very) small group time or one-on-one time, I can network with people just fine, but the group gladhandling sort of networking (like what salespeople are so amazingly good at) I just fail at, epically.
ETA: Forgot this other money quote: "...when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"
Man, that shit drives me right up the wall. Happens all the time.
|
|
| Advice |
[09 Apr 2009|02:02pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
busy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Mark Eitzel - Wild Sea (60 Watt Silver Lining) |
] |
They will tell you only your playing matters -- that if you're good enough at your instrument(s) people will buy your records and come to hear you play. So you must spend all your time learning your instrument(s) to the utmost.
They will tell you only songcraft matters -- that if you write the correct types of songs in the correct manner the people will buy your records and come to hear you play. So you must spend all your time honing your songwriting skills.
They will tell you only marketing matters -- that if you perform the correct stunts and are relentless in your promotion of your art the people will buy your records and come to hear you play. So you must spend all your time creating and executing marketing campaigns.
They will tell you only networking matters -- that if you shake the right hands and make the right friends and establish yourself as a Personality in the correct online communities and go to all the right parties and get your demos into the right hands the people will buy your records and come to hear you play. So you must spend all your time online and at social events meeting people and making friends and making "friends."
They will tell you only touring matters -- that if you hit the road and live out of a van and play every gig everywhere in every city that people will buy your records and come to hear you play. So you must spend all your time driving from show to show.
They will tell you that only establishing a strong local/regional following matters -- that if you become the biggest act in your home city/county/state the people will buy your records and come to hear you play. So you must spend all your time playing every possible local/regional show.
They will tell you how to "make it," how to succeed, how to "live the dream." They will do this in books and blogs and magazines, in interviews and lists and songs and articles and how-to books.
What they will not tell you is that all of this advice is correct, and all of this advice is utterly wrong. They will not tell you that what worked for them will not work for you. They will not tell you what it means to "make it," or "succeed," or "live the dream," because that is different for everyone and if you realize that you will not buy their book or read their blog or subscribe to their magazine and that is not part of their dream.
They will not tell you what "living the dream" is, because they cannot.
They will not tell you that when you've succeeded you will realize that you haven't succeeded at all, and that you really meant something else, but what you have to do to achieve the new definition of success is maybe now beyond what you want to do. They will not tell you about human nature. They will not tell you that you read their blogs and interviews and lists and books and listen to their advice because it's easier than defining things for yourself and doing it your way, and working hard, and defining yourself. They will not tell you that you are only what you are, and not your success, or your songs, or how you are seen.
And finally, they will not tell you who they are, because they are me, and they are you, and they are everyone, and if you knew that then they would cease to be relevant and couldn't say things like; "hey man, buy my records."
Hey, man. Buy my records.
|
|
| I'll be on the radio tonight |
[02 Mar 2009|04:40pm] |
Hey all, tune in to WORT via 89.9 in Madison or http://www.wort-fm.org/ on the internets tonight to hear Perspectives, the new Dark Clan album, being featured as the New Disc at Nine! I'm feeling pretty rough health-wise right now so I'll just be calling in, but it'll still be a fun-packed discussion as always plus I think the music's pretty rad. Forrealz.
Also, I reckon we'll do a giveaway as is SOP. Yay free stuff!
|
|
| You shall not want for steel |
[18 Feb 2009|08:18am] |
In the hopes of giving maehymn another site to aid procrastination, I give you Яolcats, English translations of Eastern Bloc LOLCats.
Enticing Example:
I can see someone’s misplaced Ushanka? Careless fool, winter’s bitter fury will surely smother their spirit.
|
|
| Dedication of a sort |
[04 Feb 2009|07:48am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 sleepy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
back-up alarms |
] |
I'm trying to come up with a geekier scenario than this:
...but I confess I'm having a tough time of it. Whether I can or not, I fucking love it. Would that such tech was around back when I could have used it, but now my RPG days are long over. *sigh*
If you're confused, Gabe's post is still up, at the bottom of the page last time I checked.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
