Over the last year or so i’ve given my fair share of free promotion to thesixtyone.com. a site that used to be one of my favorite music websites. that is until they broke it.

well they did more than just break it. they also managed to alienate their most fervent supporters.

t61 was (note past tense) an excellent place to discover new music. and as a musician it was a great place to be able to interact with and talk to people who like my music.

but t61 pretty much killed all of that when they launched their radically changed site last week. they removed just about everything that made it a unique place for listeners and artists to converge. all of the community features, posting comments, the great way you could discover new music. everything gone. in favor of a new design with big pretty pictures. i figured, hey, they’ll probably add some of this stuff back once the work out the kinks. but instead, they’ve taken on this ridiculously arrogant attitude, blocked all communication and ignored thousands of facebook and twitter complaints and suggestions. and pissed off their most passionate users, listeners and artists alike.

sure, you can do whatever you want with your website, even if that includes pissing off every one of your users. but i wouldn’t expect to be around long. it’s a bummer since all of my friends and fans there have left the site. And it makes me look like a schmuck for all of those times I’ve recommended their site.

The day it all went down I wrote and recorded a little protest song called “61 Ways”. I know it sounds ridiculous to write a protest song about a website. But I just couldn’t believe how egotistical and oblivious they were being. It’s sort of like a break up song. And a song about not having to put up with anyone’s arrogance. Fuck that shit.

61 Ways – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

Are you a company that wants to alienate all of your customers? Read on:
- movement sixtyone
- I used to like thesixtyone
- dear thesixtyone
- an open letter to thesixtyone
- thesixtyone: life and death
- the redesign of T61 and listening to your users

And if you’re looking for a new site to discover music, try out Uvumi.

So what do you make of all this?

this week i’ve fulfilled my video-a-week requirement with a dumb song about my beard. the stop motion took a few hours to do but it was nice to finally get a haircut and shave this terrible beard.

Welcome to Week #3 in the 2010 State Shirt song-a-week video-a-week extravaganza and all-star revue. I wrote this one for SongFight. You should definitely head on over there and listen to all the songs in the fight.

Keep All Your Promises – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

No lip-syncing, no instrument-syncing. What you see is what you hear. Hope you like it!

Don’t forget to subscribe

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, where all of this video-a-week stuff will be posted. They’ll also be on my FaceBook page. Come on and join me there too!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for this project. Video ideas, cover song suggestions, questions about my gear, or anything else. I’d love to hear from you. Please comment below!

So I took a look back at the last 10 years and realized that I’ve only released maybe 30 songs. On one hand I’m happy that I’ve had the opportunity to create this music, collaborate with others and even just have some gear in this small bedroom studio. On the other hand, 30 songs in 10 years is only 3 songs a year. That’s pretty pathetic. Not that it’s necessary to be prolific. But it’s apparent that I’ve only spent a small part of my life working on music in the last 10 years. Or at least finishing it. I have gigabytes of unfinished songs sleeping in the corners of my studio.

I’ve been following a couple artists that have really inspired me over the last few weeks (namely Amanda Palmer and Jack Conte). I’m inspired by the fact that they are creative at every turn and make a career for themselves by being an artist every day. I’m done being an artist every 2 to 3 weeks. I’m sick of this being a hobby. So what do I do? Put music first and stop fucking around.

A song a week. AND a video a week.

Ok I know the song-a-week is not an new idea (Jonathan Coulton did it 5 years ago). But the idea is simple. Create something every day, and get some new music out there every week. The videos may range from simple acoustic performances to gear demos to full-blown music videos, depending on how much sleep I can go without.

At the end of the year I’ll compile them into albums and move the rejects to the dumpster.

Subscribe to my Youtube channel

So with that, here’s an invitation to subscribe to my YouTube channel, where all of these videos will be posted. They’ll also be on my FaceBook page. Come on and join me there as well!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for this project. Video ideas, cover song suggestions, questions about my gear, or anything else. I’d love to hear from you. Please comment below!

Here are the first couple videos from the project: “Crush” and “Frostbite”. Hope you like ‘em.

Last week I recorded the new song “Crush”. Hope you like it.

Crush – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

This week I gave myself the challenge of creating a music video in 7 days.

Budget was $0. The shopping cart was left on my street and the paper was from old fashion and art magazines. Ok I guess there was a little expense because I bought Dragon stop motion animation software (which is awesome by the way). This is my first foray into stop motion animation but I’m sure I’ll do more… it’s incredibly time consuming but supah fun.

Thanks to Angela Heine for shooting the shopping cart footage and for pushing me around for an hour!

Now I must sleep…

i was inspired by jack conte’s video songs and wanted to put together one of my own. i’m following his rules that he uses for his videos:

“1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).”

hope you like it. the song is also on songfight right now. head on over to listen to all of the songs in the fight.

The third Collaboration Song is done! So many thanks for the amazing samples from Wyatt, Marc & Alec Nuckols, James Santiago, Dave Patrikios, Yumenomado, Chris Fudurich, Brielle Zbub, and Brian Page.

Beth’s On Fire – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

I just finished the song “Driving Forever”, the newest song on my upcoming collaboration album. Hope you like it.

Driving Forever – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

Thanks to the great audio samples from Chris Fudurich, Brian Page, Jeremy Quinn, Tim Godwin, Terry Burton, Daniel Pisciotta, Dave Patrikios, and Jeremy Starpoli.

 
I’ve created a replica of my life in my mind.
A place where we can sleep with the lights off.
I’m no longer angry all of the time,
Lie down in the snow, I know i can die.

 
Follow me home. We are so alone.
We both want a simple life, but it’s not ours to know
Only a matter of time before you go
Love me or not, you still leave me low.

 
Summer is over, autumn leaves blow
My love for you is part regret and part sorrow
You’re crying at the rest stop again
In a foggy haze, this road it never ends
We’ll be driving forever.

 
Driving forever. This road has no end.
We can never be together again.
Only a matter of time before you go
Love me or not you still leave me low.

 
If you’re interested in getting involved in this Creative Commons music collaboration project, check out my Sounds Like You page.

She keeps an eye on my gear. Trying out a Bogner Alchemist (sounds amazing) and a Line 6 M9 (I like it).

Thanks to everyone that came out to the show at Hotel Cafe. This was the first time that State Shirt songs were realized by a full band. And I was lucky to have recruited some amazing musicians.

Dave Patrikios, formerly of the popular NYC rock band The Realistics has been praised as “a fucking excellent drummer” and I was lucky enough to enlist him. Chris Candelaria, bassist with LA band Twinstar also joined on and stepped in with rock solid backing vocals. Michael Ashton joined us on keys and pretty much learned the songs overnight. And Jaime Kime, probably best known as the Grammy award-winning guitarist from Zappa Plays Zappa, stepped in as our official guitar wizard.

Here are some photos from the show… Hope to see you at the next one.

And here are a few pics of Song and Wager, featuring Dave Patrikios on drums. And his wife Mary O’Reilly made a guest appearance for an awesome cover of Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson’s “Candy”…

Recorded this one a few months back. Set up four cheapo digital cameras and recorded a rehearsal of the song “Time to Go”. All sounds created live, nothing prerecorded.

I love derivative works! And here are some derivative works that have been created recently that are very good. All of these remixes of State Shirt songs are courtesy of the remixers on ccMixter.

Solid from first note to last. “This is on the Stairs” by Neurowaxx is chosen as ccMixter Editor’s Pick. A mashup of my song “This is Old” and “Passing on the Stairs” by The Starry Tides.
Neurowaxx – This is on the Stairs

DoKashiteru delivers yet another great remix with this lush version of Computer:
DoKashiteru – Computer

Here’s a very cool progressive house remix of This is Old by nero.
nero – This is Old (Nero mix)

Minimal and simple electronica, yet very nice remix of my song “Life Isn’t Everything”.
metallius – One of These Days

Ok, one more! Artemis Strong kicks your ears in the ass with this unconventional and challenging mix. Very cool.
Artemis Strong – Conway Station Road (North Conway Mix)

Any other new remixes that should be posted up here? Comment below and let me know!

I just finished recording a cover of Electronic’s “Disappointed”. I had never even heard the original song until about a month ago. Hell I had never even heard of the band. But there was something really good at the core of this song and I wanted to try a version of my own.

In case you also didn’t know, Electronic were an “alternative dance group formed by New Order singer and guitarist Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.” Thanks Wikipedia. I’m a fan of both New Order and Johnny Marr. Not sure how I missed this band? The track “Disappointed” is from 1992 and made a dent on US charts, and even features Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys on vocals. Though I guess I can see how I missed this song–terrible early 90′s bands like UB40, Snow and Color Me Badd really soured me on pop music at the time. But this Electronic song was fun to dig into.

Here’s my version of Electronic’s “Disappointed”. Click below to play. Hope you like it:

Disappointed – Lyrics

If you could cover a song, what would it be? What other songs should I cover?

And just for fun, here’s the original (and strange) video from 1992. Primitive computer graphics, Neil Tennant looking bored, some dude holding a giant gold sphere. Enjoy

Here is a looping improv I recorded yesterday.

My live setup is constantly evolving, but I do tend to keep a few things as part of my basic arsenal: two Gibson/Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro units, a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler and expression pedal, Line 6 AM4, Boss DF-2, Line 6 Echo Park, el cheapo Tapco mixer, and a Behringer FCB1010.

This video has a pedal/foot cam for the people who have been asking about my looping setup… Anyone have any other questions about the setup or looping in general? Please comment below!

UPDATE 3/29/10: It seems like a lot of people are finding this page by searching for ‘Echoplex Digital Pro Manual’ so I figure I’ll post a link to the user guide here. This is for the Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro Plus: PDF, 1.7MB, 310 pages. DOWNLOAD HERE.

So I’m pretty lucky to be able to go racing (in my spec miata) every once in a while. I’m not that great at it but it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.

This particular video is a couple months old… it’s of my race at Buttonwillow Raceway back in April. My first race on a real racing license, not just a rookie permit. I spun out during the qualifying race so I got the pleasure of starting 2nd from last. My motor was on it’s last legs so I don’t have a ton of power, but was able to move up a several spots throughout the race.

Biggest bummer was my last lap spin, nearly got slammed into by the orange car (missed me by a few inches) and I ended up losing 3 positions in about 5 seconds. Overall an incredible amount of fun, but sucks to make a big mistake on the last lap.

Note to self: stick to songwriting

The first song on my still yet to be titled Collaboration Album has been finished, and is posted below!

Thanks to the amazing audio provided by Orchestral Movement of 1932, Dave Patrikios, James Santiago and Yumenomado, I was able to cut, remix and shape their samples into the song “Cassettes” this evening. Hope you like it.

Cassettes – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

More songs will follow in the coming weeks.

You send me audio. I remix and sing. Together we make an album.

Even though 40 people were nice enough to get involved with this collaboration project, I still don’t have enough audio samples to create an entire album of music. How about you get involved in this super-fantastic open source music project and submit some samples of your own? That would be great!

Join the likes of Tim Godwin (he played in Air Supply, for chrissakes), Dan Friel (Parts & Labor), Dave Patrikios (of the kick-ass yet now-defunct band The Realistics), Chris Fudurich (producer for Nada Surf, Sophie B Hawkins, Rx Bandits), and a bunch more talented and creative people who you don’t know but absolutely should:

* Bill Belina (a bunch of guitar parts)
* Brian Page (a ton of phat drum beats)
* DJ12XU (super noise)
* Chris Fudurich (piano, drums, loops, wurlitzer!)
* Dan Cohen (geetah)
* Dave Patrikios (guitar, piano, synths)
* Eric Pokorny (guitar, vocals, screaming kids)
* James Santiago (supah guitar parts, samples)
* Jeremy Starpoli (a ton of trombone)
* Terry Burton (guitar)
* Fluffy (synth, bass)
* Jon Eric (noises)
* Nate Quinn (drums, djembe, conga, sax)
* Jeremy Quinn (ebow guitar, noise)
* Tim Godwin (guitar)
* Brent Stansfield (songs, guitar, vocals)
* Matt Larsen (piano)
* Dan Friel (noises)
* Orchestral Movement of 1932 (drums, bass, gtr)
* Artemis Strong (noises)
* Yumenomado (synths)
* Wyatt (synths)
* Bartley Hinson (guitars)
* Steve Rydz (guitars)
* … and more

Send me drumbeats, noises, guitar parts, a cappella vocals, accordion, part of a song you never finished, spoken words, screaming, your cat. Whatever you’re inspired to send. I will merge, tweak, remix and piece together all of your samples and make an album. Be a part of open source music. Your audio submission will get used. Everything you send will be incorporated in to the album. Do it now.

Thanks and good evening.

Over the last year or so I’ve been trying to get rid of stuff. Stuff I never look at, stuff I don’t need, stuff that’s just sitting in a box. After a while it just starts to feel like extra weight, like a burden. Maybe with the exception of the instruments in my studio, I don’t really want to own much of anything at all. I’ve had weird dreams that on the day I die I won’t own anything. Just lying on an old wooden floor of an empty 2nd story apartment. Would certainly make it easier for whoever needs to take care of the situation after I’m gone, all you’d need to deal with is a body.

I have hundreds of these old cassettes just sitting in milk crates and plastic tubs, most of them contain songs I’ve finished, songs I didn’t finish, songs that my friends an I worked on, guitar ideas, horrible synth ideas, live jams, spoken words, songs I love, songs I hate, skits I did with my sister and brothers when I was a kid.

They contain a lot of memories. But they just sit in the closet. Taking up space. Taking up mental space.

I must have spend thousands of hours recording stuff to cassettes. Started with a portable Panasonic recorder, recording what I thought were awesome piano ideas, and incredibly retarded 7-second improvised a cappella songs. I moved up to my mom’s boom-box, and did some crude multi-tracking by playing one tape recorder while recording to another. Sounded amazing, as you may have guessed.

Then finally the day came and I bought a Yamaha MT120 4-track. Came straight home from school every day and sat in front of this machine for 12 hours straight. I must have at least a thousand songs in various states of completion, just sitting there as magnetic particles encased in plastic. From the looks of it, I have at least 100 tapes that I recorded on my Yamaha 4-track, and another 100 tapes that I recorded on a newer Yamaha MT8X 8-track. And at least 60 in my series of “Tune Tapes”, where I’d just record skeleton ideas, musical sketches, guitar parts, keyboard ideas.

What the hell should I do with all of this music?

Let it sit and slowly degrade and demagnetize? Or spend months and months listening through all of this stuff to find the gems? Import the cassettes to my computer? And then do what with it? Now they’ll be sitting on a hard drive instead of in a milk crate.

I could upload unfinished stuff to ccMixter and see if anyone wants to remix it. I could do some sort of strange performance art piece where I do perform the music of one tape per week in various locations around the US. I could actually finish some of these songs I never finished when I was sixteen. Or I could just throw everything away.

After all, they are just memories. Like the photos of my childhood that sit in a shoebox. I look at them every few years, and it refreshes my memory. But it’s also a time that has passed, a time that is getting less and less significant with each passing second.

So, on my last day on this earth, do I really want to still have a crate of cassettes by my side, just to remind me of my past?

Untitled Instrumental
An instrumental I wrote when I was 17 or 18

Q
Wrote this for my friend Scott in ’97

Wrong Planet
My idea of a song, in 1984-ish?

Midnight Cowboy
My friend Adam and I did a cover of Midnight Cowboy (in the style of Faith No More), sometime in high school…

Weggy Wah Solar Neutrino
I like this one. Not sure how to explain it though.