We just finished up the music video for the song Fell Out Of The Sky.

Shot over the course of 6 days in the Los Angeles area. Directed and edited by Angela Heine, camera by Ben Clemons, FX and some more editing by me.

Many thanks to all the actors: Darlene Weege, Priscilla Amador, Sean Vega, Janet Consolver, Terry Burton, Bonnie Buckner, Jack Heine, Jinna Kim, Ho Yip Lui, David Patrikios, Samantha Sakabu, Ed Sakabu, Mary O’Reilly and Joshua Chisolm. And thanks to the partygoers: Chris Fudurich, Rachel Cruz, Chad Baker, Erik Tarkiainen, Ashley Tarkiainen, Jaspr, Kyle Tarkiainen, Alexis Sakabu, Lisa Sakabu, Fred Sakabu, Alexis Bright, Katherine Chisolm, Margie Chisolm, Cicely Chisolm, Mark Tapio Kines, Miki Tapio Walsh, Holly Regino, Kevin Becker, Denise Stanlow, Amanda Stanlow, Kim Pendergest, Peter Pendergest, Christopher Avalos, Madeline Wright, Heather Luyando and Cassidy Luyando.

Music inspired by last words on the black box data recorder from Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 airplane crash, September 25, 1978. link at planecrashinfo.com

Here’s some photos from the video shoot. More photos are here, here, here and here.

So some nice things have happened in the last few weeks. I’ve been lucky enough to have remixers from all over the world create some truly great remixes of my music. Here are just a few of my recent faves:

Chris Fudurich – Fell Out Of The Sky v03
DoKashiteru – I Fell Out Of The Sky – ccMixter editor’s pick!
DJ Rkod – Chemma Chi (Disturbed) – contest winner!
Spinmeister – Time To Go West
Scott Altham – Fell Out Of The Sky (Hard Pushed Edit)
Sporkboy – Computer-Sporkboy’s vocal exploits mix
Decaying_Machine – Computer [decaying machine remix]
Ditto Ditto – Up, Up, Up
Fourstones – Fell Out Of The Sky (Treatment)
DoKashiteru – Chemma Chi (Down Mix)
Blitch Bango – I Hate California (Blitch Bango Remix)

There’s also nice writeup of my music up at Jamendo. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to offer my music for free and still have some of you come back here and pay me for it. Thank you for that. And I’m happy to say that This Is Old continues to receive a lot of college radio airplay… it’s on over 100 stations across the US and and several internationally as well.

2009, you’re giving me a lot to think about. And a lot to do. There will be more remix contests, here and on AcidPlanet.com. I’d also like to work with remixers out there to get a remix CD pressed. Planning a spring ’09 tour of the US, booking that now. Contact me if you want me to come to your town. And of course, I’ll be compiling all of your audio samples on my new album, created entirely with audio by you. Be a part of the album.

Happy new year.

You still have 8 days left to enter the Remix Contest and be entered to win a Line 6 POD Studio UX2. Create your remix of a State Shirt song and send it my way.

And make sure to head over to RemixFight. My song “This Is Old” is part of RemixFight #0076! Put up yer dukes and enter the fight.

Pretty excited this week, radio airplay for the new album is going well. This week, 5 stations have charted it in their top 30 albums; #21 at URH in Hawaii, #18 at WXJM in Harrisonburg, VA, #15 at WCYT in Fort Wayne, Indiana, #13 at WPPJ in Pittsburgh, and #7 at KSLU in St. Louis. Here’s the updated list, if you see your local station here, please call them and request State Shirt. Thanks, yer a peach!

WEGL – Auburn, AL
KHNS – Haines AK
KFSR – Fresno, CA
KVMR – Nevada City, CA
KUCR – Riverside, CA
KZSC – Santa Cruz, CA
KCSS – Turlock, CA
KSCU – Fort Collins, CO
WESU – Middletown, CT
WFCS – New Britain, CT – Charted at #29
WWUH – West Hartford, CT (my old stompin’ grounds)
WNHU – West Haven, CT – Charted at #22
WVUD – Newark, DE
WMNF – Tampa, FL
WRAS – Atlanta, GA
URH – Hilo, HI – Charted at #23, now at #21!
WMXM – Lake Forest, IL
WCYT – Fort Wayne, IN – Charted at #15!
WVFI – Notre Dame, IN
WRFL – Lexington, KY
KXUL – Monroe, LA
KSCL – Shreveport, LA
WBOR – Brunswick, ME
WMPG – Portland, ME
CJUM – Winnipeg, MAN
WMUC – College Park, MD
WMUA – Amherst, MA (also my old stompin’ grounds)
WBMR – Cambridge, MA
WMLN – Milton, MA – Charted at #27!
WBRS – Waltham, MA
WIDR – Kalamazoo, MI
KUOM – Minneapolis, MN
KRLX – Northfield, MN
3WK – St Louis, MO
KDHX – St Louis, MO
KSLU – St Louis, MO – Charted at #26, now at #7!
KWUR – St Louis, MO
RLC – Piscataway, NJ
WICB – Ithaca, NY
WUSB – Stony Brook, NY – Charted at #27
WRPI – Troy, NY
WQFS – Greensboro, NC
KNDS – Fargo, ND
WBGU – Bowling Green, OH – Charted at #10!
KRSC – Claremore, OK
KXZY – Stillwater, OK
CHUO – Ottawa, ONT
CILU – Thunder Bay, ONT
KEOL – La Grande, OR
WMUH – Allentown, PA
WARC – Meadville, PA
WIXQ – Millersville, PA
WPPJ – Pittsburgh, PA – Charted at #13!
WSYC – Shippensburg, PA
WVYC – York, PA
WDOM – Providence, RI
WUTK – Knoxville, TN – Charted at #30
WRVU – Nashville, TN
Radio UTD – Richardson, TX
KSYM – San Antonio, TX
WRUV – Burlington, VT
WXJM – Harrisonburg, VA – Charted at #18!
KUGS – Bellingham, WA
WSRI – Eau Claire, WI
WSUM – Madison, WI

Creative Commons is all warm and cuddly with my Call for Remixes/Samples.

Thanks to Laptop Rockers for giving the remix contest some love and affection.

Yay, I’m on Song-A-Day again!

Nice review on Comfort Comes. “an album that’s fresh-sounding but also comfy as your favorite sweatshirt”. Very comfortable.

Speaking of being comfortable, Comfort Music posted a couple tracks up on their site.

It’s okay, Pensatos totally panned the new album, but someone there liked a track.

I just created a Remix page that features all of the remixes that have been coming in over the last few days. I’ll continue to update the page as more roll in.

Here are a few:
DoKashiteru – I Fell Out Of The Sky – This one is just amazing.
Chris Fudurich – Fell Out Of The Sky v02 – Incredible triptastic remix. (And just a remix wasn’t enough–Chris was also present for the final day of the Fell Out Of The Sky music video shoot!
Khidir – Fell Out Of The Sky (alalala remix) – Impressively happy remix.

Make sure to check out all of the remixes on the Remix page.

Some snippets from Paul POP’s review (First Coast News). Link to review

“DIY hand made folktronica that sounds as if Elbow got in a car crash with Folk Implosion and the Postal Service.”

“The unobtrusive nature of all this permeates the haunting nature of this album and it makes it seem as if the the whole thing were created by loop loving ghosts.”

“This is Old is a fascinating listen and an interesting peek into State Shirt’s soul.”

“Melancholy and being stuck in a never ending routine has never sounded so good.”

Ok. I’m giving away a brand spankin new Line 6 POD Studio UX2 recording interface ($200 value!) for the best remix that comes in. All you need to do is:

1. Create a super badass remix of one of my songs (or several remixes, there is no limit). Source files are here.

2. Submit the remix by emailing me with an MP3 attachment, or by uploading them to ccmixter.org and notifying me by email. Me and my team of remix experts will pick the most awesomest remix of the month. And give you the prize.

Hop to it!

PS. Any State Shirt remix posted on ccMixter (or sent to me) from November 11 to December 17 will be eligible. And yes, there will be another contest starting December 18!

So the second day of shooting has come to an end. We got some amazing shots and the actors were all outstanding. One more weekend of filming coming up, and then we’re off to editing! Here are some photos of the day:

OMG!!111 This Is Old is making it around thar interwebs.

• Eric R Danton of the Hartford Courant likes it
• ccMixter is running a call for remixes and samples. First remix is in!
• On iTunes now!
• Pensatos says some nice things
• I guess I’m a rock sellout
• Metawelle.net mentioned the ccMixter remix thing. I need to brush up on my German (ok, I don’t know any German). Let’s just hope it’s good!
• WKNC in Raleigh, NC played it. WRVU in Nashville played it. KUCR in Riverside, CA played it. Thanks!

Download the audio source files from my new album and go crazy, have fun, make some remixes. Then post your remix and your own samples on ccMixter or send them to me and I’ll use your audio to create my next album!

Call for Remixes

Remix a song, post it on ccMixter, and let me know. I’ll feature all of the remixes on stateshirt.com and will be rewarding the best and most creative remixes with a few goodies and a spot on a (future) This Is Old remix album. Submit a remix before Nov 17 and be entered to win a Line 6 POD Studio UX2. Remix early and remix often!

Call for Samples

I’m creating a new album of music comprised entirely of Creative Commons licensed audio samples. It will be a process of merging, tweaking, remixing and piecing together all of your work. Could be drumbeats, guitar parts, a cappella vocals, noises, accordion, part of a song you never finished, screaming, spoken words, whatever you want to send. Submit audio samples for this project on ccMixter or send them my way. Thanks!

Audio Source files

Audio source files for the new album are now available. This includes every instrument, loop and vocal track. Have fun!

• Chemma Chi
  MP3 source (15MB) – FLAC source (51MB) – WAV source (90MB)
• Computer
  MP3 source (31MB) – FLAC source (98MB) – WAV source (171MB)
• Conway Station Road
  MP3 source (13MB) – FLAC source (36MB) – WAV source (76MB)
• Fell Out Of The Sky
  MP3 source (28MB) – FLAC source (106MB) – WAV source (191MB)
• Hospital Hill
  MP3 source (37MB) – FLAC source (110MB) – WAV source (197MB)
• I Hate California
  MP3 source (36MB) – FLAC source (115MB) – WAV source (199MB)
• So Weird
  MP3 source (25MB) – FLAC source (80MB) – WAV source (145MB)
• This Is Old
  MP3 source (28MB) – FLAC source (80MB) – WAV source (141MB)
• Time To Go
  MP3 source (33MB) – FLAC source (112MB) – WAV source (184MB)
• Up Up Up Up Up
  MP3 source (24MB) – FLAC source (76MB) – WAV source (136MB)

The new State Shirt album This is Old is finally released. I hope you like it. It’s available as a CD, MP3 files and FLAC files. And I’d be glad if you shared it with your friends (and enemies). And I’d be just as glad if you purchased a copy. Each CD comes with a neato State Shirt bumper sticker and instant MP3 downloads. Thanks to everyone for their support, I promise the next album won’t take four years.

Buy the CD or MP3s

It’s also available at Amazon, CDBaby, eMusic and will soon be on iTunes. The album is also up at last.fm and it looks like it will be on Jamendo any day now.

Less than a week until This Is Old is released. Pre-order sales of the new album have been great, they’re really piling up. Thanks so much everyone!

• Attention valued listeners: If you ordered a CD, it will be sent out soon, I’m just waiting for the bumper stickers to arrive so I can send those out too! In the meantime, anyone who has pre-ordered the CD can download MP3s of all the songs! Check the email I sent you when you ordered, the download link there is now activated.
• If you haven’t already ordered and you’re not into the whole PayPal thing, on 11.11.08 the album will be available on Amazon and CDBaby. It’s been sent off to iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and eMusic, and will show up whenever they get around to putting it up. (And, next week I will be offering MP3 and FLAC downloads right here on my site).
• Had some CDs sent out to college radio and press, hope someone likes it enough to play it or write about it. Also sent off CDs to Pandora and Jango, maybe they’ll put this album up there?

Thanks everyone for the support.

The CDs are here, and the stateshirt.com store is up and running! Official release date is November 11, but I’m offering it for pre-ordering early, starting now!

Pay what you like (I’m asking $10). You get a nice CD with 6-panel artwork, and a link to download all of the .MP3s once the album is officially released on November 11. And for a limited time, everyone that pre-orders will also get a nice shiny State Shirt bumper sticker. So that’s it I guess, I hope you like it, and thanks for your support!

Pre-order This is Old now!

Even Edison the dog has his own copy.

The last few months have been crazy. Been working like hell to finish the new album This is Old.

Flew out to Massachusetts and had two friends (Matthew Larsen and Rebekah Dutkiewicz) contribute on a couple tracks. Spent some time shooting photos and working on the CD artwork. Got it mastered last month, and just today the CDs arrived from the manufacturer. We’re really close to the official release on November 11!

Most importantly, pre-ordering will begin this Thursday, October 23. On Thursday, come on down and order your copy (or buy more than one and give to a friend). Help me sell all of them so I can quit my job.

This is Old artwork is at the CD manufacturer, now I’m just waiting for the discs to arrive! I can’t wait to get this out there, it’s been way too long since my last album. Here’s a little preview of the artwork.

So there is a lot going on right now. Final mixes are off to Don C. Tyler for mastering. Looking forward to checking out his handiwork, since he has mastered a few albums that I love (Elliot Smith: XO, Figure 8, Hot Snakes Suicide Invoice). I know mastering is a subtle art, but if he can subtly find a way to make my album as great as those that would be super.

Apart from mastering I’m trying to keep everything else pretty DIY, I just finished designing the artwork for This is Old… I’m excited, it will be a 6-panel digipak, and features a bunch of photos I took on a soggy spring morning on the back roads of western Massachusetts, including one inquisitive cow.

I’m hoping to start online pre-ordering of the album in a few weeks. After I figure out how to make these interwebs work.