july 31, 2001 – march 27, 2010.

dearest Edison, my best friend, my first canine companion, you were one extraordinary dog. you gave us so much happiness, i am honored to have been a part of your life. i know your spirit will watch over us. i can’t wait for the day that we get to meet again. i love you, Edison.

Ok. So this week got a little bit busy and I wasn’t able to complete a new song for my song-a-week challenge.

But I’ll make up for it by posting TWO (count ‘em, two) songs from the archives that haven’t ever really been officially “released”. Both of these are collaborations that I did with other artists. hope you like ‘em.

First up is Hostess Mostess’ “Ease Up on the Drugs”. Last year, Brent Stansfield (Hostess Mostess) sent me guitar and vocal parts of his unfinished track for use on my Collaboration Album. But when I listened to what he sent, I realized his song elements had too much potential on their own, so I decided hey I’ll just pick up where he left off. So I wrote some parts around what he’d already finished, added drums, bass and some more guitars. So here’s Hostess Mostess featuring State Shirt:

Hostess Mostess & State Shirt – Ease Up on the Drugs – DOWNLOAD

Next is Ethrikios’ “Framed”. This was a SongFight entry that my friend Dave Patrikios and I put together last year. He did most everything, I just wrote a couple of the parts, played some guitar and did the backup vox on the chorus. Everything else is DJ Davey P. check it out.

Ethrikios – Framed – DOWNLOAD

So today I was both excited to learn that Glenn Case had done a cover of my song “Highway”. I was so flattered that I figured I’d return the favor and cover one of his songs. Glenn is likely the most prolific songwriter that I’m aware of. He has well over 400 songs for download on his site, and this one, “Pencil Me In” is one of my favorites. You can find the original here and plenty of other goodies at glenncase.com.

Below is his cover of “Highway” and my cover of “Pencil Me In“.

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?

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.

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”…

So, the day has finally come. Today is officially Mustache Monday. Though I may keep it for the entire month.

EDIT: Here are the other members of the Mustachathon providing their own personal brand of mustachitude.

Thanks to all the mustache pioneers for making this day possible, here are just a few of the greats: Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Weird Al Yankovick, John Oates, Ned Flanders, Mario, Freddie Mercury, Wilford Brimley, Cap’n Crunch, The Nuge, Frank Zappa, Gene Shalit, Sam Elliott, Salvador Dali and Yosemite Sam.

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.

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.

I took a road trip back in October, and when I was in Massachusetts I spent a couple days at Matthew Larsen’s old brick duplex in Holyoke and helped him record a few songs. Go to Matt’s site and listen to the new songs.

Here’s Matt laying down some melodica.

After four very full and busy days, the shooting for the “Fell Out Of The Sky” music video has come to an end. Today was the greatly anticipated party scene, which wouldn’t have been possible without all of our friends, who had to take a break from their busy lives to eat, drink and be merry. Editing for the video starts next week!

Not a whole lot of time for me to take many photos today, so I only have a few to post for now. I’ll try to dig around for some more soon.

Holy crap today was a lengthy and intense day of filming! Tomorrow is the last day, the big fancy party scene. Here are a few photos from today:

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:

Today was the first day of filming for the “Fell Out Of The Sky” music video! The unbearable smoke and ash from the Sylmar fire forced us to change ALL of our locations today, but we were fortunate to find some great alternate locations. All of the actors and crew were great! More shooting tomorrow, and next weekend as well. Here are some photos:

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.