Song-a-week #4. Just finished a new song, “The Road to Hana”.

The Road to Hana – DOWNLOAD

you mustn’t be afraid of what’s to come
the road is dark and there’s no turning back
the whales will only guide you so far.
but then you’re on your own, you must swim all the way.

are we there yet?

it will feel like there’s no destination
it will feel like you’re all alone.
but we will be there right by your side!
but we will be there guiding you back home.

are we there yet?
are we here?

you can join us, on hana lane.

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?

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.

This Is Old continues to weave it’s way through thar interwebs:
- Read an interview, with, uh, me at masslive.com
- Holy crap, almost 1000 hearts for my song “Computer” on thesixtyone.com
- Nice writeup over at buzzbands.la
- A nice piece all the way from Tel Aviv, courtesy of Laughing Evergreens

Over 100 stations playing State Shirt
This Is Old continues to get played on college and independent radio across the US. Over 100 stations are playing new State Shirt music. The album hit #7 at KSLU St Louis, #26 at WAIH Postdam NY, #12 at WTTU Cookeville, TN, #28 at WFCS New Britain CT, #22 at WNHU West Haven CT, #13 at URH Hilo Hawaii, #18 WMXM at Lake Forest IL, #24 at Naperville IL, #15 at WCYT Fort Wayne IN, #24 at KSCL Shreveport LA, #27 at WMLN Milton MA, #27 at WUSB Stony Brook Ny, #10 at WBGU Bowling Green Oh, #13 at WPPJ Pittsburgh PA, and #18 WXJM Harrisonburg VA!

New Song
A few days ago I recorded a new song in my kitchen. Video is here. Song is below. Hope you like it.
State Shirt – Suffer Someday (Live)

Remixes
A bunch of new remixes have come in. Here are just a few. Remix contest winner will be announced shortly!
Diode (Terry Burton) – Computer (Analog Mix by Diode)
The Orchestral Movement of 1932 – Conway Station Road (The Next Train Mix)
Show Your Shoe – Fell Out Of The Sky (Show Your Shoe remix)
Teru – Enter…
Decaying_Machine – Chemma Chi [dark times machine rmx]
Ballzac – Fell Out Of The Sky (commercial dance remix)
Christof Barber – Computer (Christof Barber remix)

I remixed myself
Is it a faux pas to remix yourself? A couple days ago I created a mashup of several Vidian songs with my song “Life Isn’t Everything”. It also features vocals from c.layne, Brad Sucks and Kristen Hersh for good measure. Definitely doesn’t sound like State Shirt– has more of a Daft Punk feel.
State Shirt – Almost Alive (mash-up)

More songs to remix
A few more songs are available for remixing. Source files for Life Isn’t Everything, Don’t Die and Edison’s Medicine are available for downloading here.

I’ve been playing around with a new live setup that includes a couple drums and keyboards, as well as guitar and my usual effects and looper pedals. I just wrote this song yesterday, still not 100% sure on the song title yet. I set up all of my crap in the kitchen and recorded a little live performance. Hope you like it.

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.

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.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to start posting a bunch of unreleased State Shirt songs. Well I can’t exactly say unreleased, because some have appeared on SongFight, but I’ve never really done much else with them. The first batch are totally unlike most State Shirt songs… occasionally I’ll get in a metal mood and beat the shit out of my drums and thrash my vocal cords.

Anomaly
[audio:/metal/Anomaly.mp3]

I Hate You
[audio:/metal/stateshirt_ihy.mp3]

Accelerator
[audio:/metal/stateshirt_accel.mp3]

Cancer
[audio:/metal/stateshirt_cancer.mp3]

Ok, i know this song isn’t exactly new. But we recently completed a music video for the song. Here it is, the official debut of the “Straw Man” music video. Hope you like it!

Slightly higher res version is here!

I’ve made a muxtape of some of my favorite songs.

:::: Listen to my muxtape here

Here’s what’s up there now.
I think I’ll update with a new theme every few weeks:

- The Helio Sequence – Nothing’s Ok : Everything’s Fine
- Unkle – Rabbit In Your Headlights
- R.E.M. – Walk Unafraid
- Hayden – Dynamite Walls
- Sebadoh – Careful
- Nick Drake – Things Behind The Sun
- Elliott Smith – Wouldn’t Mama Be Proud
- Crowded House – Fall At Your Feet
- Josh Clayton-Felt – Too Cool For This World
- Neil Young – Old Man
- Toad The Wet Sprocket – Always Changing Probably
- Radiohead – Let Down

If you have a muxtape, comment on my blog post so I can listen!

I’ve been rehearsing a bunch lately and figured I’d set up a couple cameras. Here is a video of me playing my new song ‘Computer’. It’s all live looping, no prerecorded audio.

So I’m ramping up to get my new album finished and out into the world. The thing is I’m not sure exactly how I should do it. I really like the idea of a CD and album artwork and something that you tangible that you can hold onto, and the full-length album experience. Maybe I’m just nostalgic. Ever since the first time I heard OK Computer, I had to listen all the way through. And remembering back to high school driving around in my Ford Econoline listening to Helmet Meantime album on infinite repeat. I love the idea of the album, but I’m not sure anyone else does anymore.

Should I even release a CD at all? Does anyone buy CDs anymore? Or are you happy buying tracks as digital downloads from artist websites, iTunes, eMusic, etc? Should music just be free? Or would you feel bad taking music without paying for it? Should I offer the album on a USB thumb drive? Or put together a book of art, photos and illustration that goes along with the music?

I read a good blog post by Scott Andrew, who had some similar questions last year when he was getting his new album together. It does kinda suck to have so many songs just sitting there, waiting for me to get the whole album done. I could just release them one by one on my site– as I spend random evenings working on new music. So, should I dump the whole album idea? Or really find a new and interesting way to make it work?

Just wanted to extend my thanks to the podcasts that have played State Shirt songs recently (and not so recently). Check these out!

The Awful Show
Suffolk ‘N’ Cool
PC Podcast
Borderline
Amplified
Five Gallon Podcast
Makeshift Magesty

I can’t believe that Don’t Die came out nearly 4 years ago. I have been working on new songs and writing and recording but sometimes the shit in my life piles up and I can’t quite get everything finished. But I’m finally there, 10 songs recorded and almost ready to go. Still putting the final touches on some vocals, and then it’s off to meet with producer Chris Fudurich (Nada Surf, Jimmy Eat World) to provide his expertise with mixing and production. I like the sound I get in my little 8′x8′ bedroom studio but it’s nice to have someone that I trust stick their ears to it.

I’ll be playing some of the new songs at Crane’s Tavern in Hollywood, CA on Sunday March 16. I think I’ve finally worked the glitches out of my gear setup. Two digital Echoplexes and a bunch of pedals. No more acoustic guitar, I’ll be kicking it with my $150 Fender Toronado. Come on out and see some live loop versions of the songs and have a $3 Pabst Blue Ribbon.

After quite a hiatus, I’m back for another rumble at SongFight. I just finished writing a song for the latest SongFight, titled Ottoman. It’s a song about leaving. Spent a couple days locked in the studio to write and record this. Click on over to SongFight and check out the songs in the fight.

:: State Shirt on SongFight

Buy Don’t Die at CDBaby.com and 100% of the sale will be donated to The Brittany Foundation all-breed dog rescue! Yep, the offer is still on, get the CD and help some doggies at the same time. Over the last couple years, we have been able to donate almost $1000 to the rescue through this site!

The Brittany Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to the rescue, care and placement of homeless dogs. They rescue all dogs, regardless of breed, and often focus efforts on the harder-to-place dogs such as seniors, disabled or abused dogs.

For more info about the rescue, please visit The Brittany Foundation.