[np - Tori Amos: Boys For Pele]

Just drinking a morning cup of coffee with a belly full of pancake. Gearing up for the day and stewing a rant in my noggin. Best let the pressure valve go a bit... Here goes...

A very kind fan in Ontario bought a copy of Smoke Through It and wrote a very nice note to us. It concluded by saying that were we signed to a major label, they would not have made the purchase. This was kind of a startling thing to hear from a fan -- a definite first. Now, as a musician who developed during the mp3.com boom (I was artist #8600 or so), I had been preaching the whole "labels = evil" mantra since 1998. But to finally have a fan echo this sentiment...

It is definitely a sign of the times. The public is starting to realize that record labels are bullies that think of their customers as degenerate criminals. And people are scared -- just yesterday, I got a call from an elderly customer who had been worrying herself to sleep the last few nights. She was afraid of copyright issues with the background music for her travelouge made back in the '50s... It took me a good 15 minutes to assure her that, since she owned the original records and that it was for personal use, it fell under fair use and format shifting. And I can assure you that all the lawsuits by the RIAA in the news planted this seed in her mind...

I mean, Jesus. Scaring little old ladies?

Next up, Sony is hacking your PC! Wheeee! Yes, when you play a particular Sony CD on you PC, it installs a "rootkit", which for the non-geek means that they basically hack Windows to install a copy protection scheme. The program has already been identified as "malware" by Norton, and is now removed by anti-virus software. Not to mention a ton of other security issues that have cropped up because of this "copy-protection" by Sony.

Finally, I recently bought my first new CD (I buy only used CDs nowadays) in ages -- Goldfrapp's Supernature. I get the CD, and lo and behold, it's copy protected. Against my better judgement, I popped it in my iMac jukebox... Which promptly froze and would not boot up again once I pulled the plug. I had to dig out the CD with a screwdriver. What did I do to deserve a broken iMac, beyond supporting a band I like? Sadly, as much as I love Allison, this will be the last CD of hers that I buy.

Music is a magical thing -- it allows us to connect on a very deep level, it allows us to feel the emotions of others. And while you can monetize this connection and make a living out of it, you will only ever be as successful as your patrons are willing to support you. In many ways, music is not moving forward but rolling back the clock a few hundred years. Artists that are beloved will be funded directly by their patrons, with no need for a record label midddle-man. As the record labels cling to their outdated notions of how the industry sould work, they are rasing the ire of the people that support them, causing them to be marginalized even more quickly. The retailers are starting to see this -- when CDBaby and Best Buy team up, you know someone out there know what's going on. I'll be interested to see if the majors are still alive in 20 years.

So there you have it. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of our "patrons". The fact that you are listening keep us making the music. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

[np: Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar]

Whew.

I'm still decompressing from this last month. I've seemed to have crammed a year's worth of work between my job, Endless Blue, and my personal life into the month between our last show and our mini-tour last weekend. CD release, radio promotion, moving, and a presentation on business web design... I'm just glad it's all done.

Now it's time to hibernate for the winter. After the Club Anything gig in November, that's it for a little while. Time for a break, time to let things ferment a little. And ferment they will -- with us getting play on Cities 97 in Mpls and getting a good chunk of press, I think we've got the ball rolling. Just got an email from Tinderbox, we've charted in the top 30 on three college radio stations so far. Woohoo!

So, needless to say, all the hibernating means I need to make sure that the "den" is very comfy. And what does that mean? Time to rewire the studio! Again! Heh, it never seems to end... Well, each iteration is an improvement over the previous, and this one feels quite good. I had run out of inputs on my mixer and was getting a lot of milage out of plugging and unplugging stuff out of my patch bay. I'm putting my other mixer to use now as a submix used for my MIDI instruments. It's a unique approach for me, but I think ultimately I'll finally start using my other audio input for once. The other bit of fun is hard wiring in my hardwarde effects and making them patchable.

Anyway, music-wise, I haven't been doing much, just a little of this and that. I've been primarily working on a remix of "Only" off of the new Nine Inch Nails album. It was a fun little project -- I made it a point to finish most of the remix before I even listened to the original. I heard the original just today, and I got a chuckle out of it... My version is so completely different, and that's what remixin' is all about!

Well, that should do it, back to work...

This last weekend certainly was interesting, I must say that. We did not get as many peeps into the Kitty Cat Klub on Friday night, but I must say that it turned out to be a very good night, overall. The performance went very well and the crowd was quite perceptive. We sold a number of cds and had a great time!

We had three shows (one on Thursday, Friday and Saturday). Thursday night, we played at a very cool bar called Waters Fire and Ice Lounge in Mankato, MN. The venue was awesome. There were water falls all over and it reminded me of 101 Blu in Mpls. The only problem was, that it really wasn't a venue made for Live Music. They set us up in the corner (apparently, they have only had live music a few times before). It was a strange situation, when we arrived. The venue was actually in a strip mall - that's definitely a first for us. It was sandwiched (no pun intended) between Jimmy Johns and a booty-bar called boom town!

The staff was super nice, though and we had a few eager listeners sitting at the bar. Not the environment for us. They were best suited for a techno dj that was going to be all background noise.

On Friday night, we headed to the kitty cat klub! This is our fave bar to play at - - I just love the environment! Well, this was a first time that a band member of another band passed out before they went on to play! HA! That was crazy - in a rockstar way, but alas, he pulled himself together and got on stage to perform! Whatta Man! I gotta tell ya, though, it was pretty crazy wondering if we'd have to do two sets and announce to the audience that our third band would not be performing.

On Saturday, we returned to Little Swan Lake Winery. It was the end of the first set - during our song, Shadows, the unthinkable happened....a mouse ran right across the stage! eek!

Actually, it wasn't too bad. At least they weren't really ugly rats. That probably would have sent me over the edge. :P

Anyhow - it was a productive cd release weekend! We want to thank everyone for their support! Especially Nicho9las, Walter, Trace, Stephanie and Clan! You guys really made our weekend great!!!