Gig Roundup + WBEZ Session Pics on Facebook

Two gigs and a 10 hour recording day in the past two weeks, so lots to read today. A teaser: I'm about to get really snarky.

• Thanks to everyone who came out to the Martyrs' show last Monday. Usually I go for quantity over quality when a venue gives me free drinks, but there was no way I could perform, walk, carry 40 pound pianos, or drive a vehicle with the size of the bar tab I was given. So my new favorite thing at Martyrs' is Cotes du Rhone. I'm afraid it's not very rock 'n roll of me, but I guess it is extremely gay.
  
  
• Milwaukee PrideFest was a reminder of how spoiled musicians are in Chicago when it comes to summer music festivals. Chicago musicians: do not take for granted that our festival organizers usually have their shit together.
  
  It really should have been a red flag when the entertainment coordinator asked me if I was driving to the festival. It was clear when I arrived they still thought I would be -- oh, I don't know -- carrying my two keyboards and amp through the Summerfest grounds on a camel? Or a rickshaw? The closest they would allow my actual car to get to the stage was somewhere in Kenosha. I'll spare you the saga of the entertainment staff haggling with the security staff to get "the big" golf cart.
  
  
• Kyle, Matt, and I went to WBEZ on Saturday with our engineer, Ted Cho, to record all of the grand piano tracks for the new Canasta album. Pictures are up on our Facebook page.
  

The Crater EP hits MySpace today!

Who needs to listen to new music while sitting in front of their computer at work??? You!!!*

The Crater EP will be available today on MySpace! You don't need a MySpace account to click on that link and listen to the tracks, but if you are on MySpace, make sure to add me to your friend list. Their server had a slight glitch last night (no surprises there), so the last time I checked only 3 of the new tracks from the EP are available, but the other two are being "processed", which makes it sound like Rupert Murdoch is torturing them for information in a Philip K. Dick novel.

You, my faithful blog followers, are the first to know, unless you are a faithful blog follower of my friend Josh who drew the artwork and posted it today in coordination with the MySpace release. You can see the cover art on his blog, which is funny and nice to look at. Perfect for Valentine's Day, don't you think?

More announcements to come soon, including the online release date, some new web features, and my pre-existent Facebook profile. In the meantime, you can now subscribe to Damper Pedal via email using that little box in the upper right corner. I'm looking for a subscription service that will allow a little more flexibility for you, the reader, such as choosing how often to receive blog updates, but for now you'll get an email in the morning whenever there's a new post. This is a great alternative to an RSS feed because you don't need to know what the hell an RSS feed is to use it -- it's just plain old email.


*Unless you work in an office that doesn't allow its adult, advanced-degree-holding employees to listen to background music. Sorry, Laura.

EP Update

I've been in my own little world for the past week, finishing up a major overhaul of the EP. It's much more concrete now, and I can safely say it's going to be five tracks totaling up to about 27 minutes of material. I'm hoping to have it out in February, but since I've never produced (let alone self-produced) anything before, I'm not sure how long to expect the actual printing and reproduction side of things to take. (The stage I'm in is actually quite similar to when I got married and realized that there really is a website for any Do-It-Yourself project you can think of. Two dozen paper lanterns? Five hundred shrink-wrapped CDs? It's all the same.)

I'm also seeking distribution outlets (especially online) so if you have any favorite internet radio stations/services (like Pandora or last.fm), download services (like eMusic) or more traditional e-retail outlets (like CD Baby or iTunes), let me know in the comments section. Does anyone even buy physical CDs online anymore?