The Middle East Nightclub and Restaurant on Wed, October 6th at 7 PM entitled "Rock Shop Boston #8: A Social Media Experiment."
The event will feature a panel including members of the bands Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (Michael J. Epstein will be representing DNFMOMD), Lagoon, Aaron Perrino of The Sheila Divineand Dear Leader, and RIBS talking about how they are using social media to manage their careers and answer questions from the audience. After the panel the bands will play a set.
Participants/Audience are actively encouraged to tweet/photograph/video.
To celebrate the great lineup for our 2nd-ever show, Highly Personal Trash, The Cinnamon Fuzz, and What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? have joined up with us to remind you all to come to Church on Friday, October 1. We promise to not perform this live break-neck tradeoffery at the show, but we want you to "Don't Stop Believin'" in us and join us on our Journey...
We had so much fun recording this Journey song that we also decided that perhaps it would be the start of a series. So, welcome to Special Collections, wherein we spend no more than 45 minutes learning, arranging, and performing a cover live on video.
Special Collections 1 - Journey "Don't Stop Believin'" - the full performance including great moments like the attacking rain stick, the viola solo, and of course, the enthusiastic group chorus belting.
Special Collections 2 - Bon Jovi "Livin' On A Prayer" - We desperately wanted to continue the trend of leaving off a 'g' from a song title, so we chose to attack this tune from a tape I completely wore out in 5th grade. It was a little more challenging than Journey and we didn't quite know it as well to start (I suspect maybe we had some singers experienced in Journey karaoke). Nevertheless, here's what we pulled off in short order.
Stay tuned for future special collections and feel free to leave requests in the comments!
I got the special treat of sharing the stage with two artists who I greatly respect. I joined Ad Frank during his set for a cover of Jonathan Richman's "The Neighbors" and Duncan Wilder Johnson donned an official DNFMOMD jacket to join us for a cover of PJ Harvey's "This is Love."
Dramamine: The Girls of The Motion Sick On October 22nd - the wives, girlfriends, and close female friends of The Motion Sick will be performing a farewell tribute to the band (The Motion Sick is on indefinite hiatus). The Motion Sick have long been a staple on the Boston rock scene and the women affiliated with each of the band members have joined forces to lampoon, roast, and just plain make fun of the boys of The Motion Sick.
Together, they will perform a full set of The Motion Sick’s songs in their own style and by their own rules. The night will also feature special guests helping them out along the way.
Cafe 939
939 Boylston St.
Boston, MA
"Red Eye at The Red Room" Presented by Agent Bishop also includes a photography opening of the work of Kelly Davidson.
Dramamine: The Girls of The Motion Sick - Kelly, Leesa, Veronica, and Sophia say bon voyage, fare-thee-well, a rivederci, and GOOD DAY SIR! by playing a full set of The Motion Sick songs before TMS set sail on their indefinite hiatus
Last year, Sophia, Brendan Boogie, and I put together two nights of comedy and music intertwined as a special back-to-school weekend called "What's Your Major?" To promote that show, Brendan and I (with the help of Sophia as camera person) broke the world record for most colleges busked at in a single day (see video here). This year, we're doing it all again, but we've streamlined the show down to one amazing night of killer music and comedy; a night so intense that you may not even be able to make it to class on Monday.
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling will be involved in 2 special performances: Sophia will perform a duet with Ad Frank during his set (the first of the evening) and will perform a duet with Duncan Wilder Johnson during the DNFMOMD set. You won't want to miss these one-time performances!
Also, in order to celebrate this year's event, we quizzed participants to see how much they remembered of their college experience by asking them questions about their majors. Sophia manages to pass her quiz on Modern Physics with flying colors. Some of the other folks...well, you'll just have to watch:
A huge thanks to everyone that joined us last Saturday to make our last show for the time being into something very special. Thanks to Tim Briggs (organizer of Virgo A Go Go) and all of the bands and the dancers (who joined us and showed their skills by quickly learning the "30 Lives" dance)!
Here's video of our whole set except one song that we mutilated so badly that I wouldn't dare force you poor people to watch it.
As I had said, I don't know when you'll hear from us again, but you're not rid of The Motion Sick quite yet! Farewell for now...
Korean girl-pop band SNSD dances to The Motion Sick's "30 Lives (Up-Up-Down-Dance Mix)." This is particularly exciting because the video matches the music pretty well and it's kind of eerie.
Tomorrow night, The Motion Sick plays what I can best describe as its goodbye-for-now show. It happens at TT the Bear's, which is the same stage where we held our first real show, a CD-release party for Her Brilliant Fifteen.
I can't really imagine that we'll never play another show, so I really hate to call it the end. I never really understood why anyone would put a brickwall finish on a band they loved being part of, so the same goes for this one.
Why bye-for-now? I can only really tell it from my perspective and it's not as exciting nor as dramatic a tale as anyone might hope for, but here's the basic story. I don't want to be part of anything that isn't being done with full motivation, drive, and heart. It became pretty clear over the past 2 years or so (yeah, a gradual process indeed) that we just didn't all really feel up to doing this anymore. Everything about the band (except probably playing live) began to feel tedious. We moved forward on projects and ideas at a snail's pace and as much as I really didn't want to stop doing it, it became apparent that there wasn't really any choice in the matter. Everyone had become involved in other projects or parts of their lives. We did things out of obligation and mostly, I am pretty sure that we never really agreed about the things we should and should not be doing. I think it was tiring for all of us. Maybe personnel changes could have solved things, but it really felt like any changes would be like starting over. It just wouldn't be the same dynamic that we had. It just wouldn't feel right. I am not even sure what changes would be the right ones anyway. I just couldn't imagine trying to keep the band going with anyone different.
So, after watching the last episode of Lost (ultimately, a terrible, terrible, stupid show), the course of which (its ups and downs - excluding Lost's ultimate terribleness) parallels the band in many ways...I said to everyone that I thought it was time to take a break. I say break because maybe time will make us want to do things again the right way or get us excited about the band. No commitments, no half-hearted efforts to change things, just let it rest for a while and see what happens. So, that's where we're at. We've got other projects happening. I can't decide if the other projects killed the band or if the other projects were symptoms of the band dying, but ultimately, it became impossible for us to balance something we weren't interested in with things that we were...and when it comes down to it, why should we? I think the band probably continued for a long time just because it was easy - we could get good shows, people liked the music, and ultimately, it was a band doing well. It's kind of strange though how perspective works on these things. It doesn't matter how well (or not well) a band is doing, it still doesn't change desires and interests.
I thought about "retiring" from leading a band, but I still feel like I have a lot of musical ideas that I want to explore and I feel like I have learned a huge amount about band operations and function from these years with TMS and, as a result of all this and a drive to explore some different music, have started The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library. I also to continue my collaboration with Sophia (also in the MJEML) in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. Right now, for me, these projects are just more exciting than The Motion Sick and feel like they are more natural and organic in their growth and movement. From what I know, the other guys are also feeling the same way with other projects they are involved with and I totally support all of their projects and hope for their successes. (See a list of other projects at the bottom of this post.)
So, this leaves us, for the moment, in a sort of limbo. I do regret that we haven't finished the 4-song recording we have started and I do hope we can find a way for that to happen. We really hope to have our stuff in Rock Band soon. I won't even get into the many factors delaying that, but it has nothing to do with the band itself. I really look forward to the release of the TMS songs from the Daytrotter session I did with Shawn and Josh from Golden Bloom in August. I hope that we'll all someday find the right time to play some more shows and maybe even work on some more new music, but I couldn't make any predictions about when or if that might happen. I just know that now isn't the time.
The 3rd Annual Virgo A Go Go will be held Saturday night September 18th at T.T. the Bears in Central Square, Cambridge. The main stage will feature Three Day Threshold, The Motion Sick (last show for a while), Thick As Thieves (first show in a while), Moons and the long awaited return of comedic sensation Kev and Col. There will also be an acoustic showcase on the second stage featuring Zac Taylor, Jim Decatur, Billy Letendre, Shane Dog and others to be announced soon. Boston Jack Sparrow will be back, along with the Virgo A Go Go dancers.Facebook Event
Set times:
8:45 Shane Dog
9:00 Moons
9:35 Billy Letendre
9:50 Thick As Thieves
10:30 Surprise act
10:45 Kev and Col
11:10 Zac Taylor
11:25 3DT
12:05 Surprise act
12:20 The Motion Sick
I just want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone involved with making The MJEML's musical debut a smashing success. Agent Bishop did a great job setting up the show and trusting us to come through and sell out a 200-person room with just two acts. His trust was not misplaced as the final ticket was sold before the show began. Cafe 939 was quite the classy place. It didn't even have genital graffiti in the green room.
First and foremost, you can watch some video from the show...
There were also some great videos shot by Jesse Nicole (MJEML and NUH). One additional version of "Every Time I Visit You, It Rains" was shot by Rick Taylor. This take perhaps best captures my first time breaking a ukulele string on stage (around 2:09).
Sophia plays the ukulele and considers founding
gospel act, The Cacciola Sisters (Photo by Tanya Palit)
Here's how it all went down: The librarians all waited nervously as the sound crew tried to figure out how to deal with the 700 inputs we needed for all 9 people to sing and, often, play multiple instruments.
We got everything in place, but our sound check had to be cut short. The doors were already opening around 20 minutes late. We finished our brief sound check and got to play through a song or two and the doors opened. We sat in the green room and ate from the mighty fruit bowl provided for us! There were also sandwiches and cookies, but man, I love fruit bowls, especially this fruit bowl because it had lots of berries and good stuff.
While nibbling on raspberries and having a band pep rally, we were informed that the show was officially sold out! What a great honor to play our first show to a sold-out room!
Holly (Photo by Tanya Palit)
Sasha (Photo by Tanya Palit)
We took the stage and lots of people were sitting. I wasn't sure what to make of it. Naturally, I was a little worried that, because Neutral Uke Hotel was headlining, many of the people there would simply be annoyed that they had to sit through our set before hearing NUH. I was delighted to find that people were not only quiet and attentive (almost disturbingly so, in fact), but most were totally engaged the whole time. The lights in the room were kept pretty bright, so I could actually pretty much make eye contact with individuals in the audience the entire time. This is, admittedly, a little disconcerting at times, but I also like being able to see smiles appear when we sing funny lines and just generally watch people react in all different ways. It was particularly nice to see a lot of positive response to our most controversial lyric, one about "menstruation."
I ended up talking a lot more than I normally might, partly to try and keep everyone in the band in a light, calm mood and also because it was just such a quiet, receptive audience, that I felt like I had a little more flexibility to interface with them.
At one point, I made a joke about how Neutral Uke Hotel was coming up next and that they might recognize someone in the band. I also said that the ukulele (pointing at the instrument in my hands) might be a giveaway. Several seconds later, an audience member blurted out, "I get it, it's him!" Everyone laughed. I didn't quite catch what was funny, so I asked for a repeat and someone informed me of what the other audience member had said. I assumed that it was said jokingly and I made fun of the person a bit, assuming it was a joke. It turns out, not so much. Now, I feel a little bad for making fun of her...but not actually too bad. (Update: I just got word from the shouter and it turns out that she was most definitely joking, so I no longer feel bad.)
I had a great time playing. I think everyone else did as well and it seemed to me, from immediate response and later feedback, that the audience had enjoyed us as well. That's always a concern when you are presenting yourself to people that might not expect you. We made lots of small mistakes and only what I'd consider a larger set of mistakes on one song. Hey, eight pretty solid performances and one that's a little off...not bad at all for a first show. Not bad at all! I really look forward to working more on these songs and taking this to the stage once again on October 1 at Church!
The Neutral Uke Hotel (I am also in that band for anyone not aware or who didn't gather an understanding from the earlier discussion of the loud audience member) set was also a blast. What a great and respectful crowd, albeit, a little quieter than we're used to for NUH, but no matter! We played through In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and then performed a set of 4 originals - two Golden Bloom songs and two The Motion Sick songs and then closed with a really fun finale of Neutral Milk Hotel's "Song Against Sex," (alt take from Jesse Nicole) which we performed without any amplification in the middle of the crowd and spun around each other and shifted positions. It was a fun bit of chaos to say the least and a really great way to end the night!
Here are some more photos of us prepping for the show and performing on stage:
Three librarians, Tanya K. Palit, Susannah Plaster, and Michael J. Epstein (me) paid a visit to WZBC on Friday to give the world premiere of a few songs and talk about Saturday's debut performance at Cafe 939 (video, MP3s, and recap coming very soon!). I also made double use of the visit to promote The Motion Sick's upcoming last show for a while by playing "30 Lives."
WZBC's Mass. Ave. and beyond host Gavin and engineer Jay were super nice to us and gave us cookies, did a great job with sound, and generated strange, but fun interview conversation. I mostly gave nonsensical answers to questions and Gavin did a great job of tacking to keep up with the ever-more-layered metaphors I tried to use to answer questions in riddles. Gavin quite successfully found the signal in the noise. I couldn't outsmart him! At some point, I even made a reference to how Shakespeare's works may have been written by Lord Byron. I only realized several minutes later that I meant Sir Francis Bacon. By then, it was too late to reveal my foolishness. I had already given myself away!
I somehow completely forgot to shoot any photos or video of the visit, despite the fact that I had my camera with me the whole time. Luckily, Tanya kept her wits about her and saved the day by taking some fine snaps of our time at the station.
Tanya (presumably not taken by Tanya)
Patient Host Gavin puts up with
some kind of nonsense answer by Mike
Susannah
Vegan cookies. Gavin kindly made them.
Mike less kindly ate them all.
Michael J. Epstein
Book Shelver, Due Date Stamp Cleaner, Pervy Computer User Kicker Outer, Ukulele, Voice
Michael J. Epstein, great-great-great-great-great grandson of Michael J. Epstein is allowed to work in the library because he has the same name as its honoree and also because he threatened to sue. He spends most of his time reading the chapter books in the young adult section. He expects to reach Reading Level 6 by the end of the year. He is also known for standing in the front and center and holding an acoustic guitar during times when The Motion Sick is on stage and standing on the right, holding a bass that makes crazy bassy/guitary/organy sounds during times when Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling is on stage. He also holds the ukulele and stands on alternating sides of the stage while Neutral Uke Hotel is on stage. Additionally, he has a mustache and is absolutely fascinated by mummified squirrels.
Favorite author: Michael J. Epstein has only read books by Kurt Vonnegut. He also wrote a very moving piece about books that influenced his songwriting for Largeheartedboy.
Favorite book: Michael's favorite books are any books with pictures of dinosaurs, centaurs, minotaurs, or anything else that ends in -aurs, with the exception of Melissa Auf Der Maur's solo records, which aren't books anyway, so they are twice disqualified. Also, he advises that you never trust a Canadian with a German name. That's what they always taught him in school.
Favorite band based on a book: The Velvet Underground are a band named after a book...and a damn fine one at that.
Favorite song based on a book: The most literate bands tend to be melodic metal/hard rock bands. Think about it for a moment. It's true. Of course, they always write about Tolkien and stuff. Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin are the original wizard rockers (OWRs).
Favorite movie based on a book: Fight Club is the only movie for which the film and book are equals. Usually, the book is much better than the movie (too many examples to cite) and once in a while, the movie is better than the book (The Wizard of Oz, Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes).
The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library Archives presents former band members...
Sasha Goldberg
Head Curator of Special Collections and Archives, Trumpet, Organ, Keys, Thunder Stick
Sasha was raised to be a classically trained flute player but decided that science was a lot more fun. She studied biology and geology, worked in clinical research, and now edits video for a living. By night she teaches and performs improv comedy and now she's gone and joined a band.
Favorite author: I'm more the type for phases than favorites, but one of the stand outs is John Irving. He presents a world of quirkiness and it becomes real as dirt. He makes the absurd tangible and gives the frivolous a solid core of emotion and morality. That, and he writes prose you can melt in.
Favorite book: I really like a lot of books, especially this one that I'm reading right now. Anyway, here are some stand outs from the past. Like Water for Chocolate. Jurassic Park. The Hobbit.
Favorite movie based on a book: The Princess Bride. Clearly. Also, I have high hopes for The Hobbit, but we'll just have to see.
There has been a lot of media coverage lately of the Wikileaks controversy. Somehow, top secret documents and other materials appeared on this web site. At first, we found it fascinating and wondered whether the increased transparency was good or bad. Was it dangerous to those involved with leaking, mentioned in the documents, etc.? Would it prevent the possible mistreatment of innocent civilians during war-time activities from being covered up? In what some consider the greatest misdirected intelligence leak since the Valerie Plame affair, a minute-long segment of secret training and mission preparations video for a major operation involving the members of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling appeared today, with no warning, on Youtube. Virtually every federal agency is investigating the leak and we've vowed to help smoke out the mole. Until then, we are asking you to take a look at the leaked video to see if there are any hidden clues that might help us catch the perpetrator. We do believe that Killer Suit Pictures may have some role in the leak. We never did trust Glenn di Benedetto, Public Figure and his hidden-agenda smile.
Jane Allard
Stacked Collection Curator, Melodica, Glockenspiel, Voice
Jane has parlayed her few years of piano in middle school to an on again/off again keyboard gig in various projects. She has recently turned to several new instruments and has realized that the one thing playing guitar hero can prepare you for is playing the melodica. When not exploring playing her new instruments with her fellow librarians she spends her time teaching dance to kids and working at a software company.
Favorite author: I go through author phases. From my youth I loved Ursula LeGuin but more recently I’ve turned to non-fiction. I was obsessed with Michael Pollan, but I think I’m looking for a new author to love.
Favorite book: My most recent favorite book is The Girl Who Played With Fire. Yes I have joined the Stieg Larsson bandwagon. His books are addictive and a great read. I was so sad when I looked him up to find out he died after he wrote the first three, but before they were published so he never knew how well received they were.
Favorite band based on a book: Harry and the Potters - I’m just jealous I didn’t come up with a band name and theme that would instantly make you popular.
Favorite song based on a book: No songs come to mind even though I’m sure I like many songs based on books. Since I'm a librarian I did some research to find out which songs I loved were actually based on books and what I found is that '70s bands frequently turned to books for inspiration. Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Iron Maiden were prominently featured on “songs based on books” lists with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis being major inspirations for many bands. While I liked many songs I found on those lists there wasn't one that I could call a favorite.
There are so many embarrassing bits here, I don't even know what to say about them. These are likely to all be circa 1987.
This is a story I think I wrote as a summary based on a story in some kind of game module. I don't think I invented the names or events, but I am not really sure.
I was apparently obsessed and I mean obsessed with my set of characters from the Zigor family. I have character sheets for Zigors 1-7 billion or so.
In 2005, the BBC asserted that a "tool," known as the the Hohle Fels phallus, dating back 28,000 years was perhaps the oldest phallic artifact on record. The story tells us that the Hohle Fels phallus was put on display in a special show at Blaubeuren prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art - Clearly Male. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, penis art is funny. That's basically what the Brits tell us here.
Why this fascination with depictions of the phallus, dating back, presumably, to the dawn of man? I would love to posit a brilliant scientific explanation of genital evolution to better understand why we have interests in characteristics like size (see every single message in your e-mail spam box for details), but I don't have one and I really haven't read the very extensive literature on the topic (A randomly selected example: "Sexual selection and genital anatomy of male primates").
What fascinates me most, in fact, is that I am not all that interested in the topic. You could say okay, well, Mike, you're also not interested in studying the migratory pattern of swallows (for which, the literature is also extensive), but I assert that the topic of genitalia and the visual depiction of male genitalia seems to fascinate most males at some point in their existences (perhaps one might argue that my point has arrived with this post). Little kids (males primarily) draw penises, junior high males draw penises, high school males draw penises, college males definitely draw penises, and then, for the most part, the penis drawing comes to a screeching halt (probably because it becomes unacceptable, rather than the disappearance of the innate tendency - though I once again refrain from making a scientific assertion on the topic). I have thought long and hard (pun intended) today and could not think of a single instance in which I ever drew a penis. It's possible that I am forgetting some grade-school prank or some nude figure drawing in one of my electrical engineering classes, but I can't recall a single case. I don't bring this up to declare superiority (nor inferiority). I even perhaps risk outing myself as abnormal somehow. Some Freudian scholar might argue that I have some underlying phobia of genitals or some kind of ill-developed relationship with a relative, but I don't believe in such things. Regardless, I find the ways in which I differ from the norm, an interesting topic of examination.
Daytrotter (read more about them on Wikipedia) has been one of my favorite web sites since, about 4 years ago, Andy and Jen from Band In Boston (another really great sessions site) told me about how they modeled their Flophouse Sessions after the Daytrotter Sessions. That first time I visited Daytrotter's site, I pretty much downloaded every session they had. I really loved discovering new artists as well as getting a real taste of what artists who had relied a little more on studio production could and would do in a setting with no overdubs. I discovered that I loved some bands I had dismissed and that some bands I loved weren't really very good in that context. Regardless, every session was a fascinating case study in musicianship, songwriting, and performance.
I've dreamed for years of paying a visit to Rock Island, IL to set foot in The Horseshack and when I finally had the opportunity last month, I was not disappointed. Shawn Fogel, Josh Cohen, and I had been touring for a few days prior as Neutral Uke Hotel, leaders of Neutral Milk Hotel sing-a-longs wherever we go (the band also includes Matt Girard and Andrew Laubacher). We're all quite busy with numerous musical projects and various forms of employment, so the performances end up being Shawn accompanied by whatever set of the rest of us is available. For our visit to Daytrotter, the three of us were Neutral Uke Hotel. While we love playing the brilliant songs of Neutral Milk Hotel, we really haven't totally come to terms with performing the songs outside the context of a live sing-a-long. We did have a great first taste of it when we did the Take Away Session back in June, but it still feels kind of strange to play the songs without an audience.
So, it had been arranged that we'd pop in to record the Daytrotter Session and record a couple of Neutral Uke Hotel (or Neutral Milk Hotel, to be precise) songs, but then also do some original material as well with stripped-down instrumentation and reduced-sized bands. The staff were super nice and really friendly about accommodating all of our needs in terms of gear and gear switching as we rotated through permutations of the bands of the members that make up NUH. We were given a two-hour time constraint and decided it would be totally feasible to get set up and crank through two Neutral Uke Hotel songs, two Golden Bloom songs, and two The Motion Sick songs.
The instrumentation ended up as follows:
NUH - Shawn - electric tenor ukulele, vocals; Josh - Melodica; me - baritone ukulele
Golden Bloom - Shawn - electric guitar, vocals; Josh - electric bass
The Motion Sick - me - baritone ukulele, vocals; Shawn - drums, vocals on "30 Lives" and electric tenor ukulele, vocals on "Winged Bicycle"; Josh - organ on "30 Lives" and melodica on "Winged Bicycle" - I think maybe we got Josh to sing a little bit on "Winged" as well
From Daytrotter's "about" page:
"These fine people – as they’re traveling through America’s heartland – take two hours out of their travels between shows to stop in for a Daytrotter Session at The Horseshack in downtown Rock Island, Ill. The name of the city is not ironic. They use borrowed instruments, play with their touring mates, utilize an often unkempt toilet, eat some food and then cram back into their vans for the last half of the drive. What they leave behind is a pile of ashes, sometimes a forgotten stocking hat and four absolutely collectible songs that often impart on whomever listens to them the true intensity that these musicians put into their art, sometimes with more clarity than they do when they have months to tinker with overdubs and experiments. These songs are them as they are on that particular day, on that particular tour – dirty and alive. We want you to make this your new home as it is ours. We promise that you will love it here."
I think their colorful description captures precisely what the experience was...a group of musicians touring together performing songs as they existed at that very moment, in that very configuration. I sort of wondered what it might feel like to play songs by The Motion Sick in this setting without the rest of the band. While none of the other members of The Motion Sick were present, for that moment, this was the act traveling around playing a couple of songs by The Motion Sick each night as part of the NUH tour. This was the representation of The Motion Sick that was active in the world and it was interesting to record a session capturing that brief representation of the band. The performance also embodied parts developed by everyone in the band and was an expression of each person's contribution to the music.
Of course, the Daytrotter representation only exists within the context of Neutral Uke Hotel, which I find even more interesting. What fascinates me about the sub-band, super-band hierarchy of sorts in this case is that Neutral Uke Hotel really allowed me an opportunity to work with Shawn and Josh in collaborative ways that would otherwise be difficult. The fun we had at the Daytrotter recording session was a beautiful documentation of that experience and the inclusion of six songs that would normally fall under three unique artist names just highlights the joy and the success of the umbrella.
Here's a video preview of our time in the studio. We very much look forward to the release of the audio sessions:
This is after more than a week of healing after tour, so the effects are actually downplayed, but I still thought I might be able to gross out a few of you with the contrast between my two pointer fingers...also with controversy about whether I should call them pointer fingers or index fingers. Let the disgust and the debate begin!
See me abuse this pointer/index finger further on 9/11 when I strum through two full sets of ukulele with both Neutral Uke Hotel and The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library. Show is at 7:30 PM at Cafe 939 at Berklee (939 Boylston St, Boston, MA).
To the people that made our hilarious-adventure a reality:
photo by the beautiful and talented Kelly Davidson
Agent (Mike) Bishop was indispensable to us on the road. His official title was ‘tour manager’ - in this capacity he made hotel arrangements, was a roadie, called the venues for information, dealt with money situations, did our merch, and generally was a helping pair of hands. He also entertained us on the long drives with weird trivia about himself.
Kelly tangled in a web of seatbelts!
Kelly Davidson (http://etchedonfilm.com) is our official photographer (on the road and in general) - she came along to document our adventures. Her photos and video are amazing and it was really awesome to have her along - she is ever cheerful and fun to have around.
Danielle Freudenthal of Invictus Booking set up our whole tour for us. A few months ahead of time I gave her a general outline of where we wanted to head with a few key cities to hit. She filled nearly all of our dates and wrangled information out of the venues (which takes some persistence to do). She even got us a few guarantees - which for a band just starting at touring is pretty great.
Some video memories!
Agent Bishop hunts Juggalos:
Kelly deciding that she's kicking Mike out and is our new bass player:
Singing at Foamhenge:
Singing at a creepy industrial park in Cleveland:
What Agent Bishop does when I need to run into the drugstore:
Kelly grooming Bishop in the backseat, WARNING - not for the queasy:
I am not an expert analyst consultant new media web 2.0 guru monkey VC master, but I can see the obvious. Myspace started to bomb out because it was completely useless as a social networking tool. My band, The Motion Sick, has about 12,000 "friends" and exactly 0 ways to communicate with any of those people. We could have 12 friends and we'd be in the exact same position. Is that not obviously ridiculous?
I understand that Myspace wanted to avoid problems with spamming, so they attempted to create separate systems for individual and mass communication. The thing is, that will never work. It didn't work on Myspace, it is currently faltering and heading toward failure on Facebook. Why is Facebook surviving that problem? Facebook is about individual interactions and communication and not really about bands. It's effectively useless and stupid for bands.
Myspace essentially only functioned as a promotional tool for bands and music. It was marketed that way and the push seems to be even more toward music as a savior for the failing site. If they want bands to use Myspace, give them the tools they need for communicating with fans. I actually think it would be easy for Myspace to bounce back to life, but they have to aggressively provide resources unavailable elsewhere on the web. Copying Facebook's features is a waste of time.
I know I am consulting for free here when I write this, so if Myspace wants to hire me and pay me $1,000,000 a year to solve their problems, I am ready to sign up. This is all so painfully obvious to me as both a consumer and a creator of music. Here's all they need to do:
1. Integrate directly with e-mail. Drop the requirements of using the Myspace messaging system and allow messages to be sent, received (full messages, not previews), etc. via real, actual e-mail. In fact, do it forcibly. It will make people mad, but just put them on e-mail lists and let them opt out.
2. Speaking of e-mail lists. If you made friends with a band, congratulations, you are now on their e-mail list. Didn't want to be? Too bad. When I say e-mail list, I mean actual, real e-mail. Not bulletins, not weird events, not livestreams, e-mail. You want to opt out. Go ahead. This e-mail thing is the absolute key to survival. Nothing else is an acceptable substitute.
3. Here's the sneaky mean part. Hey bands, you've now got a giant e-mail list (I've got 12,000 people on my list), but guess what, you can only send to those people via Myspace. You can't export those addresses. Bummer because you can't just move it over to a better system, but not a bummer for Myspace. They've just provided a service not available anywhere else and bands have a HUGE incentive to come back to the site...immediate, direct access to a ton of people.
4. It's actually also awesome for users. Now look at that Myspace users, you can subscribe to all of the e-mail lists for your favorite bands right there on Myspace. You'll get tons of exclusive content and access for being on those lists. You will LOVE using Myspace to manage the information you get from bands. You will LOVE using Myspace to get song exclusives. Best of all, your e-mail address is never known to anyone except Myspace and you have a single point interface for subscribing and unsubscribing from lists. Hell, you'll love buying albums early on Myspace via these e-mail systems. Bands will love managing their fan bases on Myspace. No other tool really exists yet to do it (at least not a free one with a massive subscriber base).
5. Sounds too annoying for users. Nah. They'll make it SUPER easy to opt out of different types of messages. I don't want to see tour dates from The Motion Sick, but I do want exclusive download offers. No problem. Have options for a ton of different message types. Allow bands to create their own custom types of updates. Don't allow global opt out. If you want to opt out globally from all band messages, close your account loserface.
...and steal the best other features from everyone else:
6. Myspace, take a look at Reverbnation and other sites for much better content for profiles. Let bloggers embed widgets of Myspace players with buy links, mailing list subscription forms, etc. Bands will love this. Users will love this. I swear to you. They all will.
7. Create a contest system like Ourstage. Let fans vote for songs. Let fans vote for openers for the next KISS tour...well, maybe for a better band, but you know what I mean.
8. I want to listen to Myspace radio with an automatic recommendation system like Last.FM or Pandora. Allow people to buy placement like Jango. Hire The Echo Nest to help with this please. They are innovating way beyond everyone else.
9. Repeat this with lots of other existing sites, features, and ideas, but the foundation is really e-mail. The rest is icing.
I promise this will all work. Myspace, if you do this and it fails, you can take back the million dollars. The one key thing you need to do is to stop being such crybabies about the messaging system. That is why you started to fail. That is Facebook's biggest weakness. If you're worried about spam, hire a lot of people to police spam. Maybe the majority of your staff should be spam police...no joke. You can aggressively block spam while still offering features. Blocking features to prevent spam is the game of fools. Thus far, Myspace and Facebook have proven to be foolish when it comes to working with bands. If you don't want to do this, I hope you fail as soon as possible because I am sick of the daily press releases unveiling innovative new features like a brand new purple stripe on the side of band pages.
are a band named after a book...and a damn fine one at that.
