cover of GN’R’s “Patience” (MP3)

I JUST finished uploading all of my proper releases into Bandcamp. By “proper” releases, I mean the ones I ever made a physical object for, so Tenille, the Low Hello EP, and How Does It Know?. I am not sure still if I will put up the rest of the tracks from this site there, but if I do, I will likely just cram them all into one “release” called Part Time Songs or something. But anyway, take a look. I’ve put How Does It Know? up as a for-pay album, and the rest is free. I need to figure out how to link my actual merchandise (12″ 45 rpm record) with a purchase of the EP up there, but it seems straightforward.

http://sawani.bandcamp.com/

We also put up the A Lady Never Tells Bandcamp page, too… which is here. We’ve got two songs up there so far, with more to come!

http://aladynevertells.bandcamp.com/

First up was my solo song (the second to last song on Disc 1), “These People Aren’t Your Friends, Santa (Claus)”… the other one is by a new project I’m doing with my good friend Laura. Our band is called A Lady Never Tells, and this is our INTERNET DEBUT! Our song is the first one on Disc 2, “Greyhound Bus on Christmas Day”. It’s a sad slow song, and Laura sings beautifully on it. Mine’s more of a pop number in the vein of… well, in the vein of ME.

So go check those out! http://www.suburbansprawlmusic.com/xmas/

In other news, the next song I’m doing that actually has a deadline on it is a single for It Takes A Village To Make Records’ 3-Way Singles Club… which is a really cool project Peter Richards (he’s also the guy who did the layout on my How Does It Know? record) invited me to participate in. I believe I’ll be on the February volume. So I’ve got a couple months to do that.

In other unrelated news, I found out my company is closing within a month, so I will be unemployed. Which has kind of thrown my life into a bit of a weird state, as I’ve had my job almost 8 years. It was sort of a family, a small, hard-working DIY type of software development company. I am SO sad to see it go. It’s obviously been a giant part of my life. I worked there longer than I was married. I worked there longer than a LOT of things, in fact. So I’m also going to be working on my resume and trying to sell myself to Corporate America (or maybe I’ll find another tiny gem of a company out there that’ll have me so I can avoid suits and rat races — that would be ideal). Gonna be a busy month. But with no real WORK to do at work, I should be able to fit in that songwriting by the deadline. I hope!

It’s been a pretty interesting, eventful year, whose events really had not a whole lot to do with music, and more to do with my interpersonal relationships and my job. I guess I needed that time away from songwriting to remember how much I like/missed songwriting. I’ve barely worked on anything solo lately*. Except, I AM writing again now. I’m trying to put together a good set of songs for another EP (or perhaps LP). So I think what I’m going to do is record them when I can and post the demos up here. The intention then, would be, when the writing is complete, to take the songs somewhere and record them with someone good at recording.

The link for the first one is down below at the bottom of this post… It’s a rough mix. I’m finding I’m sort of out of practice in the mixing and mastering department, which is why it seems best to collect songs and get someone good to record them. It’s called “I Don’t Wanna Build”.

The other thing is that I’m sort of thinking about transitioning away from this site, and starting to use BandCamp as my main place to post music. I am still working on uploading all my stuff, but at first I’ll put up Tenille, the Low Hello, and How Does It Know? (with perhaps an option to buy any of them). I’m still working out how I’ll post the one-offs. Probably still here. Such as the demos for this thing I talked about above.

Anyway, take a listen to the song. And check back soon, because I will definitely be posting more frequently from now on.

     I Don’t Wanna Build (DEMO)

* I HAVE been writing some songs with a good friend (that are turning out pretty amazingly), and our internet debut should be happening sometime very soon.

Hey, hey… Long time, no post… Music has been on a bit of a hiatus for a few months, but I did manage to put together something for the Suburban Sprawl Music Holiday Compilation this year. Here it is, packaged together with an instrumental song I did over the summer with my friend Melanie’s Stylophone that I was (and still am) borrowing. Fun thing, that Stylophone.

     ZIP file of all songs (ZIP, 8 MB)
     01 No, ‘11 Doesn’t Have To Be Heaven (MP3, 4.5 MB)
     02 Stylophonics Worked For Me! (MP3, 3.6 MB)

Come check us out! The record is still for sale too, so pick up a copy at the show!

I just wanted to do a brief recap of the fun times we had on our three show stint around Michigan… Thanks to everyone who came out to our shows at Berkley Front, Elbow Room and (Scene) Metrospace! They all went well and were well attended. We even sold some records! There are some photo sets and a video on the Part Time Songs Facebook page. Most of the photos were taken by my wife. Thanks Doreen!

Here’s a video of us playing “Making Predictions” taken at the Elbow Room show:

Thanks to John Krohn for making these shows happen in the first place, and then secondly, making sure the ones in places we didn’t know that many people were well attended! We played to appreciative crowds all around, and I’m very happy to have been part of such a thing. Thanks to Dan, Robb, Angela and Chris for being an excellent band and good company, and thanks to Husband and Wife for rocking out at each of the shows we played.

The record will, of course, continue to be available for purchase through Lower Peninsula Records… we MAY decide to do a couple shows here and there in the future, if we can get everyone together. We’d have to find another lead guitar player, as John lives far away from us and it’s hard to get practice time in with him. But he did say he’d set up shows for us if I wanted them, so it’s always an option.

For now, it’s back to normal life for a bit, wherein I am not entirely self-promotional all the time. I’ll keep you alerted as to any new developments. My laptop died, so I may be out of the home recording for a little while till I can get a new HD and reinstall Windows XP, but keep checking in!

Me and the band are doing three record release shows around the fine state of Michigan in support of my vinyl EP, “How Does It Know?” (which, if you haven’t yet, you can preorder here). We are really hoping they’ll be ready and in our hands by showtime.

SHOWS:
Wed, 5/19/10
Berkley Front
Berkley, MI
with Husband & Wife and Lorem Ipsum

Fri, 5/21/10
Elbow Room
Ypsilanti, MI
with Husband & Wife, Lightning Love, and Computer Perfection

Sat, 5/22/10
Scene Metrospace
East Lansing, MI
with Husband & Wife, Curtis Eller, and The Jet Rodriguez