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4 July 2008 - Happy, happy summer ... Just got back from a week of recording in St Paul and I'm super excited with what we've done so far.  We have the bulk of instrumentation done for about ten songs - a few more songs to go, and then we'll record vocals.  Jeremy (Ylvisaker) and I are a duo for this one, and like he always has for any recording I've worked with him on, he's found some great people to work with on this one.  Let me tell you about this cast of characters... JT Bates has been over to play drums.  He's a cool, amiable guy who plays in several Minneapolis bands - Fat Kid Wednesdays and Carbon Carousel are two that come to mind immediately.  He also drums for A Prairie Home Companion.  Micheal Larsen is engineering -  he's also known as Eyedea (of Eyedea And Abilities) and is in Carbon Carousel with Jeremy and JT.   And interesting to Atmosphere fans perhaps is that Mikey used to emcee in Atmosphere.  Doing vocals with Mikey is going to be a challenge because he's always making me laugh - some of these songs are kind of somber, and giddy vocals probably aren't going to work(?). And Jeremy's been a good friend for many years - he played most of the instruments on my last CD and is one of the most talented people I know.  He suggested doing this recording a few months ago, and I have to snatch him up before Andrew Bird (who he plays guitar and bass for) and other cool people steal his skills away from me...!  Mike Lewis, also from Fat Kid Wednesdays and from Happy Apple is coming by next time to play upright bass and maybe clarinet -  he, too, is a tres talented guy.   All in all, nine or ten hour days in a studio are more fun than work when you're surrounded by funny and talented gentlemen.  The recording in its still unfinished state is pretty varied - there will be a bit of the swanky-ness of the Christmas CD (Yuletide Swank) I did with my old band a few years back, but overall it has an 'indie Christmas' vibe, if there is such a thing.  Jeremy was hearing some Radiohead and Velvet Underground in some of the songs so far, and I'm hearing Feist and Julie London.  Merry Christmas way too early, and have a lovely summer - bye! Yuletide Swank Happy Apple Eyeda A Prairie Home Companion Atmosphere Andrew Bird Carbon Carousel
The first day of spring... and lots of things going on. I’m going to be recording a CD of Christmas songs with my friend Jeremy Ylvisaker this spring/summer, and we’re in the process of choosing songs and doing some pre-production for it. A while ago, we were talking about doing a collaboration of original tunes, but the mood hit us both to do a Christmas CD first, so that’s the current plan. I have some upcoming video projects with Blame Society Productions, and Jeremy’s busy touring wiht Andrew Bird and his own band Alpha Consumer, so much of the recording is going to be done long distance (him being in Minneapolis and me being in Madison). But we’ll take more time in the summer for actual studio time. In the meantime, I’ve been working with Blame Society in producing a series of short comedy videos for Turner Network’s website, Super Deluxe. You can watch the videos on Blame Society’s Super Deluxe page here. I did the usual behind the scenes-type producing for these, and also appeared in two of them. Happy Spring - more news soon!
19 November 2007 - Happy Holidays a bit early...! I'll be doing a Christmas show with Arena Venus on Thursday, December 20 at The Brink Lounge in Madison, Wisconsin. The show starts at 8pm, and we'll be doing songs from our Christmas CD Yuletide Swank. Rebound Jazz will be closing the night with some 1940s style jazz. And I should mention that if you know someone who likes Christmas music, I've been told that Yuletide Swank makes a good gift (or stocking stuffer!). It's available at Amazon, at CD Baby, directly from Maypole Records, and at these fine stores. There aren't too many left, and I'm not sure if we'll be re-ordering. Check out the video of I'd Like You For Christmas (from Yuletide Swank) here. Happy Yuletide!
19 September 2007 - Autumn is upon us (I love autumn!), and there are lots of things going on... I just returned from Toronto, where I (with Blame Society Productions) was a guest at Fan Expo Canada. We were honored to be invited by the Expo, and we had a great time meeting fans of the 'Chad Vader' series. Our Chad Vader signing booth was next to several Star Wars and Star Trek actors' booths, and being a bit of a 'Star Wars geek,' I was especially excited to meet and spend time with David Prowse ('Darth Vader' in the original trilogy), Temuera Morrison, Daniel Logan (Jango Fett and Boba Fett, respectively), and Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker in Episode 1). We hope to start work on Chad Vader season 2 later this fall... I should mention that Chad Vader won the George Lucas Selects Award a few months ago, too. I'll also be doing some live shows over the holidays. Arena Venus (my former band) is getting together for a few Christmas shows this year - it's been a while since I've done a live show, and I'm excited. Not sure if we'll only do holiday tunes from our Yuletide Swank CD or if we'll throw some of our other songs in as well... I'll do another update when we make these very important decisions(!). Enjoy this lovely season - autumn flies by too quickly...!
15 July 2007 - Springtime... Summer's flying by, yes? So a bit of summertime news... the newest issue of The Big Takeover features a cool review of my music - check it out next time you're at Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc. It's Issue 60, with The Shins on the cover. In late August, I'll be appearing at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, for my role as producer of the Chad Vader series - it looks like it's going to be an exciting weekend, with over 50,000 attendees. Other guests include Hayden Christensen (Star Wars), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Sean Astin (Lord Of The Rings), Hayden Panettiere (Heroes), Adam West (Batman), and lots of other movie and television actors. If you happen to be attending, stop by our "Chad" area and say hi!
15 May 2007 - Springtime... May is my favorite month, so much so that I had to name my record label after it... We wrapped up season one of "Chad Vader" this month. Episode 8 just went online last week and can be viewed here. And I got to do some singing in it! I've also been writing songs for a new CD which I plan on recording later this year. The video for one of the Violet Night songs I mentioned earlier is still a work in progress - it involves changing seasons, so it may not be finished until October, when leaves start changing color. This is turning out to be the longest making of a video ever - for a 3 minute song! More news soon, and in the meantime, Happy Spring!
05 February 2007 - Special thanks to Chris Jorgensen of the Billings Gazette in Billings, Montana for his review of Violet Night. This is my first comparison to Hank Williams Sr.! Read it here. Also, check out the in-depth feature on Chad Vader by Kenneth Burns of Isthmus. He interviewed crew and cast, and I had a nice interview with Kenneth in which we talked about some of the crazy fan mail, among other things...
05 January 2007 - Happy New Year! If you happen to subscribe to Magnet Magazine, you may have heard my song Don't Forget on the CD sampler. You can find Magnet in Barnes and Noble, Borders, and other similar stores. I've been putting off a video for the song because I've been knee-deep in all sorts of other things(!), but hopefully that will happen soon. In the meantime, check out all the bright colors that webmistress tona added to my website a few weeks ago. More soon!
06 October 2006 - Hi! It's about time that I write a few lines. I spent most of the summer working with Blame Society Productions on a film series called Chad Vader (watch for it on Good Morning America on October 11!). Music has taken a backseat for just a bit... But the song "So In Love" from my CD was featured in Chad Vader episode 4, and I'll also be on an upcoming Christmas compilation to benefit the Madison Area Music Awards. Hopefully a video for Don't Forget will be done soon to coincide with the Magnet Magazine end-or-year issue that I'll be in. Happy Halloween!
15 July 2006 - I've started my own record label called Maypole Records. Props to Michael Kerwin at Nuclearview Design for the lovely artwork and logo. By the end of the summer, I hope to have a video done for one of the songs from Violet Night. I'll also be in Magnet magazine's fall issue. A few more things coming up this fall, but I'll post those a bit later on. Enjoy the summer...
27 April 2006 - New reviews of my CD ar in this week's Isthmus and this month's Rick's Cafe. Many thanks to Rick TVedt adn Tom Laskin for taking the time to review Violet Night...
24 February 2006 - Hi. Anna Maria Stjornell of Sweden's Luna Kafe and Collected Sounds was kind enough to review my CD...
15 December 2005 - So my CD is finally finished! It's called Violet Night, and you can listen to some of the songe by clicking here...
19 September 2005 - Hi! Skipping Discs, a record company in Massachusetts, is releasing a tribute album to the 1960's band The Turtles, titled 'Shells: Women Artists and Female-Fronted Bands Cover for the Turtles.' Skipping Discs has released some really cool compilations in the past (tributes to David Bowie and Joe Jackson, to name a few), When I found out about...
27 June 2005 - This album that I mentioned earlier is almost half-finished! We've assembled a studio band, which consists of my uber-talented friends Jeremy and Andy, a fabulous drummer named Brett who Jeremy recruited...
1 May 2005 - Hi! Welcome to my brand new place in cyberspace... Arena Venus and Voltress are still keeping me busy, but there are some other musical things I've been wanting to do. After 'Yuletide Swank' (The Arena Venus Christmas CD) was released, people kept asking for...

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