So, if you’re like me, you still have gifts to buy. And while I hope some of you will buy something from me as gifts, I could use some suggestions. And I imagine some of you could, too!

A lot of you are indie artists or crafters or musicians, or have independent artists, crafters, or musicians you like. RECOMMEND THEM HERE! Or, if you’re the maker, link to your own stuff!

Click through and leave recommendations and suggestions in comments on the main band blog, please, so they’re all in the same place and easier to find. ^_^ Recommend away!

I had a hose clamp left over from another project, so came up with a new DIY pop filter design, and now I’ve made a howto video for it:

For those who don’t know, sounds like P and B and D are called “plosives,” and include a rush forward of air that shows up in recordings as kind of a low-frequency thunk. You can go buy a nice pop filter – which is basically just nylon stocking on a hoop – or you can make one yourself.

The difficult part tends to be attaching them to things so they stay in place. This one fits into a standard mic clip, which means no secondary noise transmission, and no futzing around with velco or whatever. Pop it into the clip, position it, and you’re done.

I’ve done some studio experiments with this new design, and it is dramatically better than my old version. I threw some intentionally super-severe popping of plosive sounds at it today (P-P-P-POW, P-P-P-POW, really punching those Ps as hard as I could), and where the old filter could only reduce them, this new design stopped three out of four outright. Under realistic conditions, it stopped everything. AND: it’s otherwise sonically transparent, so far.

So if you know anybody building their own equipment, well, here y’go, have a design. ^_^

I had to upload the last few videos at standard definition instead of HD. I have no idea why, they’re HD resolution on my machine, but the web interface insisted. Still, they’re up!

I’ve got enough videos up there for an entire set at this point. :D

I’m making a new, nicer pop filter for my studio mic mostly because working with the coathanger one is kind of annoying. So of course I’m making a DIY video of the process. I didn’t start out making a video, but realised after the first round of gluing that I should. That’ll be up in a day or two.

(Assuming I fight off whatever this is. I feel like six kinds of ass today. Blick.)

Boost this musician! Second-disc shipping is free right now on Bandcamp, and multi-disc orders are discounted 30% on CD Baby. Or download Cracksman Betty or Espionage and burn them to CDs as stocking-stuffer gifts!

Okay, yeah, definitely time for more meds. I hope this is just a 24-hour thing, because I feel like I’ve been hit by a car, and having been hit by a car, I know what I’m talking about. G’night!

I’ve been on a video-uploading rampage. I’m currently trying to upload even more (“Shout at the Desert,” specifically) but YouTube is balking. Hopefully it’ll be up by the time you read this; check out the channel:

CRIME and the Forces of Evil YouTube Channel

Most have more stage banter than this one does. I really want to give venue managers a better look at what I do right now.

So hopefully this is a pretty good look. Some of you have been to at least one of these shows – what do you think?

PS: Wednesday’s post was a bit TL;DR, but support your artists and musicians, directly. It’s the opposite of the we-own-your-stuff-forever system.

Self-promotion is the downside of trying to be an independent musician. I don’t have VH-1, I don’t have VEVO, I don’t have Billboard Magazine, I don’t have radio stations, I don’t have record stores.

I have you guys, and I have my website. And the website is useless without you guys. You who like the album, who think it’s worth hearing, who think its themes are relevant and interesting?

You’re the ones who make this work, or not.

I need ears. Am I in this for the money? That’s hilarious. I want to make a living at this, of course, but I’d make literally orders of magnitude more money consulting part-time. And it’d be less work.

But this is my art. And what I really want is for my music to find its listeners.

So I’m asking you to help.

• Order a copy, play it for people. Order the studio album as a gift, if you have a copy already. I have free shipping on second/third/fourth CDs on Bandcamp. On CD Baby, second/third/fourth copies are discounted by $3 each.

• If you like Cracksman Betty or Espionage, the free/pay-what-you-want albums, download and burn them for someone else as a stocking-stuffer.
   
• Just tell people. Like the band page on Facebook, point people at Bandcamp, leave a review or just Like the album on on Amazon or iTunes Music Store, or on your own blog or Livejournal or Facebook or Google+ page.

I may joke about buying in to the whole Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday noise – and I do, believe me – but it really does matter. I care about my art, and I want it to be heard. There are endless numbers of good reasons to slam the record companies – and I do – but what you cannot deny is their ability to promote. They can sell anything, and do.

And then take all your money and leave you bankrupt. That’s the downside. Their way sucks.

Some of us – more and more of us – are trying to find other ways. I’m patterning after people like Marian Call, Leannan Sidhe, SJ Tucker, Ultraklystron, Rai Kamishiro, dozens if not hundreds of others. We’re all indie musicians, doing exactly the opposite of the Big Record Label Model. We’re relying on your ability, and willingness, to share what you like, rather than screwing you down as tightly as possible to their ideas about how they should own everything you hear and see.

It’s their way, vs. your ability to share. I don’t want their way. I want yours. That’s why there’s no DRM on any of my work.

So support your artists – musical, visual, whatever – directly, whoever they are. Not just through money, tho’ that’s good, but through sharing stuff, and through talking about what you like.

Including, I hope, me. Thank you.

---

PS: I’ve been going through the video and audio from the show on the 18th. I’ll be dropping at least one of those on the YouTube channel by the end of the week. Keep an eye out.

AND HERE’S THE PITCH:

Hey, it’s Cyber Monday! I’ve got second-CD-shipping set to free, globally, on the band sales site, and second CDs are 20% off on CD Baby! Supervillain music: not only does it make a great present, but the locator chip in the jewel case tells us where not to aim the heat ray! GIVE THE GIFT OF NOT BEING SET ON FIRE! :D

And now that’s out of the way…

I think I’m finally getting ahead of this learning curve.

I’m gonna put a couple of live videos on youtube, from the last stop on this past tour. I’m not sure what songs yet, I’m still narrowing that down. (Got any requests? Let me know.)

The deciding factor for what goes up will be video quality. It’s not how good the sound is, how good my mic discipline was, or even the performances, because really, that’s all just fine. It’s the video part.

And that’s new, and awesome. It’s taken a lot of work for all the many-more-things-than-you-know that go into a live amped and recorded show to come together this way. A year ago, I’d maybe get one live recording from a show that I’d've been okay to have public. “Something’s Coming,” on Dick Tracy Must Die, was recorded live at the Lyon’s Den, for example.

But most of them would’ve had one problem or another. Pops in the microphone. Some stupid fade. The minidisc player failing. Bad levels. The sound guy feeding my recorder the reverb effects return by accident, so all I had was reverb and not the actual music^*.

Or voice problems! Singing isn’t my core talent, and I am leagues ahead of where I started, and ahead of last year. Getting good vocals was the hardest performance part of the studio album, by far; it took dozens of takes. Now, lately, I can pop off that level of performance without even thinking about it^**.

Things like that. Live recording is hard work. So many things can and do go wrong.

But this year, this tour, and particularly, this last show, the first one where I have complete video? There’s also not a goddamn thing on this latest recording I wouldn’t play for somebody. Hell – I sing along.

Sure, there are flaws. It’s not perfect, there are always things I’d like to do better, particularly in vocals. And I need to patch together some way of getting genuinely separate vocal and instrument recordings, so I can do better equalisation and have better post-show mixes.

But this tour really was a level-up experience. Between the Spooky Action show, the guest spot with Leannan Sidhe that got me my own separate two-song encore^***, the set I’m least happy with – the Sidhehaven show – being called “wonderful” on Facebook, and this?

I’m starting to think I might just be gettin’ the hang of this thing. I really do.

I like that. I like it a lot.

Stick around, why don’t you? This trip’s starting to get interesting.

---

^*: YES THIS HAPPENED.
^**: I’ve got something I want to release for you guys SO MUCH but I’m still waiting for permission. SO. MUCH. First take, one take, true live recording (no separate vocals/instrument recording), BOOM and done. But it’s a cover, so release must wait.
^***: and thanks so much again to them for putting up with that! <3 XD

Happy Small Business Saturday! Pick a business or artist you would miss if they were gone, and drop a buck or two on them. We rely on you.

(Stolen from Marian Call, over on Twitter, whose music you should check out sometime.)

…of Second Thanksgiving, what am I grateful for?

The obvious things, of course – my partner Anna, the ability to plot my way through the financial and political crises of the day, the friends I have, all those things that matter to everyone. They matter to me, too.

But more, I’m thankful for the opportunity and ability to at least try to execute my art. I’ve fought hard for this – both for opportunity and ability – in ways most of you will never know, and really, don’t want to know. I don’t have many fans yet (and I love you, fans I have!) and I may never succeed the way I want or be able to make a living wage at it…

…but I can legitimately try.

Getting to that point has been a monumental battle, physical and emotional, of many phases and many years. And I have attained at least that much, at long last.

And for that, and for this opportunity, I am profoundly grateful.

I wasn’t going to post today, because HI SECOND THANKSGIVING HI HOUSECLEANING O SHIT HI HOUSECLEANING THERE CERTAINLY IS A LOT OF YOU ISN’T THERE XD but this is a pretty good six-input USB 2.0 audio interface that I suspect they’re discontinuing in favour of a USB 3.0 version. The Windows drivers apparently kinda blow donkeys if you care about that, but it’s also a USB 2.0 class-compliant audio interface (say the specs), so, sure, whatever. For $92 vs. street of $250? That’s pretty good.

YES I’VE ORDERED ONE don’t judge me and my impulse buying. (No, I didn’t get a kickback. Dammit.)

Talking of kickbacks, it’s HOLIDAY SEASON! TIME TO SHILL MY STUFF!

But! Music makes a great gift! And I need to pay for that audio interface! And I just set free shipping on second-third-fourth-etc copies of the physical full-band studio-recorded album, Dick Tracy Must Die! Order 10 physical CDs, get free shipping on nine! SUCH A BARGAIN!

Plus I’ll throw in magnets of evil (HOW DO THEY WORK?!) while supplies last. Then I’ll probably make some more, people seem to like them.

Wow, I’m bad at marketing. I hate this part, and I’m so totally bad at it. I’d rather play my bouzouki and chat people up after the show. XD

Do any of you guys sell your art? How do you handle the “sales” part?

First house tour is a wrap! Friday night I played my last show of this first set, out on Bainbridge Island, at Ann Lovejoy’s house, arranged by her son, Peter, and hosted by both.

And their cat

Every show this tour has been a great time and every one has had its own separate highlight – guesting with Leannan Sidhe and drawing a two-show encore, being all creepy and shit at Spooky Action at a Distance, enjoying the hospitality of the first official House Concert qua House Concert at Sidhehaven.

Bainbridge Island, tho’ – this one got a public review. Check this shit out:

Last night, Solarbird came over and did a House Concert out here, and totally rocked the house. And I mean rocked. It took me a long time to come down enough to drift off to sleep, with Stars still running through my head, and I’m still bouncing from it this morning… this was kind of in the same ballpark as having Lemmy or someone show up and do a set in the living room. It was awesome.

That kind of explodes my brain – with AWESOME! :D Thank you again, Peter and Ann, and I’m so happy that I did not disappoint. And thanks again to everybody, really; this was all new to me and I thank all of you for taking a chance on this.

I’m still in a bit of a daze, putting things back together and looking over video and inventorying what worked and what didn’t, working on my repair/new equipment checklist and and and that’s not important, I want to do this again! Now! Or in February, which seems reasonably possible. Anybody willing to host and invite people? Pleeeeease?

I’ve also been told that I should do conventions – anybody have an in, anywhere? Let me on a stage, I’ll play it. :D

I’ll probably be too busy to post on Wednesday because of Second Thanksgiving. But maybe not, we’ll see. I still haven’t had time to pull the audio off the recorder yet, even! And next week is allll shopping and cooking. But here:

Finally, have some photos:

Bye, Seattle!

I love ferries <3

Hi, Winslow

Hi, Boats!

Have a good week!