I’m tired and hoarse but today was a good fuckin’ day. Talked to more people than I can count, ran out of everything except CDs, sold more than expected of those…! o/

I mean seriously, the whole weekend was like that. I performed solo, then got to play with Anna, got a much better Folklife crowd reaction than I expected (seriously: I’m out of everything except CDs – even personal cards), we got great weather, and on Monday I got surprise! backup musicians! Jeri and Jeff who just happened to come by and sat in a little on percussion and backing vocals (so awesome XD ). Plus Anna and I saw Source Code (finally!), and I got Official! Performer! Status! and Certifying! Button! which got me into the green room!

But mostly? I got four days of performing at a huge honkin’ music festival. Let me tell you: that is how to spend a god damned weekend. o/

ACTION HAIR PHOTO provided by Angela Korra’ti XD

Hey guys, I’m goin’ to Folklife! I’m going to street perform as weather permits, so say hi if you see me! Saturday or Sunday will probably be attend-as-attendee day, but Anna and I may streetplay together on Sunday – it’s all weather-permitting and all that.

So I’ve got this bit I do on stage that involves lighting a candle and doing it with a lighter kind of sucked, but ordinary matchbooks also kind of suck, so I’ve been looking for a now-uncommon piece of jewellery called a matchbox holder. And I finally found one – probably about 40 years old, estate sale, all that. I had to make a matchbox, drawer, and strike plate for it, since it’s for a rather oldskool matchbox size.

Also since it had a frame on the front I added some Kigo fan art. XD Here:

Have a good festival, Cascadians! And I understand Americans have some holiday this weekend too, so have fun with whatever that is too! XD

There’s no vinyl version of Dick Tracy Must Die, but if it existed, the mailer would probably look like this:

Actually a multi-CD mailing, packaged flat

I have a motley assortment of old media blanks lying about (cassette, minidisc) but no way to make a vinyl LP. Or an Edison cylinder, for that matter. But I think about it. XD

GIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Friday, July 8th, at Cafe Venus/The Mars Bar, 609 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, Washington, Cascadia. Shows start at 9pm! It’ll be a three-band set. More details to come as I have them, I confirmed a little while ago. W00t!

The biggest thing on my mind right now is that I need a booking agent. I’m terrible at that. I’m also terrible at publicity. Having signed with Two Side Moon to handle that in the UK is a really big deal for me and a huge relief – we’ve been throwing data and samples back and forth at each other all week, and I’m really enjoying letting someone else do the actual publicity part.

Hey, musicians in Cascadia, any of you got recommendations? I wanna outsource this!

In toy news, dw:technoshaman pointed me at a pickpuncher that lets you punch your own picks out of plastic. I’ve made picks out of random bits of plastic before, using scissors, but I’m pretty sure that if I forgot all my picks somehow, I wouldn’t remember the pickpuncher! XD But if you’re a big enough DIYer and can find the plastic you want, here’s the tool you need! Enjoy:

CRIME and the Forces of Evil are excited to announce that we have accepted Welsh company Two Side Moon Promotions’ offer of representation in the United Kingdom!

TSM’s Nicky Baldrian approached me after hearing tracks from Dick Tracy Must Die, sending an offer letter shortly after my interview on transmissionfm 88.3 Auckland. After some discussion, we have signed papers.

Needless to say, this is very exciting! TSM mostly works with metal and rock acts, so elfmetal may be a little outre, but it’s not in a different universe. He’ll be working to get more reviews, possible radio play, and so on. They won’t be handling bookings – TSM isn’t a booking agency at all – but it’d be awesome if it led to that sort of thing. Plus, more listeners!

Maybe someday I’ll get to say HELLO, LONDON! for reals! That would be epic. o/

PS: Don’t forget the track art project! Do you do visual art? Click the link!

So remember when I went EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE RADIO INTERVIEW! last month? The station manager was kind enough to send me the audio! Thanks again to transmissionfm 88.3 Auckland, host Delores La Picho of Is This the Future?, and Daphne Lawless of the darkwave band Vostok Lake for hooking me up. I had a great time, thanks for having me on!

New Trad o’ th’ Month!

For years I’ve had a Republic of Cascadia world that I’ve built and have been using for Norwescon and NASFiC and some of my art and other creative efforts. If you don’t know about it already, it’s a long story, but the Republic broke off from the United States and Canada during the Crisis of ’73, and never looked back.

This song, a variation on “Loch Lomond,” came out of the War for Cascadian Independence – specifically, a rather dirty part of the fight involving Americans from the Idaho side of the border, and Unionist minority from the dry side of Cascadia, and it came during a point when things were looking quite bad for the fledgling Republic.

Enjoy.

I’m working on a new Trad o’ th’ Month on Tuesday. I’m not sayin’ what it is, but you’ll see a post about it soon enough. This’ll be a fun one-day recording. Anna calls it the first version of this song she’s heard that she’d call “rockin’,” which makes me inordinately happy. NO IT’S NOT DANNY BOY don’t step to me ’cause I’ll do it. AGAIN. XD

I forgot to mention in the note about the track art contest (and I hope you’ll enter!): Bandcamp likes it better if the art is square. I can make it effectively square by adding white letterboxing, and will if needed, but if you don’t want that you’ll want to design for square.

All for now. Bedtime for crazy elves! Then: RECORDINGS! YAY!

Show Friday! 6pm(ish), Green Bean, Greenwood, Seattle. C’mon out if you can! I still don’t know whether there’s an act opening for me or whether I just have a realllllly long set. If the latter, I’m ready, I’ll take it! MOAR STAGE FOR ME! XD

And if you’re on LJ, you already saw this:

First CD to a Cascadian radio station

KEXP should have received this today. Hopefully they’ll decide to play something from it!

PS: Portal2 does not disappoint. Just sayin’.