Can’t make it to the release concert this Sunday at Conflikt? They have quite reasonable single-day event passes, by the way – not sure I’ve mentioned that. But! If you can’t, they’re livestreaming a lot of the convention on fansupported.tv, and if it’s at all like last year, it’ll mostly be main stage events. Which includes us.

So, yeah! Give it a peek, eh? We should start at 2pm Eastern on Sunday. There will be other concerts too so you can watch them as well. ^_^

Anna posted photos of her contributor’s copy of the CD today. The first contributor copies are going out and this really is your last chance to get a pre-order of Bone Walker, the CD – at this point it’s really closer to just an “order” – and have a chance at owning the test disc, too. 😀

Long show rehearsal today. Very productive. We have a mini-rehearsal on Thursday and then one at the event and then it’s showtime on Sunday at 2pm! Come see us on Sunday! It doesn’t conflict with the Superbowl, you can do both!

Everything is starting to come together for the CD Release Show at Conflikt; we have a big bloody lot of musicians to try to pull this thing off live, which is a good thing, because we’ll need ’em! The performance lineup:

• Me, of course. Mandolin, Irish bouzouki, vocals, bodhran
• Alexander James Adams – drums, vocals, fiddle
• Jeri Lynn Cornish – cello, bones, backing vocals
• SJ Tucker – bass guitar
• Angela Korra’ti – flute, readings
• Leannan Sidhe – vocals
• Betsy Tinney – bodhran
• Paul Campbell – hammer dulcimer
• Skellington – fiddle, backing vocals

The sharper-eyed amongst you may note that we have all of Tricky Pixie in our band for this show. And that none of them are playing their usual roles, except for Alec, who is throwing in the same fiddle work he did on the album. I think this is hilarious and I hope you can come see it. It’s Sunday at Conflikt. (They have a show the weekend after us, and you should go see it, too.)

Also, I just finished the first draft of the print edition of Bone Walker, the novel. I’ve already found a couple of things to fix, but it’s close. STAY ON TARGET

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: We will be having the official release event for Bone Walker: The Free Court of Seattle Original Soundtrack Album at Conflikt 2015 in Sea-Tac, just south of Seattle, Washington. It will also be the release event for book two in the Free Court novel series, also called Bone Walker.

This is going to be a full-band event, with readings, details of all of which will be forthcoming once everything’s nailed down. Certain key guest players from the album will be joining us on stage, and it’s going to be awesome.

Otherwise, sorry I’ve been a bit quiet, things are happening. More to come soon. Lots more, I hope. 😀

Off to VCON today! And it’s also Canvention, the Canadian national convention. Aurora Awards will be given out, and I WILL DRINK CIDER AND FROLIC IN MAPLE SYRUP WITH THE BEAVERS wait that’s not right OR IS IT?

I look forward to this con every year. Despite that, I’m kind of “nnngngh album so close to finished don’t want to leave the studio!” but yeah screw that, it’s VCON!

I’ve also been asked to join up at the last second for some programming, so a thing will happen, but I’m not exactly sure what. But something. I know a sing-along is involved.

You coming? Well, good! You should be. See you at the hotel!

If you do, send it to me now. Also if you want to do panels, same thing. We have some early deadlines this year (because reasons) and I haven’t been as out there about it as I should’ve been also because reasons including not having a day off since PAX, and before that, you have about four more weeks since the last one. So, yeah.

Send ’em in today! Now, preferably. You don’t need a complete proposal, just your elevator pitch will do for now.

It’s a pedal that’s an effects switch-in box, but it’s also just an A/B switch, so you can just switch between two devices. The two top plugs are from my zouk and mandolin, the output is to the recorder, I can pick which I’m recording. We’re doing this so we can record tomorrow’s show (6pm, The Dreaming, 5226 University Way, Seattle) with separate tracks for all instruments.

Note the extra cable sticking out the right side, which is connected to nothing. It’s there because the box won’t work without something being plugged in there. It doesn’t use anything that’s plugged in there; it just won’t work unless something is.

So I plugged in a signal-reduction cable. If we’re gonna have basically a noise antenna plugged in on stage to make this dumbass pedal work, I’m by gods gonna use a noise reducing noise antenna.

Honestly some days I don’t even know. This isn’t as bad as the USB-cable-to-nowhere I’ve got in the server room to make the KVM switch work, but it’s close. At least that cable plugs into something on both ends.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada just made it easier to book gigs – the work-permit requirement to perform anywhere serving food and drinks as a major part of their business model has been removed! Well, mostly – you can’t work anywhere on an ongoing basis without a work permit, and that includes bars and restaurants. But still!

This is a big deal for some of us. Everyone else, carry on as usual.

We have a joint show this weekend! It’s at The Dreaming in Seattle, two sets, some Supervillain music, some Leannan Sidhe music, a few covers, it’ll be fun and awesome. Here’s the Facebook event page for the show.

Print resolution version of the poster (which is jointly by Shanti and me) here, if you want to, oh, print things and post them places and stuff. That would be awesome.

I may have stolen the circles in the poster design from another music graphic of the past. One hint: the reddish one should be blue if you want a more obvious match. You get a zillion music geek points if you can figure out the source. 😀

Vocals recording today! Possibly mine, certainly Shanti of Leannan Sidhe, who is guesting in chorus on one song and has a co-starring role in another.

Plus we have some more Awesomebombs dropping in from afar via Dropbox from Collaborator To Be Named Soon, No Really, Somebody You’ve Heard Of. Well, most of you. hee hee hee hee hee 😀

It’s really good to be getting back to proper music work. I’ve been doing mostly kitchen renovation/restoration/kind of a mix for weeks. Here, have some pictures from the most recent work. There’re a couple of “before” shots in there too, so you can get some idea of how far it’s come since the first of the month. And the end is in sight. That’s pretty important at this point. Yeah.

Oh! And and and! A new gig announcement – I’ll be playing a joint show with Leannan Sidhe at The Dreaming in the University District on August 23rd. I don’t have the time yet but it’ll be on the shows page as soon as I do. It’ll be a free show and it’s on a Saturday and it’s a comic book store so c’mon out! SUPERVILLAINY!

I may have to hold the store hostage. That may have to be a thing. I’m just saying. 😀