Our net connection has been particularly wretched recently, due to Verizon/Frontier’s utter lack of willingness to maintain their hardware in our area. It’s so phenomenally bad, that we’re giving up and moving. This means prying our ancien régime Class C out of my own cold, dead hands, but it’s so bad that I don’t care anymore.

Things may be weird for a little while on the website as a result of the move. Access may be spotty. To make up for it, we’ve dropped shipping charges to zero! Shipping is now free, anywhere in the world. And of course you get the immediate download included. So now is a good time to buy that physical disc you’ve been wanting!

Plus I just bought this bitchin’ harmonics sound pedal for live shows and I’d like to pay for that. XD:

It’s mine, all mine! Muah ah ha ha!

So buy while it’s cheap, OK!

Also, if you’re on Facebook, please like the Facebook page! We need more likes on Facebook. (If you’re already reading this on Facebook; thanks!) You guys pushed us to the top of the front page on singersongwriter.com, after that last post, which is really great and hopefully will get us more iTunes hits. Thanks so much, this stuff does add up and you guys do matter. o/

(And talking of iTunes – on iPhone, we’ve got enough ratings and it shows the average – five stars, fuck yeah! But on the website and OSX, it still says MORE RATINGS NEEDED. If you get a chance, give us some stars! We need the stars. ALL OF THEM. ALLLLLLLLLL THE STARS MUST BELONG TO UUUUSSSSSSSSSSS MUWAH HA HA HA HAA! )

Um. Yeah, sorry about the maniacal laughter. That happens sometimes. Maybe it was the Heather Dale/SJ Tucker/Wendy Rule show last night. Maybe it’s the bitchin’ new babydoll band T that Heather and Ben brought all the way from Toronto for me. (<3!) (Heather, Ben, and S00j are playing again on Monday, at Soul Food Books in Redmond. Hie thee the hell over!)

Or, on the other hand, maybe I should adjust my dosage. But where’s the fun in that?

Holy crap, we made it above the fold on SingerSongwriter.com! HOW DID THAT I DON’T EVEN?! XD But you – yes, you! – help us stay there by clicking here and then clicking on “Vote” under the number in the upper left of the entry. You don’t need an account to vote! Help keep us on the front page! o/

Also, check out these awesome Folklife photos from Ruth Bacharach! I just got email, they’re awesome. XD Here’s one, but there’s more at her link:

photo by Ruth B. Bacharach

Finally, we’re having problems with our upstream IP connectivity again, so the website is a little… spotty… right now. We’ve done with this crap and are going to rebuild from the ground up, so if things are a little weird, we’re not going away. It’s because KILL ALL TELCOS. Seriously. Death by fire.

Last night Anna and I went over for dinner to Mark and John’s house – I knew Mark in high school, omg – and they’ve been clearing stuff out of family storage, including this!

It’s a lot like a Cajun accordion, but the stops are wrong and it’s in G. I think. It does work, tho’ it needs a little adjustment, and it’s stamped GERMANY USSR OCCUPIED.

What the hell is this thing? (Other than, yes, awesome, and USSR OCCUPIED.) Anybody?

Time for a Dick Tracy Must Die review roundup! If you know of any reviews I haven’t seen – and I find Google’s web tracking to be highly unreliable – please let me know!

Same for if you review it yourself! I love reviews. Any reviews, seriously, because word-of-mouth is most of what we independent musicians have. Like Seanan McGuire has said, even negative reviews are good reviews because, and I quote, “having reviews reminds people that a thing is worth reviewing.”

So all reviews are ♥, and here are three that are ♥ ♥ ♥!

Over on Amazon, people have posted two really positive reviews! It’s very exciting. ^_^

The first is from R. Piper, who says, “crime et. al. do amazing things with bouzouki, voice, lyricism, and emotion. “something’s coming” is truly scary, “”stars” is wistful-teary, when you leave” is a total song-virus, and “my boyfriend” just makes me laugh :)” Yay!

The second is from Silussa (hiya! XD ), who says, “I won’t claim that this CD sets a mood; the tone of “My Boyfriend” and of “Hide From Me” are completely opposite. However, if you want something very definitely not mainstream pablum, but rocking enough to crank down the windows and turn the radio up, then I recommend Dick Tracy Must Die.” Thanks! I hope people take your recommendation! o/

The third is over on CD Baby, one of the places you can order the physical CD. There’s a new review entitled “Metallurgical Delight,” by Paul Fergus: “I’m blown away by the growth and diversity of what is now a full fledged wild growth of gemstone artistry. I know other people are cluing in, but I still feel that nyah ha ha covetous glee of having found a true treasure at last in the adventure realm…” Dude! Thanks!

I’d love to know what iTunes listeners think, but there haven’t been enough ratings yet. Go rate it, iTunes users, pleeeeeeeeease! ^_^

That’s all for this month! Hopefully there will be more in June. The next big show is at Seattle’s Venus Lounge/Mars Bar, in July. Hope you can make it!

PS: Since I’m quoting Seanan here, I want to note that the second in her Mira Grant Newsflesh series, Deadline, just came out. I read Feed, the first book, and if you haven’t, you really should. That’s true even if you’re not particularly into zombies; it’s political thriller SF wrapped in a crunchy horror outer shell, and nicely done. One of the things I respect in an author is a willingness not to pull her punches, and she doesn’t. I’ll be reading Deadline as soon as I can get a copy.

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!