Oh Dear. Time.
I just noticed that the last update here was in April of 2011. There’s been lots of Facebook and Twitter since then, but precious little here in blogland. I’m never sure what the protocol is for online blurbing – there’s too many places to post and not enough hours in the day to maintain them all. So no promises this time. I intend to write more long form pieces in the future, but I’m also well aware of my tendency to drift from my intentions…
I’ll be playing a lot of solo shows this year. After all the band touring last year (70 Toad shows in 2012) it’s nice to have some simple days driving around in the compact car with J Kingham – mellow and simple.
And so on. And on. And on.
Sampler is free again.
The sampler that used to be free and then cost a couple bucks but nobody downloaded it any more because it wasn’t free is free again. Enjoy! For free!
Of course, I still highly recommend buying the music you listen to. We music folk work hard, and it costs money to make records. If you’re not hearing songs in movies, on tv or in ads (and you aren’t, in my case), then there’s nobody footing the bill but people like yourself. Just a friendly (and more than slightly passive-aggressive) reminder.
I write this in a van, heading from Tallahassee to Orlando. It’s a pretty much perfect day, at least where we are. It’s all about perspective. And weather. And the pleasant lack of alien invasion or giant monster attacks.
I’m extremely excited about the upcoming shows in Hawaii. Whee. Whoop. Zowie. See? Pure unbridled exuberance, leaping out of the screen and into your tired eyes. Stings, doesn’t it? All the same: Hawaii. Yes!
A little update
Somebody just emailed me, noticing that I’d been remiss in my update duties. I’m still not very good at juggling all these various portals for blurbage. What’s twittery, what’s facebookish, what’s bloggable? What ideas are small enough to fit into all three? I for one don’t know.
Anyway: The end of the year was lovely. Lots and lots of much needed time at home. Nearly three months, which I think is a record in the last 5 or so years. Home is good. Very good.
In that time, Toad got together and whipped out a quick re-record of our greatest hits. There’s a few reasons for this:
- This way, we can own the recordings for licensing purposes.
- A few of the songs were updated, with expanded arrangements or slightly faster tempos that better match how we play them live.
- We can make a little record (called All You Want) and bring it to shows to share with the people.
- We were able to remix the songs with just a little more of a modern flavor. Not totally hyped up, but with a little less reverb and (we hope) a little more punch.
- It was really fun, and a good challenge.
So…what else? Solo shows coming up. Lots of writing to do. Then lots more writing to do. Then some more touring. More writing. More touring. Then maybe some recording. You know the drill.
Share and enjoy…
.net is now .com. kinda.
Hi. Just switched servers and moved everything to a new site. Hope you enjoy. I’ll try and make a prettier header at some point…
More to come. Probably.
Good parenting moments
Theraputic Bunnies
Cute animal vids are my antidepressant of choice. They make everything better.
Hi.
I’ve been off tour for a little while now, getting to see my wife and kids and friends and generally have a quiet, semi-normal life. I like it. Cooking new foods (okonomiyaki was the latest adventure), hiking in the hills, running, breaking out the paddleboard when it’s warm enough. Doing laundry.
My creative efforts have been split between producing a few songs for my friend Cory Sipper, co-writing with some new artists, composing a few spec pieces for tv, and making the first stabs at songs for a new (already overdue) solo record.
End of the Year
What a strange 365 days it’s been. Lots of touring, lots of music, not quite enough hometime. News headlines strange enough to make me check twice to make sure I’m not reading the Onion. Seen lots of some friends, nowhere near enough of others. Procrastinated about a moldy wall, organizing receipts, cleaning closets and dogs, painting rooms, repairing gadgets, selling spare gear, getting some kind of plan for the future. Hope for positive change, despair at the continuing ascendence of fear and pettiness. Increased faith in the goodness of individuals, decreased faith in our ability to move back from corporatocracy to democracy. Delight in many small miracles including but not limited to yeast, living soil, the digestive system, caramelized onions, infinite multiverses, the human mind, the coffee bean, the power of human creativity, laughter, soap. Hoping that I will be able to act from my clearest, most intelligent, most compassionate self more often in the new year. Hoping that whoever I’m speaking to right now does the same. It’s felt like a fallow time. Here’s to the hope of seedlings well tended in 2010.
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