Let’s see how long this lasts.
1. We didn’t actually put together the CDs in the truck. We unbundled at a sweltering rest stop and, after berries and peanut butter, formed a loose assembly line at a picnic table.
2. When we got to the Kat Wok, the maitre d’ led us along a narrow corridor to the stained, sunken pit that serves as dance floor and stage. I thought, “This looks more like a dungeon than anywhere we’ve ever played.”
Later we had delicious pan-Asian food and watched Chris Parreira, the local folk singer who set up the show and opened for us.
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That’s one (1) CD.
All the recording is done. It’s been mixed, it’s been mastered. The art and design are done, except the label has to be revised. I picked out some cardstock options at Kelly Paper, printed some samples at Kinko’s, burned some CDs at home, and put them all together. After we all agreed on which paper to use, I sent that one off to a radio station in Bellingham whose music director said “Sure, send me your CD and I’ll give it a listen.” We’re playing there in… ten days? I don’t think he’s going to get to it, but having a goal helped me get it all together.
Now we just have to buy more paper, print more inserts, fix the label, print the labels, burn the CDs… and put them all together in Dave’s truck, on the way to our first show in Ashland, a week from tonight.
Excitement!
… is finally mixed just the way we want it. I am just jumping for the chance to get it out into other people’s hands, but first we have to get it mastered and, you know, make a bunch of copies. But still: EXCITING.
I went to see Peter Mulvey last night at Don Quixote’s. He plays the guitar and he changes the tuning a lot and while he’s tuning the guitar he talks, and sometimes he talks a lot longer than he tunes, my point is, he tells STORIES, oh, the stories he tells, funny and wise and unexpected, and last night he played for almost two hours, and in that time he told a lot of stories, and I’ve seen this guy going on dozens of times, and still, last night, of all the stories he told, there were only two I’d heard before: The one about the Jesuit priests and the Liberace scholarship (but even in that one there were new developments), and the one about Dynamite Bill.
Coming up we’ve got a three-hour show, featuring the first-ever Tin Cat Dance Party, this Thursday in Campbell; a lunchtime set at the San Gregorio General Store on May 18; and on May 23, we’re playing at the Catalyst–”congratulations,” my friend Barry said, “you’re playing at a place I’ve heard of!” So-called “friend”.
February 9, 2008 – 3:53 am
Hey, the new Vermillion Lies CD is out! Or at least they’re taking preorders. Of course I went and listened to all the tracks I played accordion on. (I’m so vain, I probably think this album is about me.) But my favorite track is actually “Bone Yard”–what are those spooky bells?
You, too, can listen to the whole album for free.
Oh, and here’s their MySpace.
Well, no, but we did get our name in the paper! Paul Freeman wrote a MySpace roundup for a bunch of Bay Area newspapers, and we’re in there right between Kristin Andreassen and Samantha Preis. The big time!
He also said we have “a bit of a Barenaked Ladies vibe,” which we thought was cool once we thought about it a little. I always get Barenaked Ladies mixed up with Blues Traveler.
You’re probably wondering what Tin Cat’s been up to lately. The answer is, finally recording a full-length album! Read More »
March 11, 2007 – 10:48 am
… people dancing last Monday at Red Rock to a spontaneous funk jam on Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman,” played on guitar, accordion, and ukulele.