I’m a self confessed gadget lover so naturally I was in hog heaven when the new iPhone hit. And I just figured out how to make ringtones- so I thought I’d share! Download a freebie ringtone for ‘Skin and Bone’ here.
Well, it’s a bit of fun, isn’t it?
Popularity: 50% [?]
I know, I’m probably about a year behind the times, but I uploaded a few songs to Ourstage. I’ve never really dug these online ‘battle of the bands’ sites, but I figured this one would be worth a go.
Pretty much every other similar site relies on bands and artists asking their mates to go vote for them. So nobody actually ends up listening to any music. Some of them even want you to get your fans to send text messages at 50 cents each… leading to the awkward spectacle of musicians buying dozens of pay-as-you-go SIM cards and setting up impromptu phone banks with ALL TEN of their fans, and spending hundreds of bucks/quid on trying to win.
Fortunately, Ourstage doesn’t require any of that ludicrous crap. You go to the site. You listen to randomly selected tunes from the genre of your choice and you rank them. Since the songs are randomly selected, you can’t ask your mates to vote for you. And rather than text messages, they rely on the idea that once in a while you’ll hear something you absolutely love, and you’ll go buy it. So no cheating!
So- I’m NOT asking you to vote for me. But do point your browser at Ourstage and find some great new music. (Although, if you wanted to leave a comment on my Ourstage page, it would help me look more like a rock star.)
Popularity: 48% [?]
A couple of months back I heard that One Tree Hill were naming an episode after my song ‘Hate Is Safer Than Love’. I got all excited, seeing as the show has carried music from some of my favourite bands, but then I discovered they weren’t actually using the song. Bleh.
Hurrah, then, for Youtube user thexrafa, who made it possible for me to pretend, at least for a moment, that the CW played my stuff to 3 million people. Watch it after the jump- Read more…
Popularity: 72% [?]
NYC antifolk godfather Lach is coming to the UK for a whirlwind tour. He was a big influence on me when I lived there- he’s also a funny f*cker. see you on the 16th for the London show- full schedule after the jump.
Popularity: 48% [?]
So it turns out that 2008 is the year that everything changes. About a month ago I left Brooklyn with Ms. Fishuncle to return to London. Emigration. Changing jobs. House buying. And here’s the biggie, parenthood. Coming to a crib near you in October! I’m off-the-charts happy, and everything rocks.
Here’s the thing, though. I love making records and sharing them with people. And that’s always been expensive and time consuming, and as any parent knows money and time are the two things you tend not to have a lot of with a kid around.
I’ve spent all this time trying to make the money required to not just make the record, but ‘market’ it. And the next record doesn’t yet exist, because I’ve been busy earning money and I haven’t had the time. See the problem?
Popularity: 48% [?]
I didn’t realise this was a song until I happened across the chorus, forgotten in my notebook, and it exploded. The ‘dinosaurs are drinking gasoline’ line reflects a hope that we’ll give up these dumb tin boxes before too long… but if we don’t the roaches will do just fine without us. Lead track from ‘Skin And Bone’.
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Walking out on 14th St the hollow people know
The secret bargain that the city seeks to make
The city’s hunger is a ghost that’s growing stronger
With every stolen mouthful that it takes
Manhattan is an island of privateers and pirates
The sunken treasure of a rich and stinking ship
I ride the tunnels with the rest you know I try my best
To fight the panic as the stitches start to rip
Popularity: 31% [?]
New York like a traffic accident that you can’t not watch, appalled and fascinated. Title track off ‘Skin And Bone’. Julie LaMendola plays amazing saw on the album version.
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Poverty’s a crime in the poorhouse
And the punishment is life
The lucky ones work in the slaughterhouse
And the rest go under the knife
Hunger is a crime in the madhouse
Where the gutters are running with fat
Liberty depends on consumption
Is there anything wrong with that
Skin and bone, skin and bone, skin and bone
And you’re very very far from home, skin and bone
Popularity: 24% [?]
Too much long distance flying, all the cities start to merge into one big one with the countryside around them a distant memory. Written on glimpsing the third world that you can disappear into in America if you go mad, lose your health insurance, or fail to pay your rent. Originally appeared on ‘Skin And Bone’.
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Come away with me and we’ll have ourselves a life in the new world city
Trade this stubborn farmland for a million neon nights in the new world city
We’ll build a house on a piece of torn up land
Made of board and tin with our own bare hands
In the new world city
Popularity: 23% [?]
Written in Hyde Park on the occasion of Ms Fishuncle’s birthday, and originally released on ‘Four Songs’ before resurfacing on =shinyshiny= and finally =shiny/atom.
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You and me and a bottle of wine
A summer’s evening by the serpentine
Lying still while the world goes by
Around and around and around
You and me and a bottle of wine
A recipe for a beautiful time
And all the people in their feathers fine
Strut around and around and around Read more…
Popularity: 21% [?]
First appeared on =shinyshiny= and later reissued as part of the =shiny/atom set.
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I get dizzy counting the days
I’ve been living my life in a daydream
Time ticking along
I didn’t want to listen to the radio or watch the TV
I didn’t want to hear about
All these bitter things out there in the world
Words and deceit and metal that shines
Like a hook in the back of the life of your mind
So hard to fight, so easy to close your eyes
Roll over dreamer slip and away Read more…
Popularity: 22% [?]
