The CDs of Sonidos de Cuba have arrived! I’ve already given a few out to some of my Rockethub supporters and the rest of you will receive them soon. They look great thanks to Tania Clarke’s wonderful album artwork. Next I’ll send off a few to CD Baby so the physical copies will be available there too.
It’s a little funny. Two of the people I’ve given copies to have commented on how long it’s been since they’ve bought a physical CD. I know the format is definitely waning in use as people move towards digital and cloud based music, but I really wanted to have some physical copies. It just makes the album feel that much more real, complete, and professional.
I’ve been listening to a lot of music on vinyl lately, and one of the things that I’ve really noticed and enjoyed is the long album liner notes on record jackets. Some of them are really fantastic. You gain an insight into the process behind the recordings, or the intention of the artist, or a funny glimpse back in time. Moving to smaller formats really reduced that trend, and digital music kind of eliminates it completely. Today we have blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and other social media formats to fill in this background information but it’s not quite the same.
Anyways, speaking of vinyl, I’ve recorded what I hope to be the first of a long series of eclectic vinyl party mixes. You can listen to it on mixcloud here: http://i.mixcloud.com/CC0YPg
I made a remix of Hey Ocean’s catchy song “Big Blue Wave” for an Indaba remix contest. You can check it out here ( http://indaba.us/e9jR ) or on my soundcloud. I’ve also entered “Jinetero” into another Indaba contest. This one is based on votes, so I’ll need your help if I’m going to have any chance of winning. Somehow I didn’t notice that it was that kind of contest before I entered. I’m not a big fan of these popularity contest remix competitions because I hate having to spam my fans and friends. I’m in 185th place right now with 2 votes and 1st place has 135 votes. I have until June 4th before the voting period ends. You can listen and vote and comment on that one here: http://indaba.us/jA7K Please tell your friends!
I’ve got some exciting stuff on the horizon too. It looks like I’ll have not one, not two, but three live shows in June! First off, I’ll be playing the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire on June 2nd at the PNE Forum. You can read about it here: http://www.vancouvermakerfoundation.org/events-and-programs/vancouver-mini-maker-faire/
Next up, it looks like I’ll be playing Bonz’ai on June 20th at LanaLou’s. Bonz’ai is a fortnightly event “dedicated to bringing forth only the very best underground/independent electronic music has to offer. Bonz.ai is an ongoing audio/visual event where one can eat, drink, socialize, brain dance and dream of electric sheep. We like to think of Bonz.ai as a tech music & art “supper club” – laid back atmosphere”. I’m planning to make this my official CD release party. You can follow them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/bonz.ai.electronic
Lastly, I’ll be playing a private show for one of my generous Rockethub funders. Sounds like we’ll have a Cuban themed garden party, so that should be fun!
In other news, I’m helping the fantastically talented Five Alarm Funk with their upcoming music video and I’m in talks about creating a Steam video game soundtrack. I’m also planning to put out a free EP soon featuring remastered versions of some of my older songs. That’s it for now, and I’ll hope to see you at one of these upcoming shows!
SUBLIME SOUND 