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I am missing you so much right now, Al’s Bar in Lexington, KY.
Every bottle on this shelf is a Bourbon.

I am missing you so much right now, Al’s Bar in Lexington, KY.

Every bottle on this shelf is a Bourbon.

1 day ago 3 notes
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…and just to show you that it’s being worked on, here’s what my “make out couch” looks like right now.
Guess correctly which stack has already put on the mix and add yourself as a +1 to the 10 tapes I’m intending to make.

…and just to show you that it’s being worked on, here’s what my “make out couch” looks like right now.

Guess correctly which stack has already put on the mix and add yourself as a +1 to the 10 tapes I’m intending to make.

1 day ago 3 notes
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NOPE. No pay asked and especially not for you, merchandise designer extrodinaire! Yours will be hand delieved and with a 97% chance of a high five.
To those of you still interested in a 78 RPM-only mix-tape, I’ve gotten 7 curious replies and will make a maximum of 10 of these. If you want one, speak your mind now before the slots fill up. I will never digitize this mix. EVER.
PS — I started work on it today and I want ya’ll to know what you’re getting into: the tape is 90 minutes in total and Side A is nothing but up-tempo numbers. Side B will contain the down-tempo numbers, but also some of the rarest cuts I own that are quite valuable. All in all, should you still have a tape player, you’ll be getting a mix worth $1,500 in this particular format. This will make it the most expensive tape I’ve ever made.
PPS — I’m not cutting out the surface noise. You want the music? You’re gonna’ get it exactly the way I listen to it; Expect imperfections.

NOPE. No pay asked and especially not for you, merchandise designer extrodinaire! Yours will be hand delieved and with a 97% chance of a high five.

To those of you still interested in a 78 RPM-only mix-tape, I’ve gotten 7 curious replies and will make a maximum of 10 of these. If you want one, speak your mind now before the slots fill up. I will never digitize this mix. EVER.

PS — I started work on it today and I want ya’ll to know what you’re getting into: the tape is 90 minutes in total and Side A is nothing but up-tempo numbers. Side B will contain the down-tempo numbers, but also some of the rarest cuts I own that are quite valuable. All in all, should you still have a tape player, you’ll be getting a mix worth $1,500 in this particular format. This will make it the most expensive tape I’ve ever made.

PPS — I’m not cutting out the surface noise. You want the music? You’re gonna’ get it exactly the way I listen to it; Expect imperfections.

1 day ago 4 notes
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Are you able to listen to cassette tapes?

I’m asking because my roommate wants me to make him a mix tape of nothing but songs from from my 78 collection before I leave to go on tour.

And well, it’d be very easy for me to dub that mix tape a few times to another tape if any of you would be interested in having a collection of stuff your grandparents and great grandparents probably listened to.

You’d have to be willing to give me your address too, ‘cause I’m not gonna’ convert this to digital.

Just getting an idea in my head, that’s all.

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My roommates taught me the secret to reheating pizza. Put it in a skillet on medium-low, cover it with a lid, wait 10 minutes and you’ve got pizza that tastes exactly like it did when you got it.
I guess when you’re married you get intel like this that us bachelor’s aren’t supposed to know, but this is pizza we’re talking about and I’m leaking this one.

My roommates taught me the secret to reheating pizza. Put it in a skillet on medium-low, cover it with a lid, wait 10 minutes and you’ve got pizza that tastes exactly like it did when you got it.

I guess when you’re married you get intel like this that us bachelor’s aren’t supposed to know, but this is pizza we’re talking about and I’m leaking this one.

2 days ago 8 notes
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I got into this conversation with a couple of pals over pizza and beer.

Unlike any other art form, when you play music you have to relive every single piece of art you put out to the world every single time you play a show.

Do you think Fellini when he was making a movie said, “Well, I’d better cut to some clips from La Strada for this next one to fill up some time?”

Imagine Picasso working on a painting and saying, “Hey, this looks really good right here, but I know this gallery well and the lighting kind of sucks there. Maybe I should get a few more shades of red in this one to round it out to compensate.”

It’s kind of a nightmare when you start to boil it down this way.

Time.com: Want to Be a Rock Star? You'll Need $100,000.

This article is so absurd in most every regard.

First of all, let’s break some things down here:

  • Promotion: Once you have music out, you need to promote it. We pay a guy to send email blasts to databases of hip music blogs. Postcards, demo CDs and other materials are also essential. Cost to date: $1,000.

That one speaks for itself. Cut out your middle man. Save $1,000 and manage your own e-mail blasts. Every hip music blog has a submission section with an e-mail contact. Add it to your contacts.

  • Living in New York City. Our cousin Abby lives in Atlanta in a house — a house! — with a couple of friends. They pay a third of what we pay for our combined living spaces. New York is absurdly expensive — but the band’s future demands that we live here rather than, say, our hometown in Maine. All told, we estimate that decision costs us an extra $1000 a month. Cost to date: $18,000. 

BULLSHIT. You can live wherever you want as long as you’re willing to tour most of the year and develop new markets and fanbases. Just admit that you want to live in NYC for the cred of saying you play in a NYC band first. Then move to Pittsburgh and take that $18,000 and buy a house for the same price.

But most importantly, it cost this band $109,000 to produce a debut single that sounds exactly like Coldplay. Maybe that’s your real problem, dudes. Instead of creating something genuine and real, you’re having producers leading you along every step of the way telling you what to do and that’s a costly business for everyone — particularly the fan.

Every step this band has chosen has been the least cost effective method possible as far as I can tell.

There is such a thing as a “working class musician,” and it’s a position I respect, but it’s very clear to me that these guys want to make as much as/more than doctors and lawyers and that’s just unrealistic.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

yours truly - “Giving Up Love (Still Runnin’)” [demo]

Yeah, I know I posted this already. But now it’s louder and contains handclaps.

7 LAYERS OF HANDCLAPS, YOU GUYS!

1 week ago 6 notes
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

giving up love

Elliott Sussman

yours truly - “Giving Up Love (Still Runnin’)” [demo]

Yeah, I know I posted this already. But now it’s louder and contains handclaps.

7 LAYERS OF HANDCLAPS, YOU GUYS!