New EP Coming
I’ve had the next full-length Sci-Fi Romance album written for over a year, but as it happens, newborn twins slow down recording schedules. The itch to record and get new music out has been terribly strong. And here we are in October. The best month. Every year at this time, my wife and I watch […]
Bohemian Shindig: August 22nd
Friends, we’re back. I’ve played a number of solo shows over the last few months as we’ve been getting closer to booking studio time for the new record, but we haven’t played out as a band since last year, due to the arrival of three (count ’em three!) Sci-Fi Romance babies, and the attendant life-turning-upside-downness […]
“Margaret” by Jason Webley
There aren’t a ton of artists I’d do this for, but I wanted to take a minute to direct you to Jason Webley’s Kickstarter project for a collaborative project called Margaret. He’s already blown past his funding goal, so this is really just a recommendation that you pitch in now in order to pre-order the album. […]
The Pain of Being Finite
A few months ago, as I was finishing up writing a bunch of new songs for the next Sci-Fi Romance record, we got some big news. We had another baby on the way. Then it turned out we had two babies on the way (Just goes to show, kids, the only 100% effective form of […]
Couch by Couchwest 2013
There’s this thing, kind of a party, kind of a “festival,” that happens in Austin every year about this time. Maybe you’ve heard of it. But there’s this *other* thing that also happens at the same time, that maybe you haven’t heard as much about, and that is the Couch by Couchwest festival, “where the […]
Singing Through Sickness
One of my longstanding fears has been having a show booked, and then getting sick right before it. I am not a trained vocalist, and therefore do not possess any of the mystical secrets they no doubt teach opera singers for this very eventuality. Nor do I own an old-timey atomizer, which is kind of […]
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Two years ago, I released the fist Sci-Fi Romance album, …and surrender my body to the flames, and that holiday season, put out a version of my favorite traditional holiday song — and staple of Jimmy Stewart movies — Auld Lang Syne. It seemed appropriate, then, that with the release of our album The Ghost […]
The New Gatekeepers
Democracy has come to creativity, and capitalism has come to overwhelm democracy. I am, of course, talking about the Amazon review scandal that has come to light, revealing that as many as 1/3 of all reviews on Amazon were bought and paid for. This is a catastrophe for everyone involved — musicians, writers, consumers, and […]
Different Writing Muscles
Different kinds of writing require different brain muscles. I’ve been reminded of this recently as I’ve started exercising my prose muscles for the first time in a while. My first ambition, as I remember, was to be a professional novelist, back when I was small and green and the world could grow such things. I […]
Anybody Else Tired of Personal Branding?
One of my favorite lines of poetry is from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, where he writes: Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.) This guy: sweaty-toothed madman,hates branding. As artists and human beings, we should probably be trying to embrace diversity, and what better place to start than […]