The Tater Blog

Posts Tagged ‘CD’

There are several new tribute pages up on Facebook that the Taters are involved in. Go take a look, click the “Like” button – this was easier when it was just a “fan” button; then, when you clicked it, you became a fan. Now… what… are you a liker? That doesn’t sound right…

Rock & Roll Jubilee

This is the tribute show that Brad & I are in, along with Jim Wark, George Garrett, Brian Sulser and BJ Kocen. We pay tribute to Elvis, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Ricky Nelson, and the Everly Brothers in a 2-hour show that’s a mix of songs & live comedy. So far we’ve had 5 shows over the last year & a half, with another scheduled for September. We’ll post updates about the shows here, as well as on the Tater calendar and the new Facebook page.

Sensory Lullabies – The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish

This tribute CD was released 2 years ago, and features 38 cover versions (?!) of Jellyfish songs. The Taters contributed our take on an unreleased tune, “Queen of the USA”. You can find the CD here, and it’s also on iTunes & Amazon (CD or MP3). As of this posting, you can get it on the Burning Sky site for $19.99 for the 2 CD set.

If I… If I… If I… The Songs of Squeeze Revisited

This is the latest project we’re involved in, another tribute CD from Burning Sky. This one features the songs of Squeeze, a big influence in Taterland, as any true Taterhead knows  We did a calypso version of Goodbye Girl on this one, which featured several guests along with the regular Tater plate – George Garrett added bongos, and Cole Evans put some percussion on. Can’t wait to hear the whole project when it’s done. No date announced at this point, but maybe sometime next year.

Got this message on Facebook and had to share it – it’s great!

Last Sunday, early afternoon. It’s warm and sunny. I’m sitting in the minivan with everyone buckled in. We’re pulling out of the driveway, on our way to saunter about Old Town Alexandria – there’s lots of grass and boats and such; great for kids (ooh, and they sell ice cream there too). We start moving through our ‘hood, headed toward the main road. From the back, Declan (he’s 2 1/2 now) says, “Aoh see Noah”. We recognize “Aoh” as “I want to”. But of course, the rest is pretty cryptic. We don’t know any Noahs.

Mami asks, “what do you want Declan?”

“Aoh see Noah”.

“Noah who?”

“Aoh see Noah, Mami”

“Ok, but where’s Noah? We don’t have Noah.”

“Aoh see Noah, Papi”

“Who is Noah, Declan? Is he a friend?”

“Noooo! Aoh see Noah plis. Plis?”

This goes on, back and forth for several minutes. Declan is getting frustrated and is starting to cry (due to lack of Noah).  Mami is getting exasperated and says “Declan, we can’t give you Noah unless you tell us what Noah is!”  After a pregnant pause, Declan says, “Sing Noah Mami”. I perk up at the clarification: “What? You sing it! Sing it to us!”

Immediately Declan sings, “Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah, don’t!”

The latin music is immediately ejected from the player and is replaced by Menagerie. We hastily press buttons until Track 2 is playing. Declan begins to giggle in the backseat and our trip to Alexandria continues as planned. Papi giggles too, but for different reasons.

Last thing – after the song is finished, he asks (and I’m not making this up) “Aont Such a Good Day Papi”

For the record, we do NOT discuss Taters or similar topics with either of the kids (not that Taters are taboo or anything, it just doesn’t come up). He’s just picked it up while listening.

Now, if we can just hang on until he’s old enough to go to shows or buy CDs…

I made some updates to the Taters page this week, including adding pages for each of the albums along with lyrics, etc. Next will be complete liner notes – who played what on what tracks, dedications, etc – I’ve got these done for menagerie so far but I haven’t made it to the others yet.

I’ve been wanting to get some of this stuff on the site for some time, not only so it’s big enough to read – 6pt type isn’t easy for anyone! – but also so I could correct a few errors that made it thru the editing process, no matter how many times I looked at it, or showed it to others! F’rinstance, in this web version I’ve finally corrected a terrible omission from the printed booklet – special guest victim screamer – Rebekah Gribik! Don’t know how that got left out, but this goes a little way toward correcting it!

Also, for those who’ve asked for it – here is a large blow-up of the back cover of menagerie. Kind of hard to see things on the back of a 4.75″ CD cover, so here is a bigger graphic (your browser may resize it to fit on the screen, but it’s about 15″ wide so you might have to click to zoom in on it!)

By the way, if any of you are web designers, I’d love to know how to fix the CSS on this site so it displays better at any resolution. I’ve figured a lot of it out, but I can’t afford a “real” designer, so some things just ’sort of’ work! I’m always happy for any help!

OK, that’s it for now…

(But that trick never works!) Well, we’ll see. We were finally able to record the coast-to-coast CD release party for menagerie this past Saturday, and it should be broadcast this coming Saturday, Feb 27 on Mike Lidskin’s TWIRL radio in Sacramento, CA. We tried doing the broadcast live over a Skype connection, but had some drops on Mike’s end, so fortunately he recorded the whole show and will re-broadcast in its entirety this weekend. The Taters have basically the whole show, which will be Mike playing lots of cuts from the CD, interspersed with live performances and interviews with the band.  We all gathered around the mic in the Fabulous Zebra Room here in Richmond last weekend, with a full party going on in the next room, and Mike & Amber had guests on their end as well. You can tune in via the web at the TWIRL radio site this coming Saturday and find out!  The show broadcasts at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern time.

In the meantime, there are several cuts from the live portion of the show over at our YouTuber site. Here’s one example:

We’ll call this a tribute to that other band that all played around the mic just a scant 45 years ago (yipes!). There’s also a pretty fun medley of Roger Miller songs, but I’ll have to hear the show this week to remember why that was happening!

poster

And so… circular! The latest Tater CD menagerie is finally here! They came in on Monday, along with new posters, download cards and shiny new display units! The stickers arrived today, so the UPS guy is very aware of us at this point!

Hope to have them in all the online locations as soon as possible – they’ve already shipped off to CD Baby and Amazon, and DigStation will have it up very soon for download as well. If you want a CD copy and just can’t wait until it wanders online, contact me and I’ll work out how to get it to you. It’ll have to be check or Paypal at this point, as I don’t have a way to take credit cards outside of the usual channels (like CD Baby).

Theresa Pollak Awards for Excellence in the Arts

I don’t think this has made it to the blog yet – The Taters won this year as Best Ensemble (and I don’t think it has anything to do with our wardrobe. Although, with Greg’s shirts…?). Here’s a bit about the prize, from the Richmond magazine website:

Richmond magazine invites you to celebrate the artists whose words, fine art, music, choreography, acting, directing, film and photography enrich the cultural life of our regions. Since 1998, readers have been asked to nominate artists to the panel of selectors, made up of former honorees and arts leaders, who then choose the honorees for recognition with the Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts at our awards ceremony in October.

It was a huge surprise to us, since we had no idea we were even up for a nomination. There’s a write-up in the October issue of Richmond Magazine, which is on the stands now, and you can also read about it on the Richmondmagazine.com website. And while we’re at it, here’s a bit more about Theresa Pollak. Thanks to all who nominated us, whoever you may be!

things have been quite busy in Taterland over the last few months, and most times I clean forget to add updates! Sorry, I promise I’ll try to try harder. Or at least I’ll try.

I’m sitting in the studio now listening to final and near-final mixes on menagerie. There have been a few setbacks, but it’s still alive and kicking, just taking longer (always!) than I thought it would. I’m also working on finishing the cover art, liner notes, all the publishing stuff, etc, and working with the pressing plant to get that all setup. But all that notwithstanding, I’m hoping for a Halloween release, so keep your bony fingers crossed!

On a related note, watch for the October release of  Virginia Creepers: THE HORROR HOST TRADITION OF THE OLD DOMINION.  It’s a documentary featuring stories and clips of classic Virginia late night horror show TV shows. The Taters have a song in the soundtrack, a menagerie cut called “Wolfman Told Me Tonight”, so you’ll want to get a copy of the film ! A lot of you know the song from our shows over the years, but this is the debut of the recorded version. On an inexplicable note, the website for Virginia Creepers lists our tune as a “romantic ditty” (??), so I don’t know what to tell you about that. Not a big Valentine tune to my way of thinking but hey, it made the cut so we’re happy!

Spread a little Tater around

Think about the last time you bought something from a friend’s recommendation, or because you read a review of a book, movie, album, whatever. Chances are that review or recommendation made more of an impact on you than any “official” advertising from the manufacturer. One of the most beneficial aspects of the web is this ability to spread “word-of-mouth” recommendations across a much larger audience.

Same is true with Tater tunes. We have all sorts of people who come to see us or buy the CDs because someone told them about us, or they read a recommendation from someone. You could be a big part of spreading the word about The Taters, not only by telling your friends but also by posting reviews of our music or shows on the web. Nearly every place that sells the music online – CD Baby , iTunes , Amazon , you name it – has some way for you to post reviews and comments. It would be a great help to what we’re trying to do (merely get every single individual on the planet to hear us) if you’d add some reviews of your own. Say whatever you like, tell about your favorite song on an album, what you like about the music, etc. If you use iTunes, make a playlist that includes the Taters music and share the list so others will find it! Every single voice helps, believe me!

Just finished listening to Jim’s guitar part on “Feet Start Walking”, and it’s great. Right now suffering thru listening to Bill solo my bass & piano bits to get them all EQ’d nicely… sure sounds better when the rest of band is around it! Ah well, that’s the beauty of the studio – I can play just like me, and Bill can make me sound just like I do in my head (which is always better!).

Overall I’m loving what everyone has come out with on this. There’s been a lot of work done by everyone, and I hope it shows.

or, sounds, I guess…

We’ve had dozens of shows over the last few months, and that’s kept us out of the studio quite a lot, but I’m hoping we’re nearly wrapped up on this. 4 shows this weekend, including a very fun “Christmas in July” day to help raise money and awareness for the Central Virginia Food Bank. We got to play a whole evening of Christmas tunes, in the middle of summer. Ho ho ho! We also got to do this with our pals from Offering, so we had the benefit of Jeanine’s beautiful voice and a whole stage of very talented players – even strings & flute, so we were truly culture filled! These folks did a beautiful job on the music, and with organizing the whole thing. Chris had a relaxing 15 hour day of setting up & running the stage sound, so I know he was wiped out by the end of it! A big Tater thanks, though, for all his hard work. Mike came down from Stafford to help out for the evening, we even pressed Cole into service, and everyone’s help was needed and appreciated. The event was by all accounts a big success, and I think the Food Bank got lots of donations and exposure.

OK, back to work. I’ll try to post some of the results of the mix later this week

Not sure if I’ve posted this at all yet, but here is a sneak peek at the cover for the new CD –

We’ve also started adding shirts & buttons with the new cover to our CafePress site, so if you haven’t been over to see those now’s as good a time as any

We’ve finished the mixing on several songs, so (dare I think it?) the end is in sight! Back in again next week to continue mixing. In the meantime, here is a clip (unmixed) from the intro to Spend a Little Time with Me, featuring Chris & Alan from the Grandsons on horns!

For Virginia folks, we’re up at the Ashland Coffee & Tea tomorrow night, Sat, May 30 starting at 8pm, so come on out and say hi. And the Grandsons are there on June 5, so go see the show and tell ‘em you heard them on a Tater track!

No matter how many hours or years I spend on the computer, mostly online, I’m still always surprised at how many hours and years I can spend on the computer, mostly online. I get very easily distracted and before I know it I’m 12 more tabs away from what I was originally reading or working on.  I love tabbed browsers, but they have their cost!

Recently found 2 tools that may help a lot if I can remember to use them. Readability is a tool that removes pretty much all but the text on a web page, and formats it to your liking for easy reading. Try it and see if it doesn’t help!

Quietube does a similar thing for videos. Just use the bookmark while you’re on a YouTube page, and it will show you the video without all the rest of the page behind it. Granted, if you’re out just browsing for things to look at or listen to, or are in an exploring mode, these tools will be at cross purposes, but if there’s something you want to concentrate on, they are great!

Song clip

Here’s another clip from an early mix for the new CD. This one, Lonely Like That, is one of the quieter songs on the CD, and features guest-Grandson Alan MacEwen on trumpet.

Lonely Like That (early mix, clip)

We’re in the mixing stages now, with almost all recording finished. As always, time and money are slowing things down – never enough of either – but it’s coming together. Thanks very much to the folks who have made donations toward the completion of this behemoth – I hope you’ll love the results! We’re looking at a few fund-raising opportunities to help finish the thing up, so I’ll let you know about that as soon as I figure it out!

We got another tremendously appreciated gift towards the CD this week, which will really help us get this thing moving along! I continue to be amazed and gratified by the amount of support we get from folks who’ve seen us and like the music! Who’da thunkit! A big Tater THANK YOU – you know who you are

I think the horn parts on “Spend a Little Time With Me” are done – we’ll know more as we mix.  Chris Watling sent his part across the ether and we’ll be adding it to the trumpet parts that Alan already put down. After that, there are a few small fixes to work on, and then mixing, which is due to start any day now. I’m traveling a lot for work right now, so that’s slowed me down a bit, but I hope to catch up soon!

Had a great time at the VibeFest 2009 last weekend, rain notwithstanding. It did hold off a bit during our set, so that was nice for us. Big thanks to Chris Guidry for sound on that show, and to all the techs who helped keep the rain water off of us and the electrical cords! Bzzzzt! Here’s a nice little video piece that I just found about the VibeFests. We’re not in the clip, but it’ll give you an idea of what this is all about:

We’re back at the Positive Vibe this evening for a show with Offering. We tried to schedule this a month ago, but it didn’t work out, so I’m really looking forward to it tonight!