Scott Andrew - lo-fi acoustic pop superhero!

Here’s one of the brighter moments from my CD release show in July: Dennis came out from behind the drum kit to play the conga and sing with Laurie K. and I on Holding Back. It’s pretty awesome how the occasional three-part harmonies carry the song along. Definitely a high point of the evening!

Scott Andrew - Holding Back (live at Egan’s)

Download MP3 (128k, free, login required)

Unfortunately, most of the live audio I got from the show was not great quality. I’ve salvaged a few tunes but I’m still working my way through it all.

By the way, there are less than ten free copies of Love My Way left. Grab ‘em while you can.

UPDATE: the September contest is over, and Holding Back finished at #5 out over 550 entries, which should hopefully put me in serious contention for that opening act slot. Mission accomplished! Thanks again for your help.

As a rule I don’t enter song contests or “battle of the bands” anymore, because 1) most of them are outright scams, and 2) I don’t like begging people to vote for me. You and I, we have better things to do.

So it’s with some squirming trepidation that I refer you to Ourstage.com and my song, Holding Back, which at the time of this writing is #3 out of over 500 entries.

Why am I telling you this? Here’s why:

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It’s become a joke that any cover song I perform will be scooped up by a more famous artist. When Laurie and I were performing as the Walkingbirds, we used to play Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” which was cool until people started asking if I’d heard of this Jeffrey Gaines fellow, and wow his version of “In Your Eyes” is just awesome, so we must be like total fans or something, right?

Anyway, I’m not sure what the brothers Butler had in mind when they wrote this tune. All I know is it’s been stuck in my brain for months, and it’s my moral imperative to appall hardcore fans with my baby-soft treatment of the best pop tune of ‘82, and I must do it before Death Cab For Cutie does.

Why is this a clip? I thought you hated clips.

Yeah, about that. This is a cover song, which means I had to buy a license, and that license only allows downloads, not streams.The license also limits the number of downloads, so at some point the links below will stop working. Sorry, gotta play by the book on this one.

Just like the last tune, the 128k version is free to Demo Clubbers, and the 320k version can be had along with acoustic and instrumental versions for one US dollar.

Scott Andrew - Love My Way

Download MP3 only 6 left (128k, free, login required)

Buy MP3 bundle for $1 (17MB ZIP file, 320k, includes bonus acoustic and instrumental versions)

“Love My Way” by R. Butler, T. Butler, J. Aston, & V. Ely © EMI Blackwood Music Inc.

Congrats to my internet pal Brad Sucks who released his new album Out Of It today. I’m rocking out to it this very moment. “Bad Sign” alone is worth whatever price you’re willing to pay (and you can name your price).

I’ve taken a lot of inspiration (as well as stolen ideas) from Brad over the past few years and we’ve had email conversations about the ups and downs of being a DIY musician. I consider him part of my virtual peer/support group, so to see him charging out of the gate with Out Of It makes me wanna cheer and jump around.

So hey, I’m releasing new songs on the web again. Yay! Here’s one I wrote early this year, and in an uncharacteristic display of patience, even played live a few times before I recorded it.

I’ve had the chorus lying around for years, but it never became a song. One day I was noodling around and came up with the opening guitar riff, and the rest of it came out in a day or so. I recorded most of it in an evening, and then walked away from it for two weeks so that when I came back I’d forgotten all the awkward performance details, and all the layered guitars had melded together like the flavors of a really good lasagna left in the fridge for a night. Lasagna made with noodles of bittersweet clarity and tomato sauce of quiet resolve.

I’m also trying something new here: besides the free 128k MP3 download, you can also get a ZIP file containing a higher-quality 320k version of the song, an acoustic version, and an instrumental version, all for a measly dollar.

Think of it as a single with bonus tracks. BOOM, I just blew your mind.

There’s even some artwork to go along with this track. Click the image above on the right to download it to your desktop, then throw it into iTunes or whatever. (Here’s a tutorial I found.)

Lyrics after the jump. Enjoy!

Scott Andrew - You Promised

Download MP3 (128k, free, login required)

Buy MP3 bundle for $1 (17MB ZIP file, includes acoustic and instrumental versions)

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A number of music-related threads I have bookmarked over at Ask Metafilter. Some are a few years old but still informative:

Why is it so hard to get the B string in tune? I have this problem all the time.

Controlling your peaks. I always wondered why my mixes didn’t distort at levels over 0db. Here’s why.

How do home musicians keep organized/productive?

Help me let the muse in! Suggestions on coping with your inner critic.

Simple home studio. Suggestions for bare-bones home setups.

How to reduce/eliminate RF noise in my home studio? This question was mine. My studio is still noisy, but less so these days.

Feeding the starving artists - effective ways to monetarily support your favorite bands.

Come join the Youth and Beauty Brigade Tips on band promotion and booking. See also here and here.

Major laymen meet major label. Band gets approached by a major label, should they talk or walk?

Last Saturday I went to a friend’s benefit show at the Sunset Tavern, and among the bands playing was Duff McKagan’s band Loaded. Duff played a Les Paul goldtop, which I covet and continue to covet.

Fame is weird. The band was actually pretty great, straight up rock. But I have to admit that part of the reason I squeezed in closer was just to be within ten feet of That Guy Who Played Bass on Appetite. I’ve never been a huge GN’R fan, but geez, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon basin have heard “Paradise City” at least once.

It’s weird seeing someone so famous so close up, doing something totally different in a different context. When I used to go to SXSW, this kind of thing happened a lot. Already-famous people would debut their pet projects at SXSW, and sometimes you wouldn’t know until they took the stage. (Here’s a tip: look for too-wacky-to-be-real band names in the program guide.)

Anyway, I guess it’s a unique kind of cognitive dissonance.

Man, July kicked my ass.

My CD release show for Save You From Yourself was pretty fantastic. We packed the house, and Suzanne and Dennis were brilliant. Man, I could totally get used to having a band. I’m waiting on more photos, video and audio so I’ll post a more thorough recap later on. But in general: wow! If you were there, thanks for coming, hope you enjoyed it. (Hat tip to Maggi, who snapped this pic from the crowd.)

This Friday I’m the musical guest at A River And Sound Review, a local live literary arts show. I’ll be performing some tunes in between readings by Tacoma’s poet laureate William Kupinse and 2006 National Book Award finalist Jess Walter. I guess I should wear some nice shoes. Admission is free, but if you’re not a WA local, shows are archived as podcasts on their website.

I’ve also started recording some new stuff, but you know how that goes.

Thanks to Jessica for using my song More Good Days in her LIS 460 Student Podcast. Remember: if you’ve used my tunes in your podcast, let me know so I can link you up.

The July 2008 issue of the Victory Review, a magazine that covers acoustic music in the Seattle area, has an almost frighteningly positive review of Save You From Yourself. You can download a PDF from the website. Thanks, James!

Speaking of which: if you have a copy of Save You From Yourself, please consider writing a short review of it at Amazon. Customer reviews are pretty awesome for convincing new people to try out the songs, and it’s an easy, no-hassle way to help out the DIY rockstars in your life.

Sam tipped me off to the fact that my new CD is gracing the cover of the latest Disc Makers catalog. I had totally forgotten that I’d agreed to let them do this months ago, but I never thought they’d put it on the cover. Funny thing is, I don’t think I get the catalog anymore. (Update: ooops, link above was broken. All fixed now.)

Full props go to Scott Mongrain who did the camera magic, and thanks again to all the CD contributors, without whom there wouldn’t be a fancy CD package to begin with.