Hey, I Made an Album!

Here's the first video so far.  It's the purported last words of famous and infamous people.  Some people are OK with facing their mortality, others are not and most don't even see it coming.  That's me doing the talking.  I still have my doubts about the Alfred Hitchcock quote.  But I've verified it from several sources.  Thank you, Internet.

Anyhow, the album is officially out till next Tuesday the 28th.  I've got people this time around.  These people will pester radio stations to play various tracks from the album.  I personally sent out 240 CDs out last week.  It was a monumental effort and I enjoyed it quite a bit, although not as much as the actual recording process.  I had to lug all the CDs to the main post office on Union and then put stamps on nearly every single one.  It took something like two hours, but it happened.  This mailing included no less than four discs to KEXP.  In my mind, this is a waste of good CDs.  They never played anything off the first two albums.  There's no reason to believe that this one will be any different.  I undertook publicity for last year's disc (Instant Classics) on my own.  I really, really wanted my stuff to be on the radio - I felt that many tracks were (and still are) quite airworthy - and KEXP was my best chance at that.  Long, agonizing story short, I phoned many, many times and nothing ever got played.  It was a terribly frustrating experience.  Yeah, I know they get a lot of stuff every day and they get a lot of calls about all that stuff, but I couldn't help thinking that this was some sort of game for them.  Each time, I'd get the same spiel from them - they listen to and evaluate everything, thanksforcalling.  Meanwhile, they were playing new music that truly, truly sucked.  OK, I understand why people become DJs.  They want to play their favorite music.  That's fine.  In fact, that's great.  But since they can't play all their favorites all the time, they have to play something else to fill the gaps.  They usually end up playing wretched shit that gets promoted their way.  I don't know whether somebody is blackmailing them or what, but I have no idea why such terrible music gets airplay while I'm just some guy dialing a phone.  Indifference from these guys won't make me stop writing or recording music.  But it seems that if the music really mattered to them, they would give my stuff a spin.  I guess not being in the kool kids klub is something of a drawback, but for Christ's sake, I live 10 minutes' walk from the studio.  It seems ridiculous that they'd put some lame group from Iceland in heavy rotation and give some ultra-local guy the perpetual brush-off.

Look, this really does bother me and I could go on about this, but it would only make me seem like one of those crazy guys who range around this neighborhood screaming at buildings.  This time I'm hoping things will be different.  I have people.  We'll see how well they do.  I'm paying them a fair amount of money to promote this album, which is quite super-fine.  In fact, you can preview every single track right here.  Have a listen.  You don't have to buy squat.  But if you're in the appropriate mood, give KEXP a call and request whichever song you like best.  They'll never play it.  They won't even know what you're talking about.  That's OK.  At this point, I'd rather confuse them.  I've always said - and my friend Jim will verify this - that if some kind of popularity ever comes my way, it won't originate from Seattle.  I'm really glad I've got people in Los Angeles.