I've been hesitant to post lately because there's so much going on that I'm afraid it'll all just spill out as a boring bullet list or a whiny complaint factory.  Indeed, it's hard to remember that it was through the generosity of all you Kickstarter backers that I'm even able to put these records together, and when 2012 is over, I know there will be a part of me that will miss imagining and assembling these things.

So I have to confess something.  I wrote in the initial pitch for this project that I'd "stockpiled too many songs."  That was a slight stretching of the truth.  Don't get me wrong.  I technically had enough material on my hard drive to fill four seven inch records, plus a handful of bonus songs.  But it's important to me that the records (and the year-end CD compiling them) contain my "best" material, and I'm at a point now where this means I have to finish recording some songs...and even finish writing others.  I'll bust out some examples of what I'm talking about below...

I have a new(ish) song called "Caleb's Conclusion" that I already recorded, but the song's gotten much faster when I play it, and while I'm oddly proud of the Neil Young-ish solos I initially recorded, the song doesn't need those kinds of stretches any more.  So I have to re-record that one.

Ditto for "The Creak of the Landline," a slight, galloping sketch that I laid down quickly, the same week it was written.  I thought it would be a passable recording, but...it crosses the line from "ramshackle" into "sloppy."  (Even basement musicians have standards.)  So that needs to be re-recorded, too.

I think there's just two songs that've been written but not recorded at all: "Floating Voter" and "The Shape of Ohio."  "Floating Voter" is weird and needs to be distorted, so I have to approach that with a certain strategy.  "The Shape of Ohio" bares an unfortunate resemblance to a song I've already recorded, so I'm chewing over ways to make it distinct, including maybe getting a piano player to do it....

This leaves just three groups of songs to finish writing: 1) The weird instrumental ideas I have scribbled on a sheet of legal paper tacked up in the basement (which really need to be recorded IN ORDER to be "written," if you catch my drift), 2) The super-old unfinished ideas I've been recalling from as long ago as (gasp) the 90's, and 3) The current active "proper" songs in the hopper right now, some with a verse and a half, others with just a stray line and a brace of good intentions.  These include "The Luckiest Pilot in the Galaxy," "This Has to Stop," "Longevity Blues" and "The Spokesperson for Winter."  I actually squeezed out a draft for "Winter" yesterday morning, but I can already tell it needs fixing.  Shouldn't take too many tweaks, though.

So what's hard is to list all the writing and recording "to-do's" above...and not feel a slight resentment towards all the NON-writing and recording items on my plate.  Like promoting the next record, and assembling the artwork, and then mailing it to backers and radio and writers.  It's a lot to process.  Yet this is the lot of the unsigned / unrepresented musician, I think: You have to be your own manager, be your own label.  I've known for years that I should have been wearing those hats, but I've just been avoiding it since, after all, it's nowhere near as fun as "just" writing and recording songs.

And this might sound a bit disingenuous, but I do mean it as a good thing.  In many ways, the 2012 Record Club has sort of forced me to do the things I've been neglecting and dreading -- namely, networking and promoting myself.  Even now, just typing those phrases makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.  But it's my hope that by the end of this year, I'll have some of the processes down to a science, and thus they'll be more manageable...and thus less dreaded.  Again, that may not be the most unambiguous expression of gratitude, but I hope you can sense that I mean it.  This year might feel hectic as all get-out, but it's doing me a world of good, and I need to remember that, and to thank you all for it...

p.s.  Fun fact: As a freshman In high school, I actually used to wear one of the hats pictured here.  I don't know what I was trying to do.  The girls scattered like water bugs...

As you may recall, one of the backer levels for the 2012 Record Club involved me recording a cover song of the backer's choosing.  My friend Jessica H was kind enough to kick in at this level, and to be pretty loosey-goosey about WHICH Bruce Springsteen song I could record.  I went with the song which was the biggest game-changer w/r/t my Boss fandom.  Prior to hearing "My Love Will Not Let You Down" (the live version that kicks off Live in New York City), I was one of those guys who was cool with Nebraska and little else. For some reason, this song just clicked with me, opening me up to the more rocking, E-Street side of things.

Of course, my version sounds nothing like the original.  In fact, it sounds a little like something from Nebraska.  Heh-heh.  You can hear it and/or download it here:

http://soundcloud.com/zapruderpoint/my-love-will-not-let-you-down

This track will be up FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!  Because I want to keep it a special/Jessica thing.  (And also because I don't want to get sued.)  The next/last three covers will be by Kate Bush, The Beatles, and Indigo Girls, so STAY TUNED!   

It seems that there's so much to update w/r/t the Record Club that I just end up getting buried beneath the pile, and I don't post.  Which is bad.  So Let Me Tell You Something.  The first record -- Buildings vs. People -- arrived and was mailed to Backers just in time to make me not a liar w/r/t the whole "February" thing.  Then it was "officially" "dropped" on March 6th (my birthday).  And THEN I commenced promoting it.

As anyone who knows what they're doing will tell you, you really should promote releases before they come out.  But I never claimed to know what I was doing.  And this first record had me all discombobulated.  It was the "few eggs" which needed to be broken in order to "make an omelet."  I got a late start on it in general, because I wasn't sure if the Kickstarter would pull together. Then I spent a good chunk of time picking the songs and mixing them.  And figuring out how to fill out the form for the pressing plant. Then making the sleeve art, and the inserts for special people.  Waiting for the pressing plant to turn it around.  Assembling and mailing.  Getting together a promotional list of people and radio stations.  Sending those emails.

And to be honest, WHILE I was doing the last two items, I was mixing the NEXT record, to be sure I'd be more ahead of the curve.  The people on that email list are going to be really annoyed when they hear from me about a new record just 2 or 3 weeks after hearing about the last one.  But...I haven't really tried this hard in a while.  And...once you get organized about it, once you have at least some of the things down to a science, it's not really so hard.  It's just getting over the hump, or getting back into the swing of things.

It sure makes me nervous though.  My Facebook likers may know that I dread writing promotional copy, sending promotional emails, any of that stuff people sign to labels for.  Because technically, there is ALWAYS something you could be doing to promote yourself. Thus, you can easily guilt yourself into a frenzy, attempting to tackle the literally endless checklist.  So I made myself a deal, set certain boundaries on this process, JUST so I wouldn't go insane. And for this first round, there was some internal whining, but in general I shouldered it okay.  Next one should be easier, and so forth.  

Early in the afternoon this past Tuesday, I received three test pressings of the first 45.  I basically just wanted to make sure they got the sequence right, and that there weren't any errant pops or anything.  I gave it a listen out loud, and then once in my headphones.  I really enjoyed hearing the faint vinyl crackle between the songs, or when the songs got quiet.  I can't believe this is really happening...

Today (Thursday), I'm going to the copy shop to ask a question or two about the sleeves.  I want to let them do the cutting, and so I assume it'd be cheaper, then, to design the sleeves "in the corner" of a piece of paper, if you catch my drift.  You know, so that two of the four sides are edges of the existing paper, leaving just two cuts for me to pay for.  I'm kinda hoping it costs the same to make four cuts, as I honestly don't trust them to print and cut the thing to the perfect size with it "in the corner."  But we'll see.

One of the nice things about putting out four things over the course of a year is that I get to...erm...co-brand?  Cross-brand?  I don't know, I'm not in marketing.  But I mean that I aim to use the images from the records for posters for gigs near the release of each.  For example, I've embedded a poster for my show on Saturday, March 3rd here in Chicago.  If you've been following updates so far, the image should look familiar.