new radio

hey, just wanted to let you know that we are rocking spotify with a new “greatest hits” package, up now at http://spoti.fi/WUWNBB (and also at rhapsody and mog).

we’ve gotten some questions from you so here are some answers.

the reason we pulled down our albums from spotify is that we make almost zero money per play. maybe if we were madonna and were racking up millions of plays the money would be worth it, but when you only earn a few dollars off of tens of thousands of streams, spotify seems more like radio than a place to sell albums.

in fact, that’s how we’ve begun to think of it — as radio. but better. see, spotify is perfect for sharing songs with your friends. so in thinking about it as radio, it made more sense to put up a list of “singles” selected from our various albums that people could check out and pass around. so that’s what we did.

(also, I’ve always wanted to have a “greatest hits” album but figured I had to wait to have some hits first. since it’s just spotify I wrote myself a blank check and went for it.)

spotify is not only a great place for people to discover new music but also to share stuff with your friends. most people have the app installed and you can choose a song and share it easily via facebook, twitter or tumblr using the little square-with-an-arrow button, or you can right click the track name and hit Copy HTTP Link (or you can use the convenient bit.ly link above to share the album).

we’ve put 18 of our best tracks up at spotify for you to check and share, including ‘wash it away,’ ‘this night,’ ‘mine again,’ etc. let me emphasize — we want people to listen to our music on spotify. the more people listen to these songs the more hooked they might get and go seek us out at itunes or amazon or blacklabworld and buy stuff (and, you know, keep us in the biz of making music).

so please support us by sharing black lab with your friends and, with your help, we’ll keep this bus rolling down the tracks.

thanks!!

p

new free mp3 of the month

ahhh, seattle

had an amazing weekend over the 16th. crazy ass little club with a great vibe. went out for cigarettes before and ran into a bunch of people — was great to shake hands and hear memories from the 90s. ran into a couple of kids who had tickets but were underage. I told them I would see what I could do.

got back to the club in time for the show. killed a little time waiting for the sound guy, then headed out the hallway to the back door to get the kids in. told them to keep their heads down and look like crew but it was a stretch. fortunately the bartender didn’t notice.

had to crawl over people to get to my guitar to tune, then crawl back over them to go and find the sound guy. he was upstairs at the bar, unaware that the show had technically started ten minutes ago. nice introduction by my buddy michael. then up onto the stage. nice show. remembered most of the chords. people laughed at most of my jokes. what else can you ask for?

afterwards had fun doing autographs and pictures, then headed upstairs with my college friend andrew and his colleague apurv for beer. they dragged me out onto the street somewhere and we ended up at the can can, where we saw an absolutely incredible flamenco dancer and this smoking singer. super fun.

then cruised to apurv’s apartment in andrew’s audi for some mandolin jamming. I’m not so great at strings so I turned it around and beat on the back. jammin. just like old times with andrew, and apurv is definitely the most interesting person I’ve met in a while.

after awhile andrew started sparring with apurv, who is a highly trained mixed martial artist. this was fun and I decided to give it a try. apurv agreed not to hurt me, striking my face with his hands with incredible skill and speed. he’s not the biggest guy in the world and I was certain my reach would protect me. not the case. it’s fascinating to watch the ways I respond to getting hit, my reflexes spinning, the mind trying to compensate.

then he tells me he’s going to kick me, which sounds cool until he does and my shoulder comes out of socket. the kick didn’t hurt but it moved me back just enough for the damn thing to pop out again (dislocation #7). I lay on the floor trying to get it back in and then give up and they call an ambulance.

had fun with the medical technicians, very cool people. haven’t been in that much pain in a long time and it was interesting. at the hospital they gave me a couple shots of morphine but couldn’t get the shoulder back in. gave me a third shot and I woke up five hours later, puking and stoned out of my mind from the morphine.

showed up at the place I was staying, my poor friend jeff had to give me a ride to the airport and I spewed nonsense and nodded in his front seat. walked in the sliding door of the airport and threw up into the nearest garbage can. fortunately jeff had the good sense to get me a wheelchair. don’t remember much after that. somehow made it home and slept and puked for another day.

I’m gonna get this thing operated on so it stays in its socket. I’m too old for this shit.

playing live

I’m doing a little gig in seattle this weekend for a friend’s nonprofit and I’m psyched.

I’m also scared. somehow playing live, just me and my acoustic and my two hands — which I find utterly unreliable when it comes to fingering the right chord and strumming with correct intensity at the appropriate time related to what I’m singing — is still a huge challenge for me, even after all these years.

I used to get genuinely terrified. now I’m just nervous and uncomfortable and dismayed by my imperfections. probably why I gravitate towards the studio, where I have an infinite more degree of control. it’s not that I don’t recognize the magic that only happens in live performance. it’s just that the whole thing makes me squirm. which, I suppose, is why I need to do it more.

hope to see you this saturday.

love,
paul

rocking seattle hard

in 1998 we rocked the rock candy in seattle, washington, and we rocked it hard. like, rock hard. y’know what I’m saying?

anyhow, after 15 years (fuck!!!) I am making my way back to seattle to do a little acoustic show for my friend’s non-profit. I’m hoping it’s a foot-in-the-door kind o’ thing, maybe leading to future northwest gigs, so I’m really, really hoping that you’ll come out and support me (and her).

manu came to hamburg from god knows where (a lot of kilometers. I can’t remember b/c my whole km to miles converter hadn’t kicked in yet) and rachel came to hamburg from london. in honor of a certain bunny foo foo who came from south carolina or something to my boston show a few years back, I inaugurated a prize for the person who travels the furthest to see my sad sack ass. the prize is a signed cd (woo hoo!), but the honor of course goes far beyond mere swag.

I’ll shut up now and give you the show info, but first I wanted to mention that this month’s free mp3 of the month is an excellent rendition of “sleeps with angels” from the aforementioned rock candy show. to be honest, we didn’t rock all that hard because we were so freaking tired, as can be heard in the hilarious interchange at the end with select seattle residents regarding heroin abuse.

Saturday, 16 February 2012. 8 PM. The Grotto (at Rendezvous in Belltown), 2322 2nd Ave. http://bit.ly/Xd06Q0

ok, enjoy!

p