Losing My Religion: San Francisco, CA

Title: Losing My Religion: San Francisco, CA
Location: Yoga Loft 321 Divisadero St. San Francisco, CA
Link out: Click here
Description: Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee plays in San Francisco. 9/24 and 9/25. Super excited to see so many friends!! Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/123427
Start Time: 08:00
Date: 2010-09-24

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Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee

Title: Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee
Location: Dynamite Space (Basement of Thorne’s) 150 Main St. Northampton
Link out: Click here
Description: Losing My Religion comes to Northampton. Tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets. Call 800-838-3006 or purchase online.
Start Time: 08:00
Date: 2010-07-09

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Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee

Title: Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee
Location: Hooker-Dunham Theater
Link out: Click here
Description: BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!! Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee returns for one night only as a benefit for the Hooker-Dunham Theater.
Start Time: 08:00
Date: 2010-07-01

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Sethums aka Older Than Hours Digital Release Pahty!

Title: Sethums aka Older Than Hours Digital Release Pahty!
Location: The Loft 72 Cotton Mill Hill Seconf Floor Brattleboro, VT
Link out: Click here
Description: Come celebrate the digital release of When your Heart Flexes Like a Bicep by Sethums aka Older Than Hours with special guests Graph and Timecard. Friday March 26th at the Loft 76 Cotton Mill Hill in Brattleboro, VT. $6

Older Than Hours (Brattleboro)

Captivating vocals lead gorgeous and twisted electro dream pop à la the Notwist, Postal Service and of Montreal.
http://sethums.com http://www.myspace.com/olderthanhours

Graph (Keene)

“Melding the frenzied technicality of math rock, the erratic precision of jazz and the melodic sensibility of pop” – Performer magazine

http://www.myspace.com/graphisaband

Timecard (Amherst)

A multimedia experience that encompasses the electronic pop of bands like Gorillaz, of Montreal, and Beck.
http://timecardrocks.com/
Start Time: 08:00
Date: 2010-03-26

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Music Success in Nine Weeks- Weeks 3-9 Basta!

Well, this is going to be my final blog posting on this whole Music Success in Nine Weeks thing. I’m behind on my blogging and came to some realizations about the whole process which made me reconsider why I was doing this in the first place.

There are some very useful tools, links, sites to know about and whatnot in the book but I have a couple reservations: Read More »

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Music Success in Nine Weeks- Week 3

This week is all about optimizing the ol’ website. This includes putting my new pitch, (Captivating vocals lead gorgeous and twisted electro dream pop à la the Notwist, Postal Service and of Montreal) on my site and all social networks. Check.

Also giving a generalized “look” to myspace and twitter so it matches my site. My site is kind of plain (it’s white and very blogish) but I like the simplicity. A lot of sites are like “Hey Look at me!” which can be effective but only to a point. Read More »

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Music Success in Nine Weeks- Week 2

The Perfect Pitch

Ok, so this week is all about finding the perfect pitch. Trying to find a way to conveyMSi9W Badge your sound so that it peaks someone’s interest was much more difficult than I expected. When I looked at some of the examples in the book I was really cringed out.

Mostly it was the ones that used metaphors containing an assortment of bands to demonstrate… something. When I was in punk bands in the 90s whenever someone described their band it was always something like “The Meat Puppets meets Fear on acid.” Always “on acid”. Always. I get that we are trying to spark interest in our music, to get someone to click on “play” or for a reviewer to not through the CD into a Maybe Later bin. However, there has to be a way for the statement of who we are to not be so…well… bad.

I woke up many nights to scribble an idea down, would call my home from my cell while I was out on a walk with my dog Ruby to leave a note on revision. When I posted it on the Mastermind forum that Ariel set up I got a couple responses and it was Tobias Tinker who made me re-evaluate what I was doing. Originally I put this out there as my final draft:

The sincere irony of 80′s electro pop meets the dissonant beauty of 21st century dream pop.”

I tend to go on so I decided to shorten it to “80′s electro pop meets 21st century dream pop“.

I was really trying to veer away from name-dropping (sound-alike) in any way shape or form. Not that I think I’m creating a new genre or something. I’m not at all. I just wanted to stay away from what I would potentially make fun of if I heard it. I happened to like what Tobias wrote about his sound. It made me want to hear it and he was dropping Sigur Ros, Keith Jarrett and Brian Eno all in the same sentence but, and here’s the catch, it made me laugh. I could tell he wasn’t taking himself too seriously which I highly respect.

So then I thought of a couple brand new possibilities and shot them off to Tobias for some feedback:

If Oingo Boingo only played on Halloween and the Postal Service only shaved once a week you’d get Older Than Hours.”

OR

A darker Oingo Boingo hold Depeche Mode riffs hostage while making a futuristic 80s mixtape for the Postal Service.”

The first one made him laugh but when I sat with it I wasn’t satisfied. As Ariel says in Chapter 2 about creating your perfect pitch, “Do you love it? If you don’t, then don’t use it.”

This became the thermometer of how I tested whether the pitch had staying power or not. Luckily I am usually full of ideas, too many in fact. What about…

If a method actor split his vocal duties between the Postal Service, Oingo Boingo and …. (hmmm…need a band that has a great vocalist like Thom Yorke but NOT Radiohead)

Beautifully layered vocals (OR Multiple personality vocals) (OR   ironically nod at 80’s electro-pop (Depeche Mode, …) (Oingo Boingo) while upping the ante of  the aching melancholy of the Notwist, Postal Service and For Carnation.”

I include the notes I made (the ones in parenthesis) to myself to give you a taste of how crazy I was making myself.

Vocal driven electro dream pop a la the Notwist and the Postal Service envelop personal politics and a punk aesthetic.”

Ok finally I was getting closer (sort of) to what I wanted. I kept dragging my wife Sharon into the office. “What about this…?” She was very patient and very honest. Finally after much trial and error I landed on this:

Older Than Hours: Captivating vocals lead gorgeous and twisted electro dream pop à la the Notwist, Postal Service and of Montreal.

I liked it. Did I love it? Yup. Could I live with it for a few years or more? Yup. Good, done.

All I can say is this is a process but well worth it. People for years have asked me what I sounded like and I would say electro pop and leave it at that. I couldn’t stand trying to come up with something witty. Sharon would always pipe in “Well, really the vocals are the strength of Seth’s music…” Luckily that came back into the fold as I found this pitch.

I don’t personally believe in perfection but this pitch is pretty friggin’ close to it as far as describing my sound. Satisfaction achieved.

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Music Success in Nine Weeks- Week 1

So the first week of Music Success in Nine Weeks is “Getting Mentally Prepared”. MSi9W BadgeIt’s all about setting up realistic goals. My first response- Ugh… So what I did was I read the whole book, which took me less than an hour and saw the trajectory of the nine weeks. Now the first chapter made a lot more sense and didn’t seem like so much of a mountain. Plus it made me remember something that happened just over a year ago that was very significant in terms of approachable and practical goals. Read More »

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9 Weeks to Music Success?

So I decided to try out this book and blogging contest called Music Success in Nine Weeks that Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR is putting on. We’ll see how it goes. One big reason I decided to do this is because I have a lot of resistance to social networking as it seems like a black hole of death (not a good thing).I want to change that perspective and find an easy way to streamline the whole process as well as create a dialogue with potential fans. Read More »

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