I've thought about "shopping it around" as well, but I also don't know what that means.

I do have a live band, although they recorded these two new songs with me so I suppose now they're just the band. They're great! Booking shows as an opening band on a bill that makes sense is another thing that turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated.

good to hear! things are going well, i somehow stumbled into some session bass work that should keep me busy over the next month. RE Beta Males, we actually just got done tracking two new songs today. I'll send some files to you when i get them.

I put joy up everywhere with DistroKid, we'll see how useful that ends up being (feel free to stream it on spotify so i can rake in the big bucks). Reception has been decent, although i had a really hard time finding press outlets that were interested in me. I sent the EP to a bunch of places and only a couple responded to me, only one actually promoted it and that was a place i used to intern at so that doesn't even really count. I'm not sure what i should have done differently but i'll have to figure it out before the next release.

I was thinking about doing a little write up of my experience releasing joy and posting it here if i get the time.

here's what i came up with! nothing too fancy except for a little hot doggin at the end.

I didn't know you were no longer with Dadstache. I still follow the label on facebook and listen to releases when they come out. Do you mind me asking what happened? Sorry if that question's been answered already, i haven't been on hubski in a while.

Hey, thanks tng. Funny that you tagged me in this just now - check your email!

I might attend. I have a ticket if I want it, but getting there will be tough for me. I'm thinking about asking the other blisters if they want to do a road trip. There's lots of people I want to see, so I'd hate to miss it.

I love it. It addresses all the problems I had with gkmc and adds so much more. He's able to pinpoint social issues so accurately and authentically that I'm able to see them from a perspective I haven't before.

I'm really picky with the hip-hop I listen to, and Kendrick's stuff thus far has been a little underwhelming for me, but this is some real shit. Whether it's a classic remains to be seen. But it's definitely a work of art - and that means a lot these days.

I take issue with the notion that doing something which has been done before is inherently bad. I also think you may be missing the point of the project, as tng said. But still I appreciate that you took the time to listen and give feedback. Maybe some of my other stuff would be more to your liking.

I have mentioned it a couple times I think, but probably just in conversations with tng. why, have you heard of us?

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'm glad you can hear the Andy hull! My dream Is that somehow one of these songs will reach him and he'll love it so much that he'll offer to produce and finance my next record. In that case, there would definitely be bass, drums, strings, the works!

Thanks, yeah the iPhone really surprised me when I started recording these. It starts to sound worse and worse the better the equipment you use to listen, but coming out of my iPhone speakers or my garbage earbuds i think it sounds pretty nice.

Regarding post-production, no, all I did was boost the gain on all the songs by like 2db.

Yes, haha, I wish I were a better guitar player! I took it up just to write songs so I never learned much outside of chords, but I know exactly what you mean. In "Temporary" the guitar plays a melody under the vocals during the verse and I think that adds some spice. But in most of the songs it's just strumming and singing. Arrangement is definitely a big part of songwriting, thank you for the observation, I will certainly be keeping this in mind as I continue writing. Having guitar flair is also good because it can inform the vocal melody, which is something I struggle with a lot.

getting me to listen to a whole album of white guy playing a guitar while talking about his life is about as hard as getting me to walk over hot coals. That being said I like your album and listened to it all the way through.

Mind if I use this quote on the bandcamp page?

I agree about the vocals, in Kalamazoo especially. That was a frustrating one to write because there are so many parts to the story that I wanted to tell. I gave up a lot of ideas to make it more concise and it wasn't really enough. I think a second verse melody would have helped out a lot in making it more interesting. I get the same feeling about "All The Things You'd Say"

My most notable musical endeavor is as bassist in a band called The Blisters but I don't write songs for them. This was my first solo release so I haven't thought too far ahead, for now I'm working on another white guy with guitar album but I'm recording it for real. I may add bass and drums down the line but I'd record them myself.

For this project, I drew a lot of inspiration from Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra. He has a side project called Right Away, Great Captain that I really admire.

Thanks so much, Pablo. If any critiques do come up, let me know! It's all very raw and basic, the goal was just to exercise my ability to write songs without worrying about anything else.

The first time i saw the term "beta male" was in a book i think by Christopher Moore, but i don't remember which one. I read it years ago and it's just something that stuck with me because i identify with it so much (never been the guy who's confident and not afraid to take charge and get shit done).

It took a while to finally settle on Beta Males as the name - i have a note in my phone of dozens of band name ideas and for the longest time i couldn't decide. A friend told me it sounds too light hearted for my sad crybaby songs. Eventually, though, I decided i was okay with that because how often do you find a name that you really like and identify with?

So regarding your band, try not to take things too seriously and don't let the name get in the way. Make sure the name can be understood easily over loud music in a crowded venue. This local band that i played with recently was called The Aunteaks (pronounced Antiques) and as clever as that is i think it's more confusing than anything else. Ultimately, if you come up with a name that means something to you, i'd say just go for it. Your fans will care way less about the name than you guys do.

milo - a toothpaste suburb came out in September, i've been pretty into it.

EDIT: eightbitsamurai this album called The Waters by Mick Jenkins came out in August. I missed it, I think you may have too. Give it a listen it kicks ass!

By that i just mean i have recordings that i made using the Voice Memo app on my phone. they're really rough and lo-fi but might have a nice charm to them.

Right now i'm working on weeding out the songs that aren't the strongest so i don't waste time recording and mixing songs i won't use. Hopefully i can keep working on them and include them in later releases. I have one more song to record from scratch and a couple revisions to make on the other four tracks. Initially, i wanted to do six or seven songs, but now that i'm getting down to it, limiting myself might be smarter. I had the idea to release a b-sides of the other songs as i-phone Voice Memo recordings. What do you think about that?

It's going to be a fun year for us. We've got some shows and we are recording an EP at a friend's studio this summer! can't wait to show you some of the new songs.

Thanks, he'll get a kick out of Brian's write-up i bet, i'll send it to him. I wish he'd make a hubski account and share some of his experiences/thoughts on the subject. He sold out of all of his honey as soon as he harvested it (it tastes really great). When he harvests some more next summer I'll try to convince him to send some to you.

My dad has been raising bees for almost a year now. For Christmas he gave me this awesome shirt with the new logo for his company.

Nice =)

I think i will have everything tracked by the end of january at the latest. It's nothing too complicated, just 5 or 6 songs with guitar and voice. After i get it all recorded i'm sending it to a friend to mix and that'll probably take some time, too. It's exciting stuff! I've changed a lot in the time that i've spent writing the album though, so a big concern right now is that the songs will be weird and not cohesive.

Almost done with my first record thanks to this lovable piece of shit.

Something / anything arrived today! I also picked up a copy of Nas' Illmatic the other day. Did you ever end up finding any Bossa Nova?

Hey galen, i'm finding this thread pretty late. We are the same pants size, and i don't know if you are still trying to find good pants but these jeans will fit you perfectly. 510s are considered "skinny" but for our size it looks more like an average man's straight fit slim. Definitely pick a pair up if you haven't already. And if you have trouble finding clothes that fit, maybe try looking into fitbay.com

Are they in sleeves or just loose records? And I'm guessing you're stacking them on their sides as opposed to lying flat? I don't know anything about vinyl, really. But I thought you aren't supposed to keep them out of sleeves or they'll get scratched, and you aren't supposed to stack vertically or they'll get warped.

Vinyl listening party sounds like a great idea. I ordered a used copy of Todd Rundgren's Something / Anything and it should be here soon.

Tng I recently got my dad's old record player in shape and have borrowed some of my parents' records as well as bought a few of my own. Quick question - how do you store your 45s? I've got a huge stack of them (no sleeves) and they don't fit on my shelf the way the LPs do. I was told that their label raises them a bit so the actual records don't touch each other when stacked, I don't know how true that is though. Any tips?

well...yeah. It does kind of suck, for the reasons you mentioned. I still appreciate it and even enjoy listening to it every once in a while at blues bars or wherever. Every song follows the same progression, solos are all in the same scale, there really isn't much in the songwriting. Its value, for me at least, comes from the fact that it's so simple. Blues is where i started as a musician and i'm sure a lot of others are in the same boat. You can pick up a guitar and play blues with people you've never met before. And i think music in general is valuable because it isn't exclusionary - everyone is invited to play and create and participate in this cool thing, and blues happens to be a genre that lends itself to that very well.

So i enjoy the blues. I do think it sucks, but i enjoy it. the same way i enjoy certain punk, hip-hop, folk, etc. Songs like "You Are My Sunshine" and "This Land Is Your Land" are also objectively pretty bland and not innovative but they're still awesome because of what they accomplish beyond the song itself.

My grandpa, the guy who taught me how to play bass, is really into blues. He was a gigging blues bassist for most of his life, and even now his entire record catalog is JUST blues. He listens to I IV V all day, every day. I appreciate blues but if i could never listen to anything else for the rest of my life I think i would literally go insane.

My very basic and lo-fi audio setup.