Thu - May 27, 2004

Hooray for AudioStreet and GarageBand!


For now, I've uploaded a couple of my solo songs at this link at AudioStreet ("The Test of Time" is available for free download)


GarageBand now has one tune by the Retros (Peggy's Out For Fun) but it's gonna be a much longer process to get any more tunes up and running due to their rather arduous "review 15 songs to get one song listed for free" policy. Oh well, the good news is that ALL of the bands (The Retros, The Tickets as well as my solo stuff) will eventually be up and running again - it just may take a few decades... Thankfully, there are still a few sites keeping up the tradition of MP3.com, and that's really good news! Keep it here for updates.

Posted at 09:35 PM     Read More  

Wed - March 17, 2004

The Whole CD Catalogue Available For Sale/Who Needs another MP3.com?


-Unless something better comes along, what the hey? One must survive... Thanks to all of you who continue to support our/my music!

Posted at 09:40 PM     Read More  

Fri - November 14, 2003

MP3.com hits the skids - so now what?


Well, it's happened again - another once great thing about the internet has become a ghost. MP3.com has just sent me and several other tens of thousands of dedicated musicians notice that the company will no longer be in existence as of December 2 of this year. Although I'm not totally surprised at this sad news (their services and features have gone downhill consistently for the past year or so and one starts smelling a rat eventually) it nevertheless irks me, disappoints me and in fact makes me wonder how I'm going to deal with it. What will become of my only reliable source of exposure and potential CD sales for my former bands and solo stuff? Who in this world will ever learn of our music now that this musical tour is over for good? How will I deal with the lost hits at my other web sites without that vital MP3.com link to my pages? I'm bummed, lost and disheartened. MP3.com certainly represents the very best of the internet of the good old days - a time when the 'net was the people's place to share stuff without having to spend a dime for anything beyond the cost of an ISP. MP3.com allowed musicians who had original music to stream their songs to the masses, offer downloading of the songs if they so desired, and even to sell their CD's to anyone interested in hearing more.
But just like everything else that used to be free, the site slowly but surely started looking for ways to make big money (which is fair enough, I reckon) but finally it got to the point where the original idea of free music for all became a slimmed down, lo-cal virtual non-entity unless you were willing to spend some money to stay in the game. Now, lo and behold, the site has been purchased and liquidated by multi-mega-mogul-giant CNET, who promises all of us faithful MP3.com veterans a new, improved way to get listened to "sometime in the future." Why do I have the feeling - make that, how do I know that this is not only gonna be inferior to MP3.com but also gonna cost a buncha money? Hey, we've all been around long enough to know what happens when the little company gets swallowed up by the humongous company: nothing but really bad news...
Oh well, life goes on. It's still a drag to see it happen and it's gonna take all of us quite a while to get used to life without MP3.com. Oh, the times they are a changin...'

Posted at 09:57 PM     Read More  

Wed - October 1, 2003

My Original Music


Rock star, pop star - whatever you want to call it, I wanted to be one. Ever since I first saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan that fateful Sunday night when crime rates plummeted, the seed was planted. I got my first guitar for my thirteenth birthday and I practiced until my fingers bled. I got into several groups as an adolescent but it wasn't until 1980 when I played with The Retros that I actually tasted some success. This band was and still is awesome in the sense that we wrote and recorded a baffling thirty-three all-original songs in the short span of nine months! And the music still sounds good today, in this reporter's opinion. (See links if you'd like to hear those songs.) Then in 1981, I moved to NYC and started a band called The Tickets . We wrote and recorded around 30 songs in three years and played a lot of showcase clubs in Manhattan before we finally disbanded. This music was also quite good and can be heard via the links.
I've basically given up making music except for occasionally playing acoustic guitar and living vicariously through these old recordings by my old bands and my recently released Solo stuff. I have no regrets and am proud of this huge chunk of my life. I wouldn't have made a very good pop/rock star anyway!

Posted at 09:53 PM     Read More  

The Beatles


I'm so thankful to have lived during the era of Beatlemania. I can't begin to guess how my life would have been without the Fab Four in it. My entire being, musically, socially, spiritually and philosophically has been shaped in some way or form as a result of growing up during a golden period when love and peace ruled, not war and hate. It was easier to get around and get along and you could turn on the radio and feel like you were in touch with a world bound together through the great music you were hearing. The release of a new Beatles single was an event and yet another new way to explore the world around us. The kids nowadays who embrace the music and philosophy of the 60s and 70s at least have an idea of what it must have been like back then and I truly feel that they are better for it. Thirty years from now, kids will be doing the very same thing. Isn't it odd that so many kids are listening to the same music their parents listened to? Whoa, it was never like that when I was a kid - and that just about says it all!

Posted at 09:51 PM     Read More  

©