HEY!
It’s early and raining (yaaayyy!!!) and I will share here a somewhat rambling post which I just plopped on my FB. I wont add links here but all these goodies are easily searchable, I think. To wit (because I like saying, “to wit”):
A NYE-Eve shout-out to Marc Platt and his fab RIA colleagues for sharing "Charlotte in the Garden on the New Futility" with these rockin' radio stations near and far. Going into 2024 with this song - which was inspired by and penned in the City of Angels some time ago - still in Rock Candy Radio LA's top 5, well it's a joy to see.
Friends n' fam n' fans n' cats I have decided I am leaving "Charlotte" and most of my Berkeley Cat Records releases on Spotify, even tho they changed up their royalty policy - BECAUSE!->
1. That's the service most of y'all use right now, and I don't wanna yank my tunes from your playlists and happy music-browsing paws, over an already negligible smattering of pennies, and
2. Because I prefer my records (I still call them records) to be widely available in the current landscape, AND I know the landscape will change, as it always and ever does.
DID I wrestle with this decision? Why yes, Persephone. DO I applaud anyone who takes a different route? Of course. And any of the artists on my label who want to yank their songs OFF of Spotify need only give me the word, and yanked they will be.
BUT, I digress! Thanks to the above AND to The Planetary Group for getting the word out about some of my releases AND thanks to all the deejays and music-heads out there who have played "Charlotte" and any of BCR's tracks on your shows and playlists, AND thanks to the greater music ecosystem (possibly my favorite buzzword) AND thanks to Daniel Turman who said my song "Am I Not Alien" was his TOP Spotify track in his year-end wrap-up (whhaaat?!) Thanks right, "Alien" is a hit at the Turman house. Michael Valladares says Rocko digs "1983" so my work is finished! 😄Love you guys and all our extended musical fams, I do.
What else - HEY! Did I mention The Uptones have a cool new (old!) track out? It's called "Step Down" and it was recorded live at the Rheem Theatre in Moraga in 1986! That's right, kiddies, that was a music venue in The Before Time, and we're releasing the audio now, whoda thunk. You can hella easily find it on Bandcamp and (gasp) THE STREAMING SERVICES! 😲
A wild ride it all is, and I'm glad to be here for a minute, to get to know some of you, and do some hopefully good things along the way. My catnip dish runneth over.
Please give "Charlotte" a spin and if you like, thumb it up, share it on ANY platform you like, play it for your pals! I myself use Bandcamp and Pandora mainly, YouTube also, and lately I've been rediscovering the uncorrupted joys of Archive dot org. We have an unspeakable abundance of CONTENT oh my, and I have a song about that, too. It was inspired in part by J Neo Marvin (and The Content Providers!), whose projects endlessly fascinate and entertain me.
Gadzooks, I could say SO much more about this year, it felt like a decade stuffed into 365 days. Instead I'll sign off, with gratitude and much cheers, from the Boggy Northlands of Berklishire, and a great appreciation for the word "gadzooks." See you in 2024!
😽
good one! like Charlotte!