As we retreat

It's probably always true that "I am experiencing something I have not before."

I am experiencing something I have not before—this is as far as I got writing this a week or two ago before I forgot to finish this whole announcement thing. I was going to write very nice prosaically but I am anxious and will not anymore. I told myself I had to put something on this new blog because I'm performing music soon.

1/29 - radio caroline at gamma ray in madison with dilettante and dddangit

2/6 - eli orion dj set at the jazz gallery in milwaukee

2/8 - radio caroline at mke ultra in milwaukee with ladyslipper, jenny matrix, and teenage ice age 

2/11 - radio caroline at cactus club in milwaukee with frantic repair, our vanity, and sky pine drive

Take a look o'er yonder—who's that ragtag crew of bells and whistles?

a photo of the band by blake young

2/12 - lyle's tree at amsterdam bar and hall in minneapolis with chroma and blimey

2/13 - eli orion band set at graham's jams in eau claire with the doghouse, bonehead, and varsity club

2/14 - lyle's tree and higher ground at the contented cow in northfield with a third unknown band 

2/15 - eli orion band set at underground music cafe in minneapolis with stonewalker, one big quilt, and nice and blue

Yeah I am keeping it simple I need to do things in real life and not just write on my blog or post on my Instagram so I decided to just announce these eight events I'm performing in within the next month now and then I'll check back in with the blog in like a month or so. Maybe more prosaically. Or maybe I will be even more matter-of-fact. I am great at making decisions.

Welcome

 

When I made a single Instagram Story post expressing frustration with the social "platforms" I did not expect to migrate a solid 5% of my following to this somewhat less "clearnet" (funded by addicting you to advertisements) space. Those of you who subscribed are a part of the solution to the exact problem my friend and collaborator Dominick described here, better than I could. But then I had to do some explaining to my email list that after December 31st of this year, I won’t have a way to engage with them without paying $500 a year to Intuit (owners of Mailchimp and TurboTax).

In one month, Mailchimp, the service I used to avoid ad-funded platforms, is closing its free tiers. This comes, painfully, as no surprise: it's been getting harder to support distributing information and connecting people if the distribution method isn't not designed to profit. The alternative is to pay with our invaluable time consuming short-form vertical videos, and I don’t want to be a content creator anymore. So I'll probably be mainly doing real-life music and a little bit of posting songs on the internet. But, of all the stupid places to share stuff online I will keep this blog up, never fear.

Everyone like knows the broad acceptance of this is a problem, but are we actually going to do something about it? I'm finally getting the sense people might stop releasing primarily on Spotify and promoting primarily on Instagram. But it will take a lot of us who care about each other more than we desire to be spoon-fed. But if you're here, you've proven you care.

I've been playing like some classical music and a lot of jazz. As I've soliloquized to anyone who knows me irl, the focus this fall has been on supporting other music groups. In addition to a combo and a symphony I have been blessed with the role of guitarist in a post-hardcore band called Radio Caroline (check our website for upcoming dates; we'll be playing around a lot and we're mixing recordings right now). Of course, I still play keys as a member of the formidable Lyle's Tree. There's some very good stuff going on in that realm too.

I'll cut to the chase and admit the "call to action" of this post is that I'm playing at least 90 minutes of acoustic guitar songs (many of which haven't been performed) for free at a lovely little spot called Urban Forage in Minneapolis on December 13th. There will be an Irish jam in the afternoon so if you come you should like bring your guitars and fiddles and whatever else and then I'll play in the evening.

As long-term Eli Orion recording projects continue to percolate or brew or idk I can't think of any more novel alchemical analogy than that, I've been focusing on some more circumstantial collaborating stuff—I'm visiting Elijah and Quintin right now and we're making some good stuff. I want to have news about releasing a ton of songs and stuff but that news is a while coming and will only mean anything if I've actually spent said while working on whatever projects I plan to share with people in my online networks. For now, I'll leave you with these no-hesitation, one-nighter recording projects Q and I did (once in May and once in November) and this proof of antiplatform dissent...

I hope the video loads. Idk if it is working.

Take that, vertical vidoes!