The Motion Sick will be taking some time off from playing shows to finish up some recordings. So, most likely, you won't be hearing us perform for a few months. This is your last chance for a bit!!!!If you buy advance tickets from us here for the 2/19 show at The Middle East Upstairs (our split 7" release with Golden Bloom), you will receive a coupon for a free copy of the 7", which contains The Motion Sick's cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" and Golden Bloom's cover of The Motion Sick's "30 Lives"!!!!
Thanks to everyone who came out to our massively sold-out rock show at The Lizard Lounge last week. Apart from an unsightly and messy injury (more info down below), we had a great time and really enjoyed the fine tunes of Paul Melancon, Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions, and Oranjuly.
We grabbed a little video of the bands so those of you turned away at the door could get a peek at what happened inside.
As you may know, we had the great honor of being selected as Best Local Rock Band 2009 in the Boston Phoenix. Well, the nomination period for 2010 is open. We'd be thrilled to be selected again, so if you'd like, please do nominate us!You can do this by going to: http://thephoenix.com/thebest/boston/vote/nominate.aspx?cat=arts#10109 and entering "The Motion Sick" in the Rock Band category. Your vote doesn't count until you finish with their two-part process. First, you must click "Submit Vote" and then after, you must click "Finished" and enter an e-mail address. They won't add you to a list if you don't check the "add me" box. If you feel uncomfortable using your real address, you can also always use any address at Mailinator.com, which can be checked (if you want to) on their web site.
Lots of excitement! We've got shows in Boston, CT, NYC, and Philly; we need your help to earn a little money via our new song for you to download for free; "30 Lives" makes for a great first dance at your wedding. Also, a little news about a bunch of forthcoming releases including 2 EPs and a 7". Catch us now because after February, we'll be taking an extended break from playing live to do some recording.
01/23/10 The Lizard Lounge Cambridge, MA
w/ Paul Melancon, Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions, Oranjuly
Read Brendan Boogie's interview with Mike about this show. We'll also be playing a bunch of older material that rarely rears its ugly head, so don't miss this!
01/27/10 10:30 PM - Live Radio Performance on WMFO (On the Town with Mikey Dee)
Listen at http://www.wmfo.org
02/04/10 The Space Hamden, CT
w/ Wench The Band, Fey Rey, The Field Recordings, The Press
All Ages!
02/05/10 Pub Webb Philadelphia, PA
02/06/10 Don Hill's New York, NY
w/Sidewalk Driver (one of our absolute favorite Boston bands is joining us in NYC, so don't miss this one - you will regret it!)
Download our novelty song, "Surfin' Retiree" free - click on "Current Contenders" and scroll down to The Motion Sick - if we get into the top 7 most downloaded in our group of 50 this week, we also earn $500, which we could really use toward finishing our next batch of songs, so we appreciate the help. We're out of the running by about 25 downloads now, so please download it, repost this, forward the e-mail on to friends, etc. We appreciate any help you can provide!
It's slightly annoying that you have to become a fan of "Windows" on Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace to do this, but becoming a fan is pretty meaningless anyway, so hop to it...
The song is part of our 4 song novelty EP that will be released digitally very soon. The EP is a remixed, remastered, and sometimes reeverythinged collection of our Ash Wednesday residency theme songs. The first single, "Aquaman's Lament" has a music video that has just hit 10,000 views. Definitely check it out if you haven't yet seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueeySSBI1J0.
You'll hear more soon, but in addition to the novelty EP mentioned earlier, we've got a couple of other upcoming releases.
We're very excited to be releasing a split 7" single with the fine band Golden Bloom next month. The split will contain our cover of their hit, "Doomsday Devices" and their cover of our wedding-first-dance favorite, "30 Lives," both tweaked for optimal foot stomping. We recently picked the winning cover in our artwork contest. Check out the winner and the runners-up at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2010/01/golden-bloom-vs-motion-sick-artwork.html.
Finally, and most mysteriously, after February, we will go into hiding in a soundproof bunker buried in the deepest depths of the ocean to record our most brutal, terrifying, and jovial set of songs yet. We won't be playing any shows during that time, at least not until Lady Gaga or Slayer calls and asks us to join her/them, so you had best come to one of our upcoming shows or miss us for many months...
Fistbumps, nods, hugs, and/or kisses,
The Motion Sick
"After suggesting another Chris Carrabba copycat, The Motion Sick overturn a Dumpster full of chunky guitar fuzz, smooshing his pompadoured noggin." SPIN Magazine
This is definitely one of the most awesome and fun things that has ever happened with our music. It is quite an honor to have "30 Lives" selected to be part of someone's world in this way.
We were thrilled with how many entries we got in the Golden Bloom vs. The Motion Sick artwork contest. There were so many great entries that once we chose the winner, we decided to choose a bunch of great runner-ups rather than just a single one. We're really excited about how the songs turned out and you'll be hearing a lot more about this soon. We'll tell you right now that the best way to get a copy will be to come to the split 7" release show on 2/19 at The Middle East Upstairs with the following ridiculously wonderful lineup: Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women The Motion Sick The Fatal Flaw Golden Bloom Akudama
I am a little behind on saying so, but thanks friends for coming to see us on NYE at Church. We had an awesome time and grabbed a few videos of the other great bands we played with. Thought you might enjoy them.
We've been spending some of our holiday-season time visiting the studio to prepare our next recording.
First, we've been working on our cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" for our shared split 7" project. The artwork contest has just wrapped and we'll be announcing the winner and runners-up very soon.
Here we are doing a little "Doomsday Devices" at The Moontower in Cambridge, MA.
...and tracking for 4 songs at Bopnique with Anthony Resta, remixer extraordinaire of the "30 Lives (Up-Up-Down-Dance Mix)" Watch Anthony J. Resta rock out for fun...
We told you about our final show of the year - which may or may not be our final show of 2009...but more on that later...
Until then, here's some video from the 12/12 show celebrating a Golden Bloom birthday!
In order to celebrate our upcoming split 7", The Motion Sick was joined by Golden Bloom to perform "30 Lives" and Golden Bloom was joined by The Motion Sick to perform "Doomsday Devices"
We'll have one more update in the next few weeks to tell you what we're up to for 2010 (and it's a lot!), but until then, Patrick just really wanted to wish you happy holidays!
We are still working on an updated version of our Ash Wednesday's Residency 4-song collection (poster from the event on the left). One of the songs, "Aquaman's Lament" has been getting some notice lately. We even had the honor of earning a friends of Aquaman certificate (below) for our inside perspective on one of Aquaman's down days. We had the great honor of working with Leesa (of the band Naked on Roller Skates) to make the video for the song.
We've highlighted a few of the times Aquaman got into tangles with his fishy friends. For anyone interested in a very extensive list of all of Aquaman's chat's, check out: http://www.comictreadmill.com/finny.php - from this, we've learned of great moments in Aquaman's adventures where he: convinced crabs to pinch the toes of Fire Trolls to distract them, got a giant clam to chomp on and crush magic gem, made eels form into a lasso, got some flying fish to drop a seaweed net onto pirates, requested that a shark bypassed eating a delicious-looking Flash, and got a whale to wear an alien land creature costume to trick them. Ah, the joys of Aquaman.
We'll be chatting with the community at Music Game Authors about the preparation of our songs for Rock Band, our upcoming recording plans, and anything else of interest on Sunday, 11/22 at 8 PM EST. The chat session is open to the public and we'd love for all of you to join us.
Sunday, there will be links and details at: http://www.musicgameauthors.com - but, to ensure that you're able to get in on the action, you should register before Sunday at: http://www.musicgameauthors.com/forums/ucp.php?mode=register as the chat session will require you to be a member of their forums. It's a pretty painless process and if you're concerned about giving up your e-mail address (they won't use it for anything else), you can always use http://www.mailinator.com/ to generate a temporary address.
Well friends, thanks again for helping make our 150th show an absolute blast. It was nearly sold out before show time and totally sold out by the time the 2nd band of the night was on.
Here's some video of all of the bands. We had some video of Ghost Ocean as well, but it included a bit of them insulting the audience, so we are leaving it out of this post.
We're recording a cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" and they are covering our "30 Lives" - the recordings will be released on a split 7" in early 2010. Stay tuned for a cover art contest. In the meantime, watch the videos and read the press release below:
THE MOTION SICK AND GOLDEN BLOOM TAKE COVER WITH SPLIT 7 INCH
November 17, 2009 (NEW YORK)
Slated for a February release, The Motion Sick and Golden Bloom join forces to cover each other's songs on an upcoming split 7 inch. Golden Bloom will cover The Motion Sick's "30 Lives" which was featured in the video game, Dance Dance Revolution, while The Motion Sick will cover Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices". Why the covers? The Motion Sick's front man, Mike Epstein, states, "'Doomsday Devices' is an obvious and unauthorized song about my life. In fact, I heard it first while constructing the hail-producing portion of my weather dominator and it made me so angry that I accidentally created a blizzard in my garage. I still haven't gotten full visibility back in there." But In all seriousness. Golden Bloom front man, Shawn Fogel says, "When I first heard The Motion Sick I immediately identified them as musical peers. Their songwriting, their musicianship, the way they are serious about their music without taking themselves too serious; these were all qualities we shared. I've always enjoyed bands and artists who covered songs and really interpreted them while molding them into something their own. I have no doubt that when you hear Golden Bloom's "30 Lives" or The Motion Sick's "Doomsday Devices" you'll think we wrote the tunes respectively!" The Motion Sick's "30 Lives," is a ba-ba-ba filled ditty in which the protagonist utilizes a video game code to spend 30 lives with his partner. Earning "Blender Breakout" for their 30 Lives video, CMJ's Sonicbids Spotlight, and Spin's Undiscovered Band Worth A Listen, Epstein (Guitar, Vocals), Matthew Girard (Bass), Patrick Mussari (Guitar) and Travis Richter (Drums) draw parallels to Vonnegut with lyrics ringing of social commentary. Never too serious while slinging weighty subject matters and unconventional musical themes, the band remains profoundly simple in the melodic nods to their literary muses and societal inspirations. In January 2009 SPIN Magazine designated Golden Bloom as one of "8 undiscovered bands worth a listen" while stating that "'Doomsday Devices' feels like a great b-side from the [Wilco] Summerteeth era." With the tough and cheek "Doomsday Devices" video, Golden Bloom multi-instrumentalist and front man, Shawn Fogel, tests the dichotomy between hope and fear, bright energetic melodies shadowing the questions pervading society. Produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Mates of State), Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller), and Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek), the latest album, Fan the Flames explores the exploitation of peoples' fears which lead to that spark of passion to make a difference. For more information on The Motion Sick please go to http://www.greenlightgopublicity.com/clients/?client=themotionsick and Golden Bloom, http://www.greenlightgopublicity.com/clients/?client=goldenbloom. Please contact Janelle Rogers if you'd like to schedule an interview with either band.
We've just gotten hold of an awesome preview video of "30 Lives" for Rock Band. This isn't quite the final version, but it's almost there and soon, you'll be able to buy songs by The Motion Sick in the Rock Band store.
As part of our entry into the Rock Band world, we're holding a live chat on 11/22 8PM EST over at http://www.MusicGameAuthors.com - You'll be able to talk to us (The Motion Sick, that is) as well as Kyle "MarsPhoenix" Zimmermann (the gent preparing songs from our catalog for Rock Band) and some of the other folks from Music Game Authors.
So many of us have asked that question so many times. Well, I was lucky enough to sit down with SXSW Creative Director Brent Grulke and Sonicbids CEO and Founder Panos Panay to try and find out the answer:
Things have been a bit light on The Motion Sick blog here because there are so many exciting things going on. Soon, we'll get a bunch of news up for you all. Until then, here's a video recap of the show we played last Saturday at The Middle East Downstairs with Wheat, Jukebox the Ghost, and The Needy Visions.
In an effort to promote our What's Your Major show this weekend, I teamed up with show promoter Brendan Boogie to pull off a practically unthinkable feat...busk at over 50 colleges in a single day. Here's how it went down:
Friday Sept 18 12:10-12:45 The Great Bandini 12-12:10 Ken Reid 11:20-11:55 The Motion Sick 11:10-11:20 Sean Sullivan 10:40-11:05 One Happy Island 10:30-10:40 Maria Ciampa 9:50-10:25 The Future Everybody 9:40-9:50 Tim McIntire 9-9:35 Sarianna & The Swell
Saturday Sept 19 12:10-12:45 Aloud 12-12:10 Nate Johnson 11:20-11:55 Brendan Boogie & The Best Intentions 11:10-11:20 Tim McIntire 10:40-11:05 Blizzard of '78 10:30-10:40 Ken Reid 9:50-10:25 VulGarrity 9:40-9:50 Maria Ciampa 9-9.35 The Grownup Noise
I am always studying how the wise and successful bands carry out their PR campaigns, particularly who they hire and what their angles and strategies are. I hope to write more extensively about this and other music business topics right here on The Motion Sick blog. I got a lot of really good feedback about the list of essential services that I posted a while back, so I'll keep serving my snarky music tips right here. I thought about creating yet another blog for this topic, but I think it's fair to tell you all that this is a big part of the music business and a big part of shaping a successful band.
For those of you who are unaware, I also am one of the founders/editors/writers for Boston Band Crush. Working on BBC has been a great experience because it affords me an opportunity to promote great and deserving Boston music that I love. It is also wonderful for getting insight into good and bad approaches to PR.
I thought I'd tell you a couple of recent PR funnies. Stay tuned here for more in the future...
1. You have no idea who you are pitching to
The first and perhaps most common scenario: you've never actually looked at BBC, but you are constructing an e-mail to us asserting that you read it regularly and love our coverage. I am having trouble finding my favorite particular e-mail, but let me paraphrase for you with my notes in parentheses:
"Hello Amy (Amy writes a particular column on BBC, but is not one of the editors and does not receive these e-mails),
I love Boston Band Crush and read it all the time. You are doing a great job. I noticed that you cover a lot of great bands (vague statements like this are red flags indicating that you have no idea who we cover) and that you write about a lot of smaller bands. I am writing to you about this awesome band, The Toodly Doodlies from Amsterdam. They rock. You will love them."
So, I write back every time because I am a swell fellow, thanking them for telling us about The Toodly Doodlies. I gently point out that we only cover Boston music. The blog is called Boston Band Crush. Every single post is about Boston music. So, if you "love" our blog and "read" it...or you just read the name of the blog, you might realize that we are not interested in Amsterdam's finest act, The Toodly Doodlies.
2. You have an absurdly incorrect sense of the kind of music we might like
We got an e-mail today touting a band, "Think of them as if The Red Hot Chili Peppers ate Phish!"
I don't want to think about any band that is mentioned in the same sentence as Phish or The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I actually probably don't want to think about a band mentioned during the same week. You're writing to music bloggers. Music bloggers are a snobby, indie-leaning bunch. They are serious about finding and sharing obscure music and take pride in being the ones to break new sounds. Any blogger that bites on the offer of a band that has anything to do with Phish or The Red Hot Chili Peppers deserves to have their keyboard confiscated. I am not saying you can't/shouldn't listen to those bands (though that is how I feel), I am simply saying that pitching a new band to blogs that way is far off the mark. You probably just hit the neighbor's house with your arrow. The band in this particular case also has nothing to do with Boston, but you can see item 1 for that complaint.
My friendly reply: "I'd be thrilled if the Red Hot Chili Peppers would eat Phish...but only if they got a debilitating stomach ache from it. "
3. You don't use technology properly I get 10 e-mails a week from a particular firm that look like this: http://twitpic.com/f4dr3 - those are the good ones! Some are just "text" and don't even look that good.
4. You send a million e-mails about a terrible band (e.g., you want me to write about Owl City) I realize that I am actually doing this band a great service by saying how terrible I think they are because you are more likely to listen to them than if I said they were great. I've only heard that one song, but it pretty much rings the death knell for indie rock. What an amazingly stinky pile of poo. They aren't the worst band I have ever heard, but they are the worst band that I receive daily updates about. Oooh, I can't wait to find out what Owl City is having for breakfast tomorrow!!! The actual worst band in the history of music is so bad that they have earned inclusion in this post (again, I know I am "helping" them except that I am certain that no human being with ears could like this music). Here's their music video:
We here at The Motion Sick are ever searching for the secret(s) to success. We consult with music industry folks, listeners, and psychics on a regular basis to find the optimal route to world domination and control. So far, we haven't gotten any good answers, so we just stick to playing some rock songs instead. However, we love reading about routes to success that others have taken. I probably wouldn't call John Trubee & the Ugly Janitors of America a massive world-wide sensation, but their story of success is a pretty amazing one. We are also about to unleash a special fixed-up version of our Ash Wednesday novelty songs from last year, so novelty songs are on the mind...
This particular story involves answering an ad in the back of a tabloid and Stevie Wonder's genitals. After reading, I highly recommend downloading the song (or listening via the Youtube embed below) and reading the lyrics while you listen:
We are all very excited to be part of Game Unicon - http://www.gameunicon.com at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Marlborough, MA on Friday August 21st - Sunday August 23rd. We'll be performing at the concert on Saturday along with some ridiculously awesome other bands including Boston's most angelic choir of voices, Bang Camaro. The Saturday show also features alien rock invaders Planetoid and is rounded out with Jesus Candy and PowerGlove. On Friday, there is another concert headlined by Freezepop! In addition to amazing music, Game Unicon is packed completely full of video game tournaments, vendors, and appearances by lovely wrestling ladies: Sunny and Velvet Sky. We'll be around for most of the day Saturday hanging out and making our own special brand of trouble, so please come say hi! We love being part of the gaming community and we'd love to see you there!!!!
As with all things that result in us (just Mike really) getting out of hand, we've got a special promo video for the event starring Mike's head and Sockey, the sock puppet with lint for brains. Warning: viewing will result in fear, horror, and/or disgust. Don't say we didn't warn you!
In the next few days, we'll also have an interview with SpawnKill.com posted in which we reveal our gaming history!
Thanks to all you kind folks who made it out to Dave Duncan Virr's Birthday show! We had an absolute blast playing, broke everything in sight, and were thrilled to be on a bill with such great bands: Hymns, The Shills, and The Everyday Visuals!
Some media for you:
Patrick falls over the drums in a metaphorical representation of our entire set
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