Get The Party Started

I'm leaving for London tomorrow, for a week, to see the College Girl settled into her sping semester abroad. I tend to go into a nesting ritual before such trips, trying to put the entire house in order while I figure out what to pack. But I don't want to leave before dropping a few lines here.

I wanted to start the New Year off on the right foot, with something positive, but there wasn't a lot happening in my musical world the past few days, 'cept for being annoyed at the promo pic for the new Rolling Stone reality series, in which one of the two female wanna-be reporters is posed sitting up on the desk around which the male candidates are gathered, showing off her leggy, mini-skirted journalistic credentials. Perhaps I can plan to be out of the country every Sunday night.

But, as I said, it's too early in the year for bitchery. Thanks to an email from the PR folks at Tell All Your Friends, I found something much more fun to share. In touting a new act, Fujiya & Miyagi, whose "Transparent Things" comes out February 6th, the group included a link to a video of a dude named Charles dancing to the track, "Photocopier".

The link takes you to the YouTube collection of said Charles Dancing, a beefy young man who just lets his groove thing go in front of a camera, with "costume" (jeans and t-shirt) and "cinematography" that make the OK Go clip for "A Million Ways" look like "Lord of the Rings." He's loose and natural and throughly appealing, and I can see bands submitting songs to him just to see how he interprets them. Is Charles Dancing the next Viral Video hit?

In other press mailing news, the lovely people at Team Clermont have announced their new Digital Delivery service, and so will not be sending out hard copies of new CDs. Instead, they sent a link to a download of the new CD by The Couch and Four (I don't think I'm authorized to share it). As they said it:
" While there are certainly some drawbacks to moving away from sending physical promos, we can't help but be excited by these facets of our Digital Delivery plans:
* Cuts down on the expense and time it takes to mail
* Eliminates a substantial amount of waste from bubble mailers, bios, and the like
* Does not contribute to cluttering your office/apartment/house
* Allows for delivery of audio and biographical content in a convenient package"

I'll check it out, but I may still take them up on the promise to send physical copies to those who ask. And no, it's not a way to beef up the stack of stuff I sometimes take to the trade-in store. Call me old school - or just call me old - but as much as I love my iPod, I have a hard time keeping track of even those digital files I buy for myself out of genuine interest. I keep a stack of the new promo acquistions near the stereo and rotate a few each week into the car, so that I can just plug 'em in and test them out. And I still like looking at the covers, reading liner notes and gleaning what I can from the packages before/as I hear the music. Digital direct is the way of the future, sure, but that doesn't automatically mean it's always better.

Case in point, takes me to the first new musical acquisitons of the new year:
1. Arthur Dodge - The Perfect Face (Remedy Records)
An unexpected, but most welcome, surprise from YARRR! PR. A singer/songwriter with a a definite young Dylan vibe, less obstuse, more romantic and initially quite impressive.
2. Hero Pattern - The Deception EP (self-released?)
A little hint of early Elvis Costello rhythms and attitude (always a good thing) in a relatively generic alt-rock package.

And so, the Year-to-Date total (at least until I test out the Team Clermont offering) is...
YTD: 2