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Free CD with every purchase of a CD

we wanted to say thanks to the whole lot of you who bought the best of the mp3 of the month club. because so many of you are all modern and shit and bought downloads we still have lots o’ discs left, and wanted to get as many of them into your hands as possible.

so we’re having a sale! just buy any cd or a 3-for-$30 bundle of cd’s and we’ll send you a FREE copy of ‘the best of the mp3 of the month club’ on cd. yes! here’s the perfect chance to get yourself a 2nd copy of ‘two strangers’ or replace something you’ve worn out or a nice gift for an unsuspecting future fan. just order and the rest is automatic.

thanks!

new free mp3 of the month: the road

got some fresh evil for you today. while andy and I hammer away at a new album here’s something put together with my friend alex (of stray palace fame).

lemme know what you think…

 

the road

this is the ache inside
this is darkness in my hand
keep me in line, keep me in line

so this is the road that I get lost on
a twist in the road and I’ll be gone now

black, black is the tide
black water running down
and I get crazy, I get blind
raise my hands and start to drown
throw me a line, throw me a line

this is the road that I get lost on
a twist in the road and I’ll be gone now
and I know there’s a place that I belong yeah
and I know there’s a way that I’ll be gone now

fan mail of the month

“So i met this girl. Work convention. People drinking in my hotel room. Cant stop staring. I’m playing DJ. She sees me looking. Comes over to request a song. We talk. Laugh. Forget about everyone else in the room. I put on my favourites playlist. Wide eyed, she says to me “what is this?!” “Black Lab”,i reply. “I just changed your life.” she closes her eyes. And asks me to hit repeat. We listen to the song three times. This is going to be our song, she says. We’re going to have a song? I ask. We are tied together always through this moment. She says. And. I knew i was in trouble with this girl. Its been 6 months. And all is well. She had this made for me for my birthday. So i wanted to share it with you and say thank you. The music just gets better. And you are a guaranteed panty dropper every single time.”

two stray palace songs on abc’s ‘castle’ MONDAY 3/25

hey peeps, just wanted to let you know that stray palace is getting some tv love next week — check out abc’s crime drama ‘castle,’ monday night march 25 at 10/9 central.

they should be rocking “changed” from the first ep and “express yourself” from the diamond ep. if you haven’t had a chance to check those two little discs out you should, as they’re some of my most favorite vocal stuff — very loose and 80′s, not thinking too much, just delivering the sugar out of both barrels.

you can get them from me via full CD quality downloads or check them here at itunes.

rock!

we love covers

last week I posted a youtube cover of ‘this night’ by samira from spain. it’s sweet and delicate and reveals her as a singer. very nice.

she writes us: “it was an honor for me that you shared my cover of your beautiful song, ‘this night,’ and of course that you liked it. I think there’s not a greater feedback than the one of the original artist.”

our pleasure. I must say that it’s very, very cool to hear other people sing your songs.

so this is an open call to anyone and everyone to cover our songs, post them to youtube, and send us the link. we’ll check ‘em out!

you don’t have to be an expert or a professional. what I like are tracks by people who are communicating directly, without pretension. it’s what I love about the raincoats and what I love about my buddy’s four year old singing, “no bar, no bar” with his ukelele when he can’t weasel a granola bar out of his mom. lack of pretense is a hard thing to do. impossible really, as it absolutely can’t be faked.

so just jam out a black lab w/ that webcam on and put it up. we’d love to see it.

thanks!

and thanks to everyone who checked out our “greatest hits” (note quote marks) album at spotify. pass those hits around to your friends and start a fire.

p

new radio

hey, just wanted to let you know that we are rocking spotify with a new “greatest hits” package, up now at http://spoti.fi/WUWNBB (and also at rhapsody and mog).

we’ve gotten some questions from you so here are some answers.

the reason we pulled down our albums from spotify is that we make almost zero money per play. maybe if we were madonna and were racking up millions of plays the money would be worth it, but when you only earn a few dollars off of tens of thousands of streams, spotify seems more like radio than a place to sell albums.

in fact, that’s how we’ve begun to think of it — as radio. but better. see, spotify is perfect for sharing songs with your friends. so in thinking about it as radio, it made more sense to put up a list of “singles” selected from our various albums that people could check out and pass around. so that’s what we did.

(also, I’ve always wanted to have a “greatest hits” album but figured I had to wait to have some hits first. since it’s just spotify I wrote myself a blank check and went for it.)

spotify is not only a great place for people to discover new music but also to share stuff with your friends. most people have the app installed and you can choose a song and share it easily via facebook, twitter or tumblr using the little square-with-an-arrow button, or you can right click the track name and hit Copy HTTP Link (or you can use the convenient bit.ly link above to share the album).

we’ve put 18 of our best tracks up at spotify for you to check and share, including ‘wash it away,’ ‘this night,’ ‘mine again,’ etc. let me emphasize — we want people to listen to our music on spotify. the more people listen to these songs the more hooked they might get and go seek us out at itunes or amazon or blacklabworld and buy stuff (and, you know, keep us in the biz of making music).

so please support us by sharing black lab with your friends and, with your help, we’ll keep this bus rolling down the tracks.

thanks!!

p

new free mp3 of the month

hey all, new mp3 of called “the wrong side,” a rough little demo I did during year 3 of the mp3 of the month club — a track not included on our latest release, “best of the mp3 of the month club.”

speaking of which, while I know I had initially thought of the new release as a little stocking stuffer for christmas, it’s grown on me as a collection — it’s more experimental and varied, more revealing of my voice and production style, and just more… weird than most black lab albums. I’m actually really proud of it and I hope you’ll give it a listen.

to encourage everyone to do so, we’ll be offering a screaming bargain on the new disc via chirpify, so if you’re not following us on twitter, please be sure to do so @paulblacklab and keep an eye on our promotion in the next day or two and we’ll hook you up.

meanwhile, here’s some nice things people have said about the new collection:

Ric: I thought it was really great. strange. eclectic. nuanced. raw. Really makes me wish we could see you live up here in the great white north. There’s a purity to these that’s missing from more polished studio albums. Really great!

Brenda: Just picked up your Best Of the other day. I’ve probably listened to Radio Tonight at least six times already. It’s awesome. Thanks for doing what you do. I love it. There are some real gems here, I play it on a nearly daily basis.

Tracy: Listening to it currently. Again. Brilliant!!

Catherine: That new album is fantastic! I had it on repeat for two hours! I’m so happy I spent the $10! Totally worth it!

Steve: Really am enjoying the disc!! Radio tonight is a fav!! Thanks Paul!!

LJ: Picked the CD up and I enjoy it very much. A nice variety of sounds.

Ralph: I have enjoyed it immensely. “Walk This Road”, “Criminal”, “Candlelight” and “Don’t Ask Me Why” are my favorites, but there is not a bad song on the CD. Keep making great music!

Jody: It’s one of the best albums I bought last year.

as always, we really appreciate your support.

paul

ahhh, seattle

had an amazing weekend over the 16th. crazy ass little club with a great vibe. went out for cigarettes before and ran into a bunch of people — was great to shake hands and hear memories from the 90s. ran into a couple of kids who had tickets but were underage. I told them I would see what I could do.

got back to the club in time for the show. killed a little time waiting for the sound guy, then headed out the hallway to the back door to get the kids in. told them to keep their heads down and look like crew but it was a stretch. fortunately the bartender didn’t notice.

had to crawl over people to get to my guitar to tune, then crawl back over them to go and find the sound guy. he was upstairs at the bar, unaware that the show had technically started ten minutes ago. nice introduction by my buddy michael. then up onto the stage. nice show. remembered most of the chords. people laughed at most of my jokes. what else can you ask for?

afterwards had fun doing autographs and pictures, then headed upstairs with my college friend andrew and his colleague apurv for beer. they dragged me out onto the street somewhere and we ended up at the can can, where we saw an absolutely incredible flamenco dancer and this smoking singer. super fun.

then cruised to apurv’s apartment in andrew’s audi for some mandolin jamming. I’m not so great at strings so I turned it around and beat on the back. jammin. just like old times with andrew, and apurv is definitely the most interesting person I’ve met in a while.

after awhile andrew started sparring with apurv, who is a highly trained mixed martial artist. this was fun and I decided to give it a try. apurv agreed not to hurt me, striking my face with his hands with incredible skill and speed. he’s not the biggest guy in the world and I was certain my reach would protect me. not the case. it’s fascinating to watch the ways I respond to getting hit, my reflexes spinning, the mind trying to compensate.

then he tells me he’s going to kick me, which sounds cool until he does and my shoulder comes out of socket. the kick didn’t hurt but it moved me back just enough for the damn thing to pop out again (dislocation #7). I lay on the floor trying to get it back in and then give up and they call an ambulance.

had fun with the medical technicians, very cool people. haven’t been in that much pain in a long time and it was interesting. at the hospital they gave me a couple shots of morphine but couldn’t get the shoulder back in. gave me a third shot and I woke up five hours later, puking and stoned out of my mind from the morphine.

showed up at the place I was staying, my poor friend jeff had to give me a ride to the airport and I spewed nonsense and nodded in his front seat. walked in the sliding door of the airport and threw up into the nearest garbage can. fortunately jeff had the good sense to get me a wheelchair. don’t remember much after that. somehow made it home and slept and puked for another day.

I’m gonna get this thing operated on so it stays in its socket. I’m too old for this shit.

playing live

I’m doing a little gig in seattle this weekend for a friend’s nonprofit and I’m psyched.

I’m also scared. somehow playing live, just me and my acoustic and my two hands — which I find utterly unreliable when it comes to fingering the right chord and strumming with correct intensity at the appropriate time related to what I’m singing — is still a huge challenge for me, even after all these years.

I used to get genuinely terrified. now I’m just nervous and uncomfortable and dismayed by my imperfections. probably why I gravitate towards the studio, where I have an infinite more degree of control. it’s not that I don’t recognize the magic that only happens in live performance. it’s just that the whole thing makes me squirm. which, I suppose, is why I need to do it more.

hope to see you this saturday.

love,
paul

rocking seattle hard

in 1998 we rocked the rock candy in seattle, washington, and we rocked it hard. like, rock hard. y’know what I’m saying?

anyhow, after 15 years (fuck!!!) I am making my way back to seattle to do a little acoustic show for my friend’s non-profit. I’m hoping it’s a foot-in-the-door kind o’ thing, maybe leading to future northwest gigs, so I’m really, really hoping that you’ll come out and support me (and her).

manu came to hamburg from god knows where (a lot of kilometers. I can’t remember b/c my whole km to miles converter hadn’t kicked in yet) and rachel came to hamburg from london. in honor of a certain bunny foo foo who came from south carolina or something to my boston show a few years back, I inaugurated a prize for the person who travels the furthest to see my sad sack ass. the prize is a signed cd (woo hoo!), but the honor of course goes far beyond mere swag.

I’ll shut up now and give you the show info, but first I wanted to mention that this month’s free mp3 of the month is an excellent rendition of “sleeps with angels” from the aforementioned rock candy show. to be honest, we didn’t rock all that hard because we were so freaking tired, as can be heard in the hilarious interchange at the end with select seattle residents regarding heroin abuse.

Saturday, 16 February 2012. 8 PM. The Grotto (at Rendezvous in Belltown), 2322 2nd Ave. http://bit.ly/Xd06Q0

ok, enjoy!

p



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