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What I'm Listening To Lately

  1. cd cover Made to Be Broken
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  3. cd cover A.M.
    by Wilco

  4. cd cover Ben Kweller
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  5. cd cover Sky Blue Sky
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  • Recent Tweets

    • but the bells which ring yearly spell his name 5 hrs ago
    • river branches, spelling patterns, spilling fortunes, forgotten language 1 day ago
    • built the tiniest of castles in the sand, and left a shellprint of my hand 2 days ago
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Jack Merlot’s ‘Orchids’ Album, Free Download!

That’s right, folks, you’re in luck if you’ve been patient enough to wait for the album to be available for FREE, well, today’s your lucky day!

I’m not even going to bug you for your email address or solicit donations or tips or what-have-you. (Aren’t I nice?)

Without further ado, download ‘Orchids for Betty’ right heah.

I stuffed the zip file as full as I could, cramming lots of digital doodads and technological tchotchkes to amuse and delight you and your loved ones as you sit around the campfire swilling cheap beer and swatting mosquitos.

Hopefully, this album, what with it’s fancy-schmancy artwork, liner notes, secret messages, encrypted codes, *full lyric sheets*, and lots of other surprises, will take your mind off the summer heat.

Enjoy!

- Jack Merlot

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-28

  • Flight flickers, living light / through a translucent night #
  • built the tiniest of castles in the sand, and left a shellprint of my hand #
  • We're still playing Solitaire, but aviation's over #
  • Planets created sound, heard above our native burial ground #
  • river branches, spelling patterns, spilling fortunes, forgotten language #
  • so I took my resistance at Westhaven / the stormbirds were singing on the lawn #
  • pressed up against that cool alchemical stone #

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Free MP3 of the day – Album Version of Iris Florentine

So, a couple weeks ago we featured a rough take of Iris Florentine as the free MP3 single of the day.

I thought maybe you’d be interested in hearing the evolution of a song, so today I’m posting the album version of Iris Florentine for your enjoyment.

Take a few minutes to compare the two tracks, I’m sure you’ll agree that the album version sounds a lot more polished.

That being said, though, sometimes I prefer the spontaneity of rough cuts, because you can really hear the song in it’s early stages, and it sometimes has a strange beauty to it that more fully “produced” recordings sometimes lack.

Thanks to everyone who came to the show last week – it was lots of fun for me to play a live set or two. I hope you’re all enjoying your copies of Orchids for Betty!

- Jack Merlot

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CD Release Party/Impromptu Show

Hey there RPM Challengers, fellow Facebookers, and Random Web Visitors -

I apologize for the last-minute notice here, but I wanted to give ya’ll an update.

As some of you may already know, the RPM Challenge is having nationwide listening parties/CD swapping parties tonight at all the regional hubs.

Not wanting to be left out, I went ahead and found a spot for a (small) gathering of folks.

So, it looks like we’re not having an official regional listening party after all, due to lack of interest and also me being a procrastinating sumbitch.

HOWEVER:

I still really want to meet other RPM Challengers from the Twin Cities and swap copies of our CDs – we just finished a limited edition of 100 discs, all signed and numbered, and the artwork was letterpress-printed, suitable for framing, even. ;-)

And, the letterpress printing company, Lunalux , has graciously offered their space tonight so we can meet up if you want a copy of ‘Orchids for Betty’. The space is right off of Loring Park, right by the Walker modern art museum and the Sculpture Gardens, so it’s pretty easy to find.

Here’s a Google map to the shop – it’s right in between Cafe Lurcat and Nick & Eddie’s.

I’m probably going to play a short set on my acoustic guitar at around 8:00PM.

We have permission to use the store until 10:00, and the sound system at Lunalux is not that great, but it’ll still be a good time (and it’s sandwiched in between a bunch of bars, if we want to have an ‘afterparty’.)

Tell all your friends! The more the merrier. If nobody shows up, I won’t be disappointed – we’ll probably be logged into Second Life or the RPM Challenge website or whatnot, so it’s going to be fun no matter what.

Thanks,

– Jack & Friends

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Free MP3 of the day – Queens over Aces

Check out the richly layered vocal harmonies and eclectic blend of instruments on Queens Over Aces.

All I can say is, it’s really good to know a drummer who really knows how and when to use brushes. (I’m not sayin’ you gotta like jazz, just that sometimes brushes paint a more vibrant picture than banging on something with a stick.)

Oh, and I also wanted to share the following picture with you – last night I got my Photoshop on and came up with this CD label for the ‘Orchids for Betty’ album. What do you think?

It's what's on the CD

It's what's on the CD

I had a good time getting the words to spiral around the center of the disk like that, and it was also fun to create a little pastiche of some of the doodles and line drawings I’ve made over the years.

Also, my hand is kind of sore today after last night; I went ahead and hand-signed and numbered one hundred of the letterpress disk jackets – they turned out really cool, I can’t wait until you see them up close.

Thanks for stopping by,

- Jack

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