Bandcamp update (!)

Hai there!  Hope you're all enjoying your rest. Now get up!

Sometimes I have an enormous urge to do a complete make-over. Yes it's that time. My face needs a lift(!). Ahem, yeah wait for it.
Nope, it's just that some platforms needed some reworking, in my case Bandcamp. There's a lot you can add to a release (pictures, etc). I found out that a few older releases had just one or two tracks on them, so I've uploaded the full albums:

Gift Shot [2005]

Volumed 10 [2007] 

Hey José [2008] 

You Know Your Dad [2009] 

When The left Foot Fits The Right Shoe [2009] 

Orson Nietes [2011] 

& Art Decoy The Bluebeard Boy [2012]

have got the "full album" treatment. Some tracks don't even appear on the official Spotify/ iTunes releases. Which ones? You figure it out.
You can pay what you want or have it freely handed over with a click (only your emailadres is required, so I can SPAM you, gna, gna)
You want free links? Yeah, they can be found somewhere around this blog...

More, more more tracks! Free full albums on Bandcamp

The full Bandcamp version of?

Sketches Of Lou (the video)

Sketches Of Lou

Ok, we have all been waiting so long...no you didn't!
It's almost a year now since the man left the planet.....so the right moment for me to put out that video for "Velvet Shoes" that I've promised. It's the last thing I do for my the album "I MImic Me", because I'm already on a whole other level in the process of creation: got some brand new songs coming up! Yes, it never stops (I'm glad), just can't sit still. Excited!

Busy

I have put a lot of work in this, mostly a drawing supporting video. It shows me (wishing it is me that is walking on the wild side) and some different familiar Lou's most of the time, all sequenced rhythmically in a lot of frames. That took ages, before I was really satisfied. For the singalong fan I've included lyrics to yell out.
Originaly I had some black & white drawings. Later on I "coloured" them in with a handy online photo editer called Picmonkey. You can see and read about them in my earlier posts if you like sketches.

!Viewers with photosensitive epilepsy, beware of visual intensity!

Enjoy and spread 'em!

Lyrics   Velvet Shoes                                                          

Now Andy Boy And Mary Lou
They Used To Wear Those VELVET SHOES
They Did The Walk On The Very Wild Side
In The White Heat And The White Light

Now Mary Lou She Used To Play
All Of Your Records On A Perfect Day
Until She Couldn't Listen No More
Now She's Walking Out Of The Door

You Want To Have a Good Time
You Want To Get It Out Of Your Mind
You Want A Change Of The Scene
You Can Blame It On The New York Dream

Well You're Wasting Time
Your Precious Time
Drinking Cheap Cheap Wine
All Of The Time
Now You're Out Of Your Mind
But You Have A Good Time
Down In Your Hole

Hey LOU This Is My Ode To You
Finally Learned To Talk Like
You're Supposed To Do
Maybe I Walk More On The Safer Side
Well This Ain't The Big Apple
But I Give It A Try

I Have Jolly Good Time
I Want To Get It Out Of My Mind
I Wanna Change Of The Scene
I Blame It On The New York Dream
I'm Wasting Time.....



                                                                                      (lyrics & music: JoosTVD) copyright.2014

Paycheck!

1.Hey José, where the hell have you been? 
2.Where is that tribute video of Lou Lou you've been promising since don't know when?

1.Relaxing in the backgarden thinking about what to do with that bonus

Ok, sometimes I'm so deep down digging in my musical cave, I don't even know where the entrance was. Too pre-occupied with the nice moments of inspiration maybe, but on the other hand I am a compassionate familyman for the full 101%.
So to answer those obvious questions:
1. I'm "always" writing, playing, noodling, even at night, a burst of silent energy has to be written down in words. Kicks all around! The new music is very groovy, funky, slick and dirty, I can't stop this hypnosis.
I can relax a bit. See picture: a few weeks back I found out I've earned a "few" bucks on licenses at Jamendo. More than I could have imagined!
Since I've been distributing my music on Jamendo, a lot of people have listened to my stuff and even more effectively, have used it as background music for their benefit, like public places, projects, restaurants and more.

It's about being played. Streaming is not that profitable now for artists maybe, but it will, because more and more people do that. Downloading (piracy, iTunes) is outa here!
Radioplays are the best way reach more people. As you know Croydon radio (suburb London) has been playing my songs (playlisted) almost every week since the beginning of 2013. (Brouhaha, Stupid Song(s), The Route Through The Quiet Jungle, Talkwalk, Trip Together, The Root Of My Belly, Alice Tea, I See You, Cowboy On The Moon, Social Suicide have been played on various radioshows). Here's the list of the most played 499 artists on Croydon (I am on number 10!)
Croydon most played all time

2.Try to make a nice fitting video, well it's a difficult thing to do that yourself as an amateur. Even though I'm not a professional with the best movie editing skills, I can still see all those nice little drawings I spontaniously scribbled down (Scribbles) a few months ago, come together more and more as I flesh out all the tiny, little details in those moving frames. All it needs a bit more time and... time is the healer.

2.boy from that promised video

And now.....listen and enjoy:

JoosTVD- Velvet Shoes on soundcloud 

Now what? Sketches of Lou Lou

Quick update...
Hey, folks from the other side! Just came back from a trip to Madrid. A beautiful place if you like art and cities that go on 24/7. I surely needed some distance from my music room. Needed a dose of fresh inspiration.
You all may think: he's obsessed with that Lou Reed. Noooo! Well a little maybe.
I wrote a tribute song (Velvet Shoes) and from there the story went even further. It started out with some spontanious drawing, some sketches that gave me an idea for a video. The colouring I did online with a nice photo editor, Picmonkey
Finish what you started they always say (at least my mom and dad did).
I studied some famous and some unfamiliar "street" pictures of Lou, just to creep inside his character. It's a lot of hard and difficult work for an amateur, because smooth framing and perfect timing those pictures with the flow of the music, eats away concentration and drives you crazy, so you have to stop in time. These are some examples of the portrets I'll be using. Hope you like!
In the meantime, I'm in the middle of the crossroads. I mean, which way José with the songwriting? I've got lots of nice ideas, but I don't know which will work best, especially for my limited voice. Some are very humorous, some are sad. I like both directions though, so now what? Don't push, let it flow, walk on boy......CU!

Autobiographies, bad albums(?), Youtube Topics

                                                                                    The Root Of My Belly

Hai there, fellow world citizens, hope you're all doing well......even when the ups seem to be going down, there's always music to comfort you in all in its mysterious ways. Since I don't know when, I've been enjoying that magical mystery of discovering new or old sounds. And when I'm hooked, I want to hear the whole story (also the really "bad" albums that artists have put out, they are there for a reason!). I also read a lot about the background of an artist/band and about the specific period when they had their thrills and frills. More mystery, curiosty kills the cat! Details about their spent youth I find mostly boring though, but that's the unavoidable, cliché part of biographies. As is the road to hell and back (drugs, more drugs, meditation, fame, goeroes, religion, good or bad music and more drugs), but I also find this a fascinating and welcome treat.
A different approach to this, Ray Davies did with his X-Ray book. Almost in a Wellesian thriller-like surreal way, he reflects back on his life. Excellent.
Sometimes the most narcistic auto-bios are the most fun to read, like the ones from the ex-members of KISS (no, I'm not a fan, just curious), Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. Talking about the typical sex, drugs rollercoaster stories and how they reflect back on their masks and..... lizzard-tongue Gene Simmons haha. Yes, some of those life lessons you just don't want to try out at home!

                                                                                       Vanished Dutchmen

Youtube is growing in numbers and in songs. Any prolific artist/band has got a "topic" there, generating all the stuff relating to your own favourites for easy access. Great when you're just reading another biography of Zappa, Townshend, Barrett and the like, you can create a fitting biography playlist to set the mysterious mood...

I will not write a biography of this vanished dutchman, no. I did not do drugs, banged the other man's wife or trashed the occasional hotel room, or did I? When I was young and o-so selfimportant brash, it was the grey, boring and fricking Eighties man! I'm so neat.....
But... JoosTVD has got few vids up there on Youtube (JoosTVD Topic), some have been uploaded by me from my own JoosTVD official (this is the stuff for biography-philes to find out about TVD), but a lot by one of my distribution labels iMusician. You can subscibe to different channels (pop, urban, rock, etc) up there. As common with all stream platforms, it's just another fun way to create personal playlists within a few clicks. So all my favourite artist are up there as "Topics".
The same is happening on facebook by the way, here's my topic of That Vanished Jojo. It's all generated by different sources and the listening behaviour of the curious ones.
Still, with all this accessibility, I will not, ever, give away my vinyl, cassettes, singles, cds, self-build racks, it's my life, you're talking about here, man!
So gather all your favourites and read some, I'm going back to my favourite drug....Bye, buy!

                                                                                                         Ragman

Free Record Store

Updated the old "Grabbelton", changed it in my own (digital) free record store (well the old one in the Netherlands has closed its doors now). Open 24/7! Just search and you'll find...

Now what?

Take a holiday?
Yes that would be nice, but what do you do when an album is finished?

Walking Dutchman

Well, all birds that can, fly away. Babies grow up and leave you ultimately.
Songs? They will float in digital space and I'm content with that. After a year of explosive and enthousiastic writing, playing, recording, singing, mixing and videomaking, there's always that difficult phase/ moment I'm going through of letting them go. When I'm fed up listening maybe...haha.

A lot has happened since my last album came out though, like more radio airplay, reviews and reaching a few new listeners. All because of the way the digital world works these days. Happy now?
Well yes, but it's like a beautiful feelgood movie that has ended and you just don't want it to end.

Work!
So what mostly works for me when I cannot touch the old songs anymore and at the same time to create a little distance with them, is the "go ahead, write some new tunes" attitude. And so the whole proces begins again. Don't know where it ends though, but do I really want to know? It only makes you uncertain of what will happen (writer's block!?) and it can spoil the surprise of finding fresh melodies. And they always come unexpectedly! I'm already busy with capturing the right words to 2 songs I've completely recorded and arranged instrumentally. One has got fast-paced latin feel and the other has got a funky groove with a jazzy, romantic melody. Just what I needed!

Lou?

Next to all this soulsearching and songcatching inspiration, I'll be working on a video that will support "Velvet Shoes", my tribute to the late Louie Reed.
Before I became this addicted musician, I already did something with my creativity, something my parents used to demonstrate to me when I was a greenish little kid. I became especially fascinated with the technique of drawing faces.
As you already can see, these are a few portrets that I will use in comic-style, but there are a lot details that I still have to work on. Although I'm just another Youtube amateur, I' m very excited about it, so that will also keep me busy for a while.

Now what? Just that!

Magazine Wasser-Prawda

Download





Great!
(german)

Je größer die Zahl von Autorinnen und Autoren in unserem Magazin wird, desto mehr Vorschläge kommen, wie man unsere Arbeit verbessern kann. Das ist absolut großartig. Denn mit der Zeit entwickelt man doch eine Art Tunnelblick von Monat zu Monat, versucht lediglich, möglichst viele Artikel und Rezensionen zu bekommen. Und man denkt dabei zu wenig über die Zugänglichkeit der Inhalte und ihre Präsentation nach. Und wenn dann Fragen kommen, wie denn die Entscheidung für das jeweilige Album des Monats getroffen wird, muss man jedes Mal neu erklären. So werde ich ab sofort diejenigen Alben, die in der engeren Wahl zum Album des Monats standen, und die durch die Bank weg sehr empfehlenswert sind, nochmals gesondert präsentieren.

(english)
The greater the number of authors and female authors becomes in our magazine, the more suggestions come as one can improve our work. This it is absolutely great. Since, nevertheless, with the time one develops a kind tunnel look of month by month, tries merely, possibly many to get article and reviews. And, besides, one thinks not enough the accesibility of the contents and her presentation after. And if then questions come, how then the decision for the respective album of month it is dripped, one must explain every time anew. Thus I become from immediately those albums, in the narrower choice to the album of the month stood, and every single away are very recommendable, again
separately present arms.

Recommendations derRedaktion

1. Big Daddy Wilson Trio -
Live in Europe from Bremen
to Paris (S.
2. Dave Moretti Blues Revue
- Th ats Swing
3. JoosTVD - I Mimic Me
4. Mark Harrison - Th e
World Outside
5. Meena Cryle & Th e Chris
Fillmore Band - Tell Me
6. Th e Holmes Brothers -
Brotherhood
7. Th e KutiMangoes - Afro-
Fire
8. Th omas Stelzer - Fuff tsch
9. Tommy Schneller - Cream
of the Crop
10. Tweed Funk - First Name
Lucky

You can download as pdf and read that german review and many other cultural ditties, mine on page 51.

Thanks Nathan (journalist Wasser-Prawda)!

Croydon radio updates

Hai there,
It's always a pleasure to know that what you do is appreciated. There's a lot talent out there and I'm not here to win a contest, just wanna create songs! And I'm already busy with a few that will definately become future hits. Not in my lifetime, no.

I let my music spread as far and as wide as possible, but I guess it's just a raindrop that's reaching a few listeners, but what the heck...

Nice to be played on the radio though! Song?
Cowboy On The Moon

Here:
Podcast
Info (a lot of footbal talking):
In The Den (UK Croydon radio)

Update (12-09-2014): 

Playlisted and frequently played: Different Kind Of Cool

7th on the plays alltime charts Croydon radio, at least in Croydon right now! Thanks!

Last.fm charts 547 times played

I Mimic Me, the songguide

                                                                           A Quicky! The 14 song sampler

Ok, now it's out of the bag...
As usual (am I boring, predictable?), once a year I invite the listeners to read about the "inside" story of a new album. How I vanish into my reclusive hole and come back with some new, fresh & above all: haha, brilliant music. But hey, there's no hidden message here!. For me, music has to be fun, joy, melodic, funky, over the top, ironic, colourful and full of character. I Mimic Me.
After my last album "The Ballooning Brouhaha" floated through digital spaces, I immediately sat down to the work. Ideas "always" come quick, emotions keep pouring out of my fingertips. But how to shape them in attractive little ditties?
I always start recording with a basic track (rhythm pattern) and the first instrument (piano, guitar) I've chosen to write on. I want to record as fast as possible to capture the energy and/or the emotion of that particular "high" moment of inspiration. Record as if in "performance". Forget "studio".
Choices, doubts, solutions, inspiration going back and forth. Well, mostly for me, I'm working around the more technical shortcommings I have as a recording-in the flesh- musician. So the last few years I've been watching some show-off sound engineer pros showing their flashy studio stuff on Youtube. There are a lot of choices you can make, details you can alter with your workstation (Pro Tools is mine), especially in the mixing process, which makes the whole process even more challenging to keep things as organic as possible.
As long as it helps me further. But it all starts with a tight rehearsed performance, so what you can't fix....

Listen carefully!

Now, press on your application of choice (sorry no vinyl), like Deezer, Spotify or iTunes or maybe your free download and let those little stories stir up your imagination.


01.Cowboy On The Moon
Build around a chord progression I luckely found on the piano almost a year ago(!). I wrote a few countermelodies (guitar and woodwinds) that brought more layered excitement arrangementwise that I wanted for the song. I had lot of fun with this one, never stopped developping ideas in that department. Took a long time to write about cowboys-no indians-but moons though...
O U T L A W

02.Velvet Shoes
This took 3 minutes to write, but the vision to work it out, took a lot longer....
You can guess this is about Lou Reed, my indirect connection with him, expressed in a an uplifting, I hope, tribute song. His death and his music got me closer again to the legend and his work (my fave is 1973's Berlin). Yes, I tried to use some of his typical pronounciation (but "I mimic me" right?) and a few of his familiar lines (wild side, white heat white light). Fun song!
Btw, great read: two biographies of Lou and the Velvet Underground by Victor Bockris. 
N E W Y O R K

03.Buy (Bye Bye)
Topic: a pact with the devil/Faust: selling out in favor of becoming successful. Bye, buy...
I used this funkbeat for intensity, although I can never be that hypnotic like James Brown, but I can in a, uuh, funny JoosTVD kind of way.
F A U S T

04.Ballroom Blues
Overblown ballroom showstopper (took a lot of mindslapping working this out!) about windbags and other loudmouths. You know who you are. Now shut the f... up!
O V E R K I L L

05.Social Suicide
One of those fun songs that wrote itself and relatively quick both musically and lyrically. All 13 songs came quick, but mostly musically.The choice of intruments, how to colour the arrangements...they' re already there in my head when I wrote this song.
H A P P I N E S S

06.I Mimic Me
Here I go again! The same burst of creativity happened like song 5. Short and sweet. I really like that. Maybe the next time I can put out an album even quicker. Well.....these explosive moments are rare though. And I love what Jack Bruce did with Kip Hanrahan. (great album: Vertical Currency 1984)
M I R R O R

07.Different Kind Of Cool 
Yeah, a fast, funpowerpop rocksong. Something (rock) I do not do often, but it gives the album a different- rockier- colour.
O U T C A S T

08.Intermission Of Love
Hey lunch hour! A little (one minute!) Tin Pan Alley love song. Yes, I really love the creativity of Irving berlin and Cole Porter. These chords say it all: melodic, romantic. Ahh, my soft side...
S I N P A N A L L E Y

09.Cats (Walk With A Swagger)
One of the first tunes I wrote for this album. It gave me purpose of direction. A lot of funny (real cat sounds) stuff happening, surprising breaks and stops in combination with melodies. (thanks to Arto Lindsay & the Ambitious Lovers)
D O G G Y C A T

10.Sin Pan Alleyman
Unexpectacly, former musical mate Wijnand Brant (WB) helped me out with his unstoppable fingers & guitars on this forgotten instrumental idea, one of many I've piled up on my harddisk.
(C O N) F U S I O N ? !

11.Lovesong For The Ghetto
Wrote this relatively quick on guitar, sang the title (and liked the melodic refrain a lot) and voila...it's a bit dark (ghetto), but eased, counterbalanced with some eerie female voices, which I found fitting with my own low male singing.
G H E T T O

12.Coffin Song
Also one of the first more uplifting (listen to the guitar chords, variations in D), funky song I wrote, musically that is. The theme is a little dark though: "put the sickness in the ground". No, no cofee needed. A coffin with a "n". Not a special message I have here, it's just dark humor, sardonic wordplay.
C O F F I N

13.I See You
To counterbalance the more energetic songs, there' s always some sort of melancholic ballad I come up with- developped on the piano- after much rehearsel, this was recorded live. I've tried to come up with something uplifting, melodic, not too self-important or dramatic.
P I A N O

14.Cowboy In Your Room
Reprising song nr.1 here, it has got a few nice breaks in it, so the idea for an instrumental promo (see video post) was born.
P R O M O

Thanks again for listening!
Listen again!