Muzzle of Dan

I released a new single this weekend. I had previously released We Are Wild as a part of my album and did a new version of it for a single release. This new one fatures most of the original lineup of my band Northern Strangers on backing vocals, keys, drums, bass. I'm really stoked at the way it turned out. I appreciated some folks checking it out. If you use Spotify, please give me a listen there and help me get a good first weekend bump. If you don't use Spofity, listen for free here...

Grabbed tickets for all 3 LA shows and I couldn't be more excited to get some live Wilco back in my life. Originally couldn't go to the West Coast run at all due to travel but COVID... I"m just so damn happy to be have a run of Wilco shows in my future.

I have tickets to see Jason Isbell at the end of July. Still waiting to see if this one will be cancelled/rescheduled. We had tickets for The Decemberists a few days later at the beginning of August but that tour has been cancelled recently.

Looks like the link above is now routed to the new video that released today!

7 hours ago, kidsmoke said:

 

Hi Dan! So good to see you!

😊

Your music sounds wonderful! Best of luck!

Thanks for checking out the music and also big thanks for helping me get back into the board!

I was locked out of the board for awhile after the update last year; and I realized I never posted here about my new record. At the end of 2020, I released my first solo effort titled "Make America Love Again." On Bandcamp, I'm donating all sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which helps ensure voters rights, voting equality and all that good stuff. The record is also available at all streaming services like Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music/iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, Soundcloud, etc. This new record is a mix of psychedelic folk, alt-country and classic rock type sounds. I'd love to hear what some of you fellow VCers think of the tunes.

I'm currently in the process of releasing a new music video for the track Everything Has Changed. The video is a funny, silent film style short about freshly turned vampires trying to roll with their newfound punches. The video was created and directed by my wife and stars the two of us, as said vampires. It's a fun video and I'll share it when it releases next Friday 2/12/21. I'm grateful to have some nice reviews and playlist shares going on for this track. Many have been kind enough to compare the vocals and songwriting to David Bowie.

I just put out a lyric/visualizer video for the track today. Here's the link for that video, as well as a playlist of other videos I've put out from the albums so far:

Here's a link to the full album on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/7H9f3ZoTyo0Uhx0yobw6Qy?si=_fwBuQ-pSC-v8DwHxVL2BQ

Here's a link to the full album on Bandcamp:

https://dangraul.bandcamp.com/album/make-america-love-again

I appreciate anyone checking out the music and I'd love to hear your thoughts after you give it a listen!

I listened to the webcast premiere of the album tonight. I really enjoyed the Waterfall 2 - very psychedelic overall. Jim's singing is sounding a lot more akin to the earlier records, as far as the tone and production (to me it's a lot less of the newer distorted vocal sound and a lot more clear, high, reverb-y and ethereal sounding - he really nails the soul sound on some of the tracks here too). I loved the arrangements, felt like a lot of new territory here but also some of the familiar rock n' roll elements. I'm stoked to hear it again when it's out tomorrow.

Damn - I'll be out of town for all the LA dates. Hate to miss out but on this tour.

I'm guessing no West Coast dates until Sky Blue Sky weekend is over?

Been checking Spotify regularly for the last week or so and WARMER popped up when I checked today. I really like it. Can't wait to dig in a little more.

Empty Corner is really cool.

White Wooden Cross is also very good.

I'm pretty excited for this record.

Wow, some hot takes in this thread. I for one love internet hot takes and this message board needs them!! But....

Count me down as someone desperately wanting new Wilco music. Star Wars and Schmilco are objectively great albums, if you'd rather hear Heavy Metal Drummer for the 2000th time, that's on you. Obviously Being There - A Ghost Is Born are hard albums to top but you also need to be aware of your own nostalgia for their old albums.

I wouldn't read too much into setlists to what is essentially a warm up tour before they start promoting new material in the fall. Or a one off show from their curated festival from two years ago. If Wilco announces the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 19th anniversary tour and starts playing the album in full, then maybe we can label them a nostalgia act... till then, nah.

I'm all for a new record also but even if they're on tour playing new material in the mix of a set  you're still going to hear Heavy Metal Drummer for the 20000th time. The difference with these recent sets (and what I love about seeing the band in between records) is seeing the older songs that you don't expect to hear like Hell Is Chrome. I know they are warming up for Solid Sound and just playing as many songs as they can over the 2 night runs but damn if they aren't some good setlist. And watching the webcast - they were smoking. The arrangement of Laminated Cat is one of the best I've heard by any format of Wilco.

Anyone else catch Wilco's Instagram post captioned "Back in the studio"? It was a video of Pat playing a funny little drum with a brush. I saw it earlier in the day and wondered if anyone else on here caught that.

Edit: Here's the link...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtjfV-qjOJ3/

They immediately added a 2nd show in Chicago and both sold out. Underestimated their right venue size maybe? 

Definitely underestimated. The venue in LA definitely holds less than 1000. They added a second show here that was not even announced formally and went onsale an hour after the first show and the second one also sold out within minutes. There are tons of tickets to both shows for about $90 (up from $26) on Stubhub. I saw that this was basically happening for all the shows in all big cities. I did end up managing to pull 1 ticket to the added LA show about 15 minutes after they went onsale - which is great, but my wife was really hoping to go with me. I guess we'll take what we can get.

The band said they were going to try to do something about it in response to all the people on Twitter who stormed their page and complained. I'm not really sure what can be done though. I know My Morning Jacket recently found tickets that were being resold and cancelled the orders. Then they put a bunch of tickets back on sale at a later date for their few shows coming up this summer.

Went on to try and get tickets to the Los Angeles show when they went onsale this morning and of course they were totally sold out before Ticketmaster would even give me the option to choose how many seats I wanted. And of course, by 2 minutes after the onsale time started there were about 60 tickets available on Stubhub for more than 3 times the face value of the tickets ($26 face value and going for about $88 on average). I literally can't believe how long this ticketmaster/scalper BS has continued and there's no way to stop it or help get the tickets to actual fans after all this time.

I love this new record but I also generally love all the things Conor Oberst does. I loved his last solo album Salutations - he really is one of the best songwriters out there.

I love the first track on this BOCC record "I Didn't Know What I Was In For" - just a great dark, modern folk tune. I also love "Service Road."

I like how this Better Oblivion Community Center record is a mix of the super strong writing chops of the newer Oberst material (not that he was ever bad at songwriting...) and also the electornic, experimental vibes of the Bright Eyes records.

Sorry if I was curt - I didn’t mean to be but it might read that way.

 

Those 2013 Largo shows are my most listened to Roadcases. I have the banter memorized at this point. I understand how special those shows are and I’m sorry you missed out this time around.

 

Generally speaking, I think the band’s new model of announcing shows and having a presale two days later is good for fans as it gives scalpers less time to prepare. Unfortunately, it means that if you don’t follow the band on social media and are really “tuned in” there’s a chance of missing out - especially when the venue is a shoebox!

I didn't feel like your response was curt at all. Just saying "wow I really missed the boat on that one" haha.

This record is so good and so beautiful. I just love it.

Those shows were announced nearly a month ago and sold out in minutes.

Guess my attention was elsewhere and I totally missed that. I'm sure they sold out as soon as it was on. I was lucky enough to see one of the shows at Largo in 2013 and it was amazing. The venue is tiny. Even then, I only got to attend because of a friend who happened to be able to take my wife an myself. It was an incredible show and an incredible setlist that included The Long Cut and Dash 7. Just wow.

Cheers to anyone who gets to attend any show on this run.

Yikes the dates at Largo are sold out already and I didn't even realize they had even gone on sale. I just saw the tour announcement earlier in the day and then got home from work, etc. to check when the onsale was happening and it was all sold out. I knew they would go fast and getting a ticket was a long shot but, wow.

I really like the sound of Let's Go Rain. Dare I say it has a bit of a twang?

It does have a twang. It also has that thick John Lennon-esque delay on the vocals.

I think it's pretty rad. Excited to hear this album.

If you can find this show....

Van Morrison - 1970/04/26 Fillmore West; San Francisco

I highly recommend it. I think I found this show as a flac soundboard bootleg on Pirate Bay at least 10 years ago. I have since heard Too Late To Stop Now and it's great but I always go back to this miraculous bootleg that I found. Amazing show and a great quality soundboard recording.

I had never heard of that festival, but it's fairly nearish where my wife's dad lives, and it's on a long weekend here in BC, so I grabbed my tickets last night. Here's hoping Mavis and Jeff play the same day and can share the stage!

My wife and I went to the first Traveller's Rest last summer and it was awesome. We are big Decemberists fans we're so bummed we can't go this year with Jeff and Mavis Satples and Death Cab on the bill.

Caught my first DBT show in Los Angeles last Friday night. What an amazing band! I will not miss another show if I can help it.

Yes. I've known Jay since 1995. When I moved out here, I lived in Boulder with him and a pal I knew from New Hampshire. Jay opened the original Quixote's not long after. I was at Be On Key's Saturday morning (we parked in the lot for the Woman's march) and they had coffee and snacks inside before the march.

Wow! Small world!