Quick post this – turns out Spotify have added a really cool new function to their desktop application: You can now right-click any resource in Spotify (could be an artist, a playlist, a profile or a track or album) and get a link to the HTML code you need to embed it into another webpage. The link looks like this:
The HTML is then copied to your clipboard, ready to drop into an artist webpage. Pretty cool eh? Let’s give it a spin:
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On Friday 8th November, I’m flying to Rio where he will board a sailing ship bound for the Antarctic on a songwriting mission like no other, battling fierce storms, icebergs and randy penguins, armed only with some blank musical notepaper, a melodica and a pencil.
The plan is to take two months to sail down the Atlantic coasts of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, making the crossing from Cape Horn across Drake’s Passage to Antarctica sometime in December. Fingers crossed we get good weather, because we’re sailing the whole thing…
I’ll be writing as much music as I can manage in between taking watches on deck. Unlike my normal writing practice, I won’t be able to crack open a laptop and fire up GarageBand to record demos as I go; most of the time we’ll be without much spare power, and in any case I’m not taking my own laptop. Instead, I’ll be transcribing everything by hand onto notepaper, using a melodica (a small keyboard-cum-mouth organ you blow into) to check as I go.
The boat’s being crewed by the Adventure 2013 collective, most of whom know from volunteering with sail training charity OYT South. Now, this isn’t as hard as it was 400 years ago – I’m not going to pretend that – but many of the things we take for granted about sailing the the West, like 24/7 air-sea rescue, detailed forecasts and the RNLI, won’t be available. I also have no idea how much time and energy I’ll actually have spare for writing (we’ll be on watch every day), or even any energy (it’ll be summer in the Southern Hemisphere, but still regularly -5 or -10 degrees). Plus almost everything I write, I’ll have forgotten by the time I get back to London, so I’ll only have my transcribed notes to go on.
Will I return with an album of trancendental beauty? With an album about my crewmates’ washing habits? Will I return at all (really hope so)?
Who knows. But the first chapter in any travelogue is the leaving do, which will be at The Islington, London N1.
Free entry, music all night and Lonely Joe Parker, live with band. See you there shipmates!
http://www.adventure2013.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/events/135432566647127/
(P+P is free. You MUST order by 2pm 16th December 2012)
And lastly, to preview tracks from the whole record check out Soundcloud..
.. or this great vid by Gillian Sore:
Note: a friend of mine knows a young, talented, attractive, committed singer/songwriter. They asked for my advice.
PS: we have a gig in Soho next week. No coincidence..
Hey Steve,
mental week here, sorry it’s taken a while to write you a proper response..
The first question is, where is she/you based? If in the UK then great. If not then all my subsequent advice comes with the heavy caveat that I might well be talking total shit, rather than just out of my arse. If you are UK based, look seriously at joining AIM (musicindie.org) – the trade association of independent labels.
Secondly, always remember music. is. a. business. no. matter. what. country. or. genre. you. look. at. so some of this always applies.
Thirdly, remember that this is a long-haul enterprise. It takes a minimum of 3 years to break an act that is already running on all cylinders, producing great music and replicating it live.
Probably the best option for releasing the music at this stage is to set up a single-artist label – people do this all the time for self-release and there’s nothing wrong with it. In fact I would say the majority of releases (rather than majority of revenue, note) these days are self-releases. You will still be able to get things done, no problem. Working in that way (rather than trying to get signed) has the added advantage that if someone does want to sign her in the future it’s easy for them – if you have a prior commitment with a smaller label there will usually be a buy-out or release clause, or other exclusivity criteria t=
Dear friends and conspirators,
Then I saw the everlovin Ben Startup at Moulettes‘ LP launch last week, and had a chat with the nice people at Sotones last weekend, and listened to a lot of old stuff, and remembered how much I like little acoustic songs. And we might be going to Denmark / Germany to play a little this summer, too.
Now I have a plan. Basically, we’re going to get together a few small releases between now and October, when the LP campaign’s going to kick off. Some of these will be old demos / rarities; some Ann The Arc stuff I did in Falmouth with Dave Wade-Brown (drums) and Jimmy Shivers (bass) with Dan Parry producing; and rude_NHS has agreed to do some remixes (anyone’s welcome, too – email me). Lastly, I’ve been writing some stuff again.
This song (see above) is one of the new ones. It’s just a quick throwaway number about an obsessive fan. I suppose it’s about living in someone else’s shadow and a bit murder ballad-y, the kind of thing I might cook up with Dave Miatt. Apologies to Tammy Wynette and Billy Sherrill for the middle bit I lifted. And Evan too of course 😉
Neither Of Us Will Ever Be Evan (J Parker)
================================It’s hard to follow your idol,
Hard so you’d better be brave,
But I find that it helps if you’re obsessed and it hurts,
To follow them into the grave.So while you play the lead,
I’m drawing a bead –
Neither of us
Will ever
Be EvanYou may think that I’m kind of a friend to you,
You may think of me just like a fan,
But I’m waiting out here with your brake-line and shears,
So good luck driving home in your van.Sometimes it’s hard to be a rock star,
Giving all your love to just one fan…You may think that I’m not very like you,
You may think I’m not much of a threat,
But I’m stood in the wings as the fire-bell rings,
Cos my lighter ain’t failed me yet.So while you play the lead,
I’m drawing a bead –
Neither of us
Will ever
Be Evan
It’s not clever, it’s not meant to be anything serious and I kind of shit these out now and again when I’m in the right phase.. I like songs like this and there’s probably enough for a small EP, I suppose. Here’s hoping, anyway.
.. also I want to marry Katy Goodman and live happily ever after for ever.
Hello you lot,
London Fields Brewery are re-opening for the year this Saturday. They’re opening their doors (and beer cellar) for the weekend. Unsurprisingly there will be beer, but also a BBQ.
So you can come and drink a lot of weird and nice beer. There will also be music from me and a few others. I’ll be playing acoustic bits from my debut LP (the Furnace Studios (Bulgaria) / Abbey Road (UK) one.) Plus whatever I feel like playing in what might end up being a quite rambling set…
Kicks off 11am.
I’m on about 7-8pmish.
Goes on till midnight (all weekend including the bank holiday monday)
The address is:
London Fields Brewery [map]
370 Helmsley Place
E8 3RR
Joe x
Back gigging again, for what seems like the first time in bloody ages. Lucky audiences at a couple of venues over the next couple of weeks will get a mixture of rusty old favourites and shkily-executed new material, all free. The two gigs in question are:
