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News From 2004
Dec 20, 2004
VoL DVD Delayed, But On Its Way
We were waiting for the bonus CD to arrive from the UK, and somehow was delayed beyond our control. When they arrived, we drop shipped them to our manufacturer who is assembling them now.
(Update 12/22: they are being mailed to us and as soon as we get them via UPS ground, we will ship them out to you. If this is a Christmas present to someone, let me know and we can maybe email you something to print and give to them while the shipment gets to you.)
Sorry and happy holidays.
Dec 14, 2004
Flagpole Review from 11-05-04 Show at Flicker Theater
The showroom at Flicker is filling up when Bill Mallonee takes the stage, a wiry muscular man clad in jeans and a denim jacket, a Celtic tattoo emblazoned across his hand. The crowd becomes hushed, and Mallonee sings "People sure buy a lot of what doesn't make them happy/ our love is money in the bank/ I'm in love but I'm so lonesome."
Employing a style characterized by powerful rhythmic guitar and harmonica played more skillfully than what I usually hear around town, Mallonee makes the most of the dynamics of his voice, varying the range frequently, often mid-note. It has a pleasing effect; for days certain songs will remain in my head. Local guitarist, producer and engineer Benjamin Holst accompanies Mallonee on-stage with lap steel and guitar, enhancing the performance.
Dedicating a song to the "mad cowboy in the White House," Mallonee assuages my post-election blues by playing "When the Judgment Bell Rings." Next he tells of the time spent working in a psychiatric unit with Vietnam vets, many dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One patient had been a soldier working in the airfields, unloading supplies from planes for the troops. Often Vietnamese would bring rice to barter with; some of them hid explosives beneath the rice. It was the job of the soldiers to make them leave the airfield; if the Vietnamese did not leave they had to kill them. An older gentleman, most likely a vet himself, becomes visibly moved, nodding his head in agreement. Recalling the soldier, Mallonee states, "You don't ever get over that," and begins "Friendly Fire." "I must confess this helplessness, things are weird inside after the war/ They say war is hell but it ain't nothing like this/ I've got no more fight left in me."
Many of Mallonee's songs refer to his faith in God, and conversely deal with the emptiness humans seek to escape - whether we have faith at all. He captures the sentiment beautifully in I'll Never Be Normal (After This). "There are drugs to help you see God/ and there are drugs for when depressed/ and there are drugs that make you harder still for when you get undressed/ Now everyone's a junkie/ and since daylight's such a pain/ we're all looking for some darkness/ to stick into our veins."
At the end of the evening, I return home, rejuvenated, marveling as I seem to do weekly at the amazing amount of talent in this town. That the rest of the world could be so lucky...
Deirdre Sugiuchi of the Flagpole (www.flagpole.com)
Nov 11, 2004
Don't Wait Anymore for the VoL DVD
(BTW, this is NOT the bonus DVD folks get for ordering Friendly Fire early. This is its own entity, and it's limited - very limited. We're pressing 1000 copies of this 3 DISC SET)
It's going to be ready for Christmas - order yours today! Limited 3 Disc Set!
Vigilantes of Love Fade to Black Live at the Axiom Arts Centre, Cheltenham UK-1999
Description: Vigilantes of Love show at their Audible Sigh heights. Features:
- Bill Mallonee - guitars and vox
- Kevin Heuer on drums
- Jake Bradley on bass, vox
- Kenny Hutson on electric guitar, mandolin, vox
- Dolby Surround.
- NTSC Format
Disc 1: 15 songs (available by each song as well) recorded live at the Axiom in Cheltenham, England - 3 cameras
Disc 2: Bonus Features
1) "My Back Pages" - Dylan Song covered at live show
2) "Solar System" - bonus song from live show
3) "Jaws of Life" - Bill acoustic solo in studio song
4) Discography - interactive of 18 VoL/Bill Mallonee albums
5) Slide Show - interactive with Bill speaking sony lyrics over tons of band slides.
6) Lyric Select - lyrics from all 16 songs on the live show
7) Bob Harris - Interview with Bob Harris (BBC2) - highly interesting about Bob's discovery of VoL and what he likes about them & Buddy Miller, and how he helped to break VoL even bigger than they were in the UK. PLUS Music Video done to "Resplendant" with Buddy Miller and Emmylou Harris - then more of Bob Harris (I'm sure you all know Bob)
8) Commentary by Bill Mallonee - Bill tells the stories behind 8 VoL songs including band history, label history - the commentary then breaks away to the live song from the show. He also comments on FFG Studios in the UK - where Free For Good was recorded.
9) DVD Credits
CD Disc features:
- Goes Without Saying
- Could Be a Lot Worse (FREE MP3)
- She Walks on Roses
- Hard Luck & Heart Attack
- Your Part of the Story
- Extreme North of the Compass
- Resplendent
- Good Luck Charm
- Nothing Like a Train
- Anyside of Anywhere
- Starry Eyed
For more go to www.fundamentalrecords.com
20 Years of Great American Music
Oct 3, 2004
New Shows, New Songs - A Fan Speaks
New Shows
Just got back from the Trinity House show near Detroit where Bill was flying solo. If you are debating getting out and catching Bill on latest tour, stop debating and get out there and see him. Tonight he played a whole lot of new songs including "1,000 Miles Off," "Silken Sheets," and "Friendly Fire," as well as one called "Memorized." Hopefully these will continue to appear on the tour, as well as on the next album. He also played quite a few from Dear Life, as well as some of the older albums. Don't have a set list, but it was well over two hours of quality music.
So find a babysitter, set the VCR, and what ever else you need to do to leave the house, and get out to see one of his shows. You will thank yourself for it. And don't forget to take a friend.
Ryan Cordell
Sep 10, 2004
Friendly Fire MP3s
Two songs from the forthcoming Friendly Fire are now available as full MP3 downloads a la Wilco. Just right click to save on your computer or click and listen through your browser...
- With Any Luck At All
- No Longer Bound
Aug 26, 2004
Pre-Orders Now Being Taken
Another New Bill Mallonee Solo Record, Friendly Fire.
Pre-orders are now being taken for my next solo installment. Entitled Friendly Fire, the scheduled shipping is right before Christmas 2004. The pre-order dynamic of this past year allowed us to make a good record in a world-class studio (John Keane Studios, Athens Ga.).
I was so pleased with the results artistically, I thought we'd try the next release in similar fashion.
So, with an onslaught of new tunes, many written in the last few weeks, I hope to get a band around some of these as soon as funds start coming in. (MP3s of some of these will be posted as soon as we can get them finished.) Plans are to finish recording, mixing and mastering by late October, 2004.
Why order early? As a bonus to the goodwill and good faith of the fans here who have so buoyed our spirits during this last year of transition, we're recording a four-song EP of new tunes ONLY for those who pre-order the record before Oct. 31st, 2004.
These pre-orders give us the equivalent of a recording fund, the basic "bank" a record label uses to allow an artist to make a record. They are essential to ensure the quality throughout the whole recording, mixing, mastering and presentation of the record. This pre-order process worked so well last time we felt we'd stumbled onto something "marvelous."
Personally, my experience in the studio while making Dear Life, was truly the best of my life. Every day the songs and the approaches yielded new surprises and new encouragement. And we felt it was YOU ALL who extended to us this privilege. Records take on a life of their own and so this batch of new songs to choose from, numbering around 20 or more, looks to be a similar sort of ride!
"Thanks for chippin' in!"
bill mallonee
SONGS (free to change)
- No Longer Bound
- Can't Fake the Heartache
- Undertaker
- Friendly Fire
- Four Leaf Clover
- With Any Luck at All (I May Live to Tell About This)
- You Were the Only Girl for Me
- Of Future Partridge Families
- Loving You Last Night
- Second Guessing
- Stain Glass Soul
- Apple of Your Eye
- Punk Rock's Dead
Jul 19, 2004
Dear Life is in the Mail!
Folks, Dear Life, is out in the postage system circulating to your homes and offices this very minute. International orders will take a bit more time to arrive; however, they are on the way. If you're wondering about a couple of things, here's the news:
1) Pin My Hope, is Dear Life,. There is no double CD.
2) We're waiting on Buddy and Julie Miller to do their parts on the EP. We will manufacture and mail them out separately.
Jun 29, 2004
Go See Bill Live
Bill's playing the new stuff on the Fundamental release Dear Life, and it's great, great music. Especially great live. It's a new era, new tunes, life is great with new music. To order "Dear Life," go to www.fundamentalrecords.com.
May 21, 2004
Welcome New Booking Agent!
Everyone welcome new booking agent, Craig Grossman of Vampmusic Source. Please contact him for all your Bill Mallonee U.S. dates:
Craig Grossman
Vamp Music Source
902 W. Franklin Ave. Suite 15
Minneapolis, MN 55405
office: (612) 871-6591
cell: (612) 703-0151
fax: (860)-239-2615
May 13, 2004
A Little Message from Bill Mallonee about Dear Life,
Hopefully by the time this post makes it into your boxes, the fervor over the "1 vs. 2 CD set" will have abated somewhat.
And so we bring you: Dear Life,. That's the title of the new one. Let me begin by saying: "No need for any hurt feelings here, folks." The few folks (and they were indeed very few) who expressed some disgruntlement over our messing with the vertical and horizontal of the "original deal," (as opposed to the new and improve "crispy" deal) were almost to a man/woman more than willing to kick in the extra fiver for 2nd CD. No, quite frankly, there were other reasons we went with this plan.
To regress one last time: it's pretty simple economics. More songs equals the need for more time to record, mix, master and even more of that circular plastic stuff they bury the digits of info in. Yep, more "time" means it takes more "do-rei-me" to pull that off... And we could have done that... We were close... We were close 'cause we were good stewards with your bucks... and your good faith. And plus, I'd like to think you bet on a good "pony" (no pun intended)!
The situation that unfolded? I had the tunes (a lot of them), I had the production ideas, we had a good budget... AND we had the services of one of the BEST producer/mixers in America in John Keane, who gave us great rates and a great heart to this project. The bottom line is we fell a bit short of completing what could have been a 2 CD set.... But you know what?
It's all good, folks! Dear Life, is the result... and we're real happy about her upcoming birthday.
All the brouhaha had a positive effect. It forced us to look at the current "Big Picture" industry wise. Our dilemma was this: How can we get this project, these tunes to a wider audience? Tim and I have been sifting through many ideas over the last few days. We decided that 2 CD set is unrealistic and even commercially less appropriate for what I need at this point in my (ahem)! so-called "career!" (lol)!
Although two CD sets are rare, and hardly ever forgotten, there is a tendency for them to show up on an artist's radar when he or she has already delivered that really "big record" that puts them in a place where critics and such take even more astute notice. And the sad footnote, folks? I have the tunes, but I ain't got the profile. For years now, with each offering, I hoped and wished for a base hit. Sure, I was eagerly awaiting the reversal of such dumb luck throughout last year by associating Perfumed Letter with a new label. Awaiting a change in the outcome; a reversal of dumb luck. Alas, such was not the case.
Dumb Luck: about 16 records now vs. Bill: zero! Whatever...
But don't despair. Keep watching fans and friends! Those "wasted tracks" (and quite a few more!) from the 2nd CD will see the light of day. We plan to finish the "other record" very soon. Stay tuned for announcements.
But let's get back to the issue: Our need to release a record that critics, radio and media can "get their brains around" (pathetic phrase) is what is driving this decision to NOT release a double CD... but a solid single one, "Dear Life,"
Basically we came to this conclusion: "We need a record folks can figure out and appreciate. That means a record that is more concise and manageable." NOT one that's hard to digest or one that could be perceived as self-indulgent. (It could be dangerous to open oneself to that... not that I give all that much of a rat's derriere about what any critic thinks... but I'll play along one more time. Summershine and Perfumed Letter, btw, were short 44 minute pop-rides-PERFECT!)
What to say? Blame it on the shortened attention span that a culture of sound-bytes and rapid-fire video images has spawned. Blame it on the 20 minute commute. Blame it on the fact that most records are based on that one killer song... and the rest is forgettable. But whatever the reason, or combinations of them, it seems wise to release Dear Life, as a single CD.
And so, welcome if you will, Dear Life,. She'll be the one I'm the most proud of to date. Let me explain why it think it's of my "best." I divide my work into two categories; the pop stuff and the Americana stuff. No, they're not hard and fast categories. But of all the "Americana stuff," this new one (I think) is the "best." And by "best," I mean the one that is the most naked/poetic, brutal and beautiful... tones and lyrics all dovetail and blend and reinforce each other. In some ways Dear Life, was a record for me that was an attempt to affirm love and hope and joy when I had lost faith in those things and even tested those "ideas" beyond human measure. And that's all the Cliff's Notes I can give you. That's what I mean by best... all the filters are down.
Of course soon you'll be the judge.
But whatever the commercial results, be they "large" or meager, we need to raise our glasses for a toast... a toast to you all on this list and news group. I wanna say a heartfelt "thanks" to you all! Thank for all the goodwill, the concern, and the encouragement involved in this project! It has been nothing short of amazing. I felt "connection" throughout the duration... that's no small thing.
Me? I'll hope that Dear Life, will have a nice birthday. Most of the time, I find myself thinking that there's no place for this type of "kid" in today's "nursery." And if there isn't, well, that's nothing new to me. She'll be like all those other orphan kids (I've fathered) that got dropped off in a basket with a blanket; dropped off with a knock at some stranger's door late one night. You know, like they portray in the old movies. And you? You'll rise from your easy chair and say: "Now who could that be at such late hour? Oh, look, Marge, it's another one... of bill mallonee's babies!" LOL!
And if that's the case, (to wax slightly sentimental) I'll be content to stand by a streetlight, in the shadows, and watch. And no doubt I'll say a prayer as that thin sliver of doorway light disappears and she's taken in her new home. And I'll shuffle home kinda slowly, but more or less, deliberately.
And I'll dream.
I'll dream that she'll grow up and to be holy and strong and wise and beautiful. And I'll dream that she'll become an immense blessing to those that took a big chance on her that night.
And I'll hope she'll bring as much hope and joy to that household, and to her friends, present and future, as she brought to me when she was "conceived" and then brought into the world.
pax,
bill mallonee
May 9, 2004
Listen to Bill on WPLN, The Songwriter Sessions
www.wpln.org/songwriters/
Click on the REAL Listen icon and hear...
- Bill Mallonee with Jake and Dave Klassen on Violin
- Erin McKeown (who Paste Music froths at)
- Tom Mason (Red Haired - in honor of Nick Purdy)
...as they play, and talk and collaborate.
Feb 24, 2004
Listen to Pin My Hope Demos
Go to the www.billmallonee.net/ music page and click on the MP3 link at the top. Then either click on the "High & Lonesome" mp3 to play in your browser, or right click to save the file on your computer and play! More demo songs to come every few days!
Feb 10, 2004
Radioio and Bill Mallonee
You have to all go to www.radioio.com. They play Bill and VoL stuff! It's featured on the Wildwood web site too. I was listening to the eclectic and I requested anything Bill or VoL - right after the Kraftwerk song was done - BAM! on goes "Perfumed Letter" which sounded great - then BAM - after I thought it was over - "Extreme North of the Compass." WOW, these guys are great. You gotta get a taste of this radio. Mike is the eclectic DJ and does a great job. You'd be surprised at what you hear - and just contact them, and request - it's amazing.
I was again, thouroughly impressed with this station. Better than regular Radio. Now, it's Peter Himmelman - really great stuff, folks. www.radioio.com. Go fer it. -Tim
Jan 28, 2004
New Solo Release - Paste and Bill Part Friends
Check out the new solo release that Bill will be recording in March, entitled Pin My Hope available to pre-order. Paste and Bill decided to part with their label relationship and remain close friends. The door isn't closed with doing future projects with Paste. More info to come.
Jan 28, 2004
New Solo Release
Bill will be recording a new solo project in March, tentatively titled Pin My Hope. This project is available for preorder right now. Visit billmallonee.com and click on the Pin My Hope links for more information and to place your order. Preorders will be the driving force in financing the project, so please be sure to place your order (and receive a bonus EP in the process). At this point it is not known whether Pin My Hope will be handled independently or through a record label. However, it is known that Bill and Paste Records have officially parted company on friendly terms. Future collaborations with Paste are, however, still a possibility.
Jan 5, 2004
2004 Rumblings
Bill has speculated (no exact dates) that by mid-year we will be seeing a new solo album and possibly the second in the Vigilantes of Love archive series put out by Lo-Fidelity. All this is in addition to the UK version of Locket Full of Moonlight which will be out well in advance of everything else. No official word on the DVD project. Don't ask.
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