Today I have begun the Pre-Order for the Limited Edition CD Packages. You can pre-order here if you'd like. I am working on the artwork for the 3 different CDs that I'll be pressing over the next week or so and as soon as I get enough orders for the first pressing...off it will go! Here's what's available:

Lily Sleeps - Remastered Limited Edition CD - $19.99

Whirlwind Medusa - Limited Edition w/ 2 Bonus Tracks - $19.99
Bonus Tracks are 2 unreleased tracks from the Whirlwind Medusa Sessions.

Whirlwind Medusa - Limited Edition 2 Disc Fan Package - $27.99 
Same main disc as above (including the bonus tracks) plus a second disc featuring Rescue Andromeda: Whirlwind Medusa B-Sides.

VISIT THE LIMITED EDITION CD PAGE

So the next record is definitely going to have a limited edition double CD package. The first disc will contain the exclusive bonus tracks from the digital store (of course). The SECOND disc will include 2 bonus tracks that will ONLY be included with the LE CD package. Every 25-50 pressings of each disc will see a complete change in artwork so each batch will be unique. How fun!

Here's the other thing: I am looking at other Limited Edition "Support the Artist" runs of older CDs. I am taking any and all suggestions so please feel free to chime in. So far I am thinking of releasing the remastered version of Lily Sleeps that is not even in the digital store yet, and perhaps 2 separate Whirlwind Medusa packages. One with the single album including 2 never before released bonus tracks at the end, and another package with both the LE album disc and the B-Sides disc (which may also have some extras).

Please let me know your thoughts everyone!

I plan on writing an entry about the death of Michael Jackson sometime soon, but for now I shall answer this question instead. I left his music behind long ago, but there is absolutely no way to ignore his tremendous impact on music, performance, and celebrity itself.

I was a HUGE "Thriller" fan as a young child. In that regard I really think, after thinking about it for a few minutes today, that my favorite MJ song is "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin" from that record. "Man in the Mirror" from "Bad" will always remind me of the skating rink. "Smooth Criminal" will always remind me of my brother singing it on video in the "Stratton Family Talent Show" in 1988. Good times. Good memories.

CD Baby, where I sell my CDs, is getting ready to relaunch their website which will have some long-needed improvments. They have unveiled to artists some really great options that are going to be very important as I move into the purely digital world. Touring problems with digital-only records solved! At least from the merch perspective.

They are also now offering short-run cd duplication options where you can make as few as 5 CDs so I may start doing some VERY limited edition packages for those still interested in CDs where you pay a bit more to help support me but get an actual CD with artwork and some other fun stuff included. It would be a "fan package" like many acts are doing these days. That way, for casual fans who only wait for iTunes anyway, I am not wasting money pressing 1000s of cds that will collect dust in my bedroom. Hardcore fans who would like customized packages would also be able to get those. It seems like the best option in the digital world we have seemed to fully enter in the last few years. Having access to iTunes and such is invaluable for new and casual fans (from my business side as well) yet seeing some new options to help bridge the gap is very encouraging.

In other news I am now waffling on my preliminary album title. Won't say more than that, but this record is a little bitch sometimes.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I swiped this from tinawiesen who swiped it from someone else. I'm not so sure about the first part, but the urge and dream parts are right on. I am thinking of future "day jobs" lately and it is important that I do something that makes a difference somewhere so hmmmmm....

Numerology Report

You entered: Casey Patrick Stratton

There are 20 letters in your name.
Those 20 letters total to 78
There are 6 vowels and 14 consonants in your name.

What your first name means:
Spanish Female Honorable.
Latin Female Diminutive of Catherine: Pure, clear. Form of the Latin 'Katharina', from the Greek 'Aikaterina'. It was borne by a number of saints, including St Catherine of Alexandria, a 4th century martyr who suffered torture on a spiked wheel.
Irish Male Observant; alert; vigorous. Famous Bearer: radio personality and voice of 'Scooby-Doo' (cartoon dog) Casey Kasem.
Irish Female Brave; Vigilant.
Greek Female Honorable. Biblical; acacia wood was used to build the wilderness Tabernacle.
Gaelic Male Brave.
Gaelic Female Brave.
French Female Diminutive of Catherine: Pure, clear. Form of the Latin Katharina, from the Greek Aikaterina.
English Male From a polish word meaning 'Proclamation of peace.' A diminutive of Casirnir, Cassandra, or Catherine. Popularized as a boy's name by the American folk song 'Casey Jones'.
English Female Diminutive of Cassandra: Cassandra was a Trojan prophetess, daughter of King Priam. This name became popular in medieval Britain, and fashionable in the USA in the mid-2Oth century. A diminutive of Casirnir, Cassandra, or Cathedne.
Celtic Male Brave.
Biblical Female Refers to the Biblical acacia wood that was used to build the wilderness Tabernacle.

Your number is: 6

The characteristics of #6 are: Responsibility, protection, nurturing, community, balance, sympathy.

The expression or destiny for #6:
The number 6 Expression provides you a truly outstanding sense of responsibility, love, and balance. The 6 is helpful and ever conscientious, making you quite capable of rectifying and balancing any sort of inharmonious situation. You are a person very much inclined to give help and comfort to those in need. You have a natural penchant for working with the old, the young, the sick, or the underprivileged. Although you may have considerable creative and artistic talents, the chances are that you will devote yourself to an occupation that shows concern for the betterment of the community.

The positive side of the number 6 suggests that you are very loving, friendly, and appreciative of others. You have a depth of understanding that produces much sympathetic, kindness, and generosity. The qualities of the 6 make the finest and most concerned parent and one often deeply involved in domestic activities. Openness and honesty is apparent in your approach to all relationships.

If there is an excess of the number 6 in your makeup, you may exhibit some of the negative traits associated with this number. There may be a tendency for you to be too exacting and demanding of yourself. In this regard, you may at times sacrifice yourself (or your loved ones) for the welfare of others. In some cases, the over zealous 6 has difficulty distinguishing helping from interfering. You may have difficulty expressing your own individuality, because of involvement with responsibilities and causes. Like all with the Expression of the number 6, it's quite likely that you worry much too much.

Your Soul Urge number is: 5

A Soul Urge number of 5 means:
The 5 soul urge or motivation would like to follow a life of freedom, excitement, adventure and unexpected happening. The idea of travel and freedom to roam intrigues you. You are very much the adventurer at heart. Not particularly concerned about your future or about getting ahead, you can seem superficial and unmotivated.

In a positive sense, the energies of the number 5 make you very adaptable and versatile. You have a natural resourcefulness and enthusiasm that may mark you as a progressive with a good mind and active imagination. You seem to have a natural inclination to be a pace-setter. You are attracted to the unusual and the fast paced.

You may be overly restless and impatient at times. You may dislike the routine work that you are engaged in, and tend to jump from activity to activity, without ever finishing anything. You may have difficulty with responsibility. You don't want to be tied down to a relationship, and it may be hard to commit to one person.

Your Inner Dream number is: 1

An Inner Dream number of 1 means:
You dream of being a leader and one who is in charge. You want to be known for your courage, daring, and original ideas. You seek unconquered heights. People may get a first impression that you are very aggressive and sure of yourself.

This is totally inappropriate but I couldn't help but laugh. I love reading political news which is nothing shocking. I also enjoy the comedic reporting of Wonkette. There is basically nothing they won't say on that thing. If you can't laugh...what can you do. No disrespect meant in the least.

"French military ships detected “sounds” as they trolled the Atlantic for evidence from the crashed Air France flight, but the noises were not coming from the missing black boxes … they were coming from inside the house."

Mix - to combine (two or more separate recordings or microphone signals) to make a single recording or composite signal.

My mind is full of sound and information. I began mixing the next record over the last few days. I hate being in the middle of mixing because the album feels out of sync and strange until all the mixes are done, or at least at the stage where I am living with them and just tweaking little things. As of now I feel like I have a half-completed record on my hands which makes it feel disjointed. Of course my morbid side worries I'll get hit by a bus and have an unfinished work. Does anyone else ever feel that? I would imagine so.

I'm not sure when I'll release this one. It seems soon to put out another record, but most of what I read about modern music marketing and business from a DIY (Do It Yourself) perspective says to just release, release, release if you are on your own. I write so much material that I have no problem with that! As we know (if you've been around a while) I hate being so behind with releases that albums are 2 years old by the time I put them out.

This next one is tentatively titled so I'm not going to say just what it is yet. I started it in spring 2008 and took a big break in the middle and came back to finish it in January 2009. There will be 14 tracks in the DIGITAL STORE version, 2 of which will be exclusive bonus tracks for the store alone. The iTunes and other online retailers will carry a 12 song version only. In addition to that there are enough B-sides left to fill a disc so not sure if I'll be holding on to those for later or also releasing a double album as well. NO CDS this time. Based on physical vs. digital sales it is just not worth the investment and frankly my bedroom has no more room for hundreds more unsold CDs. Honestly I haven't sold ONE physical CD in over 3 weeks. Not worth it. I know some people still want them, but they are just too expensive to produce in small quantities and the world moves forward whether we like it or not. I am certainly not the first nor the last artist to go digital-only.

So that's the update. More to come.

Dear Friend,

They compared same-sex marriage to a marriage between an uncle and a niece. Or between two children. No, we're not talking about Rick Santorum. We're talking about the Obama administration's Justice Department. The brief the DOJ presented defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court was not just wrong. It was offensive. The New York Times called it "disturbing" in its lead editorial.

Back in the days of the 2008 campaign, Senator Obama promised he would work to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. But now that a gay couple in California is challenging DOMA in federal court, President Obama has chosen to take action to defend a law that prevents legally married same-sex couples from receiving any federal benefits, or from having their marriages recognized in other states.

I just signed a petition to tell President Obama and Attorney General Holder to withdraw this offensive brief and apologize for its contents. (The website also has a great video of Rachel Maddow and Howard Dean discussing the importance of this issue!) Please have a look and take action.

Click Here to sign the petition

Not at all surprising, but yet again I like what she has to say. The following quotes are from Tori's interview in Gay and Night Magazine in Europe. The wine analogy is back, but I like that as well:

On your previous tour you offered 27 live shows up for digital
sale, hours after the shows had taken place. Were you happy
with the way they turned out?

‘We enjoyed that a lot. I could see us doing something like that again, it might be in
Europe, though. For this next tour, we start in the States, so we’ll be well rehearsed
by the time we get to Europe. We’re trying to find the best partnering. The mixing
was done live, on the night of the show. That took a lot of energy and effort. My
husband Mark, who is also my sound engineer, would be up until four in the morning,
trying to upload it to the website. The whole ‘tech support’ team was no support
at all. It was my crew, who was up through the night, while everybody else went to
sleep after nine o’clock at night and didn’t do anything. I was really disappointed
about that. And yet, we’re cutting in all these people. So that doesn’t mean I’m not
gonna do it again, it just means that the people that you cut in with need to do something.
Wash clothes maybe, do some laundry. Anything! And I’ll be honest, dealing
with promoters and venues in the States is a real headache too.’

Because they all want a cut of the profits as well?

‘They all want everything. They all want your first child, your blood and everything
else. It’s like when you are at a wine tasting. I think you need to know that you’re
crossing a line when you start putting bottles of wine in your bag. Some of these
venues and promoters in the world don’t know when they’re crossing lines, so you
just have to smack their hand and say ‘you don’t get to come to the party anymore!’.
It’s unfortunate.'

Via Jessica Hoffman on Facebook:

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, 'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.

The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.'

Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.

Oh this video made me lose it. A Dad surprised his 10-year old daughter at school. He had just returned from Iraq. Apparently the girl couldn't speak for several minutes. OMG

OK MSNBC's player SUCKS so here's the link instead of an embed. TRUST me you need to see this.

Click here to see the video

I TOTALLY forgot to put the link up for my cover of Poker Face by Lady GaGa! People are always telling me I should do covers from completely outside my genre and comfort zone so I did. You can download it for free!!!

Click here to download Poker Face

The remix collection is now available in the digital music store. I will do a photoshoot sometime soon for it so new artwork will be coming, but I wanted to get the music out! Here's the final tracklist:

Blood (Teleportation Mix)
Opaline (Clandestine Mix)
You Were My Religion (Back From the Deep Mix)
The Dead Sea (Tidal Wave Mix)
Blood (Asylum Mix)
You Wanted Out (Not Your Savior Mix)
Sacrifice (Ritual Mix)
Wild Soul (Meditation Mix)
No Messages Send (Crossed Wires Mix)
Violet Room (Ultraviolet Mix)
Opaline (Falsified Life Mix)
Blood (Little Flood Mix)

I have finally started a collection of remixes. People have been suggesting I do one for a long time. The inspiration to do one finally came and I have been working on it over the last few weeks. I have a few more to do, but it should be ready to go sometime next week. Here's what I have so far:

Blood (Teleportation Mix)
Opaline (Clandestine Mix)
You Were My Religion (Back From the Deep Mix)
The Dead Sea (Tidal Wave Mix)
Blood (Asylum Mix)
You Wanted Out (Not Your Savior Mix)
Sacrifice (Ritual Mix)
Wild Soul (Meditation Mix)
Opaline (Falsified Life Mix)
Blood (Little Flood Mix)

As I said I have a few more to do, but it's shaping up!

I am so excited for the new V! I LOVED the original. I played "V" all the time with my friends when I was a kid and you KNOW I was an alien! Good times. Good memories.

I feel like I haven't posted anything of consequence in a while. Well, duh. Everyone knows that blogging is SO two years ago. Now I microblog on Twitter and post on Facebook. Wake up and smell 2009, right? I do enjoy both Facebook and Twitter but the constant flow of information is almost too overwhelming.

I have been ready to record my Podcast all day but there are repairs being done on my house. Right now they are in the upstairs unit, but it is still noisy as hell and I fear they will head down here at any moment. I am a little annoyed since this began at 8:45 am and I have been waiting all day for them to make my indoor repairs, but it's looking more like it may be tomorrow which will mean one more day of sitting around and waiting. I am trying to get some administrative stuff done, but I was looking forward to taking a long walk in the 82 degree weather today. Bummer.

I am really liking the new Tori record. I seem to be in the minority. I feel like it takes some time to grow on you, but I think most good records do. I certainly like it better than the last few. I have never truly disliked a Tori record and I have blogged over and over again about how her records are her business and I do not ever believe in imposing my will on an artist. So self-important! If every artist sat around making sure they were pleasing 100% of people nothing would ever be any good at all. Look at what the major labels have done to mainstream music with that very attitude. When I read people online spouting about what Tori, or any artist, owes them it makes my stomach turn. I don't think anyone's singular purchase is funding album production, touring costs or real life bills and expenses. And one man's trash...as they say. My least favorite track or album is undeniably always someone else's favorite. We all know how I feel about the public's sense of entitlement. Make a record I LOVE beyond words or it's not worth $15. REALLY? A record I love beyond words is worth far more and I would venture to say that even a record I despise is certainly worth $15 most of the time because art is subjective and music has a value and costs real cash to make and even more skill to make it well.

There I go again. I didn't even mean to go there. I just read so many comments and such online that make my eyes roll back in my head. I don't understand it. If I go see a movie and I think it sucks I don't ask for my money back or decide that from now on I'll only sneak into movies without paying just in case it sucks. I don't go into Target and tell them that their brand's version of my face moisturizer is only mediocre at best so I'm stealing it instead of buying it. You'd better make that cheeseburger shine, McDonalds or I'm not paying for it, but I'll let you know AFTER I eat it kthnx.

Quote of the day as read in an email to Bob Lefsetz:

Why do writers always get the shaft? Because everyone thinks they can write. And almost everyone is terribly wrong.

Ain't showbiz grand?

As read on Twitter:

There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it's easy.

Interview with Tori Amos May 2009 in Vienna

Martin: While the major labels take action against illegal downloads, many artists shy away from the controversial discussion and maybe even offer free downloads as a counter measure. Are the artists to lose out on all of this?

Tori: The possible danger is that if the public is naïve enough to think that when you go to a wine tasting you can put the bottle of wine in the bag. If you start doing that the vineyard is going to shut down. There has to be some kind of exchange. If you’re going to take a song, you need go give back - if you value it.

Martin: You could argue, though, that more people will show up at your concerts, if they like the music they downloaded.

Tori: That doesn’t keep the records going. That only keeps the petrol in the buses and the crew paid. To me, this is about respect. What if I came into your house and start putting shit in my bag? Wouldn’t you think that I’m crossing a line there? Where is my respect for your home?

Martin: But do you see a way out of this?

Tori: Consciousness. It’s not about rules. We’re talking about something far more serious here. This is about a generation trying to find a way to show value. If I’m taking from an artist and all I do is taking, then this is an unhealthy relationship and I’m a parasite. I don’t like the idea and I don’t think the public likes the idea either. At the same time it’s also about being respected by the artist. Neither side can take each other for granted. The artist has to make sure too that they are giving enough and acknowledge for the fact that everyone worked hard to be able to buy this ticket or special package. This is something every artist has to develop with the public. I think it’s a very individual thing.