Beatnik Turtle is Splitting Up

Yep, you heard right. Beatnik Turtle is officially splitting up.

But, not in the way you might think. That is, we're not breaking up as a band. There's no Yoko Ono, hotel room trashing, band member back-stabbing going on.

But, we are splitting up. About 3600 miles apart, actually.

What, you say?

Well, come Saturday, me (um, Jason, who uh, founded the band) and Tom (who plays all the complicated guitar parts) are moving overseas to Dublin, Ireland. It's a very long story involving our dayjobs, but we'll be over there for a few years while the rest of the band stays here in Chicago. (Hey, someone's gotta watch the place.)

So, after 13 years, Beatnik Turtle will now enter a new chapter and it'll be interesting to see where it leads.

It's a bit sad in that we had big plans to return to the stage and play live. In fact, we did a super double-secret show to an audience of friends a while back to test out some of the (tons) of new material we created during TheSongOfTheDay.com. The show went over well for something thrown together very, very quickly and got us excited about playing live again. But, then well, the Ireland thing soon became a reality and so we had to scrap our any touring plans.



But it's not all sad. It's actually a pretty cool opportunity in that if there's one thing our band has down pat, it's writing music and recording virtually. Just check out TheSongOfTheDay.com and you'll know what we mean. We couldn't have pulled all that off it it wasn't for technology helping a bit.

And now technology will just have to help a bit more.

As a band, we've already worked out how we'll continue forward -- how we'll continue to work together while two of us are across the ocean (email, Skype, Google Docs, etc.), how we'll record overseas in Dublin (Tom and I will be rebuilding our studios over there), and how we'll continue to record the rest of the band here in Chicago (thanks to our good friend, John who's got a state-of-the-art studio just blocks away from our TurtleShell Studios...which is now all boxed up.

So, Beatnik Turtle will be even more virtual than ever before. It's yet another challenge for us, but then it's totally up our alley. We're the "Indie Band Survival Guide" and IndieGuide.com guys as you know. The stuff we learn in collaborating and working remotely across two continents and 6 time zones will definitely find it's way in our writing and the tons of How To's over at IndieGuide.com.

And just so you know what we have planned, we're busy putting the final touches on 3 new albums, all of which should be coming out over the next year:

(1) a reissue and second printing (!) of "Sham Rock";
(2) "When I Was Your Age" (our album from last year's RPMChallenge); and
(3) "The Best Of TheSongOfTheDay.com" (which looks to be a double disc).

And then there's the latest album -- "So Much To Rock About" -- which we just completed in February**. Our plans are to use this album as a test to see how we work together virtually using the interweb. We have plans to record additional songs and material for that album so it's ready for release sometime in 2011.

So, there it is. We're splitting up. But not breaking up!

And so, if you're in Dublin or know people in Dublin, please give Tom and me a shout! We'll be looking for some open mic nights to play...!

**By the way, starting this Monday we'll be posting the songs from "So Much To Rock About" at TheSongOfTheDay.com. So, get ready for 11 weeks of fresh, new music!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We Did It! 4th RPM Album Done in 28 Days!

We did it!

Despite two of the band members uprooting their lives to move to Dublin, Ireland in a week (me and Tom), we managed to write and record 11 new songs and mail it to "RPM Headquarters". Over 2000 indie musicians participated this year. Not sure how many managed to finish, but then it's really not a contest (and it doesn't matter: it's an exercise in creativity and motivation).

The album we mailed in is entitled "So Much To Rock About" based on a line in the song, "Hello Guitar (We've Got So Much To Rock About"). It seemed fitting, especially since this will become our 21st album when it officially gets released next year.



As with RPM albums we've done in years past, we'll be posting all the songs up at TheSongOfTheDay.com in the next week or so. Also, while we finished the album for RPM purposes, we'll do our usual and write some more songs and work on the album over the year. We still need to get last year's album out -- "When I Was Your Age" -- and the ever-forthcoming "The Best Of TheSongOfTheDay.com" (which is a double album, so, you know, it's twice the work).

So, there's a lot more music coming from Beatnik Turtle...even if two of us guys are relocating to Dublin for the time-being.

Beatnik Turtle's Music Video Played On SpikeTV

Last May our video for "Star Wars (A Film Like No Other)" was played on SpikeTV. For months the videotape we had of its airing sat on my shelf above the TV. My brother thankfully recorded it, handed me the videotape, and said something about seeing the video and how it was actually "pretty good" which was the biggest compliment he's ever given us. Anyway, I went to watch it, but then realized I didn't have a VCR anymore and so there it sat, on the shelf.

Well, I finally borrowed a VCR and digitized it.

How'd it get on SpikeTV?

Well, it's a long story but basically Tom and I made a video mashup for the song using the great tools at StarWars.com the year before. It got something like 15,000 views and was one of the top videos at the time. That led to Atom.com asking to post  it at their site where we became a Fan Movie Challenge Finalist. Then, a few months later, SpikeTV called and asked to play it to help celebrate the 32nd anniversary and promote the Fan Movie Challenge.

It's how things happen nowadays.

Enjoy the video and I'll pass on my thanks to my brother for you.

Working Hard on Our Next Album (RPM 2010!)

In a whirlwind recording session not seen since we did TheSongOfTheDay.com, we managed to record the basic tracks  to 11 songs.  While that may seem impressive, it's really just drums, bass, and scratch guitars/vocals (which get recorded over). ***

All 11 the songs revolve around music, being in a band, and of course making an album (RPM!).

Working titles to the songs are:

"Earworm" -- about that song you can't get out of your head.

"Dude From Indiana" -- about a guy who's "Rockin' Real Hard To Carlos Santana"

"Hello Guitar" -- about getting back into songwriting and playing after a long time away.

"All The Pretty Girls" -- about girls of course -- the best type of groupies!

"Yesterday's New Today (Get Me Movin')" -- we wrote this song kind of as an anthem for musicians. It's all about how you don't want to work, you'd rather play all day.

"Never Be The Front Man" --  this one's pretty obvious, it's about being second to the front man (think: Oates of Hall & Oates, the poor guy).

"We're Getting The Band Back Together" -- since our album's about music, there was no way in hell we weren't going to write a song based on the classic Blues Brothers line!

"11" -- and speaking of famous movie lines, we realized pretty quickly we needed to have a nod to Spinal Tap.

"Jump The Shark" -- we decided to tempt fate and write about you know, jumping the shark -- the exact moment when you were really good, but now you went downhill.

"Don't Quit Your Day Job" -- now, how could we NOT write this one given what the album's all about?!?

The eleventh song is a different rendition of "Don't Quit Your Day Job". So, that's all we have so far, but we've been known to come up with something at the spur of the moment, so we'll see what develops and what doesn't...

Oh and we're still trying to come up with a name for the album since it's about music. We were thinking "Don't Quit Your Day Job" but that's been done to death.

Other ideas so far include:

"So Much To Rock About"

"Rock and/or Roll"

But, um...that's all we got. If you have any ideas for an album title that fits the theme, we're all ears! Leave a comment, tweet us, email us, whatever...it'll get to us!

***Our record recording session as a band is 14 songs tracked out in one day -- one of which was Pizza: The Rock Opera, so it's actually more than 14, since that song is our 10 minute opus to ordering, waiting, and receiving a pizza. (BTW, you can download Pizza: The Rock Opera here or stream it here at TheSongOfTheDay.com.)

Um, and the record for our drummer -- just recording drums to tracks -- is 36. Yep. John's pretty amazing!

Gearing up to Make a New Album this February - RPMChallenge 2010!

It's that time of the year again.

Our band is gearing up for our 4th RPMChallenge. That's where we make up and record an entire new album of original material in 28 days.

This is our 4th one, so we're excited as ever. But the pre-challenge to the challenge for us is coming up with a theme for the album. Something that can guide all the individual songwriters in the band and help us focus on a coherent whole.

As many of you know, our 3 prior RPM albums have been based on:

- Writing an album looking back to when we were kids which produced songs like My Cereal (which features friends, fans, and many other RPMers on the "Coco Chorus" )!

- Updating traditional Irish pub songs and cranking them to "11" which produced songs like Tell Me Ma which was featured on NPR's All Songs Considered Second Stage.

- Writing an album about work and technology which produced songs like Mason Rocket (Spy Extraordinaire).

Now the question becomes, what will we end up creating this year?

We're working on it!

Now, if you're a musician that follows us because of IndieGuide.com and our books The Indie Band Survival Guide, and/or The DIY Music Manual, then we strongly encourage you to sign up at RPMChallenge and give it a shot.

RPM is not a contest. There's no prizes. It's completely a motivational thing. 1000s of musicians worldwide signup. Many make it to the end. But the community is amazing throughout the process as everyone works to complete their album. It's a great reason to get the creative juices flowing, make an album of new material, and get some helpful feedback along the way by other musicians.

And honestly, what would you be doing in February anyways? It's a crappy month. The weather blows...at least it does here in Chicago.

Happy New Year from BT

From all us Turtles, wishing you a healthy and happy 2010. Party on.