This is a bit overdue, but we are happy to announce that the Golden Bloom vs. The Motion Sick split 7" has been released! In case you missed our original announcement, the concept was that The Motion Sick recorded a cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" and Golden Bloom recorded a cover of The Motion Sick's "30 Lives" for the split release.
We can't even begin to express our full gratitude for how wonderful it is to be able to be involved with playing music in Boston. It's an absolute pleasure to work with so many great bands and to have so many enthusiastic and kind people come to shows we put on. We all make music with the hopes that someone out there will find some joy and value in what we're doing. Friday was absolute perfection...great bands, great crowd, and a great sense of community. We were thrilled to have so many special guests join us on stage. It was an honor to share the split 7" project with Golden Bloom and we couldn't be happier about the result. Videos of the other bands that night coming soon, but for now, here's the trouble that we brought!
The Motion Sick vs. Golden Bloom - here we cover GB's "Doomsday Devices" with special guests Golden Bloom, Veronica Dale, and Chris Barrett.
You already saw some fun tour videos from the Space a bit back. Here's a quick recap showing some video from the bands we've shared the nights with lately:
From Don Hill's:
Tayisha Busay
Sidewalk Driver
The Motion Sick (not sure if we performed wonderfully here as I was recovering from quite the stomach illness, but the lights and sound were so excellent that I figured these were worth posting for you all)
Over at http://lifejustbounces.blogspot.com/2010/02/desert-island-dicks-love-will-tear-us.html, Desert Island Dicks have decided to celebrate Valentine's Day by sampling bits of 103 versions of Joy Division's quintessential classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart" including The Motion Sick's cover from 2008's _The truth will catch you, just wait..._ and splicing them together and/or layering them to form two new pieces, "Love Will Tear Us Apart (consecutive mix)" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart (simultaneous mix)" - free downloads at their blog post.
...and we're always proud to be part of experimental ventures like this!
The Motion Sick will be taking some time off from playing shows to finish up some recordings. So, most likely, you won't be hearing us perform for a few months. This is your last chance for a bit!!!!If you buy advance tickets from us here for the 2/19 show at The Middle East Upstairs (our split 7" release with Golden Bloom), you will receive a coupon for a free copy of the 7", which contains The Motion Sick's cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" and Golden Bloom's cover of The Motion Sick's "30 Lives"!!!!
Thanks to everyone who came out to our massively sold-out rock show at The Lizard Lounge last week. Apart from an unsightly and messy injury (more info down below), we had a great time and really enjoyed the fine tunes of Paul Melancon, Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions, and Oranjuly.
We grabbed a little video of the bands so those of you turned away at the door could get a peek at what happened inside.
As you may know, we had the great honor of being selected as Best Local Rock Band 2009 in the Boston Phoenix. Well, the nomination period for 2010 is open. We'd be thrilled to be selected again, so if you'd like, please do nominate us!You can do this by going to: http://thephoenix.com/thebest/boston/vote/nominate.aspx?cat=arts#10109 and entering "The Motion Sick" in the Rock Band category. Your vote doesn't count until you finish with their two-part process. First, you must click "Submit Vote" and then after, you must click "Finished" and enter an e-mail address. They won't add you to a list if you don't check the "add me" box. If you feel uncomfortable using your real address, you can also always use any address at Mailinator.com, which can be checked (if you want to) on their web site.
Lots of excitement! We've got shows in Boston, CT, NYC, and Philly; we need your help to earn a little money via our new song for you to download for free; "30 Lives" makes for a great first dance at your wedding. Also, a little news about a bunch of forthcoming releases including 2 EPs and a 7". Catch us now because after February, we'll be taking an extended break from playing live to do some recording.
01/23/10 The Lizard Lounge Cambridge, MA
w/ Paul Melancon, Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions, Oranjuly
Read Brendan Boogie's interview with Mike about this show. We'll also be playing a bunch of older material that rarely rears its ugly head, so don't miss this!
01/27/10 10:30 PM - Live Radio Performance on WMFO (On the Town with Mikey Dee)
Listen at http://www.wmfo.org
02/04/10 The Space Hamden, CT
w/ Wench The Band, Fey Rey, The Field Recordings, The Press
All Ages!
02/05/10 Pub Webb Philadelphia, PA
02/06/10 Don Hill's New York, NY
w/Sidewalk Driver (one of our absolute favorite Boston bands is joining us in NYC, so don't miss this one - you will regret it!)
Download our novelty song, "Surfin' Retiree" free - click on "Current Contenders" and scroll down to The Motion Sick - if we get into the top 7 most downloaded in our group of 50 this week, we also earn $500, which we could really use toward finishing our next batch of songs, so we appreciate the help. We're out of the running by about 25 downloads now, so please download it, repost this, forward the e-mail on to friends, etc. We appreciate any help you can provide!
It's slightly annoying that you have to become a fan of "Windows" on Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace to do this, but becoming a fan is pretty meaningless anyway, so hop to it...
The song is part of our 4 song novelty EP that will be released digitally very soon. The EP is a remixed, remastered, and sometimes reeverythinged collection of our Ash Wednesday residency theme songs. The first single, "Aquaman's Lament" has a music video that has just hit 10,000 views. Definitely check it out if you haven't yet seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueeySSBI1J0.
You'll hear more soon, but in addition to the novelty EP mentioned earlier, we've got a couple of other upcoming releases.
We're very excited to be releasing a split 7" single with the fine band Golden Bloom next month. The split will contain our cover of their hit, "Doomsday Devices" and their cover of our wedding-first-dance favorite, "30 Lives," both tweaked for optimal foot stomping. We recently picked the winning cover in our artwork contest. Check out the winner and the runners-up at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2010/01/golden-bloom-vs-motion-sick-artwork.html.
Finally, and most mysteriously, after February, we will go into hiding in a soundproof bunker buried in the deepest depths of the ocean to record our most brutal, terrifying, and jovial set of songs yet. We won't be playing any shows during that time, at least not until Lady Gaga or Slayer calls and asks us to join her/them, so you had best come to one of our upcoming shows or miss us for many months...
Fistbumps, nods, hugs, and/or kisses,
The Motion Sick
"After suggesting another Chris Carrabba copycat, The Motion Sick overturn a Dumpster full of chunky guitar fuzz, smooshing his pompadoured noggin." SPIN Magazine
This is definitely one of the most awesome and fun things that has ever happened with our music. It is quite an honor to have "30 Lives" selected to be part of someone's world in this way.
We were thrilled with how many entries we got in the Golden Bloom vs. The Motion Sick artwork contest. There were so many great entries that once we chose the winner, we decided to choose a bunch of great runner-ups rather than just a single one. We're really excited about how the songs turned out and you'll be hearing a lot more about this soon. We'll tell you right now that the best way to get a copy will be to come to the split 7" release show on 2/19 at The Middle East Upstairs with the following ridiculously wonderful lineup: Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women The Motion Sick The Fatal Flaw Golden Bloom Akudama
I am a little behind on saying so, but thanks friends for coming to see us on NYE at Church. We had an awesome time and grabbed a few videos of the other great bands we played with. Thought you might enjoy them.
We've been spending some of our holiday-season time visiting the studio to prepare our next recording.
First, we've been working on our cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" for our shared split 7" project. The artwork contest has just wrapped and we'll be announcing the winner and runners-up very soon.
Here we are doing a little "Doomsday Devices" at The Moontower in Cambridge, MA.
...and tracking for 4 songs at Bopnique with Anthony Resta, remixer extraordinaire of the "30 Lives (Up-Up-Down-Dance Mix)" Watch Anthony J. Resta rock out for fun...
We told you about our final show of the year - which may or may not be our final show of 2009...but more on that later...
Until then, here's some video from the 12/12 show celebrating a Golden Bloom birthday!
In order to celebrate our upcoming split 7", The Motion Sick was joined by Golden Bloom to perform "30 Lives" and Golden Bloom was joined by The Motion Sick to perform "Doomsday Devices"
We'll have one more update in the next few weeks to tell you what we're up to for 2010 (and it's a lot!), but until then, Patrick just really wanted to wish you happy holidays!
We are still working on an updated version of our Ash Wednesday's Residency 4-song collection (poster from the event on the left). One of the songs, "Aquaman's Lament" has been getting some notice lately. We even had the honor of earning a friends of Aquaman certificate (below) for our inside perspective on one of Aquaman's down days. We had the great honor of working with Leesa (of the band Naked on Roller Skates) to make the video for the song.
We've highlighted a few of the times Aquaman got into tangles with his fishy friends. For anyone interested in a very extensive list of all of Aquaman's chat's, check out: http://www.comictreadmill.com/finny.php - from this, we've learned of great moments in Aquaman's adventures where he: convinced crabs to pinch the toes of Fire Trolls to distract them, got a giant clam to chomp on and crush magic gem, made eels form into a lasso, got some flying fish to drop a seaweed net onto pirates, requested that a shark bypassed eating a delicious-looking Flash, and got a whale to wear an alien land creature costume to trick them. Ah, the joys of Aquaman.
We'll be chatting with the community at Music Game Authors about the preparation of our songs for Rock Band, our upcoming recording plans, and anything else of interest on Sunday, 11/22 at 8 PM EST. The chat session is open to the public and we'd love for all of you to join us.
Sunday, there will be links and details at: http://www.musicgameauthors.com - but, to ensure that you're able to get in on the action, you should register before Sunday at: http://www.musicgameauthors.com/forums/ucp.php?mode=register as the chat session will require you to be a member of their forums. It's a pretty painless process and if you're concerned about giving up your e-mail address (they won't use it for anything else), you can always use http://www.mailinator.com/ to generate a temporary address.
Well friends, thanks again for helping make our 150th show an absolute blast. It was nearly sold out before show time and totally sold out by the time the 2nd band of the night was on.
Here's some video of all of the bands. We had some video of Ghost Ocean as well, but it included a bit of them insulting the audience, so we are leaving it out of this post.
We're recording a cover of Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices" and they are covering our "30 Lives" - the recordings will be released on a split 7" in early 2010. Stay tuned for a cover art contest. In the meantime, watch the videos and read the press release below:
THE MOTION SICK AND GOLDEN BLOOM TAKE COVER WITH SPLIT 7 INCH
November 17, 2009 (NEW YORK)
Slated for a February release, The Motion Sick and Golden Bloom join forces to cover each other's songs on an upcoming split 7 inch. Golden Bloom will cover The Motion Sick's "30 Lives" which was featured in the video game, Dance Dance Revolution, while The Motion Sick will cover Golden Bloom's "Doomsday Devices". Why the covers? The Motion Sick's front man, Mike Epstein, states, "'Doomsday Devices' is an obvious and unauthorized song about my life. In fact, I heard it first while constructing the hail-producing portion of my weather dominator and it made me so angry that I accidentally created a blizzard in my garage. I still haven't gotten full visibility back in there." But In all seriousness. Golden Bloom front man, Shawn Fogel says, "When I first heard The Motion Sick I immediately identified them as musical peers. Their songwriting, their musicianship, the way they are serious about their music without taking themselves too serious; these were all qualities we shared. I've always enjoyed bands and artists who covered songs and really interpreted them while molding them into something their own. I have no doubt that when you hear Golden Bloom's "30 Lives" or The Motion Sick's "Doomsday Devices" you'll think we wrote the tunes respectively!" The Motion Sick's "30 Lives," is a ba-ba-ba filled ditty in which the protagonist utilizes a video game code to spend 30 lives with his partner. Earning "Blender Breakout" for their 30 Lives video, CMJ's Sonicbids Spotlight, and Spin's Undiscovered Band Worth A Listen, Epstein (Guitar, Vocals), Matthew Girard (Bass), Patrick Mussari (Guitar) and Travis Richter (Drums) draw parallels to Vonnegut with lyrics ringing of social commentary. Never too serious while slinging weighty subject matters and unconventional musical themes, the band remains profoundly simple in the melodic nods to their literary muses and societal inspirations. In January 2009 SPIN Magazine designated Golden Bloom as one of "8 undiscovered bands worth a listen" while stating that "'Doomsday Devices' feels like a great b-side from the [Wilco] Summerteeth era." With the tough and cheek "Doomsday Devices" video, Golden Bloom multi-instrumentalist and front man, Shawn Fogel, tests the dichotomy between hope and fear, bright energetic melodies shadowing the questions pervading society. Produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Mates of State), Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller), and Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek), the latest album, Fan the Flames explores the exploitation of peoples' fears which lead to that spark of passion to make a difference. For more information on The Motion Sick please go to http://www.greenlightgopublicity.com/clients/?client=themotionsick and Golden Bloom, http://www.greenlightgopublicity.com/clients/?client=goldenbloom. Please contact Janelle Rogers if you'd like to schedule an interview with either band.
We've just gotten hold of an awesome preview video of "30 Lives" for Rock Band. This isn't quite the final version, but it's almost there and soon, you'll be able to buy songs by The Motion Sick in the Rock Band store.
As part of our entry into the Rock Band world, we're holding a live chat on 11/22 8PM EST over at http://www.MusicGameAuthors.com - You'll be able to talk to us (The Motion Sick, that is) as well as Kyle "MarsPhoenix" Zimmermann (the gent preparing songs from our catalog for Rock Band) and some of the other folks from Music Game Authors.
So many of us have asked that question so many times. Well, I was lucky enough to sit down with SXSW Creative Director Brent Grulke and Sonicbids CEO and Founder Panos Panay to try and find out the answer:
“The boy Gedge [The Wedding Present] has written some of the
best love songs of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Era. You may dispute
this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!” John Peel.
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