It’s been nearly a week since the show and I am still a bit hyped. In a word: awesome. In two words: awesomely awesome.

If you were able to make it out, thanks for joining us. I had a blast. If not, I hope you were able to catch some of it on the live stream. And if not, well, you have some choices because the future is awesome. You can check out an archive of the live stream of the whole show here if you can handle the awful sound and video. But if you can be patient, my dear friend Leland of Coppersmith Productions is posting his hi-res videos to Vimeo. I’ve grouped them into a channel here. Here’s a small taste:

Not all the songs are up yet due to Vimeo’s upload limits, but the whole show should be available sometime next week. Until then, please enjoy what’s available, and let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I’m going to be figuring out how I can get another fix of that sweet, sweet performance drug sometime in the near future.

Some of those songs are rather embarrassing:

But some I still like quite a lot:

Maybe you’ll find something you like too.

In other news, I get back on the stage for the first time in over 16 years in three days. I’m only freaking out a tiny huge amount.

Really.

Keith Kanderski, formerly of Cleveland band Pudding & Fruit and currently in Toasters in Love, has put together a solo night featuring himself, me, and our friend Pete Woodward, who also used to play in punk bands in the ’90s (Dreyfus, Sidecar, the Unknown) and is currently in Restless Habs.

This will be the first time I’ve played a show since August of 1995. So, yeah, nearly 17 years. That means if you miss this show, chances are good you won’t get another chance during this generation.

The show is Saturday, January 21, at the Symposium on Detroit in Lakewood, Ohio. Admission is $5, or $8 for 18-to-20-year-old attendees. (No one under 18 admitted, unfortunately.) Here’s a link to the Facebook event for the show for more details.

Feel free to share this with friends, and I hope to see you there.

This morning, barely a week later, I finished this:

Everything but that middle section has been rattling around in my brainpan for longer than I can remember, but all of a sudden it all came together and it all came out. You can read the lyrics on the song page here, or head over to the Bandcamp page to download your own copy.

I’d love to hear what you think; comments on this post are open, or of course you can always drop me a line personally.

Thanks for listening.

This instrumental was created entirely on an iPad, with just a few volume tweaks done in GarageBand for the Mac to compensate for my overzealous virtual-bass tapping. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

I know you longtime listeners probably have most, if not all, of these songs already, but one of the reasons I love Bandcamp is that they make songs so damn easy to share. For example, you can just paste a link to a song or album from Bandcamp on your (or someone else’s!) Facebook wall, and it’ll automatically embed a streaming player. So, you know, I’m not saying you should spam your friends with Johnny High Ground music or anything. (Well, I kinda am.) But if there are older tunes you specifically like, it’s now easier than ever to share them with others. I like sharing. Sharing is good.

OK, enough about Bandcamp. For awhile, at least. Oh, wait — let me leave you with the link to my Bandcamp site: johnnyhighground.bandcamp.com.

Bandcamp Bandcamp Bandcamp.

OK, stopping for real now.

Thanks for listening,
-joe

About forty minutes after signing up I had sold a copy of the EP, and the funds had already appeared in my PayPal account.

I love technology. And Bandcamp is based around the idea of using very simple, but very versatile technology to remove roadblocks between the artist and fans. So far, it works brilliantly. The site is loaded with tools for the musician, including great options for embedding songs and albums. Like this:

Neat, eh? So Bandcamp is now my retailer of choice; I’ll still be going through iTunes and Amazon, of course, but for speed, transparency, and usefulness Bandcamp is far in the lead.

Here’s my page for your listening enjoyment. And I’ll definitely be putting the rest of my catalog up in the very near future.

Thanks for listening,
-joe

UPDATE: Album page is now live, with lyrics! And everything!

Oh, and because it’s a FAQ: The album will also be going up at Amazon MP3, but they take substantially longer than iTunes to process music, so it will probably be a few weeks.

I’ll be putting up lyric pages soon, and of course I’ll update when the songs are live for your consumption. Thanks for listening.

-joe

It’s true! Alert the media. Tell your friends. Call the President. And I’m not just recording one song, oh no. Once I’ve completed a round of vocal tracks, I’ll have not one, not two, but three new songs for you. Two of them have never been heard outside of a very small circle of friends and family. One has never been heard by anyone. Anyone.

Look for these to appear in the next few days. Unless my voice is in a lot worse shape than I thought, it shouldn’t take me too long to put down the vocal tracks.

Meanwhile, I’ve just realized I never noted here that Early Output is live at Amazon! You can go grab it here, should the spirit move you to do so. And it’s only $5.99. What a bargain!

Talk to you soon.
-joe