My old drummer, Dyson, from the Pollyanna Loves Cassandra days, has been working in San Francisco with Crackerjack Highway. He tells me that they’re touring the Northwest in late March. (I’m down for their Luckey’s show in Eugene on the 26th.
Back when Dyson joined up with Shipe Band in 2000, he came from a hot Eugene local progressive funk band (with Olem Alves, Asher Fulero & Zak Johnson). Shipe music didn’t exactly scratch that prog-funk itch, so it’s good to see him returning to it. I hasten to add that he has the super-evolved chops to meet the prog agenda. And he’s singing, to boot.
I just got a favorable review in the UK, written by Paul Kerr for Americana UK. A lucid review that proves he gave Yellow House an honest handful of listenings.
Two things stand out which please me: First, he cites the pop/rock song “Promises” as one of the better songs on the CD. Other reviews either ignored it, or mentioned it in passing as “stylistic meandering” that veers away from the tidy semi-acoustic stuff on the rest of CD.
Second, he describes the writing as “naive and innocent.” This sounds like a slight, but I think he meant it in a good way. Plus, I think of such naivete as kind of a writer’s victory. I had been honing the writer’s skill of making a distinction between author and the character who is speaking. Previously, some Shipe tunes would be saturated with too much awareness. I wanted the Yellow House characters to speak from specific points-of-view, limited to the experiences portrayed in each song, while broader and deeper meanings would go un-said. In other words: more story-telling, and less poetic, emotional philosophizing (Not to mention all the dark cynical impulses that accompany all that agonized deep-thinking.)
The paradox is just how much work it takes to become so “naive and innocent.” (In the same way that Picasso spent 60 years learning how to paint like a child.)
I couldn’t be more pleased. DJ’s and programmers in this part of the Biz treat independent music with honest respect. Even those who reject Yellow House send me e-mails indicating that they gave it a seriously listen. If it doesn’t fit their repertoire, they usually pass it along to someone else who might run with it, laying the contact info on me as well.
Now that I’m wrapping up the international promo run, I finally have a partial-but-substantial list of North American outlets spinning the album. Read more »
The ramp-up for Yellow House promotion has been a long slow march. After being treated so well by regional radio, we sent our little precious around the country and the world. The news trickles in; so far, Yellow House gets love and airplay in more than 50 locations. (That covers a lot of space–the whole world if you count streaming internet.)
Several songs are rotating on playlists. The DJ’s have nice things to say, lending votes for the FAR reporting charts.
Radio Crystal Blue, has Yellow House listed at 13 on their top 100 for the year.
News from Shipe, Treasures & Found Objects | shipe | 
February 14, 2010 6:50 pm | 
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