...because I just discovered that Floor Your Love (the album) has received a very nice review by jangleholic fan Eric Sorensen over at Pop Geek Heaven, the very cool website run by Not Lame Recordings founder Bruce Brodeen.
You have to register to read all the cool stuff on the site, but it's free and it only takes about half a minute.
In any case, a big tip of the Floor Models chapeau to Sorensen and everybody at the site.
Today, the Floor Models on Pop Geek Heaven -- tomorrow, world domination!!!!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
It's Our Second Anniversary: Special In Which Steve Gets All Warm and Runny Edition
Okay, it has now been exactly two years since your humble scribbler started this here blog.
Well, strictly speaking, I first posted on January 10, 2011, but close enough.
In any case, I started this here blog for two reasons. Number one, I had just had a parting of the ways with the folks at BoxOffice.com, for whom I had been toiling on a daily basis for a couple of years (a wonderful run, incidentally -- it was one of the nicest professional gigs I've ever had) and thus had some unexpected free time on my hands.
And number two, it was a way to sort of goose myself to get the project that ultimately became Floor Your Love the album going, after much procrastination. Said project was on my mind for obvious reasons -- I thought the music deserved a hearing before the musicians (including me) were too old to particularly care anymore.
But I would be remiss not to finally credit the original inspiration for the project. Which was the incomparable Willie Nile. I bumped into Willie at a Dave Edmunds show sometime in the early 90s, and the first thing he said to me was "Hey Simels -- when is that Floor Models box set coming out?" And I remember going home that night and thinking -- you know, that's not a bad idea.
So -- a long overdue tip of the Floor Models chapeau to Willie. Thanks, dude.
Has the project run its course? Not sure, actually, but I'm updating the blog today because the good folks at CD Baby have just informed me that two copies of the album were actually purchased on Friday. By complete strangers, i.e. people I don't know personally. One was a digital download, and the other the physical CD (that's a first for us, incidentally).
I realize that if this rate continues we won't be on the Billboard sales charts until sometime around the time that frozen smoothies become available in the nether regions of Hades, but still -- it's a thrill for us, trust me.
And in honor of those two complete strangers who were unaccountably moved to buy the album, here's a bonus track that didn't make the cut.
From the David Grahame home 4-track demos (our earliest recorded work, circa 1981) here's our first attempt at a song that in a more sophisticated form appears on the album: Andy's "You'll Come Around." Unlike the album track, it's actually sung by the song's composer, and while primitive, I think it retains a certain naive charm that's quite endearing.
Anyway, finally, I just wanted to say thanks to everybody who helped out with the album project, especially my beautiful and brilliant girlfriend who served as art director (working cheap, I might add) and Steve Schwartz, whose efforts at audio restoration basically made the whole thing possible.
And to my once and forever bandmates Andy, Gerry and Glen Bob -- you guys were and are the best.
Stay tuned.
Well, strictly speaking, I first posted on January 10, 2011, but close enough.
In any case, I started this here blog for two reasons. Number one, I had just had a parting of the ways with the folks at BoxOffice.com, for whom I had been toiling on a daily basis for a couple of years (a wonderful run, incidentally -- it was one of the nicest professional gigs I've ever had) and thus had some unexpected free time on my hands.
And number two, it was a way to sort of goose myself to get the project that ultimately became Floor Your Love the album going, after much procrastination. Said project was on my mind for obvious reasons -- I thought the music deserved a hearing before the musicians (including me) were too old to particularly care anymore.
But I would be remiss not to finally credit the original inspiration for the project. Which was the incomparable Willie Nile. I bumped into Willie at a Dave Edmunds show sometime in the early 90s, and the first thing he said to me was "Hey Simels -- when is that Floor Models box set coming out?" And I remember going home that night and thinking -- you know, that's not a bad idea.
So -- a long overdue tip of the Floor Models chapeau to Willie. Thanks, dude.
Has the project run its course? Not sure, actually, but I'm updating the blog today because the good folks at CD Baby have just informed me that two copies of the album were actually purchased on Friday. By complete strangers, i.e. people I don't know personally. One was a digital download, and the other the physical CD (that's a first for us, incidentally).
I realize that if this rate continues we won't be on the Billboard sales charts until sometime around the time that frozen smoothies become available in the nether regions of Hades, but still -- it's a thrill for us, trust me.
And in honor of those two complete strangers who were unaccountably moved to buy the album, here's a bonus track that didn't make the cut.
From the David Grahame home 4-track demos (our earliest recorded work, circa 1981) here's our first attempt at a song that in a more sophisticated form appears on the album: Andy's "You'll Come Around." Unlike the album track, it's actually sung by the song's composer, and while primitive, I think it retains a certain naive charm that's quite endearing.
Anyway, finally, I just wanted to say thanks to everybody who helped out with the album project, especially my beautiful and brilliant girlfriend who served as art director (working cheap, I might add) and Steve Schwartz, whose efforts at audio restoration basically made the whole thing possible.
And to my once and forever bandmates Andy, Gerry and Glen Bob -- you guys were and are the best.
Stay tuned.
Friday, November 23, 2012
If It's Friday, It Must Be the Pre-Christmas "Floor Your Love" Update!
Well, lots of interesting stuff to report since last I posted.
1. Courtesy of CD Baby, I just got the Floor Models first ever royalty check, in the amount of $53.76 cents, for albums downloaded (at Amazon, iTunes, and the aforementioned CD Baby). This may not sound like much, but let me tell you -- if you know that you have $53.76 coming in every month, you can budget out your year pretty good.
Seriously, some of those downloads were from people unknown to me, which is really gratifying.
2. The physical CDs are done, and I'm now in the process of shipping them out to various friends, press contacts, etc. I'm also sending a bunch to the now twice aforementioned CD Baby, so that other people unknown to me may order physical CDs in the future.
No vinyl, sorry.
Heh.
3. Dig this five-star review that a person named Wallace -- unknown to me -- posted about the album at CD Baby (you've heard of them by now, right?).
What a pleasant surprise to find this. A million years ago I was an NYU student and caught these guys regularly at The Other End (club is better known since as The Bitter End). They had a great sound, very 1960s inspired, a mashup of Beatles, Byrds, Monkees, Buffalo Springfield, Searchers, and other groups in that style. I didn't realize at the time how much of the material was original, I just assumed they had identified great but obscure tracks. They were 180 degrees opposite the prevailing pop sound of the time (Human League etc) but it's amazing how fresh and relevant The Floor Models sound on this collection.
If anybody out there knows who this Wallace guy is, please tell him that a coveted Floor Models No-Prize™ is his for the asking. Seriously -- he must have been a friend of somebody we knew back then; help me out here, people!
4. And finally, if you didn't see these two comments on the post downstairs, which are self-explanatory, all I can say about them is -- words fail me.
Naturally, I dispatched CDs of the album to these guys pronto.
I should add that they weren't kidding about Power Pop Action! -- it's an actual Spanish language power pop blog, from Spain and everything, and you can -- and should -- access it over here. Incidentally, if anybody reading this is fluent in Spanish, please go over there and let us know what Enrique and Pedro are carrying on about. Could be a hot one!
Thanks.
More developments as they unfold...
1. Courtesy of CD Baby, I just got the Floor Models first ever royalty check, in the amount of $53.76 cents, for albums downloaded (at Amazon, iTunes, and the aforementioned CD Baby). This may not sound like much, but let me tell you -- if you know that you have $53.76 coming in every month, you can budget out your year pretty good.
Seriously, some of those downloads were from people unknown to me, which is really gratifying.
2. The physical CDs are done, and I'm now in the process of shipping them out to various friends, press contacts, etc. I'm also sending a bunch to the now twice aforementioned CD Baby, so that other people unknown to me may order physical CDs in the future.
No vinyl, sorry.
Heh.
3. Dig this five-star review that a person named Wallace -- unknown to me -- posted about the album at CD Baby (you've heard of them by now, right?).
What a pleasant surprise to find this. A million years ago I was an NYU student and caught these guys regularly at The Other End (club is better known since as The Bitter End). They had a great sound, very 1960s inspired, a mashup of Beatles, Byrds, Monkees, Buffalo Springfield, Searchers, and other groups in that style. I didn't realize at the time how much of the material was original, I just assumed they had identified great but obscure tracks. They were 180 degrees opposite the prevailing pop sound of the time (Human League etc) but it's amazing how fresh and relevant The Floor Models sound on this collection.
If anybody out there knows who this Wallace guy is, please tell him that a coveted Floor Models No-Prize™ is his for the asking. Seriously -- he must have been a friend of somebody we knew back then; help me out here, people!
4. And finally, if you didn't see these two comments on the post downstairs, which are self-explanatory, all I can say about them is -- words fail me.
Hi I'm Enrique from Barcelona, Spain (we have a Blog Power Pop Action!, And there I learned of the existence of this great record).
The songs are wonderful, I love this great album in physical format, vinyl hopefully but of course also in CD format.
I repeat again, Great!!!!!!!
Enrique
Hi friends,
I'm Pedro from Madrid (Spain) and, as my friend Enrique, from Power Pop Action!
too.
I have listen the samples of your record and I have enjoyed it very much, every song are GREAT, perfect guitars and choruses with marvelous melodies with hooks.
Thanks for your music
Pedro
Naturally, I dispatched CDs of the album to these guys pronto.
I should add that they weren't kidding about Power Pop Action! -- it's an actual Spanish language power pop blog, from Spain and everything, and you can -- and should -- access it over here. Incidentally, if anybody reading this is fluent in Spanish, please go over there and let us know what Enrique and Pedro are carrying on about. Could be a hot one!
Thanks.
More developments as they unfold...
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
A Cold Wind in Hades (Freezing Temperatures Reported)
Okay, folks. It's finally happened.
To wit: Floor Your Love -- a/k/a The Album We Never Made© -- is now available for digital download over at Amazon. And iTunes (momentarily).
Actual CDs with sure to be award winning graphics are being pressed sometime next week -- a long story, but a boring one -- and they'll be available (gratis) for friends and press as soon as they're off the presses. And assuming that more than 100 people are nuts enough to want one, we'll run off another batch.
In any case, compiling and producing this album this has been an almost two year process, and it's really kind of amazing to me that we've finally reached this point.
To paraphrase Jeff Bridges in Heroes of Rock and Roll back in 1979:
"The Floor Models. Whew."
To wit: Floor Your Love -- a/k/a The Album We Never Made© -- is now available for digital download over at Amazon. And iTunes (momentarily).
Actual CDs with sure to be award winning graphics are being pressed sometime next week -- a long story, but a boring one -- and they'll be available (gratis) for friends and press as soon as they're off the presses. And assuming that more than 100 people are nuts enough to want one, we'll run off another batch.
In any case, compiling and producing this album this has been an almost two year process, and it's really kind of amazing to me that we've finally reached this point.
To paraphrase Jeff Bridges in Heroes of Rock and Roll back in 1979:
"The Floor Models. Whew."
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The Album We Never Made©: Project Update
Okay, the short version.
We're still tweaking the cover art, which means the actual physical copies of the CD won't be done for another two or three weeks. However -- the digital album will be out (via CD Baby) over at Amazon and iTunes by the end of next week.
I'm weak in the knees just thinking about it.
In any case, here's a track that didn't make the final album -- Gerry's "Fade into Grey," as heard on a sort of live recording done at WBAI-FM circa 1984 or '85.
The song itself was one of the first things we got together when the band was woodshedding, and a -- to my ears -- much more exciting home demo version will appear on the finished album. This one, with that big attempted Police-ish dramatic mid-section, was a staple of our live act toward the end, and it worked quite well on stage, but I still prefer the original, and SINCE I'M THE FRICKING ALBUM COMPILER I GET TO MAKE THE CALLS!!!!
Hmm. Apparently Absolut Vodka corrupts absolutely.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Outtakes of the Gods (An Occasional Series)
Okay -- album art and mastered CD music have all been finalized, and we're on schedule to get The Album We Never Made© actually ready in physical form and on Amazon and iTunes by mid-August, if not sooner.
But in the meantime, here's a track that didn't make the cut but which I dig the most anyway.
Circa 1982, here's what may have been our very first home four-track demo -- an amusingly primitive early version of Andy's chilling ode to urban paranoia, the fabulous "What's Wrong With This Picture?"
A far more exciting and accomplished live version of this is one of my favorite things on the forthcoming album, but I think this one has a certain charm on its own. In any case, it's an interesting window into our creative process as we were getting the band together. If I may be so pretentious.
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Masses Are Clamoring For the Floor Models!
Okay, we're getting really close to the production date for this thing.
Here's the back of the CD front cover; it may be tweaked a tad before we go to press, but essentially this is what it will look like. Including the track listing.
And here's track 14 -- a very cool live version of Andy and Gerry's "Thin Air."
The last thing you bastards will get for free, I might add.
AN UPDATE BY THE COMPILER:
You may have noticed that the opening song on the CD --"Spin Cycle" -- features personnel other than the classic Flo Mos lineup. In point of fact, although the song was written and performed (often) during the Floor Models original run, no recording of the song from that period has survived. However, given that three of the people playing and singing the late 80s version included here were, in fact, Floor Models (Gerry, Glen and me on keyboards) I've decided that it's a de facto Floor Models track despite the absence of Andy. In more or less in the same way that "The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a Beatles track despite the absence of George and Ringo.
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