Thursday, October 2, 2008

September 30, 2008 – an Afternoon Visit to Core Media




It has been a long time since I last blogged about the recording of The Tim and Bob Show’s new CD Take It Outside. There’s a reason for this. Once principle recording, mixing, and mastering had been accomplished at Mandala Music, there wasn’t much for we band members to do, other than make plans for the CD’s release, try to drum up some advanced sales, finalize the cover design and art, and – most importantly – get some extra gigs to help pay the bills!

On Tuesday afternoon [what a great name for a song!], Kathy, Steve, and I met at Core Media to take delivery of our baby – precisely 960 copies of our offspring, that is. And it’s beautiful. The cover art is quirky and colorful and representative of the CD, its contents, and the band that produced it. All the important people have been thanked and attributed, and everything is spelled correctly. All the times are where they should be, and – after I cracked open a copy and played it on my stereo – I can attest to the fact that it sounds very good.

The CD is what we all had hoped it would be from the start:
1. It sounds like us [only richer and smoother].
2. It reflects the variety of the music we perform.
3. It takes advantage of the vocal and instrumental strengths of each member.
4. It gives no evidence of anything close to a “typical Feinstein/Hymel song.”
5. It shows that we can write songs as well as we can sing them.

And so we picked up the CDs. We’re developing a list of folks who get a free copy – for either contributing to the creation of the CD, being one of our regular performing venues, or for promotional purposes. The list is fairly long, but I expect that, once the Christmas buying season has ended, we’ll still have a CD or two boxed up and waiting in our spare bedroom.

There will be a CD release party, of course. It’ll be at Casbeers at the Church – the new location for one of San Antonio’s signature music venues. We’ll be on the patio from 5 until 8 on Saturday, October 18. On the day, we’ll be selling the CD for $2 off the usual $15 price. Additionally, for each CD we sell, we’ll be contributing money to Pet Pals of Texas, a charity that has become sort of our personal favorite. Just like we promote each of our gigs, we’re promoting this one. We’ve already done a lot of flier passing-out here in town, and there’ll be advance gig alerts as well as the weekly regular one. All of this is fine if you’re local, but we’re well aware that we’ve got friends all over the country and, in my case, in several countries as well [thanks to my soccer addiction]. So we’ve developed a way to order the CD in advance of the release date for the same reduced price [and the same contribution to Pet Pals].

In addition to the CD release party, we’ll be appearing on local radio and television programs. If there are any video or audio links, we’ll connect our fans to them. We’ll also be linking the CD to various national and international radio sites. We don’t know how to do this, of course. That’s why we have PrimaDonna Productions to assist us. Finally, we’re developing a PayPal link, as well as CD sales through the CD-baby web site. The CD [and individual songs from it] will also be available through iTunes. It’s a strange new world out there for your humble correspondent!

So, how can you get in on buying a copy of our brilliant child? Watch your email in-box for details. Can’t wait? Contact Don HERE and I’ll give you specific information. I’ll also be writing an article for fulhamusa.com with all the necessary links once the CD release party is history. And every person any of the four of us has ever known or ever chatted with on line or on the telephone will be given every opportunity to buy this gem. Trust me; it’s one of the benefits of being part of Tim and Bob Nation!

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