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yearlongday



Last Updated: 11/30/2009

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Status: Single
City: United States
Country: CA
Signup Date: 10/16/2006

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Saturday, November 14, 2009 
it's bittersweet.

last night, the love on ya tour reached its conclusion as we played our last show to a packed house at the bus stop in pitman, nj. steady rehearsals helped yearlongday grow tighter this year, and while i'd like to accept more bookings in 2009, we must now dedicate more time to future endeavors.

- painting exhibition (tba, about 13 original artworks)
- humans: abridged (in-progress ep)
- restoring utopia (in-progress album)
- webpage facelift
- new t-shirts
- finish writing next album, yet untitled
- book 2010 gigs

these are just the projects that you and i can anticipate in the months to come... there are always unforeseen opportunities and challenges to be aware of, but i think the best thing i can do to help yearlongday, is get some sleep!

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe
7:00 AM 
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Thursday, October 15, 2009 
hello, everyone.

yearlongday is slowly approaching our annual winter hiatus. at the moment, i can't think of a better word for it, but you can read about it in older posts... between november and march, yearlongday minimizes its number of performances.

that period of time away from gigs allows us to self-evaluate our music, merchandise, and marketing angles. i've got some ideas firing from synapse to synapse, neuron to neuron... LOTS of new music coming in 2010 (some of you have already heard a few new tunes, others have even played them with us!); new slogans & t-shirts with new color schemes, and lovely new gear!!

anyway, set your bunker to hunker with a 5-month supply of water and non-perishable foodstuffs. after our shows at studio luloo (NOV. 3) and the bus stop (NOV. 13), you won't see much of yearlongday until spring. in the meantime, i hope to dangle a few carrots in front of everyone in the form of "HUMANS: ABRIDGED" (my first album), perhaps a cleaned-up version of "MODERN MOMENTS" (my second album); and, GOD willing, an enhanced version of "RESTORING UTOPIA" (my third album... the ONLY marlowe album that hasn't been released in any form!).

not remotely 'hibernating'... not quite a 'retreat'... 'hiatus' will have to do.

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe
9:56 PM 
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Sunday, August 30, 2009 
it's that time again... i'm not talking about labor day barbecues, and i'm not talking about back to school sales.

it's time to gather your excuses, and choose the best one for missing our annual autumn show at the barrington coffeehouse.

we know you have reasons, but i'll bet that missing most of our shows this year has depleted your inventory of excuses.

so, you'd better re-stock soon because yearlongday is playing at the barrington coffeehouse on saturday, september 26. you have less than four weeks to find your best excuses for missing this show... and i hope they aren't just recycled versions of the same, old expired reasons we've heard before!

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe
4:13 PM 
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009 
no, we did not advance to the final round of the beta hi-fi festival, but thank you for asking. as it turned out, the winner of sunday night's event was the only "full band" of the night, and the beekeepers are congratulated.

it was our pleasure and privilege to perform at the legendary world cafe, and i believe the beekeepers were an excellent choice to advance in the beta hi-fi festival. without taking any merit away from the talented musicians who participated in the event, i will say that grouping artists along similar styles, genres, and/or band-structures might create a more level field of competition in the future.

a full-band can have the advantage of an inherently stronger stage presence than solo or duo acts. the beekeepers sounded tight, performed with energy, and maintained their position as the focal point of the room during their set.... gotta give 'em that. but i can't help wondering if those characteristics placed them in the winner's circle by contrast with the other performers, rather than by comparison.

as a duo, yearlongday is curious to know how we rank among other indie alt-pop duos, and i don't feel the beta hi-fi festival was an accurate measure of that. but in the end, it came down to audience voting, and that was our achilles heel... too few voters and too few votes qualifies yearlongday as the best kept secret in the local music scene!

so, we returned the land of blueberries and pine cones with the question, 'what next', but hoping to answer that question for our friends and fans, rather than ask it of them.
9:18 PM 
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Tuesday, August 04, 2009 
trouble sleeping... woke around 5:15AM, not sure if i had an upset stomach, or if i was just hungry. the house is mostly quiet; just the white noise from the refrigerator and this computer. it almost feels like a hotel.

yearlongday has been asked to perform at the beta hi-fi music festival in philadelphia. this is a week-long showcase featuring the region’s finest emerging performers! beginning saturday, 8/15, through friday, 8/21, approximately five artists per night will compete and the audience will vote for their favorites. admission is FREE!

i hate doing it this way, but i guess i must ask everyone who is a friend or fan of yearlongday to support us as we compete on sunday night, 8/16. what do you get out of it? a free night out in philly. five outstanding artists giving their best performances. the chance to say 'i saw yearlongday when they were just up-and-coming'!

make a summer night of it... bring a date. bring a group. bring cameras! cheer loud, and vote for yearlongday so we can get another step closer to our place in music history!

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe
9:30 AM 
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Saturday, July 25, 2009 
is everyone enjoying our new cd? i hope so... it's our debut cd, and we put a lotta love into it, but i suppose that goes without saying.

there is much i can say about best excuses, but one characteristic of this album separates it from our other recordings: leah l'orange. this is her first appearance on a yearlongday album, and i believe her contribitions not only help distinguish this album from our first three, but also help define our sound in general.

this blog comes after returning from a 3-night promotional circuit, and if you heard any of my performances in either baltimore, pittsburgh, or philadelphia, you heard my best attempt to compensate for leah's absence. hopefully, the next time yearlongday is in your town, you will fall in love with the unique vocal, rhythm, and percussion dynamic we offer as a duo.

thank you to everyone who showed their appreciation and support while on the promo circuit. now, back to the studio to work on restoring highlights from my first album, humans, and to continue writing new material for our next album.

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe
12:28 AM 
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Sunday, June 28, 2009 
the trials.

my first recording sucked. that's a statement i can make 10 years later, a decade after thinking how great it sounded, recorded onto demo cassette tapes through radioshack gear. "studio 4" probably cost me less than $200 to assemble.

the core elements of "studio x" are now being gathered. i hope that it won't be long until i can say the recordings i made on my own last year suck compared the forthcoming projects. (i stress 'on my own' out of respect for those who helped improve those recordings).

but from my early recording experiments, i have taken a philosophy that should sound quite customary to many studiophiles: test the quality of a recording against multiple standards within various contexts. i have always done this, and i may always do it, because it just makes good sense. if there is any logic inherent to assumption, it's that people hear music through different media in diverse environments.

in a doctor's office. from the stereo of the adjacent car in traffic. inside baseball stadium. on the televsion. through expensive "boutique" monitors or a cheap "no-name" portable boombox, the music one hears will leave a first and a lasting impression. therefore, i try to subject my recordings to a similar audio obstacle course. my methodology can be summarized in 4 stages:

     1. in your most commonly used device, play the music as background for your everyday routine; do the laundry, do dishes, talk on the phone, watch tv... if something sounds wrong through all of this, it's gotta be bad.

     2. listen in alternative settings, through another set of speakers; if the most commonly used device in stage 1 was a boombox, then try your car stereo, or through computer speakers.

     3. listen closely and carefully in a good set of speakers, or even headphones. at this point, your goal is to confirm that any deviations you heard through noise and distractions are actually present, and to what extent.

     4. trust multiple sets of ears. let other people listen in there own preferred way. if your recordings get through this stage, then you're probably off to a good start, if not in your actual recordings, then at least in your recording techniques.

these are the trials a yearlongday recording usually undergoes before reaching your ears, and i truly welcome the opinions and suggestions of experienced technicians or studiophiles.

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe
3:12 AM 
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Thursday, May 21, 2009 

best excuses... this collection of ten songs represents the fourth "studio recording" for jonathan t marlowe. it was written in the fall of 2006 and winter of 2006/07, and recorded in the summer of 2007. i forget most of 2008, except that we played many shows, including a small solo gig at philadelphia's world cafe (september). we also had a successful show at the tin angel (march) leading up to our current endeavors: mixing, mastering, releasing best excuses to radio stations, record labels, performance venues, and the general public.

for some of you, the songs will be familiar; "simple", "hi", "the odds are against me", and "best excuses" have regularly appeared on our set lists. others have not, such as "now isn't soon enough" (a song inspired by korean soap-operas), "your heart is an open book" (our homage to bollywood), and "keep me". nonetheless, each song sounds as fresh as anything we've yet done, and i hope you enjoy listening to them.

while it was never our mission to do so, yearlongday has gained recogniton as a "diy indy" band (e.g. listed in strummer mag's "festive 50" of unsigned artists, 2006; www.strummermag.co.uk/chart.html). i think it's fantastic that we have the freedom to make and share music at no cost to you, the listeners. however, please keep in mind that without your generous support (i.e. tickets, merchandise, etc) we would be unable to continue offering our unique blend of "neo-retro lo-fi hipster dream-pop crap".

i thank everyone who's helped us get to where we are today. lotta love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe

1:48 AM 
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Friday, May 01, 2009 

update: this may comes a disappointment to the many yearlongday fans who are patiently waiting for the "restored" version of humans, the first "marlowe album". after careful assessment of the restoration project, i have decided to select only 5 songs from the original album to be restored and released on an EP in september. if reviews insist that the entire album be restored, then it will be. until then, however, my focus on this project will be narrow in order to facilitate recording of the next yearlongday album!

the five songs to be restored...
"believe"
"nobody hurt (without an excuse)"
"nova"
"my formula"
"sally"

love on ya!

... jonathan t marlowe

3:07 AM 
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Friday, April 24, 2009 
ups and downs... we all have them, and most of us find ways to get through them. music has frequently been a way through my ups and downs. now, the very music that was with me through ups and downs has its own ups and downs.

up- about two months ago, i started "restoring" the first five songs of my first album, humans, and the results were very promising. down- progress was halted as we prepared for our tin angel debut, a show with tremendous reviews (up), although none of them in writing (down), after which i spent time in canada and california (up). i also set time aside to create the album artwork for john shaughnessy's latest album, re-occurring dream (up), but, lately, i've been under the weather (down), and haven't been able to work on much of anything (down).

up- our good friend and musical associate jacob graff has been overseeing the mixing and pre-mastering of our latest album, best excuses, with very exciting results (up). our anticipated release date, however, may have to be pushed back from june (down), and without copies of our album to mail to radio stations, record labels, and national venues, we fear our summer tour engagements will be limited (down).

up- i've been quietly composing material for yearlongday's next full-length album... the project is yet untitled, but may consist of 23 songs that range from ambient soundscapes to string quartets to soundtrack motifs to pop songs. expect the album to be available sometime in 2010 (down).

love on ya!

jonathan t marlowe
1:54 AM 
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