Streamed by R. Michael Thomas. More at http://qik.com/rmichaelthomas

an excerpt of "The Only Black Guy @ the Indie-Rock Show" @ Legong Gelato

Streamed by R. Michael Thomas. More at http://qik.com/rmichaelthomas

"The Overeducated Underclass" (excerpt)

Streamed by R. Michael Thomas. More at http://qik.com/rmichaelthomas

covering Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" @ Legong Gelato

I have many things to be thankful for, and one of them is my fan base. I'm not a Top 40 artist – or even a Pitchfork darling – but I'm honored to have even a few thousand people who like my music enough to support it. The four years that have elapsed since the release of “Withstand the Whatnot” have been trying, but your encouragement and patience have served as necessary fuel for me to keep going. It is with this spirit of gratitude and hope that I appeal to you for help.

You all know that most musicians' lives are fraught with economic instability; there are few who can make a living solely off of music. Right now, I work full-time as the Accounts Receivable clerk for a nonprofit agency that provides free counseling for employees of affiliated businesses. I enjoy the job, and it pays me fairly well. However, I still don't make enough to cover my living expenses AND pursue my creative projects. I bring home around $1600 each month after taxes: $850 of it goes to rent; $225 goes to student loans; $150 of it pays my electric bill; $85 of it pays my water bill; $70 of it pays my phone bill; $40 of it covers my Internet access.  This doesn't leave me much money to devote to expenses such as groceries and transportation, let alone ANYTHING music-related.

I've worked second jobs to meet my financial needs – twice this year alone – but those jobs left me so physically, emotionally and creatively drained that I had to quit them. I've taken out loans, and had entire paychecks eaten up by interest fees as I slowly repaid them; I'm avoiding credit cards for the same reason. I gave up my car this spring because I could no longer afford the insurance and repairs. I rely on public transportation now, and walk between two and 10 miles every day. I've sold most of my CDs and about half of my instruments; the bass and drums that you'll hear on the new Cocker Spaniels album, Sometimes You've Gotta Fight to Get a Bit of Peace, were played on borrowed gear.

My financial troubles have thrown me into near-suicidal depression multiple times over the last few years. As badly as I want to get out of this rut, I know that I must do so in a manner that is both financially lucrative and psychologically healthy for me. Since I'm at my best as a human being when I'm being creative, creativity must become my salvation. Thus, I have decided to take a cue from Momus, the renowned songwriter whose portrait album Stars Forever freed him from astronomical legal debts, and set up a similar (albeit WAY less expensive) patronage system for myself.

The follow-up to “Sometimes You've Got to Fight to Get a Bit of Peace” will be a portrait album. Anyone who makes a donation of $25 or more to me, along with a story or anecdote about themselves, will get a Cocker Spaniels song written about them. (If you don't want a song written about yourself, you can designate a topic of your choosing for me to write about.)  The pricing scheme will be as follows:

$25-$49 donation = I will write a song based on your story or anecdote, with as much of your original wording preserved in the lyrics of the song;

$50-$99 donation = You'll get the song, with your name incorporated prominently in the lyrics;

$100+ donation = You'll get the song with your name in it, as well as a percentage of the royalties from the first pressing of the album when it's available for sale.
You can donate in one of two ways:

1) Paypal it to lovesickrockstar@yahoo.com, and send a separate e-mail to that same address with your story or anecdote, or

2) Mail a check or money order with your story or anecdote to Sean Padilla @ 3018 S 1^st St #201, Austin TX 78704.

Once I receive your donation and your story, I'll write a set of lyrics for it, and e-mail them to you. If you approve the lyrics, I'll write and record the music shortly thereafter. You'll receive a CDR of the song, and I'll post an mp3 of it on my website. Once I have compiled an hour's worth of songs, I'll release a tangible version of the portrait album!

Although my primary motivation for doing this is money, I also consider this patronage system an artistic challenge to myself. Until now, most Cocker Spaniels songs have been based on things that I've directly experienced. This portrait album will be an opportunity for me to put more empathy into my music, to capture other people's thoughts and experiences in the same manner that I do my own. I vow to make these songs as true to my patrons' experiences as possible, and to craft them at the same level of quality that I have the previous two Cocker Spaniels albums.

Below, I've posted a table listing the patrons I've accrued thus far; the titles and subject of matter of their songs; and links to the lyrics and mp3s for the songs I've completed thus far.  (If you've donated, but your name doesn't appear on this table, it's because you haven't sent me an anecdote yet.  Hop to it!)  I plan to post @ least one new song every week from this week onward.  Now that Sometimes You've Got to Fight to Get a Bit of Peace is completed, I can give the patronage system my undivided attention.  I thank you all for your patience and generosity!