Want a chance to sing with Aimee Mann live? Go to http://www.youtube.com/group/aimeemann and upload a video of yourself singing Aimee Mann's new song "Freeway."

Aimee Mann and SuperEgo Records will pick their favorite entry to be featured on YouTube and www.aimeemann.com. The winner will have an opportunity to sing live with Aimee at one of her upcoming shows. Ten runners-up will receive an autographed copy of Aimee's new CD, @%&*! Smilers.

Entrants can get the lyrics, the instrumental version of "Freeway" and contest details at: http://www.aimeemann.com/freewaycontest//
Submissions must be received by July 7th 2008

Check out the new Aimee Mann video for "Freeway," now available on Stereogum.com. Click the link below:

Premiere of Aimee Mann's "Freeway"

Aimee Mann appeared on Comedy Central last night! Check out the video link below to watch Paul F. Tompkins talk to Aimee, in hopes of proving that musicians don’t need weed.

Watch at Comedy Central:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=164892&ml_collection=&ml_gateway=&ml_gateway_id=&ml_comedian=&ml_runtime=&ml_context=show&ml_origin_url=%2F&ml_playlist=&lnk=&is_large=true

Aimee Mann's newest album "@%&! SMILERS" will be in stores JUNE 3, 2008!!

Sign up to be a "fan" on facebook to keep getting the latest Aimee Mann news! Visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aimee-Mann/9699984275

Aimee Mann now has a facebook page! Search for "Aimee Man" in the facebook search field and become a "fan!" This will allow you to receive the most up-to-date Aimee Mann news, concert information and more!

Click here to become a fan: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aimee-Mann/9699984275

Hey guys,

Aimee Mann will be performing at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The seventh annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 12-15 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2008 lineup will total over 100 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.

Tickets go on sale exclusively through www.bonnaroo.com on Saturday, February 16 at 12:00 PM EDT.

Here are other 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists-- Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Allman Brothers Band, Willie Nelson, Death Cab for Cutie, B.B King, M.I.A, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Iron & Wine, Vampire Weekend, Jose Gonzalez, and many more...

My approach to writing a blog seems to be similar to my approach to keeping a journal…I'm very gung-ho about the concept, fairly eager about the execution for about 2 weeks, and then suddenly I slip into some sort of blog-coma where I forget I've ever heard the word "blog.". Of course, all the things I'd LIKE to talk about I can't…a public forum is not the place to discuss certain things…who but me would be interested in my friend who owns a beer funnel and dunks his doughnuts in whiskey? So I'll just get to the news items, the sort of things you'd put in your Xeroxed Christmas round –up letter that you stick in with the card and that everyone throws away:

1. I finished my record! It's officially done and mastered. I'm extremely pleased with it, and with the job Paul Bryan did. You may know Paul as my bass player, but oh, he's so much more than that. (He also produced my Christmas record.) The record was mixed and engineered by Ryan Freeland, who I've worked with before on The Forgotten Arm. The two of them together are pretty spectacular. I think I'm calling it "Smilers". Technically it will be "@%! Smilers", but there's no real way to pronounce "@%!" I suppose I mean the title to be both ironic and non-ironic…it is actually a fairly smiley record, considering. We have an incredible artist who will be doing the package artwork, Gary Taxali…if you want to see his work, he has a website, garytaxali.com.

2. Some other events I neglected to mention in blogdom: a.) the Beatles tribute at the Hollywood Bowl with Cheap Trick, who were completely rocktastic and full of awesomeness…I even brought my phone onstage when I was part of the background singer group so I could take pictures, pictures that I'd be posting now if my phone hadn't crashed and erased all of them. Thanks, Treo…I hate you. I hope you like landfills 'cause you're going in one as soon as I buy the iPhone. Now the world will never see me and Al Jourgensen hugging.
b.) Three shows I played at Largo, semi-acoustic, meaning the band minus drums…I had SUCH a great time…I love playing Largo so much, and my musicians are so great, it really is a treat to be onstage with them. The highlight for me was that John Krasinski and Ed Helms came down to see me…it made me nervous as hell but in a good way. John and I happened to be wearing the same gray cardigan, which for me was enough to instantly classify us as new BFFS.
c.) A benefit for 826 Valencia, the organization headed by the writer Dave Eggers, who makes me feel smarter just writing his name…I played 5 or 6 songs but the same John Krasinski from the previous paragraph and I did a "bit" or "sketch" or "comedy thingy" together…it was super-sloppy but gigantically fun for me, and people laughed, either with us or at us, I'm not sure, but I'm happy either way.

Love - Aimee

Well, I'm back from my little tour...I have to say, it was pretty great. We had a new band configuration, this time with two keyboards and no electric guitar, an idea I got from Fiona Apple, who one of the keyboard players, Jebin Bruni, had been playing with a lot last year. Also, I've kind of gotten into the idea of no electric guitar while I've been making my new record...it just never seemed to be necessary, and after a while we started making it a point of pride to not use electric guitars. I didn't miss it in the live shows...in fact, it sounded fresh and modern to me...and also turned out that it made it easier to sing, as electric guitar sometimes can take up the same sonic space as vocals. Both Jebin and the other keyboard player, Jamie Edwards, are such amazing players...and super-nerds when it comes to keyboards. The other new element was the bass player, a guy named Kimon Kirk. John Sands, my long-time drummer, had recommended him...John has an excellent history of finding great people for me to play with. My usual bass player, Paul Bryan, had taken a gig with Elvis Costello for the month of July. Kimon turned out to be completely wonderful..I felt very lucky. A great guy, funny and smart, and a great player. The highlight of the tour was Lisbon...we flew in and had a day off so we really got to spend a bit of time there, had a great meal, found a little outdoor cafe and drank some wine and some port, and then show the next day was fantastic...the audience was terrific, and the venue was beautiful, and I had a lovely time. I'm truly blessed to be able to make my living playing music with such great people. Here are some pictures our monitor guy Darren took:



John, Jebin and me at the wine bar.


Me and Jebin...we loved the beautiful mosaic tile sidewalks.






Walking around Lisbon at dusk.


Kimon and John.


Me and Jebin.


Me and Kimon.


Johnny Sands, getting his wine on.


Me in the doorway of a peep show, with some enthusiastic customers behind me.

Love, Aimee

I think it's cool that someone plays "4th of July" on the 4th of July...it's so not a holiday kind of song. I just got back from the gym, which was boiling...it's been in the 90's here, and because Bernard Hopkins has been training at my gym, they've been keeping the windows closed (I guess to magnify that wonderful "sauna" effect), so I got home covered in sweat and jumped in the pool. Yes, our house has a pool...it's hard to find any house in Los Angeles without a pool. And I have to confess that I very rarely use it, although I do make my friends come over and use it. To me, all water is water that is too cold, so I like to stay dry and watch other people get wet.

This past Friday was the first installment of my friend Morgan Murphy's live talk show at the UCB...I was a guest on it, and although I didn't play, we did show a video that Morgan and I did that her friend Bobcat Goldthwait directed. The song is a new song from the record I'm working on now, called "31 Today"...it's just a rough mix of what we've recorded so far, but our idea was to make a fun, goofy, sub-Youtube video and not really worry about making anything remotely professional. Also, it features another living creature that needs adopting, so look for it on Youtube (it should be up soon, if not there already), and give a cute thing a home.

My friend Ron just came over with a plate of shrimp that he grilled on our grill, so I'm going to sit by the pool and eat it. Happy 4th!

Last Friday I went over to Paul's and his home studio (more like a laptop in a bedroom) to record another overdub for an hour or two...this time it was my pal Dave Eggers, who I had overheard whistling one day at a soundcheck for one of the handful of shows I've played on for his organization 826 Valencia. I have a song that has a bit of whistling on it (yes, I know--whistling is annoyingly hip these days...I can't help it, the song calls for whistling, damn it) so I instantly thought of him for the job. I had tried to get him to whistle with me at the show but he'd declined, claiming he was "more of a studio whistler", so it was time to call that bluff. He was super-nice and actually flew in from San Francisco for it. I love Dave; he's very funny in a low-key way, and a thoroughly decent person.

After we recorded some whistling, I headed over to Largo again to do the Greg Proops show...it's a talk show...he calls it a chat show. Greg is seriously hilarious, one of my favorite comics. I played a couple of songs, but the real highlight was talk show guest John C Reilly, who was absolutely hysterical. The great thing about Greg's talk show is that people feel free to tell the real versions of all those Hollywood anecdotes, the ones where legendary stars go ballistic or completely embarrass themselves. It was amazing...you totally get why John C is such a star, not only being a great actor, but super-dynamic and charismatic and funny too. It was a great night.