The current Sunny D commercial "Shine On" was sung by yours truly--blah blah blah. I posted a bunch of new songs on my website www.joeyauch.com. I'm going to be posting some new shows soon. How is everyone? I am so very happy about Obama--finally an an intelligent, well spoken, resonable person runninh the counrty, but the damn republicans are killing me/us right now with the whole negative campaign re: the stimulus. What happened to "for the good of the country"? Anyway, I hope my readers are doing well and keep in touch. J

Howdy my friends:  Here's a cool little bit of news:   I got asked to sing the new theme song for the The McDonalds McFlurry commercial in France "Flurr'it Yourself!" and they decided to use it--so go to the McDonalds Fance website if you want to see it...I think it's pretty cool, reminds me of Magical Mystery tour kinda...Ba dat ba ba ba!

the link:  http://www.mcdonalds.fr//op-adult-mc-flurry/

 

Woke up to violet flash illuminating
bedroom sky
crash
september in january
window sill wet
peeling paint
drops on wood
hairs on your arm
soft
you turning over
me
sitting up
in the downpour
smiling
half-asleep still
hungry for eggs

So I think you've seen the Joey Auch Trio picture, I've just begun performing with a band again.  It's Stacey Leazer on Bass, some synth, and manning the loops, Trey Walker on the drums.  Patrick Boyd has been recording us at CHP in Charlotte on and off over the past few months.  Although as a band we've got a whole album worth of tunes worked up we have just about finished recording about 6 of them.  I think I'm going to release them on an EP after christmas if we don't get more recorded before then.   I'll start debuting the songs over the coming weeks, as we get mixes together.  Please hit me up with some feedback.  I'm very excited about the sound, it's a bit different--yes no guitars really, but I have been a Hammond Organ, piano player forever, and we thought it might be cool to try to make a record with just voice, keys, bass, drums, and a few cool synth loops in there.   Check it out--I just posted Queen City Falling.  Meanwhile,  Come to a show...I'll let you know which ones are full band.  Oh and for those of you who prefer my solo acoustic shows don't worry, I'll still be playing those as well.

love, joe joe

So i'm watching goodmorning america about this simulated out of body experience.  They have been able to show how the brain can be tricked into thinking it's in danger or being poked, even though it's all just done with camera's and visual illusion.  Comercial comes on mom & Dad in cheerleader uniform, what?...I lose interest.

Ok ready for a story,

So I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina before I came to NYC because  back in 2003 I signed to a little independent record label based there, allegedly owned by this guy named Joe DiBruno.  At the time I had just started a new band which was called New August.   Joe D had been throwing alot of cash around at the studio I was recording demo's at and at the time representing himself as a guy with a great ambition to get a legitimate indie label off the ground because he claimed he had always loved music and wanted to help unknown artists.  He had some investors (silent ones who put in a couple million $ I guess) and used this generous cash flow to hire some of my most trusted (music business savy) friends to steer his label to success with my band New August first in line to be the label's premier/breakthrough artist.  There was plenty of money, a great team, and great music.  What could go wrong? 

By 2004 we had recorded our new album and released our first single; we had one of the biggest publicity agencies in the world working for us; we had broken the top 100 college radio charts with the first single; I had done a phone interview with several major publications, including one of the writers for Rolling Stone for a possible feature once the album was officially released in March 2004.

In february 2004 the promotion company quit working for us (due to not having been paid for 3 months), none of the staff at the label had received pay checks for since january, I was out on the road when we got a phone call from the guys formerly working at the label that we needed to get back to CLT and return the van because it was being repossessed and reported stolen.  Our tour support was gone, our booking agent had been stiffed on his retainer; everyone that was working for our success was pretty much gone, we were broke, and Joe DiBruno's phone number was no longer valid.   Federal Agents came and seized all the remaining assets of the record label and bars and locks are installed on the doors & windows of the Record Company office where lies all of our CD's and materials.    

Now rewind a minute.  Throughout the process of recording and meeting at the Label, Joe D. would show up with new gaudy clothes, big gold chains, and bling jewelry on.  Of course he would show up with a different car every week, Jag, Hummer, Jeep, Escalade, Range Rover, it was rediculous how he'd tell us about his connection with DiBeers diamond mines, that he claimed he owned stock in, and just the most crazy stories--strip club escapades on a regular basis.  He conned several of our friends into investing in some of his schemes-some 6 figure amounts of money.  Meanwhile we just kept rolling onward as long as the checks kept coming in and he had his million dollar investors--things seemed to be somehow legitimate.  Except it appears he was pocketing the money to pay for all his toys & bling.

March 2004:  New August 'Fall' gets released-the label is now gone.  Before everything collapsed Joe DiBruno signed the contract with a major distributor to release the record and put $20,000 toward the first promo wave.  SO the record gets released-but without the $20000--the distributer does zero promotion.  Joe DiBruno's lawyers get him off the hook or so it seems, and he's running on to his next scam.

Myself and the band are broke.  I had to get a job at a junkyard to try to pay my rent.   The other guys did everything from work construction to telemarketing and asking parents for money.  We tried to rent vans to get us to our remaining tour dates, on my credit card until I reached my limit.  New August's name was getting associated with this ass hole everywhere.   .The album is pulled from the shelves due to almost non-existant sales and no promotion.  Our single disappears from radio.  Our name is trashed.

July 2004 New August as a band calls it quits.  It's just me again writing my songs. 

August 2007 They found Joe DiBruno again (federal Agents that is) and now he's in jail awaiting trial.    The trial starts in a couple weeks.  I'll keep you posted.  Turns out Joe & his family have pulled numerous criminal scams all over the country.   It's sad.

I just think of what could have been. 

Friday! Yes! It's 7:32 am NO! but hey its not that bad the sun is almost out for the first time in days. The fall said hello, introduced itself, did a little dance and then went away for a bit I think and said I'll be back in a few weeks.

I'm going back to Charlotte to rehearse with my band, get ready for what I think is going to be a first gig in September 8th in NYC. While I'm there I think Stacey and I are going to tighten up the tracks for the new EP (or what I hope will be my new release of some sort).

I drank a bunch of $5 red wine last night while we sat at a tapestry strewn mediteranian restaurant run by what appeared to be several mexicans and a couple of hippies. It was cool, the food was so/so but the atmosphere, was very twangy, sitar and tabla jams piping throughout, visual hue's of burgundy and dark blue, candles and an outside garden out here in Brooklyn, and it was BYOW. We drank it all and meandered up the slope to our house after buying 1 99 cent bottle of orange black sprinkles.

The result: a squirminess in the gut, and a mild headache, a touch of wine teeth and a general sense of I need coffeeness.

I was reading the news yesterday and was happy to see that the supreme court finally A federal judge ordered the Bush administration to issue two scientific reports on global warming, siding with environmentalists who sued the White House for failing to produce the documents. The current government is an everyday drag to me. I can't stop thinking about how backwards it is and what future we've got. I just re-registered to vote last week--since moving to NYC. I wish they would change the constitution to require all condidates to sign a contract containing all of their promises. Then if they break the contract during their term, we should be able to just fire them! or put them in jail, or fine them, I mean even the polititcians that I really like...eveybody's stuck.

You think about superpowers, and image of US in the world. We just can't seem to make that mind changing impact right now from a government aspect. Yes I know we give a lot of money to other countries and we have a lot of charitable, aid organizations with positive presence world wide, but the core of our nation is this government--it's the peoples face, and it's all just bunch of talk & soundbites, very little reality --and we know no accountability. Why today all of a sudden do I talk about this? It effects me, us all. Maybe its the hangover, I just want to turn it around.
&
Peace.

Thanks to those who answered the late night challenge and attended my performance at the Rockwood Music Hall last night or should I say this morning. It was a stormy solstice, but by that time it was just plain late and over. I drank my Jägermeister neat with its delicious blend of fruits, herbs, and spices it really was the perfect celebratory pre performance beverage. Why?-- you say. The theory has been posed that I loosen up and sing better after the consumption of Jäger...curious right? I think it just made my between song monologues a bit more tangential. What a cool gig though - and the people from the owner Mr Rockwood himself all the way to the servers were very nice. Go there! I will be playing there again soon.
Anyway on a side note, the night before I lent my voice to a Crown Royal commercial. That is another libation I have not indulged in a while. None the less if the folks at the Purple factory chose me, you may hear my voice encouraging the Television/Radio audiences across the globe to "raise up your glass to those who won't back down, for every challenge answered--for every king a Crown."
Yeah! I'm deleriously tired, drinking blueberry coffee -GOD this stuff is good! I'm glad it's friday watching some early morning Bill Cosby Show on channel 9. It comes on this early--it's so weird to watch it now.
...what was i saying? er--come to Fat Baby next wednesday if you can. It's a bar down on the lower east side that I just picked up a last minute gig at. The place looks really nice, I go on at 8. and i'm spent. happy friday, joey

Don't ask me what i'm doing at a computer on a Saturday night at 9:05 because I don't know if I have a suitable answer for you.  I spent the afternoon thinking about my upcoming shows.  I have a sort of secret show coming up wednesday at The Knitting Factory with this cool singer-songwriter Aiden Eve then on Monday the 30th I am playing at The Cutting Room.  It's a lot of pressure for some reason to be amazing.  You have to go on stage and have a show, and a show isn't just singing your songs, oh no its the story, the story, the story.  It's all about that story in the end. 

I was at old McSorley's down on the lower east side drinking glasses of dark, two a time with some friends of mine from Charlotte.  Before that we discussed America and the world post-GW Bush.  We examined the artificial chest hairs on a large Kiss band member action figure, briefly perused a Broke Back Mountain vocal music fake book.   

It's chilly gray and blowing a biblical rain.   I'm watching TV for the first time in weeks.   It feels like a different time today.  There's a Pete Yorn song, 'Just Another Girl' playing.  I really love that song.  Sometimes it's like the different shades of daylight send you into a time warp.  

So I have some new photo's as some of you may have noticed.  I did a photshoot with an amazing photgrapher Janette Beckman.   If you get a chance check out her website - she's shot every one from The Police to Outkast.  www.janettebeckman.com - she has a myspace too - see her in my TOP 24.