Starting around last fall I linked up with a guitarist through craigslist with the intention of gigging some of my songs.  It’s taken us until very recently to find a drummer and bassist and book our first gig.  It’s at Don Pedro in Bushwick, off the Montrose stop on the L, on May 3rd at 8pm.  This is not a Sebastian The Crab thing.  It’s instrumental, and I guess at the moment I think of the material as structured improvisation.  So yeah, if you’re in the area Thursday night: come out! 

he’s kind of describing why Captured Tracks is the best label around (in my book)

mikesniper:

I posted a recent Facebook comment regarding our policies with signing artists and found myself getting into a discussion of what the role of an independent label is in 2012, something I’ve often been asked about in interviews but have never really been able to elaborate on.

Basically, it…

- heems

while i don’t personally feel the same conflict inside of me, as an Indian American i can clearly see what he’s talking about

http://nehrujackets.tumblr.com/post/14403994884/i-need-to-get-the-greedhead-symbol-tatted-on-me-when-i

Ran into this blog the other day, and it’s really great, and I think everybody who likes experimental DIY music should know about it.  Weedtemple (another excellent experimental music blog, with a slightly larger profile due to it’s association with Altered Zones) linked to them, actually.  No write-ups or anything, just a quality selection of links to tape and vinyl albums by a whole slew of current artists you probably have never heard of.

Last week I was busking at Canal and was asked to stop by the police, yet again.  Apparently people have been calling in and complaining about the noise, and the police claim I interfere with announcements.  So I won’t be coming back any time soon.  It was fun while it lasted, and I met some cool people doing it.

A while ago a man named Jeff put my song “How” in his podcast (which you can check out here).  Him and his wife heard me playing.  His account:  

“About a month ago, my wife and I were coming through the Canal Street stop on the N train and I heard a loud distorted synth that sounded like it was plugged through an old British Invasion amp.  The sound was so thick and melodic that it filled the passageway and down through each of the subway tunnels - probably echoed over the bridge to Brooklyn for all I know.  It was fantastic!  I hadn’t heard much beautiful electronic music being played in the subway in 12 years that channeled the wonders of Kieran Hebden (Four Tet, see next track remix) and company’s melody.  I was shocked that I was hearing it in the subway, truly, and apparently, so was my wife.  We listened for a minute, threw in a buck, but had to get somewhere.  I know we didn’t stay long, wherever we were going, because on our way back, we had a chance to catch him again.  This time I grabbed his card and couldn’t wait to go home and see if he had put any goodies on his website.  Luckily for me (and you, too) he had a whole EP to download called HOW DOES IT FEEL (http://sebastianthecrab.bandcamp.com/).  I needed to email him to thank him for providing such a memorable performance that evening in and out of the subway passages.  I wrote him wanting to use his music, specifically this track HOW, in a podcast, which he so humbly and graciously permitted, and he responded with an insight into the song, “When I titled that song ‘How’, I was thinking philosophically of the idea of a modus operandi, a plan of action, “How are we/am I going to do this?”  Please check out his music on his site, listen to catch a glimpse of his M.O., and support talented independent creators alike.”

As a side note, it makes me happy that he was drawn to this song.  It’s the last song on How Does It Feel, and has the fewest plays of all the songs on my bandcamp.  The last song on Hungry Heart is “I Tumbled Forth”, and it is also near the bottom of the list in plays.  But they’re two of my favorite songs that I’ve written.  That’s actually why they were given the distinction of being last on their respective albums.

So yesterday I was busking at Canal St.  I do a cover of the Pumpkins’ “1979”.  Instrumental, of course, with a lot of delay.  Lately that one’s been kind of hit or miss.  Right in the middle of that song not sounding so hot, Tunde Adebimpe walks by.  And he looks at me.  And I’m looking back at him.  He’s giving me what I interpret as a sympathetic look.  He’s not impressed, but he’s not being a dick about not being impressed.  And I nod at him, and he walks away…

I let him walk away because when I see him, he looks so normal.  Like, it’s fucking Tunde from TV On The Radio!  Tunde from Rachel Getting Married! I don’t think of this man as the type of dude who transfers from the J to the N, Q, or 6.  And his clothes were very average looking.  Not at all what I would expect from the lead singer of one of the biggest bands around.  And so it throws me off guard.  I think to myself that it’s probably just another big black guy with a beard and black framed glasses.  I let him walk away.

But no, it was definitely him.  And I’m definitely still kicking myself for not harassing and making him come over and listen to one of my better songs.  That could have been my shot at a cosign…

Oh, and earlier that day I ran into Alan Palomo of Neon Indian at the top of McCarren Park on the way to the train.  He was flagging down a cab, and I was lugging my gear.  I told him I liked the recent feature he did with the Antlers.  He seemed nice.

gahhh. jesus, that’s a gorgeous image

process-vision:

Marina City, Chicago, United States

This is a favorite from my college days.

Okkervil River “A Girl in Port” off of The Stage Names.  

This is a solo acoustic version from 2006, and I actually like it a lot more than the album version.  The harmonica always gives me chills.

I would like to alert your attention to this guy’s zine.  He’s an awesome writer, and just look at that lineup of contributors…  I bought it and I think you should do the same.

pitchforkreviewsreviews:

I’m excited to announce that I’m putting out a zine! It’s called The World’s First Perfect Zine and I mentioned starting to work on it on this blog about a year ago but it took more than ten times as long to finish as I thought it would. It comes out November 16th, costs $12, and was printed in a run of 500 copies. The contributors are as follows:

Dylan Baldi is the sole songwriter and recording member in the band Cloud Nothings.

Rostam Batmanglij is a musician and songwriter in the bands Vampire Weekend and Discovery.

Pete Berkman is the lead songwriter in the band Anamanaguchi.

Joe Coscarelli is an assistant editor at New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog.

Lena Dunham is a filmmaker.

jj is a Swedish pop group.

Tao Lin is a novelist.

Ryan O’Connell is an editor at Thought Catalog.

Maureen O’Connor is a staff writer at Gawker.

Choire Sicha is the editor of The Awl.

Himanshu Suri is a rapper in the band Das Racist.

Bucky Turco is the editor of Animal New York.

Victor Vazquez is a rapper in the band Das Racist.

Mike Vilensky is a staff writer at The Wall Street Journal.

Jenna Wortham is a staff writer at The New York Times.

You can order it online here or via the BUY button on the sidebar of this blog. You can also get it at Strand Bookstore, McNally Jackson Books, or Other Music if you live in New York, starting November 16th, but those places will have only a handful of copies each, so if you wanna definitely get a copy, order it online.

Tumblr is throwing a release party for the zine, with an open bar (god bless them), on November 16th from 7:00 to 9:00 at Other Music in Manhattan. You’re invited to the party! Yes, you. Tell Siri to put it in your calendar. Come lower your inhibitions, schmooze with some contributors, buy a zine, and then walk to the subway and put on your headphones and read it on your way home.

The zine will also have a small, private, password-protected Tumblr of supplemental content (photos, interviews, stories) which you can get the password to by ordering the zine online (I’ll email it to you) or finding the answer to this riddle, which is the password:

What is the first name of the girlfriend of the director in the only 9-minute official music video (presently unavailable in the United States due to copyright issues) by the band whose original guitarist’s older brother was previously in a band whose two other members went on to form a band whose most recent album’s first single prominently features a sample from a song by a now-defunct band whose percussionist is named John Braddock, nicknamed “Dutch”?

But the supplemental Tumblr isn’t as much fun without the zine so I think you should get a copy. Okay, that’s it, see you at the party hopefully!

So I have business cards now.  Now when people ask for my info when I’m busking I have something to give out.  Somebody passed my info along to a guy who owns a bar/venue called Panda in the Lower East Side and I’m playing there next week on Wednesday night at 9pm, October 19th.  If you’re reading this and in the NYCity area you should come out and show some support.  I’ve played out a bit in NY in the last year, but this will be my first paid gig that I think merits the “Sebastian The Crab” moniker (as opposed to just my given name, Sanju Sebastian.)

And aside from that, I’m feeling awesome: I played in the subway tonight and made the most money of all the days I’ve played so far.  Like, forty dollars more than my next best day.  This was also my first day playing with this pedal I bought on craigslist, a Carbon Copy Analog Delay that I got for $80.  I can feel myself growing as a performer.  All these years I’ve played in my room, or practice rooms, and recorded my music by myself.  Occasionally I shared my recordings with people, and I jammed with friends, but performing was never my thing.  I’m a shy person, and so stepping on stage was never something that came naturally to me.  I finally started to in the last year out of necessity: it’s an excellent way for a musician nobody’s heard of to network and make money.  And now that I’ve done it a bit, gotten comfortable thinking on the fly in front of an audience, I’ve gotten better.  Like, my songs are better because I’m a better performer.

You know how sometimes you can, in the present - not in hindsight, notice progress you’ve made?  Most of us humans have dreams, and these dreams equate to lifelong journeys.  And right now I feel like I stepped up to higher ground.  I can see that there’s mad shit in front of me, but simultaneously I can see how far I’ve come.  And it feels awesome.