mike-downey.com

A Football Fields

2008-08-16T16:23:00.003+02:00

This is a collaboration between myself and Tinyfolk (Russ and Meghan of Bloomington, IN). It's just 2 songs and came together quite nicely. The artwork is by Pete Toms. Please check out his other art via his site,

The EP is available for free download via heartphone and Collective Family.

I'm on vacation and this is how I'm spending it

2008-08-01T12:22:00.004+02:00

I'll catch up with you a bit later. I'm busy.

Live at Empty Bottle (rerun)

2008-07-13T21:03:00.004+02:00

As I was browsing through my DVD collection I noticed an unmarked generic black case. I had to think for a second as to what exactly it was. Riiiight, it was the only existing live video of me performing solo in the last few years. My pal from college John Weaver shot it when I played the Empty Bottle in September of 2006. I remember that show for the reason that it was the first time I was back in Chicago after having moved to Sweden. It had been 10 months since I had seen any of my friends back home.

The performance itself isn't much to look at if you want my opinion. This was post guitar and pre knob-twisting. I sang along to my music and walked around the stage drunk. That was my thing. I don't know if it really worked.

Anyways, I liked how some of the songs sounded at least. I liked the fact that the room was filled with my friends that night. So I dumped the audio and selected 5 of my favorites. I would've put the whole set up but since the audio was coming from a video, a few songs were shot a bit too close to the main speakers and were a bit too fuzzed out to post.

Anyways, I thought I'd share this with you. This is a bit on the lo-fi side, but it is the only documentation of what I was doing live in 2006.

Mike Downey : Live at Empty Bottle, Chicago, Sept. 6, 2006
1. The Team That Never Wins
2. Oh, Randomness
3. You've Your Spymap Out
4. Comforter
5. Families

Download it in this zip file

Beaujolais : Love At Thirty

2008-07-11T21:29:00.002+02:00

Joe Ziemba is Beaujolais. This is his debut album entitled Love At Thirty. I received this in the mail today but have been spending quality time with a cd-r of the album for a couple months now. I can't tell you how well-crafted and meaningful this record is.

Joe and I go way back. We went to high school together. Before I even knew him personally I started by watching him play drums in a powerful punky band that was tighter and, well, just plain better than all of the other bands in our high school (and there were surprisingly a ton of them). I was jealous and I was inspired.

Joe and I got to know each other and became quick friends. He got a Tascam 4-track before anyone else I knew. Joe also played guitar, sang and wrote his own songs and would make side project cassettes and pass them around school. This was the first time I realized that you didn't have to have a record label or be famous to put out an album. It pretty much changed the way I think, even to this day.

Before too long I was playing bass in a band with Joe. We started playing his solo songs live and eventually I started bringing in my own songs, which I sang. We recorded these songs on Joe's 4 track and even though I had a 4 track of my own by then, he really taught me how the machine worked. I watched him twist knobs and bounce tracks together. He would give me tapes of his songs and I'd pass him a tape of my songs. There were many hours of discussions about these songs and many more hours of us rehearsing these songs and performing them in front of audiences.

We learned to be musicians together. We experienced the good and bad of it together. We always managed to let the good, no matter what the ratio was to bad, shine through and grow, never seeming to get discouraged.

We then started the band Wolfie together and released a bunch of stuff and toured around. To make a long story short, what I basically did for a good long while was make music with Joe. And more importantly, we grew up and experienced life with each other to lean on.

For some people making music is just something you do for a while, then move on to something else. For Joe it is how he documents his life and deals with it. It's not a novelty and it's not temporary. This album is a document of a dark and promising time. There are really shitty times in life and it's up to an individual's inner strength to move forward and somehow come out a better person in the end. Everyone deals with life in different ways. Love at Thirty is how my good friend Joe does it. And it's quite an amazing thing to observe.

You can preview songs and purchase this album via Parasol.

Speechless

2008-07-04T22:27:00.004+02:00

On the morning of July 1st, 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden at precisely 6:38, Nilla gave birth to our daughter Tilda. My life will never be the same after experiencing this. I simply don't have the words to explain what this means to me. The words don't exist.

Kicking Gas for Laughs

2008-06-29T21:49:00.000+02:00

Kicking Gas for Laughs : Mike Downey
hrtph003

1. Casper
2. No Prob
3. No Stereo
4. Oils
5. Who's Under the Stairs, Who's Dropping Out and All of That
6. Believer
7. Rescue Rocket
8. Wheel in a White Sky
9. 100 Rooms
10. A Little More Grape Capt. Bragg
11. You Went to War
12. Wait

Download this album for free here (67mb zip file)
In 2006 I was in full recording mode. No job; I didn't have much else to do. This continued through to mid 2007. I amassed a collection of songs so large that I freaked myself out and became overwhelmed. I was used to it taking 3-5 months for a record to come out after it was finished. Not really understanding what my options were at that time I kept these songs under lock and key until earlier this year when I plucked 12 of them out and released them digitally via my own imprint heartphone. This album was called Hold Horses and I see it today as my most accomplished work to date.

I was so satisfied with Hold Horses that I thought it would maintain as my calling card for at least a year until I managed to craft another album's worth of material. Well, seeing what you see above, this wasn't the case. What I didn't consider was this other, admittedly less-planned and not as produced, batch of songs.

I've had a playlist in my iTunes for past couple of months called Kicking Gas for Laughs. This playlist was at one time over 20 songs. Over the past week I slimmed it down and not wanting to break tradition selected my 12 favorites.

So here you have it, for what it's worth, Kicking Gas for Laughs. In my eyes this is a compliment to my latest output and finally represents my music making of the past 2.5 years in full. This was the exhale. I can now take in another deep breath and start the process over again.

Waiting to be outdated

2008-06-24T15:41:00.000+02:00

Last night while allen-wrenching the baby crib together m'sweet snapped a photo of me. I was hunched over the work-in-progress in a state of pure focus, caught her out of the corner of my eye and looked up with a smile. Click. I immediately thought that this picture will be seen by our not even born yet child one day. We will say something like, "This was only a couple days before you were born. We were getting ready for your arrival."

Think about pictures of your parents, especially those from before you were born or when you were really little. They are surely laughable. The clothing styles, hairdos, furniture, etc... was at that particular moment in time top of the line, cutting edge. But when we see those pictures it's like we jumped into a pimped De Lorean or dug up a time capsule in the backyard.

I set down the tools and drew my eyes away from the crib and looked around the room. I wondered what the camera had framed. The room is pretty basic. It looks like a baby's room from any decade, maybe even the '70s with our choice of yellows and browns. That doesn't count, not modern enough. The crib, white and classic. That surely won't be it. The PC in the background, if the camera caught it, would definitely be a sign of our times and one day hilarious. And then I realized, it won't be the room's contents that will be funny, it will be me. From my stupid hair to me geeky glasses to whatever happened to be on my 2nd hand tshirt that day. As I change, my appearance changes. I will probably have gray hair one day sooner than I think. My brown locks will be a thing of the past. Maybe I'll get that eye surgery everyone is talking about and my glasses will make for hours of laughter. Maybe I'll get fat and pictures of skinny Mike will be emailed from brother to sister to cousin.

But whatever it is, it's good. It will mean that I have evolved. Like that half built crib I too am a work in progress. It something breaks I hope I can fix it. I have an allen wrench.

Don Simon introduces you to the great fireball sun

2008-06-09T21:09:00.001+02:00

Fellow comrade and record label co-boss (more on this later) Don Simon put together this mix to get your summer headed in the right direction. I'll let you know it's what got me through work today.

Simon says that these are the tunes that have been getting the heaviest rotation on his stereo as of late. And that's enough of an explanation. I'll let the mix speak for itself.

Listen: zShare

Download: zShare

Track list:

Summer Kick Off Mix 2008 by Don Simon

1. Sally Shapiro - Jackie Junior (Junior Boys remix)
2. Headman - Hostage
3. Kelly Polar - Entropy Reigns (In the Celestial City)
4. Lykke Li - I'm Good I'm Gone (Fred Falke remix)
5. John Dahlb�ck - We Are The Duo
6. Claude VonStroke - The Whistler
7. Solomun & Stimming - Eiszauber
8. Booka Shade - Dusty Boots
9. esa axel - Asthma Star (Socket Science remix)
10. Justus K�hncke - Parage
11. Marascia & Dusty Kid - Sineless
12. Swen Weber - The Pusher
13. Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso Vs Laidback Luke - IT

Don Simon live photo courtesy of Erik Sj�din's flick page.

Footsie

2008-06-07T19:46:00.002+02:00

Today - June 29th. Nice.

Extreme or wild

2008-06-03T20:41:00.007+02:00

We are playing the waiting game over here. Due date is in 16 days. Those in the know say +/- 2 weeks is normal. I keep waiting to hear a huge splash from the other room (water breaking) but those in the know also have told me that that's not so common. I have seen too many movies, or watched too much bad tv.

I had to tell myself, out loud, last night that having a baby was the most natural thing a person could do. In the midst of it all it started to feel like we were doing something extreme or wild. Nope, totally sensible and normal. I keep saying that to myself.

Weather here in Stockholm has been amazing the last 2 weeks at least. Walking around the city makes me want to keep walking around the city. Cloudless skies are rare here and I have been loving it.

Plants and flowers on our balcony were key. Nothing beats a solid balcony hang.

More news from my side once it bounces in. Until then...

They try to find the Milky Way

2008-05-25T12:31:00.000+02:00

I've talked about the Eurovision song contest before. It was way back when I first moved to this continent and found myself watching Finnish Gwar wannabes taking home the coveted title to a contest in which groups like Abba (read: mainstream hits) are supposed to win. I loved the weirdness aspect to it. Unfortunately moments like that are far and few between.

Last night was no different. I watched for the whole 3 or so hours. I dozed off at least twice. No worries; only missed a little bit of the Serbian cabaret jug band. Russia won. Cool, who cares. There was one main reason I watched this year. That was S�bastien Tellier from France. It didn't seem like he fit in because he was too cool and his song was too good. But this contest confuses me. Maybe he fit in just perfectly. He didn't come close to winning.

But when you take a drum beat and a synth and some vocals (kids, I have tried this haven't I?) and try to make a song there's a whole lot of places you can go wrong. This song is the opposite of wrong. It's so right and, simply, divine.

I give you S�bastien Tellier:

I like when good people get to good places

2008-05-17T15:00:00.002+02:00

Actually, I LOVE when good people get to good places. And by good places I mean INTO a violent, but from what I hear really great, video game!

My long time pal, former New Constitution, National Splits and Mathlete bandmate Dan Marsden plays in a group from Chicago called The Prairie Cartel. Get stupid to it. Dance through it.

They've been included in the Grand Theft Auto 4 soundtrack. You'll find them on the Radio Broker channel. That's some good company to be in, wouldn't you say?

All too cool. Keep up the great work Dan.

I live in H�gdalen

2008-05-10T18:56:00.004+02:00

I have been meaning to take a picture of this building for months now. Because I haven't I will borrow this photo courtesy of Kim Eriksson's Flickr page.

Anyways, I live in H�gdalen where this apartment building is located. I live in a different, less illuminated, building. I'm very close to Bandhagen and that's what my address says; but I get off at the H�gdalen station so that's what I say. It's nothing really special but I'm comfortable here. I'm about a 20 minute subway ride into the center of Stockholm. There are birds that sing, dogs that don't bark and children that play here.

There is also a newly-remodeled building in H�gdalen which is white with orange balconies. I will take a picture of that and post it here as it also deserves a little attention.

UPDATE: The building with the orange balconies is this building (I think). Who cares.

Today (yesterday) I said this

2008-05-03T10:22:00.001+02:00

Let me get some news out of the way here. This has been on my mind and it's important. Ok, so I've been putting out music in one way or another since 1995. Do the math. Times are a'changin. I haven't played a live show since November 2006 and that was due to my own decision. I can't say I got burned out on it or didn't enjoy it anymore; I just didn't feel that urge deep down inside that I used to. So I stopped booking shows and started concentrating on other stuff (like my job, buying an apartment, now starting a family and in general getting my act together). But the recording never stopped. I have "albums" done. One is called Kicking Gas for Laughs and it is a collection of songs that didn't make Hold Horses. It'll see a release when the time is right.

So because I don't play shows there isn't a need for physical CDs for me. And that means I'm 100% into the digital realm. But guess what kids, I could care less about getting a paypal transfer for x amount of dollars. Note: the x is a pretty small number. I'd rather have more of you download the music for free. This isn't my job, never was and never will be. I should be paying you to listen. If I wanted to sell records I'd find a booking agent again and get my ass in a car and go play out. Even then, it would still be for fun. Any money made would go into the gas tank.

So, for the most part my music is going to be free. When it comes, take it. The stuff I've released thus far that is for sale will remain so. But from what I can see a majority of the future releases will not be.

And then to complicate matters, I'm going to take a nice long break from releasing music as Mike Downey. I have given a lot and now I'm tired and am going to shut up. The Podcasts last year pretty much emptied out the quality side of my archives. That's like 12 free albums already. So I've already been doing this before I even realized I was.

But the recording won't stop. Myself and my pal Simon are collaborating on not only a new project, but a new free MP3 label. The plan is to release anything "electronic" the two of us are involved in and anyone we come across that we might want to involve. Heartphone will live on for my Mike Downey releases and any collabs I do that fit into that style.

The set up time will be long. Nothing really has a name yet and most of the songs are half baked. Sounds promising huh?

Ok, that's enough for now. I'm going to see Sebadoh tonight. Orginal lineup, Stockholm, this doens't happen very often.

xo,
Mike

Hands of oak

2008-04-23T18:46:00.002+02:00

So because I update MIKEROBLOG nearly every day as well as add new items of interest over in The Sharing Zone I guess I feel like I'm blogging on a daily basis. But I'm not. Unless it appears in this section it dares to go unnoticed. Anywho, something caught my eye last night and I thought I'd comment on it here.

I randomly caught an art show on Swedish TV last night called ARTY SVT Kultur which happened to be about trees and more so about artists that use trees as their source of inspiration. The old guy who drew the faces he saw in the knots of the tree didn't interest me so much. I guess I was turned off by the fact that he thought he needed to wear his oil paint-splattered smock outdoors while standing outside in front of a tree with a pad of paper and a black Sharpie. But I did enjoy the segment about a Brit named Tim Knowles. You know what, I am no good at talking about visual art. I can like it, sort of like it or not like it at all and I don't really want to explain to anyone why. So, I give you this image of how Tim Knowles creates some of his art. Follow the link to his site and browse around. I am also really enjoying his Postal Works where the packages ' contents create the art and when they arrive at their final destination they are opened and revealed. That's a crappy explanation. I said I didn't like talking about this stuff.

I have just discovered

2008-04-08T07:45:00.000+02:00

Last night officially began the accumulation of information of childbirth. We sat in an auditorium filled with at least 100 other expecting couples and listened to the seasoned professional on the stage. We laughed at the well-placed jokes and sweated at the reality of it all. I learned quite a lot. But I'd have to say the best lesson I learned was that...

We Don't Get Fooled Again

2008-04-01T19:40:00.001+02:00

So no super big news. Just checking in; I don't like to stay away too long. I'm keeping it real. Stuff is positive and good. Baby on the way. Making music here and there but not freaking out about it. Some collaborations in the pipe, nothing like I've ever done before. I think my Adidas Sambas ruined my left heel, but that's another story for another time.

Stockholm has thawed out. The magpie couple outside my window is building a nest. But you see there are these two crows that are making a habit of running the magpies out of their nest, poking around (I doubt there's eggs in there, too early) and then leaving about 30 seconds later. The magpie couple just sit and watch a few branches below. When the crows are gone they hop back up and continue working. I spend parts of weekends watching out the window, drinking coffee, trying to read the newspaper while trying to listen to the radio.

Last night I watched one Swedish football match on mute while I listened to another via web radio. The team I am into are notorious losers. They won their opener 1-0 because the ball bounced off the head of someone on the other team into his own goal. The Cubs lost I read. All is stable in the universe.

Working like crazy. Taking on more job-related responsibility. Feeling good about it but getting tired while doing it. Sometimes I can't keep my eyes open past 9:30. Other nights I'm out until 3AM putting beats together and seeing how many bottles of beer I can drink before Ableton stops making sense. It never does.

Today is April Fools. There's no gag here. It's all real stuff. I'll holler at you again soon.

Until then, thanks for reading along.

And write a little rhyme for you

2008-03-17T19:18:00.001+01:00

I'm feeling like this today...

Sk8

2008-03-11T21:00:00.001+01:00

I'm not at all up to date on what the skateboarding scene is all about these days. I know the Jackass guys skate. Big fan. And any jargon I have picked up in my years mostly came from playing Skate or Die. I really haven't seen that many kids on skateboards in Stockholm. There is a small skatepark on S�dermalm that I have walked by a few times and seen some kids but nothing really that stood out. So as far as a Swedish skateboarding scene is considered I am really not seeing any. There's gotta be people doing it. Where are they?

Well, I guess this will all change. In 2010 Europe's biggest skatepark will be in my backyard. Literally in my little section of Stockholm called H�gdalen. Here's an artist's rendering of what's to come...

Today's paper boasted the following features:
+ 5 pools (4 big and 1 small)
+ Ramps for downhill racing, freestyle, street and slalom.
+ A long ditch (inspired by Los Angeles' drainage ditches)
+ Street plaza: a street/park environment with rails, plateaus and stairs.
+ Moguls (?) This one may have gotten lost in the translation (Puckelpistaktiga flowytor)

Anyways, I'm buying a skateboard.

Stockhom City's article (in Swedish)

Old tuxedos

2008-03-06T11:22:00.000+01:00

Planning, plotting. I've decided for my next release to pick and choose a bunch of songs from my podcast offerings as well as some other stuff and collect it into a monsterous collection. I'm guessing around 40 songs. We'll see what makes sense. All songs will be mastered (hardly anything was mastered in the podcasts). I guess this will come out before the summer. Cool?

For the time being, here's the Mathlete 7" for free. This was previously available as a podcast but I got a bunch of requests to make the files available as separate tracks. So here they are. Enjoy.

Mathlete : The Household Frequencies EP 7" - zip

Released in the summer of 1999 on Ojet Records (OJET-003)

Friday Five (Leap Day Edition)

2008-02-29T11:51:00.001+01:00

Definitely not a feature you can rely on. Surely not a weekly offering. Not even close to an original concept. Here you have it. This is our Friday Five.

1. Playing RC Pro Am and a TON of other 8bit games right here on m'browser. This is the sort of website that makes people take days off of work (or get fired). Seriously, check it. Thanks to Justin at Heroes vs Villains for this.

2. I'm a short story type of a guy. I have a tendency to fall asleep shortly after laying down with a book so the shorter the better these days. I am currently enjoying a collection of short stories called Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford. Where is a good place to find other interesting short stories, essays, etc of the same calibur? Oh, then I'd suggest The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007.

3. Bike Snob NYC. If you got into riding fixed gear a few years back like me and then started noticing how the trendiness of it all started to get real out of hand and overtook the actual principle of it and were wondering who the spokesman would be to make fun of us/them, here he is. The entries are rarely quick jabs at boys on Pistas, but more of well crafted uppercuts. Ouch.

4. Going to hockey games. Best sport to go see in my opinion.

5. Google Reader. I'm pretty addicted. If you're a gmail user I'd suggest taking advantage of it.

Ants and Spiders

2008-02-24T21:19:00.000+01:00

I started putting this together because I was incredibly bored. Then it turned into a total project. Total job. A good way to spend a few evenings. Enjoy.

Ants and Spiders : Mixed by Mike Downey (zShare)
75.95 megabytes

Data Collection

2008-02-21T12:33:00.002+01:00

These are actually quiet times. I figured I'd be Mr. Talkative while back in the States but I haven't really felt it. I have been living a quiet life in Atlanta: working, walking, watching movies and maybe some other stuff that starts with the letter W that I can't think of at the moment.

Last night my coworker and I, after catching some Champions League on TV, took a soccer ball out to the park out of lack of anything better to do (and being a little fired up after the game). Now I like soccer, a lot, and I used to have some mad skills (honestly) but lack of practice had nearly cleared my memory banks of most of my juggling skill. However, I could still do a rainbow. In fact, nearly perfectly a number of times in a row. I am sort of happy about that.

Something else I'm happy about. I purchased a pair of Adidas Sambas the other day. I used to wear the crap out of these shoes in my athletic prime. They are so utilitarian and maybe that's why I dig them. Felt good to break them in last night, even if it was on the rain-starved grounds of Piedmont Park and not on the astro turf they were designed for.

Lack of stuff to do brings out the movie buff in us all. I recently peeped some documentaries: The King of Kong and Air Guitar Nation. I'm telling you, if you haven't seen either and are up for some insanely funny and well-made docs you have got to find these. Highly recommended! And thanks to AJ Naito for turning me on to them.

Man what else. Oh, I've also recently watched Spies Like Us and Real Genius. You can't deny the classics.

So in just about 2 weeks I'll be flying back to Stockholm to my newly painted and furnished apartment which I barely had time to get used to before shipping off and to m'bun-in-the-oven-sweet who would like it much better if I was around.

I've been working on a little mixtape that I'm pretty happy with. Hopefully I'll be able to share that with you in the nearish future. Until then...

Hold Horses

2008-02-11T20:52:00.001+01:00

Hold Horses is out now
You can download it via iTunes eMusic Amazon

"Location is Nothing" and "Rains and Pours Rain" are available for free download here.

If you are interested in remixing either of the two above songs, please visit my remix page for details.

All of the artwork, liner notes and lyrics are in this pdf file. Jason Pierce's mperfect design is the reason I look good.

Thank you for reading and listening.

Mysterious sounds from the past

2008-02-07T19:46:00.001+01:00

This is interesting. I did a remix last summer for a Swedish guy named Johan who calls himself Familjen. I happen to absolutely love his album, singles and live show. Anywho, I did a remix (at my request, I emailed him and he kindly sent me remix files) of the title track off of his debut Det Snurrar I Min Skalle. I sent the remix off to him and then it made its way over to his record label and a couple of my pals in Stockholm. A few nice emails were sent back and people said they liked it and I sort of liked it but then that was sort of it.

I had a revelation right after I did the remix and decided I was not a floor-filler remix-type of guy so why should I do remixes like this. I dunno, there are so many other people that are a whole lot better at that sort of thing. So I stopped. I will continue to stop making remixes like this (while continuing to do remixes on a truer plane, can you dig that?) But that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep reading. What you will get is an audio snapshot of me at a certain time in a certain place.

This remix is out now to my surprise. I really did think it was shelved. Remixes are such a novelty and I like that about them. You can get the remix (for free) over at www.detsnurrariminskalle.com. Oh, make sure you check out the video over there to. It's a great video and won the Swedish Grammy for best video of the year actually.

The remix will also be a part of a Familjen remix full length called Huvudet I Sanden that is coming out soonish. I've heard it and it's a nice companion piece to Familjen's output. More on how to you can get that when I have the details. The artwork will look just like this:

3 Scandinavian labels are teaming up on this release: Adrian Recordings / Hybris / Tell�. People really enjoy Familjen in my other part of the world. (I have been in Miami the last couple of days and Stockholm feels like light years away). But now I'm just talking about the weather and that's reserved for phone calls home.

*****Update Feb 21*****
There is a track by track write-up of the upcoming Huvudet I Sanden album on the Adrian Recordings site.

Piece.