So, this week, my powerpop/jangle-garage band, Safe Houses, dropped our first release since before the pandemic. It’s a digital double-A-side single — “Someday Is Starting Now (Julia)”/”I Don’t Feel Like Dancing,” two songs that we’ve been playing for as long as most of our fans and friends have known who we are. It’s accompanied by a music video for “Someday Is Starting Now,” and of course the audio and video are both embedded in this post after the jump.
This release has been an extremely long time coming. It was actually supposed to come out a full year ago. Back in the early spring of 2022, we were chatting with labels and strategizing a late-spring release. Then we were hit with a cease and desist from lawyers representing a person who holds a registered trademark on our name at the time (Shelter Dogs), and we had to hold off on putting any new product into the marketplace (I hate that phrasing too, but that’s how the intellectual property specialists would frame it). Then, when they refused to budge on permitting us to continue using that name, we had to change our band name to Safe Houses and rebrand all of our digital channels (including how we appeared on your Spotifys and Apple Musics and all) and previous releases. This is a process that took, and I’m not exaggerating, nine months, end to end.
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On Staying Out of the Comments in 2023
I’m taking a few seconds right now to consider how my social media habits have changed over this past year. Of course they’ve changed, because the discourse on pretty much all of the major social platforms has been changing. You can adapt, or not.
Basically, the way I’ve adapted is by steering clear of other people’s threads unless I can bring something unique to the table. And the way I need to continue adapting is by not simply taking my two cents to forums where I appear slightly more anonymous. An interesting thought deserves to find its proper place, and finding that place often takes time. If it’s actually an idea that deserves its proper place, the wait is worth it.
One practice I’m really glad I leaned into this year is: Whenever I feel compelled to post anything on any social platform, I ask myself whether it stands to reason that someone else who has better knowledge of the subject has already said the same thing, more articulately and authoritatively. Usually I’ll presume someone else has. Sometimes I’ll Google an entire phrase that pops into my head and find someone else said the same thing years ago. I’m just not here to post timeline white noise bs that makes me look dumb.
I’m especially wary about adding to the white noise because so many people I used to interact with heavily on Facebook and Twitter have been scarce on the socials in 2022.
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