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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries October 31st, 200911:49 pm: My God...
...I'm actually gonna finish "ASCII Cupcake" this weekend. This is so crazy. I actually kinda thought it might never get finished. Heck, it might even be available for purchase before Xmas, though we'll have to see how fast mastering goes. Not to mention posting to iTunes etc. That crap can be really slow. -m Tags: ascii cupcake, cosmicity
August 19th, 200909:06 pm: You're gonna hate my upcoming EP.
I played one of my new Cosmicity songs ("Resignation") for a few friends yesterday and it solicited... no reaction. They literally changed the subject when the song ended. I've got a pretty bad feeling about the reception of this EP when it comes out. Ah well... too bad, public! I'm putting it out anyway! ;-) -m Current Mood:  determined , cosmicity, resignation
May 27th, 200912:56 pm: Depeche Mode "Peace (Cosmicity Remix)" - PLEASE VOTE!
Okay, voting has started in the Depeche Mode remix contest. I could really use your help! You can hear the Cosmicity remix here: http://www.beatportal.com/remix/detail/peace-cosmicity-remix/IF YOU LIKE IT, YOU HAVE TO "SPIN" IT TO VOTE FOR IT . That's what counts as a vote. To be able to "spin" it, rather annoyingly, you have to sign up for a beatport account. I know it's a pain, but I'll very much appreciate your vote! (If you have any trouble signing up for an account, this link will take you to the main page to do it: http://www.beatportal.com/remix/contest/depeche-mode-remix-contest/ ) Thanks again. I really appreciate your continued enthusiasm! And, should I lose the contest (as I suspect I might with SO many entries by pro remixers), your vote will definitely coax me into sending you a free MP3 of the track. (If by some miracle I won the contest, I wouldn't be able to send it to you because Depeche Mode would own it, but then you could buy it!) -mark Tags: beatport, cosmicity, depeche mode, peace, remix
May 21st, 200906:18 pm: Depeche Mode "Peace (Cosmicity Remix)"
Yes, I too have fallen victim to the silly Depeche Mode remix contest. I do realize that it is very unlikely that I'll be able win due to the massive amount of talent entering (well-known DJs and artists) with tons more remixing prowess and recording tech behind them (not to mention the contest is sponsored by Beatport which is all about obscure variations of house music and DJ culture stuff - a million miles from my world), but the lure of doing a DM remix is just too great for a lifelong fan to ignore, I think. Please note that you can't vote for it just yet, only listen. Voting starts next week. If you like what you hear, I ask that you please take the time to go back and vote next week when I post the new link. It'd make me feel good to have more than 0 votes, and I'd really appreciate it! :-) http://www.beatportal.com/remix/detail/peace-cosmicity-remix/-m Current Mood:  accomplished , cosmicity, depeche mode, peace, remix
May 12th, 200911:44 pm: Cosmicity Website - It's all new.
I've rebuilt the ol' Cosmicity website to make it cleaner and easier to navigate. Okay, truth is, I don't have the time I used to have for website building/updating (plus, everyone just looks for a band's myspace page first anyway), so I moved all of Cosmicity's info over to iWeb. I know, I know. Designers fart on iWeb. But you know, it's convenient and it makes clean websites! Anyway, if you feel like any important content is missing, I'd love to hear your suggestions. http://www.cosmicity.com-m PS - I'll make it more customized with the release of "ASCII Cupcake" later this year, I promise. Right now, I'm a little short on fresh Cosmicity images. PPS - There's a short demo version of a potential "ASCII Cupcake" song that plays from the homepage. Tags: "still", ascii cupcake, cosmicity, cosmicity.com, website
April 5th, 200904:57 pm: Proxy
I recorded the vocals to one of my new songs, called "Proxy", today while Sara and Zoe were out for a while. When I was all done and I was listening to playback, I burst into tears and I couldn't stop crying. Whether anyone else in the world ultimately likes this song or not, it says exactly what I feel. All of these songs do. When completed, "ASCII Cupcake" will be, far and away, the most cathartic collection of songs I've ever written. If I didn't have music to turn to as an outlet, I'd have self-destructed months ago. -m Current Music: Cosmicity - "Proxy" , cosmicity, proxy
March 9th, 200903:37 pm: ASCII Cupcake
1. In general, how many original (new) songs need to be on an EP? (Just asking 'cause, you know, I'm working on an EP (working title is the subject line), and I want to meet with expectations and all. I've got 4 solid new songs, and couple of "danglers" I'm not sure about... but I'm all about quality over quantity. Or, perhaps more to the point given my personal situation right now, finish-sometime-this-decadeability.) 2. Do you want to hear early demo stage samples as I work, or would rather wait 'til they're much more polished? 3. Does the working title frighten you away with its oddness, or is it okay to make it an inside joke as long as it uses cool words like "ASCII" and "cupcake"? -m PS - We expect to be going in for more tests on Zoe this Wednesday. I've decided to avoid posting about that stuff here on LJ (to keep this blog a little bit more music focused), so for extremely current news about Zoe as it happens, please add me as a friend on Facebook or Twitter. Don't worry - I'll add you even if I don't know you well, as long as you actually want to read about my daughter. I'm just trying to spare casual Cosmicity fans my day-to-day reports.
Tags: ascii cupcake, cosmicity, ep, zoe
January 20th, 200909:55 pm: Cosmicity
In the cracks, I am still working on the music. Progress is slowly being made. I like the sound so far, but I fear it may be lyrically the saddest music I've ever produced. Can't be helped. Gotta write what you feel. Good thing nobody listens to lyrics. I'm sure when it comes out I'll get lots of "I love to bounce around to that song" even though the lyrics are about giving up on life or some shit like that. Also of note: The new Cosmicity album may not be called "Music for Headphones" anymore. I've made such a turn with the content that it doesn't seem to apply. My current working title for the EP (yes, an EP as opposed to a full length) is "ASCII Cupcake". I actually have 3 up-and-running demo songs, so the next month or two might bring an audio sneak preview. Assuming I keep finding time to get little bits of work done, that is. -m PS - There's a little glimmer of hope with Zoe this week. I'll write more about it next week if it holds true until then. Current Music: Obama Inauguration Celebrations on TV , zoe
November 19th, 200812:27 am: Cosmicity
The music lives, even through the worst of times. I think I'm changing the format, though. "Music For Headphones" needs to wait until I'm in a different state of mind. This state of mind calls for an EP. Don't know the title yet. Cosmicity classic sound. Cosmicity purists will be thrilled (though there are decidedly no "dance" songs here. Sorry die-hard "Too Far Gone" and "Digital Delays" fans. This one's for the other folks.) I've got 5 of 6 total songs already underway. -m PS - On a completely unrelated but very important note to any of you involved in politics (kind of person who takes time to e-mail congressman when you see something's not right): If you don't think the entire US economy will seriously collapse along with Detroit, you are kidding yourselves. 4% of the Gross National Product? 2.5 million jobs all lost at the exact same time? We will all fall. Hard. Pray the government comes to their senses and loans the automakers the money or it's gonna get seriously fucked up in this country in 2009. I can't even believe they're considering NOT doing it. Be mad at the automakers for whatever you think they did wrong (making gas hogs, giving in to union demands, whatever you might think). Fact is, they probably didn't do much of that stuff wrong (people were buying more SUVs than cars until January of THIS year - it's called supply and demand), but it doesn't even matter. The tax revenue the Big 3 generate in 1 year is more than double the total amount of the loan they're all asking for combined. So, if the government doesn't give it, the government loses TWICE as much as the loan value in just 1 year. (Oh yeah, and the pension guarantee system overloads and blows up in the first year too, which is a ton of money.) Not to mention that cars are the very last bit of serious American manufacturing left - at all. Look around at your stuff. Your computer, your phone, your TV, your baby toys, your lamp... Was ANY of it made in the USA? Extremely unlikely. Think we can really survive long-term without actually MAKING anything? Sure, we make entertainment (TV/FIlm), software and food, but no actual physical STUFF. What would happen if we were ever, I dunno, at war (or even just at odds) with China? (You can make this scenario worse by throwing in Korea and India, etc. if you like.) How would we get or make ANY of the things we need and use everyday? Beyond that, how would we get, say, vehicles for the army to fight and get around in? Hummers? Jeeps? Nope. (Even weapons or whatever else you need in a major war. Those factories are what got converted for WWII when we really needed stuff fast.) If the Big 3 fall, we'll have no serious US manufacturing capacity left. Tags: automakers, cosmicity, detroit
August 11th, 200812:22 pm: Bringing Cosmicity Back?
Okay internets. I'm leaning pretty heavily toward bringing back the Cosmicity name for my next release "Music For Headphones". The tone and sound I'll be going for will lean more toward that of Synthpop and Postal Service-style modern programming than the harder-hitting, grittier sound of my more recent releases, so it seems fitting to me. And just plain fun/funny to reunite a band that only had one member to begin with. :-) In favor? Against? Anger? Elation? Thoughts? Disagreements? Confusions? Disappointments? Don't give a crap? -m Current Mood:  chipper Current Music: electronic - disappointed June 10th, 200811:35 am: Watching the charts...
As suspected, Cosmicity is the faster climber of my two musical efforts on thesixtyone.com.I gotta tell you, though, this site is an eye-opener for me. Completely democratic... people vote for their favorite songs, and the most successful songs make it to the home page and are considered "hits". And it's fascinating to see what songs work and what songs don't. For example, the most popular Cosmicity songs of all time (in terms of sales) are "Rengerate" and "Sedgwick". They did okay on the site, but then got SMOKED by the songs "Let Me In" and "Crucify", the two I posted most recently. "Let Me In" hit the homepage yesterday, and Crucify will be joining it there in the next day or so. That's kind of cool... a song from 11 years ago that's a hit with people today. For all they know, I recorded it last week. In their ears, it still holds up (not dated). That's awesome! On the Mark Nicholas front, the song "I Wish" went straight to the home page in just 2 days, but the song "Two Sandwiches" did SO badly (only 12 bumps in 3 weeks... to put that in perspective, most of my other songs get an average of 80 bumps in that time, and Crucify just got over 200 bumps in 14 hours). I would have bet the farm that "Two Sandwiches" would be popular, but I would have lost that farm! "Maniac" also just hit the homepage today. I would have bet half the farm on that one... so at least I'd still have half a farm. Hopefully the things on that farm aren't split too evenly, as half a cow is still a dead cow. Overall "Mark Nicholas" still has a higher score, but I've had "Mark" in the game a lot longer. In the next few weeks, I'm positive that Cosmicity will double that score and then some. What does it all mean? I guess I don't really know. I'm just happy that some of the songs are doing very well, old and new. If you feel so inclined, cast your votes for the next Cosmicity song I should post. Which one do you think will be a hit (given the facts listed above about Sedgwick failing and Let Me In succeeding, etc.)? -m PS - Weren't we supposed to be having a baby or something? What ever happened with that? PPS - (Any day now!) Current Music: thesixtyone.com , mark nicholas, thesixtyone, zoe
May 25th, 200801:15 am:
Thing that old friends say to me all the time that I get tired of now: "So, are you still doing the music thing?" (Not even just old friends, actually. Current friends, co-workers, you name it. My answer should be, if you actually care, maybe get on my mailing list or look at my website once a year?) Thing people would say to me all the time that I would get tired of now if I'd reached the level of success I was shooting for: "I always knew you were going to make a name for yourself with your music." Ah, life. You fuck with me, but I still love you. Between humans that's considered a dysfunctional relationship. With you, I believe it probably is as it should be. Because on the absolute flipside, there's this: --- ( A post from last week that never posted for some reason - recovered from the draft.) Every so often someone sells an old Cosmicity album on E-bay, and I feel SOOO much better about my musical accomplishments. Seriously, I am humbled. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180239938414$33.00 for a CD I self-released in 1994 at the age of 21 that retailed for $9.99. Shit, I REALLY wasn't even very good yet. Sara and I were just talking about this the other day. She and I only put the songs we actually like from albums on our iPods, and I think she only has 1 song from this album on her iPod. One! Thanks for letting me know about that auction, Miss Ania. -m PS - I've got Cosmicity up on thesixtyone.com now too. Who wants to take bets on which artist performs better on there... Cosmicity or Mark Nicholas? Tags: cosmicity, e-bay, success, the vision, thesixtyone
May 4th, 200802:45 am: I got my username back!
The person who used to have Cosmicity (the correct spelling) as a username here on LJ finally dropped it. Woo! So, I changed this journal to the correct name. Ah. Feels good to have it right. Speaking of which, I used the name Cosmicity for the Color Theory song I just finished remixing. So um... if that counts as bringing the band out of retirement, well, there ya go! The song is called "If Not Now When (Cosmicity Remix)" and probably won't be available for sale for a good 6 months or so, but it may be posted for listening before then. If so, I'll post a nice little link for yous guys. Wish me luck... baby shower tomorrow. (Technically today. Better get to bed.) -m Current Music: If Not Now When (Cosmicity Remix) , cosmicity, cozmicity, if not now when, remix
April 14th, 200811:59 am: Did it work?
So, some of you might be wondering about the "The Free EP". Did anyone download it? Well, yes actually. Thousands of people. I was shocked. That's much better than I thought it would do. I was stupid and I didn't put up a visible page counter on my main download page until the initial rush has passed, so it's only showing about 400 hits on the download page now, but I had well over a thousand in the first couple of days alone based on my invisible web stats, and that's not even counting the downloads from last.fm, myspace and iLIke, some of which can't even be tracked. Has it lead to more sales? Well, I didn't expect it to initially... kinda figured it would take a while and that I'd see the bigger benefit for my next full release ("Music For Headphones") in 2009... but it actually has. I've seen a spike in paid downlaods, particularly from the amazon mp3 store. Not tons, but certainly better than I was doing before this promotion. And I've been getting more-than-the-normal-amount of orders for physical CDs too. To me, a huge success. I was mostly afraid no one would even bother to download my music for free, but they did. More people now have "The Free EP" in just a week or two of availability than have ever purchased any one of my albums, Cosmicity or otherwise. Sure, there's no revenue for that, but it's tough to beat the advertising of people hearing and enjoying your music. Here's hoping it leads to even better things for my next album. Speaking of Cosmicity... there's a rumor going around that the band might be reuiniting. It's just a rumor at this point, but I heard it from a fairly reliable source. -m
Tags: cosmicity, music for headphones, the free ep
March 26th, 200802:51 pm: Less Hypothetical
Let's just say for kicks... that the reason I was asking about songs yesterday was because I'm considering offering this entire EP of my music to the whole world completely free. In fact, I'm thinking of calling it "THE FREE EP". One big, fat, free download. Totally unrestricted MP3s. In fact, giving this music away to people you know would be actively encouraged, and as easy as sending friends a link to the download page. Assuming that was the case, and assuming that I've narrowed it down to these 10 songs... I'd still like to trim the list down a bit. The easy thing to do would be to just eliminate the Cosmicity songs (tracks 7-9) completely, since they are a good five to seven years old. Thoughts? Arguments? 1. I Wish 2. Maniac 3. Backlash 4. Coming Clean (Club Mix) 5. Green 6. Little Goth Girl (Ethereal Mix) 7. I Want You 8. The Princess of Detroit 9. Tinnitus 10. Selective Memory Loss (Pure and Simple Mix) For the record, my THEORY is that by releasing a completely free EP, some of the, hopefully, many people that'll download it just 'cause it's free will like, or grow to really like, some of these songs as they hear them on their computers or iPods over time. And that they'll eventually either want to go buy more songs from the original albums, or at least be more inclined to buy my next album because they've become something of a fan. Will it prove to be a totally foolish business model to give away 6 or 7 of my best songs for free? Maybe. But I'm hopeful that, ultimately, it could prove to be the opposite. Hit me people. I can take it. -m Current Music: Techno Squirrels - Love Comes First , mark nicholas, the free ep
March 25th, 200801:04 pm: Totally hypothetical...
Let's say you were trying to introduce a friend/co-worker to my music. You want to burn a 6 song EP that you would give them for free to *hopefully* get them interested and wanting to buy more. Which 6 songs? Only Mark Nicholas songs, or maybe 1 or 2 Cosmicity songs also? In my head I'd say something like this, but I kinda know it's wrong: THE FREE EP 1. Backlash 2. Regenerate 3. Coming Clean (Club Mix) 4. I'm Trying To Impress You 5. Little Goth Girl (Ethereal Mix) 6. Hotel Allegro Chicago The objective is to get regular music-lovers interested, so the songs should be probably the easiest ones to get into and get hooked on. But which ones are those? -m Current Music: "Fucking Boyfriend" The Bird and The Bee , mark nicholas, the free ep
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