Goodness, do we ever have a slow news day???

So much going on it's hard to keep track of it. This is why it's so important to stay in “Da Loop”

Still #27 on the Philadelphia Folk Artist Charts

This might not seem like much, but the fact is we are battling the insidious forces of Entropy. Our fan base is not growing and while extremely active it has reached a point where it's hard to move forward.

However, reaching up to #27 is a massive accomplishment for the few, the loyal, and the active friends that support our efforts.

I'm mentioning this so if we start to slip you don't feel all is lost. Please continue to do as you have in the past, and if you can place a widget, or a banner, or get a friend to join our fan roster that would be great too.

If I may put this in RPG terms, it's simple to get from Level 1 to Level 2. Getting from Level 15- 16 is much harder, and up at the epic levels it becomes a real grind.

You have brought Kinagree-Smith into the epic level of an aggressively contested chart. So don't lose heart if we slip. Time is on our side and someday, we'll all be #1 on the charts.

Thank you again for your amazing support. You are the best.

Strum, Lexie, Zorch and 47 other unnamed voices

Lexie got a Email from our good buddy Strum Diesel and he's got an EPIC project in the works. It's a recording of his song, “It All Belongs” and while a new Strum recording is EPIC in itself, this has a bit of a twist to it.

Strum is planning to have a virtual choir of 50 voices singing along during the course of the song. No, this is not the product of some massive face to face meeting, or even multiple streaming voodoo. Strum is sending a template mix to those involved and having those involved overdub their voice and export just their singing parts, and email them back to him.

I don't know if he'll get 50 voices, but that was the plan. Hell if he gets just 10 that would be impressive. This is a fun, cool project and I can't wait till it is finished. Lexie and I are both pleased to be part of it.

Have you ever noticed that Strum and fun kind of rhyme?

Here's a 30 second sample with Lexie and Zorch singing along.

*Strumtastic foot note. When I contacted Strum for permission he informed me there are already 10 people involved and he's going for the full 50 voices.

Let's all chant, "GO 50,GO 50, GO 50"


Party across the void

Okay, sometimes people get fixated on the whole “In world/Real life” thing. Personally, I don't see such a gap. Tonight we had a visit from Uncle Al (not a real Uncle and I'm not sure how he would feel about me calling him Uncle Al... but he is like an Uncle to Lexie and I) and he brought his friend, Drummer, Sound man, Engineer, Chris along to check out the “Really Big House”.

We started talking about our Musical adventures on Second Life, and then logged in world to show them how it all works. Al and Chris were both fascinated by what they saw.

So... we start talking. Start thinking way outside the box, and here is what we are planning to do. We are going to collect some of our musical friends from Philly, and invite some of our supporters from the area, and have a jam/party at the REALLY BIG HOUSE, in our Little room. We are going to cram as many people inside as we can, and then add our online friends in the mix to create.....(Drum-roll please)...

The Party Across the void.

We'll be partying both in Real life, and online with our friends in Second Life. There will be Live music at some yet unnamed venue, a live stream on the zorchboom web site for non-Second Life people that want to listen in, and a Live video feed of the party in action.

This is still in the planning stage, but all involved seem really stoked about it. If you are anywhere near the Philadelphia area and wish to attend, but send me an Email (zorchboomhauer@gmail.com) and I'll keep you in the party Loop. If you aren't in the Philadelphia area, but are interested in attending the part online, just keep up with the blog and all relevant links will be posted.


Is the REALLY BIG HOUSE ready for it's close up???

Other news from Uncle Al, seem a big wig Hollywood director is going to use the Warehouse Lexie and I stream from as a setting in a movie. What is the movie about? I don't know. But maybe it's about two mature, and gifted musicians that refused to quit. I think that would make an amazingly wicked cool movie. I wonder who Lexie will be wearing at the Oscar awards?

Pre-production starts on the Kinagree-Smith debut CD

Lexie and I are both as busy as one legged folk dancers, but we are finally getting ourselves mentally ready to record again. A bit of sad news, it seem Ira Norman Segall will not be involved with the project, but that is cool and okay. The good news is, whomever is involved will no doubt be part of the VH1 Classic Album TV show featuring our upcoming mega hit. I predict it will be the first really independent recording to sell one bazillion copies.

Keep in mind, my Mother is dead, and in Heaven with Jesus, so that is going to make it a little tricky to sell one bazillion copies. But what I lack in.... well... almost everything, I make up for with confidence.

Womyn, guitars and Rotunda... Oh my!!!!

It are really really really late. So late it's early. Suffice it to say the show went off well, we got a decent one camera video out of the effort. I spent most the night editing it, then compiling it, and then uploading it.

It's 3:39 in the am as I write this, and Kinagree-Smith is #27 on the Philadelphia Folk Artist charts.

I feel I should say... I really enjoyed playing a show in a theater. People come to hear the music. Wow.

Okay, I'm going to post the video here and go to bed. See you tomorrow.

And before I head off to the land of Nod, once again, thank you all for your support.

Wild weekend ahead and #28 in the charts

Well I'm writing this blog end of business on Friday, it's 5:56 in the AM meaning it's already Saturday.

With so much ahead and I'll be back Monday with a report on the who,where,what, where, and how of this weekends events.

Friday morning, #28 on the Philadelphia Folk artist charts

Once again our supporters have pushed us up into another level of the prestigious Philadelphia Folk Artist charts. Support RAWKS, and our dear friends RAWK as well. Much thank to you all.

Saturday, radio show production of the Kinagree Smith show

While we did have lots of plans for what our first show would be like, getting people to actually line up and do things in a timely fashion doesn't always go as you hope. But we do have an obligation to do a show so lets see what we come up with. There should be some interesting features in the future, we have talked to a guy that builds guitar amps out of cigar boxes (very cool) and we may get an in studio demo featuring... wait that is a secret.

Can't tell you. Actually I forget who is doing the demo but he plays pretty freaking good.

We may also have an impromptu interview with Progressive Metal band DRX. They practice next door to us so we'll probably just grab them, push them in front of a mic and start asking questions. “WHAT'S YOUR FAVORTIE COLOR BITCH!!!!”

Hey you never know what to expect and I'll be the first to admit we are making it up as we go along. So far that is an apt description of everything we do, and it seems to work for us. If you cut us, Jazz comes out.


Womyn fest at the majestic Rotunda Theater

This is a big deal... perhaps. I'm having kind of a hard time figuring out how this is going to break. It's a good venue, all age and free admission, so it's reasonable to expect some kind of a crowd. I'm sure we'll play as we always do, somewhere between great and quasi religious experience.

We have our donated video camera to document the event, so there should be a some new videos next week.

Thanks again Pretz

We might also have a second video camera at the event so it could be a two camera shoot. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Could be a cool show with perhaps a cool video and that would be.... umm.. cool.

Monday pre-production meeting for the upcoming Kinagree-Smith debut recording

Lexie and I will be meeting with our producer Ira Norman Segall Monday to do some pre-production recording. I'll let you know how that goes and we might get some video of that as well.

Seems things are going to be hopping this weekend, and unless something major breaks I don't plan to update the blog until the dust settles. See you all Monday. Have an amazing weekend.

March up the charts continues, cool swag, and...

What a crazy busy day. Lexie and I could probably use a break, but we'll sleep when we die I guess. Or maybe after rigor mortice makes working untenable.

Charts, cold hard unfeeling number mixed with LOVE

Your support has once again carried us further up the Philadelphia folk artist charts. As of this morning we are # 34. Up four positions from yesterday.

I've not mentioned this before, but the charts do scale up to both a National and Global level. I thought I might share them with you to illustrate just how competitive the Philadelphia Folk artist chart are.

In the Philadelphia area we are # 34 (+4 from yesterday)

Our National rank is #1972 (+ 276 from yesterday), and for the record we are top 2,000 in a country of over 300 million people. Not too shabby.

On the global scale our rank is #3142 (+ up 427 from yesterday). Being in the top 4,000 for the big blue marble (As a folk artist) is pretty good. And so far Reverb Nation only tracks earth bound musical acts.

Now part of the reason I'm bringing this up is because it's cool to be trending upward. But keep in mind, if I lived in “Turkey Leg North Dakota”, it would not be hard to be a Local #1, while trending downward (as in thousands of positions lower) in the national and global ratings.

Philadelphia is a hard market to scam. We are moving forward because of the support of our friends. I thank you all and I'm anxious to see how far up we can go before we run out of steam.

Kinagree-Smith Swag (or Merchandise)

Now I don't know if you are the kind of person that is into MERCH... but I dig it. If I had the money to blow I would have all kinds of Kinagree-Smith paraphernalia. With this in mind, I mention in passing the availability of T shirts at both our Reverb Nation store and our Zazzle Store.

Now you may wonder why we have two online MERCH shops.

Well the shirts at Reverb Nation are relatively cheap. And as a potential purchaser of such stuff, I would like to save a few bucks. However, the sizes only range up to XL and I'm a more then XL kind of guy. Many people are, I'm not saying they are fat... just big. The shirts at Zazzle are considerably more costly. But they offer a HUGE amount of customization and sizes. Say you need an XXL shirt with Long sleeves and want it blue... robins egg blue. You can get that at Zazzle. You can also get MERCH for your toddler, your Grandma and your Dog. Yes is cost more... but you have more choices. I'm told freedom isn't free, and Zazzle might be one of the things the terrorist hate about our freedom.


make custom gifts at Zazzle

But I digress. Suffice to say... we have plenty of Merchandise for you to demonstrate your good taste in music with.

Some of it cost more.

I need your opinion about something

Please feel free to leave a comment about the following.

I've come to the realization there will be no further Zorch Boomhauer MP3 collections released. It's not because I'm retiring or anything like that. But rather, I'm no longer going to be using the Avatar Name on my recorded efforts.

With this in mind, I could release a comprehensive retrospective of the Zorch Legacy. Or more to the point. “Zorch: The Full Magilla”.

The questions being, do you think anybody would want EVERYTHING from the Zorch Catalog?

I do intend to post all collections as available from the web site for purchase.

Allow me to list the full list (Minus the two previous retrospective which would be redundant)

Get Zorched
Black & White
White & Black
Songs in the Key of Green
The Sound of Red
Mantled in a deeper shade of blue (says “shades of blue” on the cover art, but the MP3 List the other name)
Story and Song volume one (the story behind some of the songs and of course the songs)
Shadow and Light
Ashes and Dreams
Me and My Monkey
Emotion and Reason

If I were to make all this material available, it would be out on 3/16/2011.... my third rez day in Second Life.

What do you think good idea or bad idea? And why?


Welcome New Fans

I would like to Welcome Elura to our Reverb Nation family of supporters. There were two bands that also added us as fans, Thanks Del Rio Band and Ignite Violet.

Nyx also posted a comment to our comment section so I think it's actually catching on now. Lexie and I both thank you for all your support.

Our supporters crash the top 40, comments and attentive listeners

Top 40.... oh yeah

Yesterday we surged into the top 50 in the Philadelphia folk charts, and today, much to my chagrin we've managed to find a spot in the top 40. For those of you keeping score at home, we are #38 in the Philadelphia Folk charts and we owe it all to the support of our dear friends. Thank you much, support still RAWKS.

Hey, look a comment section. I didn't notice until somebody used it

Today we received our first comment in the comment section of our Reverb Nation page. Thanks much Starl1ght for breaking the seal on the comment section, making sure it's fully functional, operational and OSHA approved.

(Drum roll please) The Listener of the week

Of course we do appreciate every interaction you have with our Reverb Nation page, and I do tend to obsess over the numbers. But this is not some OCD issue. Reverb Nation is kind of the boiler room to our online presence. It give venue operator in the real world a way to find out if we are effectively working the promotion of our musical adventure.

Simply stated, it's not just bulk numbers, but rather the amount of interaction you have with your fan base. You might have 10,000 friend on MySpace, but the level of interaction with them is minimal at best.

On Reverb Nation, it's a matter of trending. So if you have a small but active fan base it does better then a HUGE motionless mass of friends on MySpace. You good readers are our small but active fan base and that is why we keep trending upward.

I'm not saying you can make us famous, because you can't. But you do open doors for us, and get people to take a listen.

Speaking of Listening. The Listener of the week is Nyx Lafevre with 34 plays. Thanks for the Support Nyx.

Speaking of opening doors

Today we booked at show at the “Legendary Dobbs”, a venue that is actually quite legendary in the Philadelphia Area, all the would be rock stars play there on their way to “Making it”.... or not. While we aren't trying to “Make it” as such, we are very excited to be playing such a prestigious venue. So at this point we are playing the Rotunda theater Sunday, and Legendary Dobbs in May. Not bad for a duo that is only 4 months old.

Your support matters

I can't thank you all enough because we would not be doing as well if we seemed to be a fallow field. You give us the impression of running a tight promotional campaign and that causes venue operators to stop and give us a listen.

We do book each show because the talent is there, but you give us the chance to shine. Thank you all so very much.

And Speaking of Support

Welcome new Reverb Nation fans Refici222 and Maia Chrome. Good to have you on the team.

We are here to Kick butt and chew gum... and we've got plenty of gum let me tell ya

I could say Lexie and I have been busy today, but that would not be accurate, we have been Biz-Zay. That equates to a full legion of mutant busy beavers busy. If we were bees, we would be buzzy biz-zay, and suffice it to say, it's late, I'm tired and a bit punchy. If I were hungry I would have the punchy munchies, but perhaps I digress.

We're #47... we're # 47....

Yeah I know it's not quite as chant-able as “We're #1”, but it is wicked cool to be listed among the Top 50 Philadelphia Folk artist. Of course we owe every bit of our meteoric rise to the efforts and support of our friends. Thank you all, your support really does inspire us, and that is why we were so very busy today.

Welcome new Reverb Nation Fans

We've had a few new additions to are Reverb Nation family. Welcome Pretz Coleslaw, Aprille Twine and The Bluff's Center for the Arts (I'm pretty sure this is PreSoul). Thank you for the support.

New Bio... well... we didn't really have a bio until today, so it's our only Bio

One item lacking on our Reverb Nation page was a bio. I can never really get behind writing one. If you think it's easy, try writing a summery of your life in under 2000 characters. Be sure you get all the important information in there and keep it readable.

My dear old friend E.J. Swain, former columnist for Slyers and nails whipped this one up. And when I say “Whipped” I mean wiki wiki fast. I think it's pretty good, but then... I didn't want to write one myself. You might want to drop by the Kinagree Smith Reverb Nation page and check it out.


Lexie and I are now the proud parents of a bouncing baby Domain name

Our dear friend Sally offered to help us with a web site, so the least we could do is secure the domain name. The Domain kinagreesmith.com is now live, and if you go there you'll see our “Under construction” Page. While that seems kind of pointless to visit... remember you can bookmark it now and come back later when Sally has something cool for you to check out.

Just another Mom and Pop store... on the internet

We've just posted a new t-shirt in our Reverb Nation shop which I feel is pretty swanky and elegant. It features the Kinagree-Smith logo, the tag line and URL for our future web site. It could well be the best Kinagree Smith shirt ever posted for sale on the interweb.

Not like I'm hung up on the whole completion thing... but...

There is a check list of things you should fill out for your Reverb Nation page to be “Complete”. The list of things are now 100% done. We are ready to take over the music world and with your support... we just might do it.

Anybody need some live music???

After our forced hiatus from performing on Second Life, our March calendar is a little sparse. If anybody knows of any venues needing a little live music assistance, please tell them to look us up. Or tell us who they are and we'll look them up. Thanks.

After I post this and send a notice to my Facebook friends I'm going to fall over in a heap.

Support and Serendipity

Project "Recycle for the arts" a smashing success

Yesterday, I asked that anyone having a video camera they didn't use, considering sending it to us. A scant few hours later I received an Email from Pretz, one of the our reader, offering us a Kodak Zi6 HD pocket camcorder. Stuff like this blows me away. The support of our friends keeps us moving forward. When we ask for the tools to do the job, they help as best as they can.

One more fan

It might seem like a small thing, especially after gaining over 8,000 fans in one day. But it's not at all a small thing. Yesterday I mentioned that we were trying to break the top 50 on the Philadelphia Folk charts and any visits to our Reverb Nation site would help us improve our position. Yet another one of our readers answered the call. Nyx became a fan, and as far as charts go, fans are a very big deal indeed.

It's official, support RAWKS

Much thanks to Pretz and Nyx. Not only have you aided us in a journey of a 1,000 miles, but your interesting names drove my Spellchecker nuts.

Also much thanks to the readers of this blog, the people that book us for shows, the people that attend those shows, and everybody else that helps us keep on keeping on. You really do inspire us and when the going gets tough, we know you have our backs.

This is exciting, we should make a video of this

Tonight Lexie and I had a meeting with Ira Norman Segall

Ira is the president of Unipheye Music, a record producer/Engineer as well as a master percussionist. Ira heard our songs posted on “Reverb Nation” and was intrigued by the energy they had. We've been meaning to have a meet for a while but today finally got our face the face time.

Lexie and I brought our guitars over to Ira's house and let him hear us live. While he was intrigued by the recordings, the live performance pushed him over the edge. He was blown away and we are discussing making a recording with him.

However this recording will be very different from our past efforts. This would be an Audiophile live recording. Meaning if you have a great sound system it will be like you are in the same room with us. If you have a decent system it will sound amazing, and if you have a I-Pod it will sound... better then most the stuff you listen to on an I-Pod.

Because it is a LIVE recording in a studio environment, the energy becomes very important indeed. Nobody needs a crystal clear recording of a stiff lifeless performance. It's gotta breath, it's gotta live and you gotta FEEL it.

Now keep in mind, Audiophile recording is NOT what most pop recordings are. The most popular genre for Audiophile recordings is Classical music. Ira has a few string quartets in his catalog and the leads us to the next intriguing aspect of this recording.

Some of the songs may be recorded with a live string quartet. Or maybe some world style percussion. The vibe is going to be very live and very artistic. Who knows what kind of guest artist we may have joining in on the fun. And just between you and I, this would be a great project to make a video record of.

Frankly this project is in the imagination stage, but the possibilities to do something wicked cool are overwhelming. Both the interest and excitement are there right now. Lets see what comes of it. We've got the songs, we've got the talent, and Ira has the chops to make us sound like... well... how we really sound. And frankly, that has always been what I've been shooting for.

Permit me to take a moment to thank you all again for your support, and encourage you to expect great things.