The Aaron J Shay Experience

The not-yet-famous writer and musician, internet denizen and musical taxonomist.
sarahdaly42:

fleurdelysrouge:

paintyhands:

I don’t know if I’m about to laugh or cry, but what I do know is… VICTORY!!!!!
Uka & Her Lele’s & Her First Open Mic Night *o*

Lexy rayonne de mille feux!!! Ukulele à la main, sourire orné de rouge à lèvre et son âme rêveuse sur scène, je voudrais tellement voir ça. Go Lula !!!!! <3333

Felicitations!!!!!!!!! xxx

As your ukulalien, I am very proud of you.

sarahdaly42:

fleurdelysrouge:

paintyhands:

I don’t know if I’m about to laugh or cry, but what I do know is… VICTORY!!!!!

Uka & Her Lele’s & Her First Open Mic Night *o*

Lexy rayonne de mille feux!!! Ukulele à la main, sourire orné de rouge à lèvre et son âme rêveuse sur scène, je voudrais tellement voir ça. Go Lula !!!!! <3333

Felicitations!!!!!!!!! xxx

As your ukulalien, I am very proud of you.

If you got a setback, don’t take a step back, step into a comeback!

—The support-our-troops, star-spangled cyclist of Seattle.

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

paintyhands:

nebulullalovefest ~ sundance dancesun memoires via HR

Who’s that scrawny, poorly-dressed creature dancing at the beginning? Yours truly, of course.

maymcdonough:

We Smaller Artists; Learning to Share Rights
Some days it baffles me that this whole ‘to share or not to share’ debate is still going on in the music industry. Needlesstosay, the whole debacle is utterly past the point of no return. It’s adapt-or-die-trying time, and there is no way to go back and unlearn what our world has come to know as sharing. That point aside, let’s open our eyes to what is really going on.
First and foremost you should understand that when it comes to this issue, we are not talking about top billboard artists. Those guys are not significantly effected by sharing. Their world tours, energy drinks, t-shirts and sponsorships have all ready put their potential children through college many times over (short of the occasional “TLC dilemma”, but that’s a blog for another generation). Those of us being effected, are the smaller artists. We are the majority of the music industry, and we are the artists that should be of concern. Billboard artists are all ready on every radio station once an hour. You see their videos on the pseudo-hip television channels morning and night time. You’ve heard their new music jammed through your ears ten folds before you ever decide to buy their albums. The rest of us don’t have that sort of corporate brain placement to sustain us. I can tell you personally that MTV is not taking my calls, and I have yet to find any distribution company willing to market my ‘Hangover by McDonough’ perfume. We smaller artists can merely put our music up for free streaming, in the hopes that the listener has reason to seek us out. We have availability, not exposure.
The majority of our exposure is still through the people. Word of mouth is our advertisement, our radio stations, our MTV, our VH1. Ninety-nine percent of the time you are going to hear about us through a friend (real or virtual), or through a blog you trust that is willing to risk criminality to land us on a few new ipods. We don’t aim to compete with the top 40′s. We can’t if we wanted to. We only aim to sustain our ability to keep making our art (at least for the time being). That, in one way or another, requires sharing.
Personally, I like to say that our music is “available for purchase” to those that can support us financially, and we have made various avenues available for fans to download our music for free.
The truth is, the BEST way to help an artist is to purchase AND (illegally) share their music. We need the money, and we most certainly need the exposure. If you can’t do one, at least do the other. If you won’t share it, than at least buy it. If you can’t buy it, download it for free and share it with as many people as possible. Either way helps us, but in the end we need both. If the RIAA continues to debilitate our fans from sharing under the guise of ‘protecting the artist’, we suffocate.
I encourage followers of this blog or May McDonough &amp; Co. to read my open letter to the RIAA: http://www.maymcdonoughandcompany.com/open-letter-to-riaa/
–May

maymcdonough:

We Smaller Artists; Learning to Share Rights

Some days it baffles me that this whole ‘to share or not to share’ debate is still going on in the music industry. Needlesstosay, the whole debacle is utterly past the point of no return. It’s adapt-or-die-trying time, and there is no way to go back and unlearn what our world has come to know as sharing. That point aside, let’s open our eyes to what is really going on.

First and foremost you should understand that when it comes to this issue, we are not talking about top billboard artists. Those guys are not significantly effected by sharing. Their world tours, energy drinks, t-shirts and sponsorships have all ready put their potential children through college many times over (short of the occasional “TLC dilemma”, but that’s a blog for another generation). Those of us being effected, are the smaller artists. We are the majority of the music industry, and we are the artists that should be of concern. Billboard artists are all ready on every radio station once an hour. You see their videos on the pseudo-hip television channels morning and night time. You’ve heard their new music jammed through your ears ten folds before you ever decide to buy their albums. The rest of us don’t have that sort of corporate brain placement to sustain us. I can tell you personally that MTV is not taking my calls, and I have yet to find any distribution company willing to market my ‘Hangover by McDonough’ perfume. We smaller artists can merely put our music up for free streaming, in the hopes that the listener has reason to seek us out. We have availability, not exposure.

The majority of our exposure is still through the people. Word of mouth is our advertisement, our radio stations, our MTV, our VH1. Ninety-nine percent of the time you are going to hear about us through a friend (real or virtual), or through a blog you trust that is willing to risk criminality to land us on a few new ipods. We don’t aim to compete with the top 40′s. We can’t if we wanted to. We only aim to sustain our ability to keep making our art (at least for the time being). That, in one way or another, requires sharing.

Personally, I like to say that our music is “available for purchase” to those that can support us financially, and we have made various avenues available for fans to download our music for free.

The truth is, the BEST way to help an artist is to purchase AND (illegally) share their music. We need the money, and we most certainly need the exposure. If you can’t do one, at least do the other. If you won’t share it, than at least buy it. If you can’t buy it, download it for free and share it with as many people as possible. Either way helps us, but in the end we need both. If the RIAA continues to debilitate our fans from sharing under the guise of ‘protecting the artist’, we suffocate.

I encourage followers of this blog or May McDonough & Co. to read my open letter to the RIAA: http://www.maymcdonoughandcompany.com/open-letter-to-riaa/

–May

(via filmpunk)

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

—Ice Age Sample

This is a new song in the works, nearing completion.

I had a moment earlier when I was recording the guitar part and I suddenly had a revelation: I fucking made this. I proceeded to rock the fuck out for the rest of the recording. The ending is gonna be fucking epic.

You can count on it.

The pundits have asked, “Is this all some joke?” We’ve all heard it, haven’t we? I say, if they are calling being allowed to form a super PAC, and collecting unlimited and untraceable amounts of money from individuals, unions, and corporations and spend that money on political ads and for personal enrichment, and then surrender that super PAC to one of my closest friends while I explore a run for office… If that is a joke, then they are saying our entire campaign finance system is a joke. And I don’t know about you, but I have been paid to be offended by that.

—Stephen Colbert

I am 100% opposed to SOPA and PIPA, even though I’m one of the artists they were allegedly written to protect. I’ve probably lost a few hundred dollars in my life to what the MPAA and RIAA define as piracy, and that sucks, but that doesn’t come close to how much money I’ve lost from a certain studio’s creative accounting.

The RIAA and MPAA are, again, on the wrong side of history. Attempting to tear apart one of the single greatest communications achievements in human history in a misguided attempt to cling to an outdated business model instead of adapting to the changing world is a fucking crime.

A free and open Internet is as important to me as the bill of rights. I don’t want the government of one country — especially the corporate-controlled United States government — to exert unilateral control over the Internet for any reason, especially not because media corporations want to buy legislation that won’t do anything to actually stop online piracy, but will expand the American police state, and destroy the Internet as we know it.

Please contact your Senators and US Representatives, and tell them to vote NO on SOPA and ProtectIP. The future of the Internet — and the present we take for granted — depend on it.

Love Comes Home (Lyrics)

Just posted this new lyric. Song as of yet unfinished but growing, germinating. http://hitrecord.org/records/637190

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arms! Encircle me, try to slow me down,

You just try to keep momentum from taking me downtown

Towards the future, towards what nobody knows but everybody could

Eyes! Undress me, come cut me down to size,

Try to keep me mortal, though you know I’m gonna rise

And when I rise, I will get higher (way higher) than any mortal should

And that day will be the day

Love comes home for good.

Oh, sweet lips! Come taste of me, hang me out to dry,

Fill me to the brim with your sweet by and by,

Let me drink your stranger flavors every now and then.

Hands! Come unfold me, unleash what I hide

These monsters and these martyrs, let ‘em flow just like the tide

You won’t find me in the gutter trying to teach ‘em the ways of men

‘Cause that day will be the day

Love comes home again.

Legs! Wrap around me, take me deep inside!

And cheeks, may you flush, may you shine where you once cried!

Conscience, don’t go crying about all the krakens that we loosed.

Feet, keep on walking, and don’t worry ‘bout the road.

Hair, keep on growing, you will find a new abode.

Put some distance here between you and me to help keep this truce.

And the day that debt is paid,

Love comes home to roost.

Momentum, take me with you

Momentum, take me away

Momentum, take me with you

Momentum, take me today