Squirrelier Than Earlier Album Release

It's finally here! The first time I wrote about an album of new material was in January of 2013 when I recorded the title track. Two years of turd polishing and now I can unleash it on the public.

STREAM or DOWNLOAD HERE

One thing that really annoys me is when an eighties band puts out a new album that sounds nothing like they did back in the day. Sure, you expect the sound to evolve, but the essence must be there. I made tremendous effort to create a Vladimir album that sounded like what you would expect it to be.

You'll recognize similar themes, but I'm not a teenager anymore. That said, I guess a midlife crisis is only a few degrees away, am I right?

The thirteen songs are split into two "sides", each under 22 minutes long. This is a hat tip to the days of vinyl and the 46 minute cassette tapes I was so fond of using in the eighties. My hope is that the money I make off the downloads can be used to make physical copies in the near future.

I want to thank my sweet, supportive wife for encouraging this project and offering insights. I dedicate it to the memory of T.V. Silvia and Eric Ericson, both of whom supported this dorky kid with the goofy songs--may their memory be eternal!

 

It was 25 years ago today...

For a brief period Vladimir's Universe expanded into a four piece band. Rev. Fritz Kingpin (Freddy Fortune) on bass was from a band called the Covingtons, and Stubbly McUnster (Tim McHugh) on drums had been in Cats in the Basement. I guess we were kinda a "supergroup" of Ypsilanti talent. On guitar was a kid we called Rockboy (David Harrison Horton)--I say "kid", but we were all kids at the time. We did a few open stage nights, one recording session, then 25 years ago today we played our first headline gig at Cross Street Station in Ypsilanti. You can hear this line-up on "Underwear Sometimes" from the 25th anniversary album "This Machine Eats Bacon".

My mentor T.V. Silvia (R.I.P.) called this short-lived ensemble an "Ersatz rock band" which I thought was a compliment until I looked up what "ersatz" means. I'll let you decide. I remixed all six songs and put them into a zip file in my Dropbox and you can download it for free! http://tinyurl.com/lmrewfn

Mezzanine Cashews

When I left Ypsilanti for San Francisco back in 1991 it seemed like a good idea. As far as personal growth and experience goes, heck yeah, but musically, not so much. One tape appeared and one live performance, but when I left San Francisco in 1992 I didn't want to be Vladimir anymore.

Over the next 17 years I wrote poetry and recorded under various names but these songs deserve to be called Vladtrax. Maybe Hegel was right that something in its passage into other only joins with itself. Download all 19 songs now from Noisetrade.