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March 5th, 2008
09:11 am - Blossoms is on Pandora
I'm not sure how long it's been on there, but I just did a search for "The Little Mermaid" and it found only me, so I'm feeling pretty darn special! http://www.pandora.com/
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January 15th, 2008
01:58 pm - Reviews of Blossoms -- so far, very very good!
"Like Kate Bush or Nico, Unwoman (http://www.unwoman.com) bravely steps beyond the word of pop, or anything remotely close to rock, into an uncategorizable, adventurous vision that is nevertheless steeped in history. With its mix and match of classical instrumentation and modern-day electronics, Unwoman does not occuy a specific place or time."
READ FULL REVIEW AT www.whisperinandhollerin.com.
"Erica Mulkey (Unwoman) has produced her third and most ravishing album
to date. Always a sophisticated artist, balancing vocals, electronics,
and her own fine cello playing she has gone farther in this
recent work--exploring more deeply her remarkable range.
Her settings for a group of Edna St Vincent Millay songs are as
inventive, gutsy, and exquisite as the poems themselves, and she has set
her own lyrics to music which displays startling new colors. All of this
is balanced to great effect by songs in which she reveals her capacity
for a poignant simplicity."
- Matthew Owens
"On her third release Unwoman (nee Erica Mulkey) has gotten clever: instead of giving us one full length she has given us two distinct EPs. But don't fret, either way Blossoms is a beautiful listen."
READ FULL REVIEW AT www.sepiachord.com
"Unwoman is Erica Mulkey, a singer/songwriter that swims in the chilly darkness of Siouxsie Sioux if she had replaced post-punk guitars and danceable synthesizers for cello and piano. /.../ This is not sunshine radio, but a journey into the shadows. It’s one that I am certainly willing to make over and over again."
READ FULL REVIEW AT transeuropexpress.wordpress.com
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January 3rd, 2008
09:57 am - Super Review of Blossoms on Sepiachord
It starts like this:
On her third release Unwoman (nee Erica Mulkey) has gotten clever: instead of giving us one full length she has given us two distinct EPs. But don't fret, either way "Blossoms" is a beautiful listen.
Read more here!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/square/b/happy.gif) pleased
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December 11th, 2007
03:06 pm - Har!
I managed to have not gotten a single review of Wildness & Artifice. A couple of fan reviews, the ones on CD Baby aren't quite "pro"-sounding enough to use, and there was a really nice one on a friend's website I now can't find. I sent out hardly any promo copies of W&A, instead trying to get people to download the EP Artifice which featured six songs from it. Of that, Warren Ellis said:
"Stark, politicised electro shot through with crunching noise and acoustic colours."
And that's all I got! Completely my fault, as I really just didn't know to whom to send it and didn't have a budget for mailing.
I will do better for myself with Blossoms for sure!
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December 4th, 2007
10:02 am - Blossoms on iTunes already!
BEHOLD.
This means it'll arrive at other digital stores (emusic, etc) soon. I am blown away by how quickly this got into iTunes -- CD Baby must have really refined their process, because Wildness & Artifice took them about eight months!
I am also very, very VERY proud that "Envy" is now my top song on itunes, rather than "Deeper Understanding."
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December 3rd, 2007
09:40 am - Slightly longer recap of Thursday's gig
[Quick note: Blossoms has landed at CD Baby and will be up on itunes very soon!]
I prepared about 11 songs for Thursday 11/29, and ended up playing only nine, I think. But I was really short on voice and hadn't practiced since the Saturday before because every time I'd tried to sing I'd lose my voice completely. Nonetheless, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. The video in my last post gives you an idea of the performace. Video of the other songs will be available to everyone at some point in some format. I played the Joy Division song "Ceremony" last and had a hard time holding back tears. It's such an emotional song but it seemed like an appropriate "goodbye." (interesting fact: I played the song on piano at my highschool baccalaureate. I played one-handed, with broken fingers, because the weekend prior I'd gotten mad at a gutter punk and punched a wall.)
I saw a lot of friendly faces that I didn't get to say hi to, so huge thanks to you for coming! And I completely sympathize that people were sleepy and had to miss Spellbound. And a lot of you were so sleepy that you missed the whole event -- I regret that the show was so late. Accolade had a terrific debut performance, and Spellbound pulled it off though I've noticed a correlation between the size of the crowd and how tight we are. Possibly because we treat it more casually and don't prepare as much for smaller shows, we're not quite as "on." Also of course my voice was totally dead by the end -- but it lasted way longer than I thought it would!
In my much-commented-on post here I talked about the reasons this was my last bar/club gig in SF in the foreseeable future. All the things I said are true. But, similarly to the label hybernation rant (note, lots of things in that entry no longer apply), people are getting the wrong idea from this. They think this means I'm stopping doing music. Which is silly because it implies that the shows (or, previously, running an ineffective label) are in some way causing or supporting my creative process. What actually supports my creative process are these things:
1. My brain
2. Having free time
3. Supportive friends/family/fans (and a *very* understanding ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) buz)
4. Various life experiences or fiction that inspire stories that lend themselves to songs
5. Having badass instruments and computer(s) to make composing easy and fun
6. Deadlines (usually self-inflicted) or opportunities (also usually self-inflicted)
And preparing for shows that no one comes to is a drag on #2, though if at least a few people are there it can improve #3. And since I'm no longer afraid of a certain amount of marketing and am less isolated in how I make music, at a certain point people will be coming to see the shows, and they won't be a waste of time, and everyone will be happy. In the meantime I'll be playing in cafes and maybe my parents' house (in Lafayette; I loved playing there for small groups of people in years past) and the shows will be free-ish for all attending, and easier for me to put on. Since I really don't think my music is the kind that really requires a bar scene/drinking to enjoy, or a professional sound setup to hear, there's no reason to relegate it to the traditional venues used by bands.
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December 2nd, 2007
09:36 am - Hay, that's me!!
For those of you who didn't see it already, here's "Caught Her" from Thursday, video by noisescapetv :
ETA: higher-quality versions ahoy!
High res Quicktime (109MB)
Med res Quicktime (17MB)
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November 30th, 2007
02:31 am - Wow!
That went one bazillion times better than I thought it would. I actually had just barely enough voice to do two 45-minute sets, as planned. Fitting that my firstish and lastish gig were both filmed! Huge thanks to maxmin & noisesacpe tv.
Thanks so much to those who came out, and those of you who didn't make it, you're a bunch of suckers (but don't apologize to me.)
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November 13th, 2007
10:24 am - Dear first 30 people who ordered Blossoms
If you did not ask to have it signed, your copies are in the mail. Interested to hear when people get it.
Those who did want it signed, I realized last night that this is going to require a very special pen which I'll pick up tonight. So your copies & everyone else who preordered will be in the mail tomorrow.
Everyone else, the time for ordering through me is rapidly drawing to a close.
Love,
Erica
PS: International folks, your copies are a "gift" for customs purposes.
Here's a lovely product shot my mom took (note the CD looks like a record, like whoa):
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November 8th, 2007
11:11 am - Big Box o' Blossoms
A box of 160 is arriving at my work tomorrow, and the remainder of boxes is arriving at my "DC" (which is actually my parents' house in Lafayette). I'm really excited, and just a tiny bit scared that something on the order got messed up. Official release date is 11/29, and if you haven't already seen the preorder page, it is here, with sound samples & a few pictures. More info soon.
I had all these high hopes about promoting it well, but not surprisingly, I'm afraid I have no energy to do that despite still fully believing that it's great music. I really need help but don't know whom or how to ask.
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November 6th, 2007
10:54 am - I'm downplaying what may be the last
The last Unwoman electronic performance in a bar or club in San Francisco. I'm playing both an Unwoman set and a Spellbound set, really going all-out in support of my new CD.
( HOWEVER... )
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October 8th, 2007
05:19 pm - YO!
Pre-order Unwoman's third album, "Blossoms"
The page has some streaming audio clips & one new mp3 download. For a limited time only the album is only $10, including shipping in the US.
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October 7th, 2007
10:04 pm - Narcissistic audiogasm
My new CD is the fucking bomb. David has done a good job mastering it. I'm hella hella excited to share it with y'all. :D
Current Music: Unwoman: The Little Mermaid
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September 12th, 2007
12:46 pm - In the home stretch of album production
This is the last album I'm producing on my own. It's simply impossible for me to make something I'm really proud of, even while I do acknowledge I'm always getting better. In fact I vacillate between thinking it's 98% totally awesome, and it's not nearly awesome enough to be worth anything at all. I will never be satisfied. And the fact that by the time I'm done producing something, I hate it, makes it even harder for me to get excited about marketing it. Which makes me feel like everyone thinks the music is crap, which is a bigger demotivator. It's really a miracle I keep doing it at all, since I (mostly through fault of my own) get so little out of it in terms of respect, and it costs some money.
Aside from prior engagements and work I'm not doing anything else for the next 2 weeks. I'm not even showering as often as I'd like to. It's stressful, but I have to impose the deadline on myself and be strict about it or it will just never get done.
I'm also totally done playing solo in bars/clubs. I can't get a gig in November for the album release to save my life, despite the fact that everyone loves a funeral, so I'll probably have a little thing at my parents' house instead. I haven't had a public show there since they got hardwood floors.
In a way at least I should be interesting to all those people who talk about artistic control, because I have absolute power and lots of resources (time being the most limited) to make my visions come to life. My only goal (well, my biggest goal) is to make the best music possible.
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June 18th, 2007
10:13 am - In my hot little hands
I've made a demo version of my next album, tentatively titled "Blossoms." I'm startlingly close to being done with it. I've done more projects in the first half of this year than in any year of my life before. And I got married! Crazy. I think it's because I've had fewer gigs, and I also can be fiercely driven in a weird cyclical way.
The album is somewhat a departure from my previous work as it's much more focused on songs rather than producing complex electronic pieces, however I'm quite pleased with the clean production and songwriting. (pats self on back)
The first half is eight voice, cello, piano and/or electronics songs (several of them with no fake drums! what a concept!), the second half (not actually a half since this is shorter in length) is seven settings of Edna St. Vincent Millay poems for just cello and voice, which if you've seen my acoustic performances you've heard at least a few of. I'm especially proud of these since not a lot of music is written for just cello and voice and I think I did a fantastic job.
Since the two halves are so different I'm toying with ideas of using a sample of a record turning over between them, and having the CDs look like this. That might be too cheesy given the timeless appeal I want the package to have in general, but I really think it's funny-cool. Or funny-dorky, I really can't tell.
This is likely the last album as Unwoman for a while. As soon as the album is done & sufficiently promoted I'm breaking up my one-woman band to start a non-solo project. Don't worry, there will be a farewell show and a re-un-union tour sometime in the future I'm sure. :)
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Unwoman: Duplicity
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