The first review has arrived

We only sent out the discs last week! Man, that was fast!

From LMNOP (LINK):

Hop On Pop - Chicken On A Bicycle (CD, Spade Kitty, Pop)

Wow...such a great band name, hard to believe no one thought of it before. Hop On Pop is the project driven by the songwriting skills of Todd Leiter-Weintraub. Joining Todd on these recordings is David Kling and various other artists/musicians. The humorously-titled Chicken On A Bicycle kicks off with the slightly goofy "Here"...an instantly addictive tune that sounds not unlike My Dad Is Dead in some ways. Many of the tunes on this album are pure pop but there are some acoustic solo tracks as well. Leiter-Weintraub proves himself to be an excellent songwriter. When he's "on" he comes up with songs that are remarkably appealing and intelligent. Ten tracks including "Here," "Tortured Artist" (a really cool standout cut), "I'm Pathetic," and "Happy Days." This came very close to being a top pick this month. We'd be willing to bet that the world will be hearing some even more amazing stuff from this peculiar little band in the very near future. Sigh... thanks LMNOP/Babysue people.

My heart is still pounding. (It tends to do that when reviews come in... especially the first one!)

RECORD RELEASE PARTY!

So...

We have a date for the record release party:

February 18, 2010

8:00 p.m.

FitzGerald's

6615 Roosevelt Rd.

Berwyn, IL

as part of the Spade Kitty Night monthly series.

In the meantime, I am preparing for the party and following promotion by trying to rest at my crazy home. Trying to rehearse my new songs in my crazy house. And by listening to some great music (mostly at work).

These days, I am really digging on stuff by Magnolia Electric Co., Cate Le Bon, Apollo Sunshine, and Pere Ubu, among others. I like to listen to a variety, as you know... hopefully this will provide more inspiration for future tuneage. Gotta keep the fires stoked, if at all possible.

Also, my friend Jim is opening a new cafe/book store/music venue way up in Waukegan, and I'm gonna play a show there, too.

Saturday, March 10, 2010

7:00 p.m.

The BRICK

30 N. Genesee St.

Waukegan, IL

Looking forward to all of this. It's kind of overwhelming, but in a good way.

Oh, and hey, even though the official release date is 2/16, the album is already available for download at iTunes!!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chicken-on-a-bicycle/id349619310

Nice!

It's off to the presses!

Big sigh of relief.

Chicken On a Bicycle has been put into the mail, off to the pressing plant, and should be back in my greedy (and currently trembling) hands before the end of the year!

Personally, while I still like As Drawn By Ethan..., I think that Chicken is a lot less flawed. The production is more assurred (even without the luxury of recording in a "real" studio). And the songs are every bit as good, as a whole. In fact, Dave told me that he thinks "Come On, Let's Go" is the best thing that I've ever recorded.

Shucks!

That won't stop it from remaining an album track, though. I still think that "Here" and "I'm Pathetic" are the two radio tracks. Of course, I've been wrong before.

Thanks to all of you who have been supporting me. And to those of you who have lent your own amazing talents to the project to make this record the great one that I think that it is.

More on the promotion, will be upcoming.

Love,

Todd

And even closer...

Got the masters back from Brad Sarno and they sound pretty good. Of course (as always) there are things that I would like tweaked, but for the first run-through, it sounded pretty damn good. Brad is a very talented guy. So, not only did he add brilliant pedal steel to one song, but he's mastering the whole damn thing. Hooray for IAC for hooking me up with him!

Also, in our conversations, it turns out that we have another (loose) connection, as he used to play in the local Dead cover band when I was in college down at the University of Missouri, Columbia -- Blue Dixie. I think that I saw them only once, but their flyers were everywhere when I was down there, as they seemed to play all the freaking time at the Blue Note. (A wonderful club, which happens to be the first place that I ever got up on stage to play in front of a crowd!) 

Sending off the artwork to the duplication folks today, also. They're gonna check it to make sure that it all fits into their template; and then they'll get the printing set up. After that, when the final masters come in... it's MUSIC AHOY!!! I should have the discs in my greedy little hands before the end of the year. My label is gonna get us set up at iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, and CD Baby in time for an "official" release date sometime in early/mid February.

:>D :>D :>D :>D etc...

Back from mastering!

So, I got to my mail today and what is waiting for me there? A box from Blue Jade Audio Mastering -- my masters!!!

I have had a chance to listen through the album once. Intermittently. On an imperfect stereo setup. While making lunch in the next room. With both my wife and younger son vying for my attention.

That said, there is a significant improvement in the way the album sounds, as a whole. (Although I think that I did hear one or two tweaks that can be made on a couple of songs.) But, anyone who tries to tell you that mastering does not make a difference, or that they can make it sound just fine with "pre-mastering" is wrong.

So psyched.

Welcome! The end is nigh!!

That's a helluva way to start something, isn't it!

But, you see, after all that I have been through the last year and a half, with recording this new record, I think that I see The End as something of a positive thing. Like calling the end of your school career "Commencement", as there is something new about to begin.

If you want to know what it is that I am talking about, the (more or less) complete saga of getting this new album out into the world can be found here:

http://iacmusic.com/blog.aspx?ID=10003&TopicID=45028

Quite a rollercoaster, huh? And that's not even considering the personal stuff that went on during that timeframe.

So, my welcome to you is a sigh of relief at finally completing Chicken On a Bicycle, my second album with Hop On Pop (which is really just me, now -- and Dave, when he wants in). The rest of this blog will chronicle my attempts to get the music actually HEARD.

I have no pretense that I am a "rock star" or anything like that, nor that I ever will be. But it would be kinda nice to have some sort of income from my music. And to have some people hear it.

I don't want to be famous; I just want my songs to be famous.

Thanks for reading this mess of a blog.