Get Set Go touring in April, May, and June of 2014!

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to post our tour route as it stands now. We’re hoping to mostly play small shows, house shows, small night clubs, backyards, and any sort of non-traditional venue.  Since we only get out to your neighborhoods every couple of years, we’d like to make sure we can play for as long as you’d like.   And every song you want to hear.  So, that said, we’re hoping to get a little help from you, our friends and our fans.  If you have a house, a backyard, a garage, a coffee-shop, a bar, a thrift store, a record shop, or anything of that sort and if you’re willing to offer it to us to host a show, we’d love to play in your town for your family, friends, and a small knot of our hard-core fans.  Please email me at getsetgoer@gmail.com if you’d like to host a show.  Otherwise, this is our current tour route.  It is subject to change predicated on what shows are offered us and when.

Monday, April 21st:  Travel Day (Bay Area)

Tuesday, April 22nd:  Santa Cruz

Wednesday, April 23rd:  San Francisco house show.  (Pending)

Thursday, April 24th:  Peninsula (Mountain View, San Jose, Palo Alto) (Pending)

Friday, April 25th:  The BrainWash Cafe in San Francisco.  Show starts at 7.

Saturday, April 26th:  Oakland/Berkeley

Sunday, April 27th:  Travel Day (or intermediary show between Bay Area and Portland)

Monday, April 28th:  Portland

Tuesday, April 29th:  Tacoma / Seattle

Wednesday, April 30th:  Tacoma / Seattle

Thursday, May 1st:  Spokane / Missoula

Friday, May 2nd:  House show in Missoula.  (message for details)

Saturday, May 3rd:  VFW Hall

Sunday, May 4th:  Day off.

Monday, May 5th:  Travel Day / Boise

Tuesday, May 6th:   Boise /  Logan

Wednesday, May 7th:  Logan / Salt Lake City

Thursday, May 8th:  Reno

Friday, May 9th:  Vegas

Saturday, May 10th:  Phoenix

Sunday, May 11th:  Albuquerque

Monday, May 12th:  Denver

Tuesday, May 13th:  Kansas City

Wednesday, May 14th:  St Louis

Thursday, May 15th:  Chicago

Friday, May 16th:  Lexington

Saturday, May 17th:  Cleveland

Sunday, May 18th:  Day Off, travel day (or intermediary show)

Monday, May 19th:  Day Off, travel day (or intermediary show)

Tuesday, May 20th:  Philadelphia

Wednesday, May 21st:  Boston

Thursday, May 22nd:  New York

Friday, May 23rd:  New York

Saturday, May 24th:   New York

Sunday, May 25th:  WashingtonD.C.

Monday, May 26th:  Carolinas (somewhere)

Tuesday, May 27th:  Macon, GA or Atlanta

Wednesday, 28th:  Orlando

Thursday, 29th:  Another Florida date?

Friday, May 30th:   New Orleans / Baton Rouge

Saturday, May 31st:  Austin

Sunday, June 1st:  Austin

Monday, June 2nd:  Houston

Tuesday, June 3rd:  Day Off

Wednesday, June 4th:  Dallas

Thursday, June 5th:  Las Cruces

Friday, June 6th:  Tucson

Saturday, June 7th:  Las Vegas

Sunday, June 8th:   Home

Please sign up on our mailing list for future blog entries!

Hey everyone!  I’m trying to build up our mailing list so that we are no longer held hostage by the Facebooks and the MySpaces of the world.  We’d like to be able to communicate with you directly without any interference by third parties.  So, as such, until the mailing list hits 1,500 people, we’re gonna be posting all blog entries only via our mailing list.  There’ll be about two postings a week, so as not to utterly flood your inboxes.

You can sign up by going to our home page, www.getsetgomusic.com, and then adding your name to our list of Glorious Geniuses.  Of which, we like to consider you a part.  Anyhow!  Thank you!

Warm Regards,

Mike TV

P.S. Oh, and we’re at around 350 people now.  So, it could be as long as 6 months or more before we migrate the blogs back to this page.  So sorry about that.  I hope you understand.  🙂

Songs that stand on their head and whistle Dixie!

I keep vacillating between significant excitement and dreadful apprehension.  I am fluctuating between both emotional states so rapidly that it feels like I could, with just a little bit of pressure, phase my molecules through a wall of pure titanium.  Which could do wonders for my secondary career as a bank robber.  (And my tertiary career as a panty raider.)   The silly thing is, this is sorta my natural state, to a greater or lesser degree.  I start working on a new record, and I am suddenly awash with excitement over the individual songs.  This one has a mind-blowing chorus.  That one has really clever lyrics.  This one has a beautiful chord change.  The one over there can stand on its head while whistling Dixie.  The newest one just offered to clean my place for me.  You know, I mean, these songs can do amazing things.  And I get overwhelmed by the possibility that perhaps we might be putting into motion an album that could really say something.   An album that could offer a unique and interesting perspective on this strange, melancholy, wonderful, exuberant melange of catastrophes called life.    And it’s wonderful.  And I am filled with, nay, not hope…hope is too, hopeful.  I think I am filled with expectation.  I expect it to be an amazing and wonderful record.  Like seeing the form in a block of stone and then using a chisel to remove all the bits that don’t belong.

And when I first started writing albums, I truly, honestly thought, when thinking about the record, that this was the greatest record of all time.   When people listen to this album, they will be so moved, so blown away that they will have no choice but to worship the people that made the music.  And that we would release the record, head out on the road, tour like maniacs, do radio shows, interviews, press dealies and festival whatsits and the love would grow and grow and grow.  Which, obviously, didn’t come to pass.  Or not in the way I thought it would.   And, if you talk to pretty much any working  band they’ll tell you this reaction  is basically par for the course.  There is a titanic amount of work that needs to be put into a band to grow yourself to the point that you’re a sustainable business.  Which is why I never disparage other musicians.  If they’re making money, they’ve obviously put in a lot of work.  But, I digress.  So there I was, expecting hallelujahs  and instead receiving  not-bads or pretty-cools.  I mean, there would be some excitement but it always  felt a  little reserved.  Certainly not the glorious, joyful exuberance that I was certain was our right for having created such an awesome masterpiece.  And after every release, I would reach this strange point of apprehension and self-doubt.   Like, maybe this isn’t my calling.  Maybe no one really likes my music.  Maybe I should just hang up my guitar and take a day-job.  And each time, I would reach that point of self-doubt quicker than the time before.  And then recently, when we released Fury…well, man, that was tough.  But just wait, this story is not over.

So, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately and I realized that I’m being a big, fat ninny.  Like, what am I thinking?  I’m so busy looking at the luscious stalks of green grass two hills over I’ve completely ignored the fact that I”m standing in a patch of perfectly manicured verdant awesome.   Get Set Go has some of the most dedicated, stalwart, faithful, and loving fans in all the world.    I have done so many things to drive you away.  I’ve disappeared for longs stretches of time.  I’ve written rambling missives lamenting what I saw were our failures.  I groused, I bitched, I moaned.   And basically, I behaved like a spoiled little monkey.  Well, no more.  I am so sorry.    I know you’re out there.  You, the person reading this, you’re the person I’ve been making this music for. You’re the person that’s been with us on this long and wild ride, careering alongside us as I drove this vehicle called Get Set Go near the brink.  And you have done nothing but support, and appreciate, and love our music.  So, that said, I intend to work every day to be worthy of your support.  I believe we are.  I think the music speaks for itself.  But, even so, there’s much more to the story of  Get Set Go than what you hear in the music.  The music is a personal diary of sorts.  I used to give you the other parts of the story in fun and funny blogs.  In interesting, intimate online shows.  And in so many other little ways.   I intend to resurrect all of these things.   I intend to fill in the rest of the story.  And I hope, when all is said and done, it will be well worth the price of admission.

Wearing nothing but jewel encrusted baby-briefs,

Mike TV

P.S.  Get Set Go VI, whose name we are not yet willing to release, is gonna be awesome!  I will write more about it tomorrow.  Lots of love!

 

The Googlity Glurgle of Giggling Gwah!?

Get Set Go six is complete.  It’s in the can, if you will.  All we are waiting on is artwork.  And with its completion, I have been doing a lot of soul-searching, in the hopes of identifying exactly why I keep putting out records.  Because, we don’t make money on them.  Not at all.  And I’m not making money on our music.  And unfortunately, this is the only thing that I love to do.  I have worn many hats over my lifetime and the only hat that fits, the only hat that is comfortable resting on my head,  is that of a songwriter.

So, I spent some time contemplating exactly why I keep putting myself through this process of writing an album only to throw it off of the cliff of indifference and watch it thud, thousands of feet below, on the shores of we-just-don’t-care.  And I realized that, I need to stop worrying about the world at large.  I don’t want to turn on the entire planet.  I’ve never wanted to be a huge band and have millions of fans. I’ve always wanted to be a small band, with a close-knit, hard-core fanbase that we correspond with, get to know, and grow old with.  And I really want to do it making just enough money to get by.  To pay my bills, sock a little away for a retirement or a house someday, and maybe a little bit extra to think about things like marriage and a family.  You know, the same thing that everyone else wants and very often  gets.  The thing that, to me, seemed like an impossibility.  A pipe dream.   Something that happened to other people.

Okay, so that said, I think I figured out a solution.  And first, the key thing is to reconnect with our fans. And to do this, I don’t want to use Facebook.  I don’t want to spend hours out of every day working to build something, like I did on MySpace, only to have it disappear or have it be owned by someone else. And so, to that end, I am putting together a master e-mail list.  You can sign up for it here…

www.getsetgomusic.com (Right there in the center!)

It’s called Get Set Go’s Glorious List of Genuine Geniuses.  I know, I know,  a bit hyperbolic.  But I’ve always been one for over-the-top titles.  Additionally, I do feel that way about our fans.  If you’re a bonafide Get Set Go fan, then there is something seriously wrong with you.  In the best possible way.  And I love you for it.  So, I’m gonna be doing all of my serious, Get Set Go communication through this mailing list.   I promise you I will not spam you.  And most of it will be entertainment.    I decided that I”m going to combine new blog entries with old, classic MySpace blog entries.   That is, until I get a feel for the tenor and flavor of the new blog entries, at which point they’ll all be new entries.  ‘

Oh, and if you want to buy our sixth album, this  mailing list will be the only way to get it.  For the foreseeable future.  I’m gonna see if we can circumvent the torrent sites by only selling to our friends, fans, and family.  We’ll see how well that works.

So please sign up.  I will be posting more about our plans over the next few days.   I will be using Facebook, this blog, and our other traditional sites to let everyone know about these changes but I intend to start phasing out these sites and moving everything over to our mailing list.   I might start a private Facebook page over the next few days to act as a forum.  I’ll keep you posted.

Warm Regards,

Mike  TV

Get Set Go six is nearing completion!

I love working on records.  It is really, truthfully, the most fun a person can have by themselves.   And I have been working on the as-yet-untitled Get Set Go VI for the past few weeks now, and it is getting pretty damn near close to finished.  This album was supposed to be a collection of b-sides that we  were gonna slap on a new coat of paint, maybe paste a few sequins and then shuttle them off to the Internet to be ignored alongside the rest of our catalog.  But, after a few weeks work, it has become readily apparent that these songs are just way too awesome to be treated like a collection of b-sides.  We’re turning them into Get Set Go VI!  Woo!

This collection of songs will end the whole Fury of Your Lonely Heart cycle of songs.   In total, we will have released 36 songs in connection with Fury.   Fourteen on Fury, five on Loose Tongues, five on Wicked Hands, and another twelve on this next album.  We might re-sequence them all and sell them as a collected box set, with a few alternate versions, in the coming months.  But, I have to say, all things considered, that I am pretty damn proud of what we’ve managed to accomplish over the past couple years.  We hadn’t put out a record since Sunshine, Joy, & Happiness in 2008.  And now, in the span of two short years, we’ve managed to put out three albums worth of music, not to mention the side-project that Eric and I recorded, Television & Summer.  All told, it’s a grand total of 46 songs!  Not too shabby.

Now, if only people start buying them, maybe I’ll have enough to buy something to eat.  Fortunately, two small Del Taco red burritos are only a dollar ten.   I hope I don’t burn out on them…ever.