The pain continues

I really don't seem to be having much luck. The house hunt is continuing after our second attempt at a purchase also fell through. In the meantime the housing market appears to be picking up in our price bracket and we've been struggling to view houses as a result (they keep getting sold and the viewing we had booked gets cancelled by the estate agent). Then on top of that the fact Easter and the first bank holiday in May have fallen so close together this year appears to have meant the number of new houses coming on the market in the first place has been rather slow for the last 2-3 weeks.

The pain continues - all our stuff is still in storage and we're still living in a combination of hotels and staying with friends/relatives with currently no end in sight. Limited availability of internet time (and in some cases speed) is also proving a pain as it is disrupting not only my leisure time and things like this blog, but also my ability to work and even communicate when an email I feel is important comes up.

As a result this is only another brief update with the hopes that our luck will finally turn and I can bring you some more positive news some time in June/July. I am however going to give you a bit of an update on what I have been up to since January as it seems rather unfair to have left you hanging quite this long, when I have somehow managed to at least do something about music despite all the problems.

Incredibly I'm STILL waiting on the actual physical CD from Cubworld, despite the fact these were released more than 6 months ago in August last year. I am now officially regretting buying the parts I spent here, as his funding completion date was well over 4 years ago. I thought his first project with Sellaband would have been a great learning exercise. Obviously I was wrong. I also passed the message about him needing to find funds in order to send the albums onto another of his believers who had contacted me to see if I knew anything, and I don't think they'll mind me copying their response to that information.

Those excuses are a bit lame! What happened to "honor", "responsibility", etc., etc. We traveled from New York to Utah last fall and it seriously crossed my mind to see if he was still a resident of that state .... and track him down! BUT, we were having too much fun exploring the amazing national parks spread across the west to bother .... We've given up - if Jake's CD ever shows up - it will just be a surprise!

The lack of communication and information here has been... disappointing... to say the least, and it's clear I'm not alone and that there are others out there feeling the same way who, like me, will probably now never fund him again even if those albums ever do show up.

Ironically I've recently run into what could be described as a similar situation involving overdue items with another artist but my response to that one has been very different thanks to the reaction of the artist and what is overdue in this second case, shouldn't be for too much longer as a result. I'm basically waiting for them to get back from the holiday I interrupted, which should be within the next few days, so I'm not going to say any more about this one at this point.

Fox Amoore has announced that the "Come Find Me" album I funded last year on Indiegogo will officially be released on July 4th when he'll have copies available to buy at a convention he's attending. Copies for funders are due to be shipped out about a week before, but if you missed the funding you can also  pre-order a copy from him now. He's been releasing snippets of the mixed but not yet mastered material and I already have goosebumps. This one is shaping up to be well worth it.

I have even managed to successfully buy music for the first time using my phone in the form of the EP from Nobody Likes Neville. Whilst it's not something I intend to be doing much of (at least at present) it was still nice to know that I can buy stuff when that's my only source of internet access. Although Brad is the vocalist and lyricist here, it seems this particular project is not one of his but rather is Eric's baby (so to speak). I obviously made someone's day based on the contents of the unexpected handwritten note that came in the package, and that note in turn made mine.

Matthew Ebel finally made the transition of his subscription service to Ziibra. The site itself still feels very beta, although I do find myself loving the high quality of the "meet me" videos (both in terms of the video itself and the content) they contain. Sadly the service seems to be only concentrating on the Seattle area at the moment, despite the website stating artists and creatives from around the world and it's also currently impossible to subscribe to anyone on the site (except Matthew) if you live outside of the USA. So much for the internet being global, and there's already one artist on there who has missed out on me spending money on them as a result. I'm told they may add international support later for (at least) digital goods, but at the moment I'm not holding my breath although it's likely I'll continue to take a listen to new artists in their music section.

I've been taking a read of Casee Wilson's blog whenever I get the chance recently. Whilst there's some stuff aimed directly at musicians, there's also quite a lot of interesting other stuff about her life as crew, individual track stories and her views on the music industry amongst other things. For recommended reading I'd start with this post on paid vs. free music but there's plenty you can spend your time with, whatever your interest in music and knowledge of the music industry.

And finally for this brief update, BONNIE are back seeking funding for their second full length album, this time on Indiegogo. You'll find their project here. I'm seeing a handful of names I recognise from Sellaband already on board and I've joined them. Whilst their music was never something I was that into when they originally signed up on Sellaband, it's clear they have grown musically since I last took a real listen and their sound is developing into something that actually, I might be a lot more interested in. It may only be a lyric video, but take a listen to one of their recent tracks called "Paradise".