mj update

By Robbie on April 27, 2010

Well, the discs arrived last week. Happy: Robbie Fulks Plays The Music of Michael Jackson is now a physical reality. I've sold a couple off the stage but am mainly keeping it under wraps until John and I get it up on the site for sale (shortly!); and before long I plan to do a proper coming-out show at a Chicago venue -- a little like the set we did at the Hideout block party a while back -- to give the thing more of the dignified bearing of a commercial product that someone has made and is proud of.

The disc replication company proved a disappointment, as there are a few spots and glitches in the photographed art, and the transparent space near the stacking ring isn't what I wanted or asked for. But, rather than get into that fight and delay the release by who knows how much longer, I thought I'd put the mostly-okay-looking thing out and hope that enough people buy it this year that I can press some more later, at a different plant. Just some of the little perils and pitfalls of the DIY scene, of which I am a staunch avatar...

I appreciate the responses that people have posted on the music. Those of you who have heard the MP3 album, I wonder if you can guess which tracks are of recent vintage? Most of the record was made between 2000-03, but four tracks were done in late 2009. Since I am proceeding under the self-motivating idea that I'm improving at my craft over time, including the production of maturer and more focused recordings, it occurs to me that maybe some listeners could validate that by identifying the quartet of late entries...or, by misidentifying them, drive me into despair and an early grave, either would be fine.