I have a lot of things to share about what I have been doing lately. I’m not lazy when it comes to writing, I just can’t find the time to do it all, sorry.
In no particular order:
- my hairy face has got some special attention from the cool people @ Milky Tea Kid, they run a blog and organize events around Guildford, UK. They have introduced me to such great artists as J.R. Cigar (very much like Fleet Foxes, real cool band) and Van Dave (inspiring singer/songwriter, also from Guildford).
- the competition to win free signed copies of my “Monsters In Rome” record is still on over @ Mojophenia, plus they feature some really cool bands on a regular basis.
- my stuff has also been featured on Perfect Porridge, a really cool mp3 blog that I have been following for a long time.
- I recorded a song to mock the official ball used in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, even made it into a single – Jabulani (Adidas Ball Parody). It’s free to download or to use in any project, even commercial ones. Give it a listen below and share it if you like it, there’s a function for that, as you will notice. Or, alternatively you could go to the original post, or straight to the music page for more info on this.

- I have this habit of listening to music on sites like Grooveshark because they are just friggin’ cool, so I made my music available on there. Just do a search and away you go.
- the schedule of my England tour so far: London venues from August 14th to 19th, Manchester on the 20th, Stoke-on-trent on the 21st, London again on the 23rd. I will make all that necessary info available soon enough.

I am planning a musical trip this summer – or, as some of you might call it, a tour – in Europe and there are a few very interesting things I’d like to share before I continue with my planning. At first I was very confident about this being an easy thing to pull off, both financially as well as logistics-wise. If I’d book a cheap flight early on and just get some shows for that time period I can easily contact a few people to provide me shelter for a night or two – or book a room, if nothing else – there are plenty of cheap opportunities if I book early enough, right? Easier said than done.
When I first looked up some unbelievably cheap tickets to London and back that WizzAir had on offer I had the intention of touring for at least a month. Not a week passed and the ticket prices went up four times. So I just got the cheapest flights that Wizz Air had to offer at that point and thought about booking my shows around those dates. Again, easier said than done. First of all, Wizz Air won’t let you carry your instrument on board, and I was surely not going to check the thing. So my only option was to buy a ticket for my precious instrument (an adult ticket, mind you), and have it placed in a seat next to me (I swear, I will pamper it with peanuts). The next thing I find out is that EasyBus, the cheapest coach from the airport to London central won’t let me carry my instrument on board at all. Not even if I’d buy it a ticket (I actually contacted them and proposed them this ridiculous idea). So my costs just grew like that, with every little thing that I had planned out so carefully, until I significantly overstepped my initial budget, and I had to get a small loan to get me back on track for the tour.
Booking the events wasn’t easy either. Though some promoters have taken part of the burden away from me, most of the tour was still up to me to organize. After a million emails and telephone calls, however, I now have a show for almost every night while I’m in the UK. I will be playing in London every night from the 14th to the 19th of August, in Manchester on the 20th, in Stoke-on-trent on the 21st and then I will be back in London on the 23rd of August for a final show. I will post the names of the venues and every other relevant info on the website soon enough.
Talk soon.

The Adidas Jabulani ball is the official match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The word Jabulani means “rejoice” in Zulu. Adidas has payed many footballers to say the Jabulani is a good ball, though complaints against it from both players and goalkeepers are many. The ball is said to be very light, difficult to predict and even more difficult to control. Adidas refuses to acknowledge the mistake and on several occasions has had different spokesmen blame the players for incompetence.

This is my contribution to the FIFA World Cup 2010. Feel free to download the song, use it on any project you wish, even commercial, I will allow it all.

There is also a video in the making, so make sure to check back here on the site or on the Indie Folker YouTube channel later this week for that.

The Jabulani is not the first ball to have caused such a response as the official ball of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the Teamgeist was also known to be somewhat unpredictable. Not as much as the Jabulani however. There are some very good YouTube videos demonstrating this exact thing. Check them out by clicking here.

If you have checked Mojophenia recently you already know that the competition to win 5 copies of the limited edition/signed Monsters In Rome CD has been announced. This would be your first shot to get a copy for free, autographed and everything.
In the meantime physical CD’s also became available on my CdBaby store as well and very soon also here on the site. If you want to help me spread the word about this release feel free to embed the following video wherever you wish and make my day.

Monsters In Rome stop-motion CD commercial from Indie Folker on Vimeo.