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Thanatos' "Christmas Moments" EP Streaming Everywhere November 25, 2022

11/4/2022

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Thanatos' Christmas Moments EP streaming everywhere November 25, 2022.

For years, at least since the first Projekt Records Christmas record, Excelsis-A Dark Noel was released, I wanted to write some original Christmas tunes.  I even tried to do it.

I tried. But the songs were ...well...crap. Earlier this year I wrote some I sort of liked. I set up some studio time with William Faith. Then I decided the songs needed work and I wasn't in the mood for that.

I was, however, saved by the bell. William's band, The Bellwether Syndicate, was about to go on tour and he didn't have time. I thought "GREAT, I can rewrite these."

Of course, being me, I didn't.

The day we rescheduled to record I was hit by an inspiration and completely rewrote both songs. Even I think they came out well. Scary Lady Sarah even sings back up on one while William and Sam Rosenthal add their musical talents.

There are also two "old standards." on the EP. Be sure to look at your favorite streaming site on the release day. There is even a video (more on that later).

Track listing
A Special Gift (Christmas Moments)
All The Gifts We Got Wrong (A Christmas Song)
O Holy Night
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear




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Thanatos Comes Alive! Really,  Live Acoustic Shows In  October, 2022 (Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago)

9/22/2022

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Thanatos (in this case just ME) is heading out to play a few shows in the fall.  I have to admit this is the result of Dave Dramedy (check out his website HERE) from out in LA who contacted me and  immediately booked some shows. I was stuck. No escape. Have to do shows. All of these shows will feature Dave.

I am going to try to make the sets at these shows a bit different.  ...or I hope to.

One thing Im working on is some new covers. Whether I play them or not depends if they rise to the exalted level of NOT SUCKING....

DATES--

Sunday, October 23 at Black Forge Coffee House II (Danse Macabre 7: A Gothic Halloween Party), 701 Chartiers Ave, McKees Rocks, PA Doors 7 p.m. Cost $20 advance / $25 at the door (I play at 9 pm) full bill is Dave Dramedy, me and Charming Disaster (in that order). Get tickets HERE.

Monday, October 24 at your house...if you have a  P.A.

Tuesday, October 25 at Small’s, 10339 Conant Hamtramck, Detroit. Doors 7 p.m. 16 and older welcome. Cost  $ 12.  Get tickets HERE.


Wednesday October 26 at Gman Tavern, 3740 North Clark St. in Chicago. Doors 7 p.m. 21 +. $12 in advance, $15 at the door.  Buy advance tickets HERE....

For more information email patrick ( AT)  thanatos (DOT) biz




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Thanatos...News....Well Nothing All That NEW

4/16/2022

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In the previous post about Thanatos tapes being transferred to digital I noted that I have no idea what was ON the tapes for Blisters. It turns out that those tapes had ALL the tracks. The reason this is interesting is that the record was partly recorded using a half inch 8 track and partly done with a 16 track cassette. Much of the record was created with virtual instruments and samples. I honestly thought may things would be missing.

There are, unfortunately, entire songs that are missing from the 8 track masters and I regret those can never be recovered (the source material is gone).  There will be no Splinters remix!  NOW. I don't feel like this record NEEDS much in the way of remixing so that is a good thing. But I have ideas for possible ways to "repurpose" these tracks and do new versions.

As to the first Thanatos record, this endless night inside? It is transferred as well and, over time, Jason Donnelly, aka DJ Puzzle) will be remixing the record. He has his own life and work so I suspect this won't be done tomorrow but he is on it.  Once I figure out what to do with these transfers I will likely get around to doing the same for An Embassy to Gaius. I have the digital versions of at least part of I Am Not Job and Coyote in the Graveyard  already. 

As to the image here on this little post....The Thanatos Comes Alive!-Part 1 (The 90s) recording will be up streaming at Spotify and all the other streaming sites on May 27 (or thereabout).  Yes the image is different from the Bandcamp one but these things happen.  Packages from the kickstarter for this are still sitting here waiting to be shipped....but I had a HERNIA operation so I have been hobbling around a lot lately. I will still get them to the folks who helped out well before the deadline put forward!

I spent time today reading and revising lyrics for a Christmas ep and the next prospective Thanatos full length, Love Songs for the Indigent. I still hope to have both recorded this year.

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Some Interesting But Not Immediately Relevant News; "This Endless Night Inside" And "Blisters" Masters Digitized, VInyl? Remix And Remaster? Who knows!

3/28/2022

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The first Thanatos LP,  This Endless Night Inside, came out in the Fall of 1993. Back in those days we recorded to 1/2 inch tape. The second Thanatos LP, An Embassy to Gaius, was also recorded to 1/2 inch as was part of Blisters, the third.

The tapes for the first three Thanatos records have been siting around waiting on me to get off my arse and have them digitized. I finally did so.

The question here is what am I going to do with these once they are digitized? Do I go for a remix/remaster and release them again? I honestly do not know if it is necessary with regard to the first record. I think it sounds fairly good as is. If I could go back in time I might try to rein in the reverb a bit but at the TIME? That was what I wanted it to sound like.

Why should 55 year old me get to boss 26 year old me around?

But let's see what we find on the tracks before we say NO WAY. Maybe Sam and I missed some brilliant track on a song that should be included in a new mix.

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Far more intriguing to me is the tape for Blisters. I have no earthly or otherworldly clue what is on these tapes. That record is quite sample heavy with many instruments running virtual. I have joked that the entire tape may just be armpit noises.

More likely than that is the possibility that bass, guitar, vocals and a click are on the tapes while most of the samples and virtual instruments are absent.  There is absolutely no reason to remix and remaster the original version of Blisters. I think it sounds great as is.  This leaves open an intriguing possibility; what about a new record based on what IS there? A sort of Thanatos Re-Blistered or Blisters 2022. Is this necessary? Is the world clamoring for it? Not really but it would be fun for me and right now my idea is to have various people take what is there and make entirely new songs using the parts.

Whether this happens I do not know but we shall see. I certainly didn't pay for the digital masters to do nothing with them. 

One discussion I've had is doing vinyl for This Endless Night Inside. I am totally open to doing that if the time frame for vinyl production becomes less lengthy. I've seen turnaround times of over a year for small batch vinyl. I'd need to know, in advance, I could sell at least 100 copies before I would even think about doing it. I'd have to charge something like $35-40 for a single vinyl disc record . Would people cough that up?

You tell me!
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Why Did Thanatos Cover Body Count's Cop Killer?

3/7/2022

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Why did Thanatos cover Body Count's Cop Killer?

The reason is simple; the constant freak out over every song written by a black man that contained violent imagery made me what to do the cover.

It wasn't supposed to be a cover of just Cop Killer, however.

It was supposed to be a medley of  the song and another one--Bruce Springsteen's State Trooper. Being good citizens we asked for permission. Body Count gave it (Sam got a number which wound up being Ernie C's cell phone). Springsteen's people sent a cease and desist order, despite the fact we hadn't actually, you know,  released anything.  This made my dislike of Springsteen's music a bit more personal though which was good. I no longer felt the need to pretend like I gave a shit about him. His fans would always do the Grateful Dead thing; they ask if you've seen him play and you respond "No, I hate his music."  Then they come back with "But he puts on a FOUR HOUR SHOW."  I don't want to see the man for 10 minutes let alone four HOURS.

But, as usual, I digress.

The point, of course, was that  Springsteen or Johnny Cash can play songs about murder and mayhem and no one peeps. But a black man? HELL no! Unfortunately what we did was toss in some meaningless lyrics which gutted the entire point of the cover. Ideally I would have found another song by a less douchey artist than Springsteen. Or we could have just scrapped the song but I've never been one to waste recorded material.

Also let's dispense with the notion Cop Killer is a "rap" song. It isn't. It is a punk metal song by Body Count. It keeps getting put up as an Ice-T cover for some reason.  Body Count is Ice-T's band of course but it is a rock act. That was also part of this. It was having a little bit of fun with the notion of a rap artist's metal song being covered by a white guy who then (sort of, as close as I could get to it) raps the song. This part of it was entirely lost on everyone.

Sometimes, no one gets my jokes.

But that is the story of the Cop Killer cover. It still strikes me as weird that it is, by far, the most streamed song by Thanatos. It is far from the only cover. It just goes to show you the power of Ice-T I guess.

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Why Streaming Isn't As Evil As You Think

3/4/2022

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PictureMe, shrieking over getting no airplay
Here is the thing; back in the old days radio was a major part of how people consumed music.

We were, up to a point, slaves to the radio as listeners and especially as artists desperately seeking to be noticed (with all due respect to club DJs).  Getting played on commercial radio was not something that happened with any frequency for underground bands. Most stations had playlists and those playlists eschewed small artists for big label bands. The only outlets for the little guys was college radio, community radio or overseas radio. Some days it seemed like everyone in France had their own radio show. These latter options paid very little, if anything (more on this below).

Regardless, the pay for getting played on the radio only kicked in, in any meaningful way, for artists who were HUGE. Part of this was their lock down on commercial radio but it was also how payment was determined. They did a sampling of what was playing and extrapolated. If you got played thousands of times a day? You were more likely to get a check.

Smaller artists literally made PENNIES for this play because in addition to commercial radio being ALL about major labels, college radio paid less into the Performing Rights Organizations. Frankly? The trade off for exposure was usually minimal. In 1996 I could count the college radio stations that actually meant anything on one hand. O.K., maybe two hands but barely.

Why do I bring all this up?

Because streaming is now what radio was then--except it offers artists an opportunity to direct people TO their music and to direct people to their music from all over the world. The pay is shit but I assure you getting $3 to $5 for 1000 plays (Spotify) is better than getting nothing for three plays at a radio station that broadcasts to the dorms at a small liberal arts college.

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An example of a record that got NO fucking commercial radio airplay
As the math whiz types among you may note; Spotify pays about 0.003 to 0.005 cents per play. Commercial radio pays 9.1 cents. Sounds like a great deal. It is if you are Bruce Springsteen but, as noted, small artists rarely if ever get played on commercial radio. When a "local" gets played it is on some "locals" show at 3 am. Since you do NOT get paid for every play but, as mentioned, but via a sampling by the Performing Rights Organizations (mostly BMI and ASCAP), small artists should not be waiting by their mailbox for a check.

For all the people "standing up for the artists," I would also point out that Spotify has an option where listeners can DONATE to the artist. The next time I hear of anyone actually doing this will be the first time. No one does it because folks only pay lip service to giving a shit.  Then there are all the people who proudly say they only stream on Bandcamp. Bandcamp pays NOTHING for streams. Not a penny. They are, however, an artist friendly site for downloads and they cost nothing for an artist to set up. Yet there is that nagging, no pay for streams thing. No one seems to know this either.

There  are some oddities in reporting plays with some streaming services that I haven't had explained to me. How does a song go from more than a 1000 listens to  much less than that? This may be some quantum thing beyond my understanding.  I am looking into this and when I get an answer? I will post it as a comment here.

Now, let's talk about those fractions of a cent.

They can add up for artists who have a large underground following. You are not going to retire to the South of France on the cash. But if you have a track that gets 20,000 listens on Spotify? That is between $60 and $100. NOW, if you are getting that on Spotify you are likely getting played on Amazon, Apple Music, Pandora, Tidal and others. Sam Rosenthal told me that 84 to 98 % of  artist payments from Projekt Records came from streaming.

You may say "Smaller artists never get 20,000 many plays!" Lycia, a former "label mate" of mine,  have a song , A Failure, that has over 800,000 listens on Spotify (this info is public, I am betraying no trade secrets).  Lycia, in fact, has eight songs with over 50,000 listens.  Black tape for a blue girl, Rosenthal's band, has a song, Dulcinea, that has well over 200,000 listens.

My most listened to song is only in the 50,000 range. It is a cover of Body Count's Cop Killer.

My next rant? Will be about how that song came to be. It is an interesting and, to me, a bit of an enraging story even after  27 years!
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Another example of a record that got no fucking commercial radio airplay
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A Primer For Non Musicians On  Why Smaller Musicians Crowdfund

2/19/2022

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Before starting allow me to give credit where it is due. Many of these thoughts found their genesis in conversations over the years with Sam Rosenthal of Projekt Records.
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A poster from a show in the old days, in Atlanta

Why Crowdfund?

I remember in the early years of crowdfunding, when Sam Rosenthal dove into the pool, there was an old acquaintance of mine's boyfriend who took exception. He was incredibly angry about the notion of crowdfunding.  He was also angry at the notion that Sam was doing it -- in much the same way people became angry at other musicians for doing it.

I wish I could explain why.

Mercifully this has faded as people have come to accept that crowdfunding is how it is done now.

A link to my current crowdfund for "Thanatos Comes ALIVE Part 1"....


I will use the example I know best--myself--to discuss how it works for a small project. When we did the last record, Portland, I forget HOW much we raised. Somewhere around $2000. A fairly modest amount. People think "hey, I could use two grand!" But the fact is? We don't GET the two grand. The money pays for the expenses, in essence, reimbursing the artist for what it all costs. Since we recorded at Sam's studio we didn't have recording expenses but he lives in Portland and I live in Chicago. I had to get there.  Expense #1 (to say nothing of the expenses while I was there). Then there are the expenses related to the actual production of the discs. When I do these by myself I do really bare bones things. Sam is , as many of you know, not into bare bones design! So the discs themselves cost money. Then there is a cost for mastering the disc. Following this there are the costs of the other rewards, the posters, the t shirts. When someone pledges for one of these a big chunk of that goes to the production cost of the item.

I believe we built in a "profit" for ourselves of about $400 each.

We spent AT LEAST 40 hours doing only the recording of the disc. If all we did was that? We'd be making $10 an hour. Pretty good money! Three times the minimum wage!...in 1980.

Of course that isn't all the time we spent on this. Sam had to do the design. I had to write and rewrite lyrics and music. This took MONTHS. I never tabulate the hours I work but if I did we might be getting painfully close to that $3.10 mandated by the Federal Government in 1980.

None of this, by the way, is complaining. It just is how it is. I could not DO music without crowdfunding.

Essentially the crowdfund is like the advance you got from a record company in the old days. You may get to keep some of it but a lot of it goes into producing your "product". I know some people recoil at the notion that music or any art is a product. These are usually people who don't make their living doing either or they are people who already became rich working in these fields. Then you have the luxury of not thinking about every dime.

This isn't to say that I actually think about "what will sell" when I make music. I don't at all. That would be pointless. I do what I do then I try to figure out how to pay for it. And Crowdfunding helps a lot with that.

A final thought here is that crowdfunding is basically a pre-sale. If you can pre-sell something these days it is a huge plus. I could make a bunch of physical copies or release to streaming with no crowdfund. But it would take a long time to recoup what is spent. It is part of marketing, spreading the word and more these days.

STREAMING is also a big part of how it works for us small timers these days. My next rant is going to be about that. And how people who don't do music (and a lot who do) need to reassess  streaming as well.

Thanks for reading!

Patrick Ogle
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Thanatos Comes ALIVE Part 1 (the 90s) Kickstarter Funds

2/16/2022

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The Thanatos kickstarter for Thanatos Comes ALIVE Part 1 (the 90s) funded today. It took a wee bit more than 24 hours. It was admittedly  a rather modest fundraiser . It was basically to pay for mastering and some other incidental expenses. Nonetheless it was awesome to see a dozen or so people to step up and make it happen.

What happens next is that this gets mastered and then put up at various streaming platforms. Hey..even Spotify. I know old hippies will be mad at that...and "twitter & facebook activists" who spend their lives on two of the most deleterious creations in post modern history.

But I digress....This is still live for a dozen days and any help spreading the word?....Would be appreciated. Look at the publication date on this post? Then add a week at least ...I wont be on anything owned by facebook until after that (they banned me for 24 hours...I banned them for a week...I encourage YOU to do the same. I also removed all their apps from my phone too..Instagram, Whatsapp and disabled Facebook).

Social media is really a cancer. But they are not the only one.

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Thanatos Release Plans For 2022 And Beyond

1/21/2022

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I have big, giant, huge plans for 2022.

Scary Godzilla sized plans.

Now, do my plans ALWAYS come to fruition? Hell no! Most of the time I lose track of what I am doing while I am doing it. I also can rarely find my damned keys.  I do generally get my music plans done in a more or less reasonable amount of time these days.

I have mentioned earlier what is coming this year (and early next) but there have been some changes. I do not have firm release dates on all of these but this is the basic order.


Thanatos Comes Alive (the 1990s)-

This is the first of two Thanatos Comes Alive records.  The second will be recordings from the 2000s. I am collecting the best songs from shows at various venues in Chicago and a few from around the country (Charlotte for sure ).  At some of these shows I performed songs the ONLY time they were ever played live (for instance, the title track from  I Am Not Job and the unreleased track, As With Water). I may do a very small Kickstarter for this digital release, to pay for the mastering and other assorted expenses. I spent the last couple of days going through some of the tapes and picking songs for BOTH of these CDs. But, for now, it makes sense to just do the 90s and do the 2000s one later .

Covered 70s-

The follow up to 2021's Covered Country, will feature tracks originally released in that decade.  The release will include a variety of genres. While I hope to do some recording at 13 Studio with William Faith (scheduling permitting). There will be some popular songs and some from the underground.  Ive been working on arrangements of songs by Al Steward, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Sparks, Pere Ubu, Elton John,  Arlo Guthrie,  Patti Smith, Metro, and more. This will NOT (at least not primarily) an acoustic record like the country one. Sam Rosenthal will do his magic on at least some of the tracks.

Love Songs For The Indigent
This is, at long last, the new Thanatos record and I am already writing songs for it, odds and ends of lyrics on napkins and titles in notebooks.  Right now the plan is to record most of this record in collaboration with Los Angeles-based songwriter, producer and bon vivant, DJ Puzzle (aka Jason Donnelly).

Thanatos Christmas Record-
My streaming "performance" dropped like a STONE in January? Why? No one listens to Christmas music after January.  I get a startling percentage of my streams from Christmas songs and from my sort of cover of Cop Killer (which is not terribly Christmasy).  This record will consider some old standards and a couple of brand spanking new Christmas songs I've been working on.

YES, this is an ambitious year for a guy who once took five years between records and another time took 14 years between records.  And it is far from impossible that some of these get shuffled around but with in the next 14 months at the MOST all of these will be out.

And I already KNOW what comes after that but I will be keeping this under my hat for the time being.
 


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New "Mixtapes" And A Dedicated Thanatos Twitter Account

1/20/2022

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Picture a new painting I am working on
Thanatos THANATOS Spotify Mixtape #3

Thanatos Spotify Mixtape #4

While I was tagging people who were included in the various mixtapes I noticed that, when the bands don't use their NAME in their Twitter handle it can be sort of difficult to find them. After trying to contact people three times it suddenly dawned on me; I don't have MY band name in my twitter handle!. Just my initials and last name.

What if Iggy Pop has been trying to get in touch? Or Sam Rosenthal?....

So, while the @paogle account will remain and I will mostly use that? There is also a purely music based account @thanatos_music. If you dont want to see my fighting with fascists, generic morons, ranting about politics, posting about fine art or wine...or sports...or all the other shit I do on the broader account? Maybe follow the other one! I am NOT getting another Instagram account. Folks are going to have to live with all the photos of cats and Humboldt Park.

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