Mailing List Update: 8/8 at The Middle East (a few tickets still available), Michel Gondry and The Motion Sick, TMS @ Unicon

Hello Friends and Fiends,

-Great Rock Show at The Middle East
-Michel Gondry draws The Motion Sick!
-The Motion Sick soon to be in Rock Band and rocking out with Bang Camaro, Freezepop, and others at Unicon

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We've got a GREAT show coming up at The Middle East Upstairs on August 8th. The show is already close to selling out, so we've grabbed a few extra tickets to make sure that you all get a chance to get your hands on them. You can order these directly from us via Paypal (credit card accepted as well) (with no service or shipping charges) at: http://themotionsick.com/themotionsick/tickets.html. This show is an incredible lineup including:

1st - Hymns
2nd - The Motion Sick
3rd - The New Collisions
4th - The Shills
5th - The Everyday Visuals

Both The Everyday Visuals and The New Collisions have made Mike's best of 2009 (so far) list: http://www.bostonbandcrush.com/2009/06/mikes-semi-annual-crushiest-of-boston.html - missing this would be foolish.

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Through fate, luck, determination, and bribery, famed director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, and a million great music videos) recreated a photo of Mike and Travis rocking out at the WBCN Rock N Roll Rumble earlier this year (another sold out show at The Middle East) - check out the drawing and learn more about that at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/07/michel-gondry-draws-12-of-motion-sick.html

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As you all probably know by now, we've been very fortunate to get a chance to have our music included in the Dance Dance Revolution video game series including the brand new Dance Dance Revolution X in Arcades in North America - http://www.the-motion-sick.com/search/label/dance%20dance%20revolution

. Now, we've just announced that things are in the works to have several of our songs available in the new Rock Band indie store that will be unveiled some time in the next few months. Soon, you'll be able to drum, sing, and strum along to The Motion Sick! More on that as details emerge...

...and because we love video games and video games seem to love us, The Motion Sick will be rocking out at Game Unicon - http://gameunicon.com/. You all already love Unicorns and if you're a male in our age bracket, you MAY even love Unicron more than Megan Fox (the jury is still out for this one). Now, you've got a chance to attend Game Unicon, a crazy-awesome 3-day gaming event with the tagline: "Game all day. Rock all night." They've got video game tournaments, celebrity guests, huge LAN parties, and "booth babes everywhere!" ...and that's not all! They've now got The Motion Sick! We'll be playing their Saturday concert headlined by Boston gang-metalists Bang Camaro! This is a rare all-ages event for us as well. Check out http://gameunicon.com/ for pricing and more info. Tell them we sent you!

Love and Rockets,

The Motion Sick

Rock Band (The Game) Network - Get Ready to Rock with The Motion Sick

Our buddies at Harmonix have announced the basics of a new system to expedite the process for bands to get their music available for play in the Rock Band series of games. They've got scant details currently available at: http://creators.rockband.com/. Because people have been asking us (for years now) if we plan to work on getting our music into the game, I figured I best let you know that the answer has been yes all along, but the process was VERY slow up until now. We're already working out the details with a fellow who will likely do the charting for us. If you recall, we did a little interview with the man responsible for the fine dance moves associated with "30 Lives" in Dance Dance Revolution at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/01/interview-with-dance-dance-revolution.html.

If all goes well, we hope to include several songs from across our catalog in this initiative and you will then be able to rock out like we do...or maybe even better.  Let us know what songs you'd like to be able to play - I imagine that "30 Lives" (non-dance) and "Jean-Paul" may be the first of our ditties to go through this process.

Two Interviews: TeaParty and Mango Nebula Interview The Motion Sick

Certainly one of the most fun and nonsensically insane interviews we've ever done, TeaParty did an amazing job managing to take garbled, ranting nonsense from all of us all talking at the same time and turn it into an insightful expose of our dreams and fears. Also, our favorite Muppets and our affinity for Cranium:

http://www.teapartyboston.com/2009/07/the-motion-sick/

Mango Nebula also just posted a new article based around an interview we did before The truth will catch you, just wait... was released. It also contains a video interview and live performance from December 2007.

http://mangonebula.blogspot.com/2009/05/feature-motion-sick-november-7th-2007.html

WBCN no more...Bastille Day...since 1789 - Jean-Paul since 2008

WBCN is officially shutting down: http://www.bostonbandcrush.com/2009/07/uncrush-rumors-swirling-about-wbcn.html. You might recall what an awesome time we had playing the Rock N Roll Rumble this year and we are very sad that the event is now in limbo along with one of our very favorite shows, Boston Emissions and its top-notch hosts Anngelle Wood and Shawn Clayton. This is a huge hit for local music and just makes me really sad. We've had Anngelle and Shawn get involved in supporting local rock in a way that made us all feel like this city was finally paying attention to itself. Now, we are reminded once again that all anyone cares about in Boston is sports. I really hope a day comes when the Red Sox get their season cancelled because a bunch of awesome concerts are coming to town. What an amazingly sad day.

As with all sweeping change, we hope something new and amazing will rise to replace all that Boston Emissions did for Boston music. Speaking of sweeping change, today is also Bastille Day, a major moment in the French Revolution.

The French Revolution, of course, reminds us of The Motion Sick's song "Jean-Paul" each year. Here's how I answered a question during an interview some time back about the origins of the song:

"The song, which was actually written by my wife, Sophia Cacciola, of the band Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, is inspired by the events surrounding Marat's death, specifically the Jacques-Louis David painting The Death of Marat. The song's narrative is somewhat inspired by the many points of view in the Dylan song "Tangled Up in Blue."

The story itself has really been remapped from Revolution-era France onto what one might think of as the modern-day "sexy spy" genre. There is certainly a dramatic romanticism added with a particular slant toward the sexualization of violence. I always envision a lipstick gun in a garter belt. The Charlotte Corday character's motives are in question. There is a new character who may or may not have been duped and used by Corday. There is a section where the dupe is being interrogated and makes claims that may or may not be covering something up.

I was initially drawn to the song because of the number of narrators present. By my
interpretation, we have: Corday, an omniscient viewer, the duped accomplice, the interrogator, and Marat. The meaning morphs depending on the attribution of the statements and descriptions. It also raises questions about whether the statements are facts, opinions, or outright lies. I have considered posting an annotated version of the song, but I think it's nice to leave it open to interpretation. I am not actually sure that my interpretation matches Sophia's intention completely anyway."

Listen to and download "Jean-Paul" on our music page: http://themotionsick.com/themotionsick/music.html. The song was frequently played on Boston Emissions and that makes this an even sadder and more revolutionary day.

At some point, I was playing around with learning some video software and I put together this "unofficial" video for the song in about 8 hours from public-domain footage.  It's nothing too fancy and it is far from perfect, but I find it kind of fun:

Michel Gondry draws 1/2 of The Motion Sick @mideastclub at #Rumble @bostonemissions @fender

Readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Michel Gondry. I wrote a little entry a bit back about his director series DVD at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/01/work-of-director-michel-gondry.html.

So, when I found out that he decided to do a whole series of portraits, I decided that I would kill (or at least maim) anyone in my way of getting him to do a drawing of me. Well, my aggressive determination (and just luck) paid off! Michel Gondry has drawn me as part of his portraits series. He is posting them at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelgondry/sets/72157618412299993/show/. Mine is not yet included there, though I imagine it will be someday.

Until then, you can see it right here:


I submitted this photo taken at the WBCN Rock 'N' Roll Rumble at The Middle East by Kelly Davidson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellydavidson/3426718501/in/set-72157616557566396/ as the inspiration.  

In addition to the drawing being really cool anyway, there are two interesting and/or wonderful things about the drawing:

1. Lots of product placement: we've got Fender, WBCN, and The Middle East all receiving some ink time.
2. Travis has awesome hair and an awesome beard.  I think he should grow his hair and beard to match this rendition.

The Motion Sick E-mail Update 07-06-09 -Help Amnesty International, Find us a manager/label, Read history, Dance w/us at Arcades, 30k for "30 Lives"

First of all, we've got a great show this Friday! As with all great things, the band order for this show was decided randomly using Dungeons and Dragons dice. So, if you aren't afraid of a few tiny kobolds and you've got chainmail armor or better, check out this treasure map

Church

69 Kilmarnock Street Boston, MA 02215

12:00 Jesus and the Argonauts 11:10 Muy Cansado 10:20 The Motion Sick 9:30 St.Helena 8:40 Kingsley Flood

21+ Facebook Event

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...and, as usual, we've got a pile of excitement for you!
1. Help Amnesty International
2. Find us a manager/label
3. Read our history
4. Dance with us at the Arcades
5. Help "30 Lives" get 30,000 views
6. Tips for bands!

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Help Amnesty International - You can read more about it at http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/06/download-motion-sicks-songs-free-to.html, but we are now working with Gimmesound so that every time you download our music for FREE(!!!), some money from advertising on the page is donated to Amnesty International.

All you have to do is go to the following links to download our music

Both albums: http://www.gimmesound.com/TheMotionSick-1/

Rarities: http://www.gimmesound.com/TheMotionSick/

Her Brilliant Fifteen Demos and Scratch Tracks (As discussed in A Brief History of The Motion Sick Pt. 1): http://www.gimmesound.com/TheMotionSick-HerBrilliantFifteenDemosandScratchTracks/

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Find us a manager/label - we have begun the process of searching for a manager and a label. Read more about it on our blog at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/06/motion-sick-is-officially-looking-for.html. Feel free to contact us if you have any thoughts or leads!

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Read our history - The first in a series of posts about the history of The Motion Sick is now available at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/06/brief-history-of-motion-sick-part-1.html. It covers the early days and the recording of Her Brilliant Fifteen.

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Dance with us at the Arcades! Dance Dance Revolution X has just been released in North American arcades! Once we find a place that has it, you'll see some video of us dancing along. Until then, here are some fine folks from Asia (where the game has been out longer) doing just that: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/06/hang-out-with-motion-sick-at-your-local.html

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30k for "30 Lives" - Help "30 Lives" get 30,000 views on Youtube - at first, we thought, let's go for 25,000, but now we've decided to round it up to a nice even campaign of 30k for 30 Lives! We're hoping to get our Youtube video for "30 Lives" viewed 30,000 times and we need your help!

So, please help us pass this link around to reach goal of 30k views of "30 Lives"

vid: http://bit.ly/wJ2MO download MP3: http://bit.ly/gJHKO

What can you do? E-mail your friends! Send out tweets on twitter! Change your status on Facebook! Every little bit helps us reach our goal of 30k for "30 Lives" and we can't do it without you.

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Tips for bands! We care about you too and want to give a little back. So, if you're in a band and you wonder how we do it all, we're going to start providing a series of articles revealing things that we've found useful in our attempts to conquer the world. The first article, 11 Sites and Services that are Essential to Bands is now available at: http://www.the-motion-sick.com/2009/06/11-sites-and-services-that-are.html

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Love and flowers,
-The Motion Sick

http://www.reverbnation.com/themotionsick

July 10th! The Motion Sick with Jesus and the Argonauts, Muy Cansado, St. Helena, and Kingsley Flood

Here is Matt G.'s fine flyer for this dice-based ordered event:

Full Size Flyer at:
http://www.themotionsick.com/themotionsick/flyers/2009-07-10-ChurchFlyer.jpg

Church

69 Kilmarnock Street Boston, MA 02215

12:00 Jesus and the Argonauts 11:10 Muy Cansado 10:20 The Motion Sick 9:30 St.Helena 8:40 Kingsley Flood

21+ Facebook Event