Shosha Capps

Ok, so I've been looking forward to making this announcement for quitesome time, but wanted to wait until everything was in place.

So...now everything is in place and...I AM IN A NEW BAND!!!

So, I realize that might not be quite as exciting to you yet as it is to me, but just wait. ;)

The band is called "Color of Love," and you can check out our myspace here.

I should emphasize two things before you follow that link, though - these are not my songs, and I am not the one singing them in the recordings.So don't get confused and think I've given you a bad link. =) The songs are all by my friend and nearly-next-door neighbor Mike Ulrich, and the lovely lady singing is Mike's friend Teresa Eggers, who moved to NYC just after making the record. I am replacing her at live shows and on future recordings (we have some really fun stuff in the works!), and having a great time doing it.

Color of Love feels like a pretty big stylistic departure for me, but I have to say that I have become a huge fan, and the whole thing is really exciting. I mean, imagine you get this new album, and you're really into it, and singing all the parts in your car...and then, SNAP!, you are in that band, singing those parts for real! So it's a lot of fun, really challenging for me as a singer in a lot of different ways (I've just started my first voice lessons, which are fantastic!), and I'm really looking forward to seeing where things go.

I really hope everyone who reads this will check out the band and help warm up our myspace with friending and commenting and song playing and all that stuff. And, if you really like what you hear, you can buy the cd "Camphor Songs" on iTunes (or for a discounted rate at shows - we'd love to see you in person =) or CD Baby.

As far as exactly what "Color of Love" is like, in sound it reminds me a lot of The New Pornographers or Belle and Sebastian. CD Baby says Camphor Songs should appeal to fans of Yo La Tengo, Wilco, and The Shins, and throws us into Alternative/Experimental/Folk/Rock type categories. Our myspace says "Punk/Punk/Punk," but that's just for fun.;) Thematically, though, I think these songs are extra fun because they break out from the "relationship song" mold. Really, there aren't any songs obviously about romantic relationships. Mike writes about...uneasy relationships with technology? Existential crises? A la OK Computer, the folk/pop version...? Basically, listen past the poppy pretty silliness (at times), and you're likely to feel a little uncomfortable. In a really good way. =)

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much to everyone who voted this month at Ourstage.com! I discovered several other artists that I really liked, and hopefully you did too.

Some of my favorites included:

Mieka Pauley
Waiting for Iris
Maria DeMaio


So...the competition was stiff, but the results are in, and "How We Go" got 4th place in Female Singer! ALSO, someone from CMJ (http://www.cmj.com) took a liking to Mimosa (which won first place in Folk last month), and included me in their July magazine.

I'm in a MAGAZINE!!! Like, a real print one. One that people buy!

This is my first appearance in glossy, and they compared me to two bands I really like, so I am super excited. Here's the page:





So anyway, thanks to everyone again who participated, and I encourage everyone to check out OurStage.com if you haven't, whether you go vote for me or not. It's a great site that I think really presents a huge opportunity for independent musicians.

Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

shosha

Currently listening : Elijah Drop Your Gun By Mieka Pauley Release date: 2007-11-01

Thanks so much to everybody who voted last month on Ourstage! I was in the top 10 in "female singer/songwriter" and "acoustic" channels, and won the top spot in "folk"!

This month my song How We Go is in the top 20 again in the female singer/songwriter channel, so anybody who needs some more internet procrastination material or wants to discover new independent music should head over to Ourstage and vote!

Currently listening : Loneliness Knows My Name By Patrick Park Release date: 2003-07-15

So...I've been thinking maybe I shouldn't leave my "sounds like" section blank. I have been thinking P, who has taken it upon himself to crack the whip a little bit, is going to scold me for it soon, and I would like to pre-empt him. The thing is, I get very squirmy about filling in that particular section. I can tell you who I like, who I think influences me...but I am sort of at a loss as to who to best compare myself to. It's just hard to hear yourself, I think, in any way that brings accurate relativity.

Um, that sounded like science talk, didn't it? Not what I was going for. You know what I mean? (this is something they ask in California a lot...when in Rome...)

So anyway, I thought I'd put the question out to those people who are probably the best people to ask - the people who listen. So if that applies to you, I would be ever so grateful for any ideas for filling in this tricky "sounds like" section. Feel free to comment here or to write me privately. And while I will maintain veto power - I am not going to tell people that I sound like Hillary Duff, por ejemplo, - I'll throw anything you send me up for at least a couple of days. So here you go, your big opportunity to help me out, and/or graffiti my page.

Also, I just got a twitter account. Do any of you have a twitter account? (This is me sheepishly asking you to be my friend. I think I only have one right now, if I counted correctly.)

=)

Thanks. Love.

s

so I am taking a sewing class over the summer, and have officially made my first Kleenex holder. VERY exciting. wanted to show off:

The Front:



The Back:



The Inside (now holding my pass to use the sewing room):



And next week, on to pillow cases! I'll be making pajama pants in no time!!

=)

Currently listening : Troubled Times By Holcombe Waller Release date: 2005-05-10

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who voted at www. OurStage. com. All three songs I had entered in the contest made it from the quarter-finals into the semi-finals.


Today is the official start of the semi-finals, and the order of the songs in the line-up has been re-randomized. At the end of the quarter-finals round, all three of my songs were in 1st place, but now I need more votes to climb back up. Voting should be even quicker and easier now that there are only 10 songs, and those of you who've voted before have already heard them.


To be clear - voting starts over each round. Your previous votes helped get me into the semi-finals, but don't count in this round. So vote again! We've got two days.
=)

Thanks so much for your help!!!

Currently listening : Fireproof By Dawn Landes Release date: 2008-03-04

I'm stalling, really. I think rarely do I write a blog with an audience so much in mind, and it feels kinda weird. I feel like I can't just make an announcement, though, without prefacing it with something. I mean, usually with blogs I just sort of wander around in my head and write it down and if people read it, ok. And if not, ok. But now I am actually writing a blog with the hopes that people will read it. And not just read it, but read it and take action.

So it feels weird. And because making an announcement in a blog is probably totally normal, that makes me weird?

Well, ok, now that we have that over with....

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

I have three songs that have qualified for the semi-finals at OurStage for the month of June, and although you cannot go directly to my songs to vote for them, there are only 20 songs in each category, so odds are if you vote 10 times or so, you'll hit one of mine. And maybe you'll discover cool new music, too. I definitely have.

Here's how it works:

You sign up for a free account (they really don't spam you, I promise), and then you choose which "channel" to vote in. You'll have two songs pop up, and you have to listen to at least 15 seconds of each. Then you just choose which one you think is better, and if you think it is just a little better or a lot better. That's it. And then you move on.

The songs I have in the semi-finals this month are:

Honeybee - in the Acoustic channel
Mimosa - in the Folk channel
How We Go - in the Singer/Songwriter (Female) channel

So, there you go. Announcement complete.

Thanks!

sometimes places you have loved are beautiful from the sky. sometimes they aren't. here are some I like:



my favorite bit of sand in the world.



makes sense that she twists like this. this is first city I loved on purpose.



have you ever seen a city look more like a cartoon? this is Leiden.



the first big city I lived in.





despite everything, this one got me a little in the end, too.



where I grew up. used to be just the one house. now we are neighborly.

Currently listening : Duncan Sheik By Duncan Sheik Release date: 1996-06-04

so I think probably most people would agree that blogs about concerts that they didn't attend are pretty boring. and yet when I go to a really good concert, I just can't seem to resist.

I had a conversation with my housemates-to-be a while back about the point of blogging. or I guess, lack of point? it is, I find, a difficult thing to articulate. I think it is a good and worthwhile endeavor all in all, but it is hard to explain, you know? like, why not just write in your diary? does anyone really care?

but I do care. there are blogs that I love. And I love looking back over mine and remembering where I was. And it's fundamentally different than a diary in some way that I can't quite put my finger on. It is still emerging, though, isn't it? We are still figuring it out. I think it is a medium with tremendous expressive potential.

that said, if the point of an blog is, in general, slightly dubious, then the point of a boring blog about a concert you didn't go to is even more suspect, right?

well, here goes anyway.

I went to see Tegan and Sara tonight. And they were reeeally great. Talkative and funny and likeable on stage and played all my favorite songs. Got my pop fix without feeling even slightly guilty about it. I know this probably sounds sort of technical thing to rave about, but their timing was PERFECT. like, so good that you notice it. Normally I think timing is something you notice only when it's off, but every single note they sang together they entered and exited with perfectly matched timing and inflection. I find that kind of thing really satisfying to listen to.

Also, they have the kind of voices that are better live than on the cd, which I think is rare, except in some cases of really low-budget cds, or early cds of people who haven't spent much time in the scary little sound box and are much more comfortable in a real room. But in this case, it wasn't that the cd was inferior, just that their voices were flawless live.

They also produce what I consider to be a very satisfying wall of sound - the kind where you can still hear all the sounds. I think maybe because their voices are SO treble, they can really blow out the bass without losing clarity, and so they can push out at both ends and make a huge stretchy tent of sound. Mixed in with acoustic moments (not folky, mind you, just acoustic) and pretty perfect harmonies...basically, The Con is a cd which should be played way loud. I have, evidently, never played it loudly enough. You should try it.

so today, according to some people, is st. patrick?s day. so the djs at the local indie rock station are getting drunk in the studio and playing green day all day. it?s kinda funny. they like green day, evidently. they also have a "green day or not green day" segment, where they play some obscure song by either green day or some band that sounds just like them, and give prizes if you get it right.

also in the local news (local, as in, the news pertaining to my daily locale), there has been an orange tree in the street for 3 days now. unfortunately all the oranges are pretty smashed up...my harvest attempts didn?t go well, but at least I tried...now, I would think, if you had plans to put your orange tree in the street, that you might look into what day the trash got picked up so it didn?t just sit there for ages. but then, perhaps I am not the kind of person to throw away an orange tree in the first place.

in other news, I have a lot of economics homework due very soon, so I made a video.

I was feeling sort of inspired to sing by some harassment (ok, harassment might be a strong word) by some of my friends, and so I did, and it was fun, and I taped some of me singing and then played with it on my macbook until I was a giant singing neon quilt. I also did I chipmunks version, which I think is very funny and cute, but which I will not subject you to. but maybe later if I keep thinking about all that econ I should be doing...

anyway, it's posted in the videos section.