#FreePussyRiot
Now, do I really mean any of these things? No. I don’t have much of an opinion of the president, I don’t believe in Jesus and I don’t know your mother. We live in a country where every asshole with an internet connection can spew their vile and/or patently retarded thoughts and ideas upon an unassuming public. All of this without fear of jail time or any other repercussions other than looking like a dick or being trolled on the comments section of your Facebook page.
I know it’s almost a cliche to go on about freedom of speech and how we take it for granted, so I’ll save the speech (No pun intended). Still I need to share the fact that I’m deeply disturbed at the sentencing of the free thinkers in Pussy Riot today. As an other empathetic, living breathing member of the human race, I’ve felt like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me all day. To see other artists whoring their wares while this is happening disgusts me to no end. Can’t you take one fucking day and make it about something other than YOU?
But that’s besides the point so I digress. (And yes, there are plenty of artists showing support and I love and respect you all!)
As an artist who unabashedly rails against religion in my music this definitely gave me pause and chilled me to my bones.
Don’t forget that things like this can still happen in the 21st century. And while you send another tweet about how you wish you had a boyfriend, or post a flyer to Facebook promoting your band/art/livestream vasectomy, remember the women of Pussy Riot. They’re sitting in jail for something far less banal, far more important - and to me, far less egregious.
- Daniel Godfrey 08.17.2012
Everytime a new dubstep song is written an orphan in Romania dies.
I Am The Icarus - The Father, The Heretic and The Son
Grace
The Gallows
Swimming The Witch
Forget
Rotting Away
Back And To The Left
Lost Signal
Doom Machine
My Black Star
Ode To Wasted Youth
I Am The Icarus - Destinations
A little sneak peak of the new record I’ve been trying to finish - The Father, The Heretic And The Son. A little lullaby, sleepy reprise of a song called Grace. Enjoy.
Perry The Platypus and I.
Secret Origins EP Available Now!
The Secret Origins EP is available NOW for $3 USD on http://iamtheicarus.bandcamp.com in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, FLAC and AAC. When you buy the Secret Origins EP, you’re helping to create and distribute the next I Am The Icarus record: every dollar earned goes toward that end. The first 1000 people to buy Secret Origins will get The Father, The Heretic And The Sonabsolutely FREE.
I Am The Icarus - Secret Origins EP Available 02/22/2011
The Secret Origins EP will be available 02/22/2011 for $3 USD on http://www.bandcamp.com in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, FLAC and AAC. When you buy the Secret Origins EP, you’re helping to create and distribute the next I Am The Icarus record: every dollar earned goes toward that end. The first 1000 people to buy Secret Origins will get The Father, The Heretic And The Sonabsolutely FREE.
IATI Mission Statement 2011
For years much like a poor and dusty kid outside a diner in winter, nose pressed against the glass, I’ve viewed the music industry from the outside. Over the past few years I’ve had my foot in the door (and had said door closed on it) of the business of entertainment. I’ve witnessed an industry that is still so painfully out of touch in the age of social media and unabashed in its ignorance.
There are still old-school dinosaurs attempting to apply old world media solutions to a model that’s evolved past it. The next I Am The Icarus release is an experiment (that could fail miserably) in using the Trent Reznor/Kevin Smith model of using a word of mouth/viral campaign to raise awareness and funds, albeit on a much smaller scale.
It’s with this spirit in mind that I’m releasing the Secret Origins EP.
The title appeals to the comic book nerd in me and the fact that I’m indeed selling the past to pay for the future of the band. The four songs on the Secret Origins EP are previously unavailable songs recorded in 2007. The origins of IATI are literally in every nook and cranny of these songs, you can see where it’s going. It’s Punk Rock in its raw, imperfect, purity and written/recorded on the heels of forming IATI.
Every dollar earned goes towards finishing the NEXT IATI record - The Father, The Heretic And The Son - and releasing it to you independently.
True independence is releasing your music on your OWN terms and deciding how it should and WILL be used. It occurred to me that servicing your art to major media companies and NOT the fans makes absolutely ZERO sense to my sensibilities. It’s a calculated risk and I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’ve been inspired by Kevin Smith over the past year to in his words - “Keep your head up and never chase the puck; go where the puck’s gonna be.” – And that’s what I intend on doing.
When you buy the Secret Origins EP, you’re helping to create and distribute the next IATI record: every dollar earned goes toward that end. As an added incentive not only do you get to be a part of the making of the next record but the first 1000 people to buy Secret Origins will get The Father, The Heretic And The Sonabsolutely FREE. Not only free but in ANY format you want, MP3, FLAC, WAV etc.
I need YOUR help. Spread the word on facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc. Blog about it, send texts - Be apart of something exciting and truly progressive.
Let’s show the rest of the world where the industry is heading - Truly independent and willing to take a chance.
I Am The Icarus
Daniel Godfrey
(Source: iamtheicarus.com)
I am the Icarus: Music Industry Dinosaurs Should Take Note.
RED STATE, U.S.A. Tour
The Harvey Boys have witnessed first hand the vagaries of “studio math” - the byzantine numbers game that sees an uneducated media and public celebrating “huge” openings at the box office while ignoring the obscene marketing costs attached to reach those figures. We believe it’s a pyrrhic victory to simply “buy” an opening weekend by pouring millions of dollars into TV spots, billboards and print ads. As storytellers, why not instead use our creative abilities that resulted in a film in the first place to also creatively SELL that film directly to our public?
We believe the state of film marketing has become ridiculously expensive and exclusionary to the average filmmaker longing simply to tell their story. When the costs of marketing and releasing a movie are four times that film’s budget, it’s apparent the traditional distribution mechanism is woefully out of touch with not only the current global economy, but also the age of social media.
Therefore, The Harvey Boys will not spend a dime on old world media buys (such as TV/Print/Outdoor) as we self-distribute our film, Red State, in an admittedly unconventional, yet extremely cost effective, word of mouth/viral campaign.
Knowledge is power, and we believe in empowering the filmmaker - so the Harvey Boys vow to make the financials of Red State open and transparent from which anybody hoping to follow suit can learn. We will do what no studio has dared: open up our books for the world to see so anyone interested in pursuing a similar independent release strategy has a better understanding of the BUSINESS of Red State.
And if we’re successful - or even merely effective - at producing a film distribution apparatus that can stand apart from the cost-prohibitive studio model currently viewed as the only way to get a movie into a theater? It is our intent to use the groundwork we lay with Red State to aid other filmmakers in releasing THEIR films, via our newly launched SModcast Pictures.
Don’t hate the studio; BECOME the studio. Anybody can make a movie; what we aim to prove is anyone can release a movie as well
The Harvey Boys
Jon Gordon & Kevin Smith
Get RED STATE Shirts and Posters. When you buy Red State merchandise, you’re helping to distribute the movie: every penny made from all Red State merchandise goes into the print-making budget. The per-print cost is roughly $2500, so for a 1000-print run, we’ll need approximately $2.5 million dollars.
Protest the protest. Counter-protest Motherfuckers!!
My fear of death and inability to form a cohesive thought.
Life proves to be as unpredictable as always with every passing year, the only constant is its ability to surprise me. I’ve learned that any attempt to struggle against is an exercise in the futile and absurd. It has occurred to me recently that a transformation of the way I view this existence is needed if I’m going to make the most of it. The biggest obstacle I have to overcome is the one truth I’ve never been able to reconcile; one day we are all going to die. Maybe it’s the causal effects of being raised to believe that there was a heaven, only to later have it occur to me that it was specious information at best. My fear of death is made worse by an irrational sense that I will also die young. I have no idea how that stuck in my craw but it did.
As I crest ever closer to my thirties I’m more confident that I know what I want to accomplish and more or less how to accomplish these things. There are a few important facts that I need to register and keep in mind as I continue this ride. Paramount is the fact that I am, and always have been, driven by destinations. While I’m not absolutely convinced that this is a terrible way of life, it’s not without its flaws. The most obvious and immediate danger is that life will pass you by and you would have missed it. Life becomes about a series of major events and you tend to regard the small ones with a sort of indifference. When you start banking on a future that doesn’t exist you run the risk of living your life in a strange non-reality way station of daydreaming.
I spent an inordinate amount of time alone in 2010 and was terrified to learn how easy it was for me to do this. Granted, I was facing health issues which left me in a constant state of malaise, pain and depression, but it’s no excuse to let life pass you by and…wait…
What the fuck was my point? I’m not sure that I had one anymore. I sat down with the intention of blogging again and became lost in my own hazy thoughts. And then a voice could be heard saying, “Welcome back Mr. Godfrey, we missed you. Won’t you stay awhile?”
