lakeandtheriver blog post
Sucker made it to #3 on Amazon
First of all, welcome everybody to the other side. If you’re reading this you’ve had at least 24 hours to get your Color Spectrum on. The official fan forums are lighting up with new members and immense praise. Twitter is filled with nothing but TDH love. Here on Tumblr we’re seeing all sorts of reblogging. Yesterday was a very big day indeed.
For those of you not following us on Twitter, let me recap some of the biggest Color Spectrum news from yesterday:
1. Peaked at #3 on Amazon’s Hot New Alt. Rock Releases. (proof!)
2. Made it to #18 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases
3. Topped out at #6 on the Movers and Shakers list
I don’t have stats for other mediums (and I have to get to work soon) but The Color Spectrum took off in a major way, and it’s in large part due to you awesome fans. Let me share with you what the ever humble Mr. Casey Crescenzo had to say about the launch efforts:
How to start this..?
For the past 5 years I have been working without pause on trying to be the best I could be at this strange thing I do- doing my best to power through any hurdle that presented itself, be it personal or professional. I have always written from the heart, and done my best to remain transparent as an artist and an individual.
You guys have been with me the whole way, and have given me such amazing inspiration throughout this strange birth of a ‘career’. Simply writing here is not enough to show you how grateful I am, and I wish there was a more tangible way for me to show you, but I just want you to know in your hearts that it means the world to me, and that I know for a fact I would not be anywhere close to where I am if it weren’t for the unwavering support and love you have shown me.
It is incredibly humbling that you have all been so kind to me, and I hope with every future release you feel more and more gratitude, because it is most certainly due to you.
Thank you guys so much.
(viewable on the forums here)
So we made a difference, and should be proud of our support.
But that was only the first day! While it seems like that was the most important part, what we really should be doing is continuing to support this release. So here’s your post-launch plan: promote like crazy.
Tweet about your favorite ep/song (use the #colorspectrum tag!), blog and reblog others (and tag appropriately!), share the streaming tracks with friends, change your profile picture to your favorite ep cover art, join the forum and discuss more ways to keep the interest level high,write a review of the album (either on a blog or on the site you purchased from), suggest the $8 compilation instead of the full collection for your cheap friends, or think of a new awesome way to represent.
We’d love to hear more suggestions on how to keep this multicolored ball rolling! Submit your ideas in whatever way you see fit. We’re listening to you (because we are fans just like you)
that all being said, I have perhaps a short and long, or just LONG commentary about it and a few other related things.
but here's a post I made over at mp.com
Orange for me is definitely one of the better ones. Echo and Stuck On a Wire, Out on the Fence are both great tunes.
Early on, I'd say Orange and Indigo are my favorites. "Mandala" and "Progress" are both 2 of the better songs in this collection.
However, I'm starting to be of the belief
a) this "collection" is really not so much a collection of songs, but EPs of course, thus it's not really incredibly *cohesive*. It ain't a CONCEPT album/boxed set. The only part of it being the fact each EP represents a color.
b) it's of course pretty effing long. 36 songs, some 144 minutes? Sadly, I'm doubting how addictive it will become ultimate, thus it's chances for a high placing in the Album of the Year Index may not be so great now thinking about it.
c) there are *highlights* or standout tracks, but also mood or even sort of *filler* tracks, which seem to be slated for the Color they represent.
d) 3 or 4 tracks there was a bit of cymbals clipping. Okay, not sounding terrible, but they may hurt said tunes at least to an extent.
That all being said, right now, my biggest concern is not even how great this is, but MY CONFIRMATION EMAIL FOR THE JULY 22ND CONCERT IN MINNEAPOLIS still has yet to come in. I have no idea wtf I am doing wrong. But I just hope now that the Colors Spectrum is out and released, shipped, etc. Casey and Max or whoever else is involved with doing the Lifetime Membership rsvp confirmation emails gets around to reading and responding to at least 1 of the 3 I have sent in.
Now, with all that being said, hopefully in the coming days/weeks I can manage to write a more detailed, accurate review here. But this will have to do for now.
edit here's a new video of Casey just commenting a bit on the whole thing.
one thing that I meant to add earlier/mean to add when a more proper review comes as well. When I 1st heard about this project and especially late in 2009/early 2010 when Casey said somewhere about finally doing it in full, etc. The idea of instead of releasing it like this, all-at-once, releasing it, at least digitally, 1 ep at a time, every month or 2. Leading up to then the release of Act IV.
So, if they had done that, but still wrote and recorded as it was done, the 1st EP would have come out digitally, in March or April, and then over the next 18 months or whatever, the band would would write and record Act IV (within their down time from touring, and Casey's other work of course like The River Empires and producing Falling Up's new album).
Thus, each EP would be taken-in more thoroughly on-its-own, yet still as a fan, the down time between EPs would not be too long. And the time frame for Act IV would still be within a reasonable amount of time. Now Act IV very well may be released sometime in the Summer or Fall of 2012 anyway, but at least the whole hugeness and extensive work of putting this whole thing out, in some ways may find the band and Casey not really all that energized to do work on the next Act so fast.
Kind of reminds me of the Portnoy + Dream Theater story in 2010.
The Acts are still the meat and basis of TDH music, at least for now. And if somehow, even as great as this whole thing is and what it may/is doing for Casey as a songwriter, I just hope it doesn't delay or impact how and when the Acts get done. I mean think about Sufjan Stevens. Michigan, Illinois..all 50 States? yeah, we now know what happened.
