It is with great pleasure to anounce that my new record is now available for listening and purchasing. At the moment, the only place to get the record (Download or physical C.D.) is through my BandCamp Website. Please visit http://kevinlong.bandcamp.com/ !

I was talking with some musician friends who are more successful than myself a few months ago and this came up. One of these buddies expressed relief that he was not always being pegged as the “post-christian angst” guy anymore, though it had served the purpose for a time in helping establish his fanbase, and another mentioned that people grabbed on to the fact that he used to be a fashion designer before going into music.

When I was on my first real tour last year, the main act I was on tour with was struggling a bit with a lull in ticket and album sales compared to previous years. In talks with his management team, they brought up this same point. Maybe he didn’t have a good story anymore, or that times had changed and that having a good story is really what is making things sell, that this is what they were observing in the marketplace today. This is a man who has written a hundred great songs.

I am probably just as guilty as the next guy for feeding into this–maybe it is an unavoidable part of our nature and our curiousity. The mythology of people like Nick Drake and Edith Piaf are probably a big part of why I’ve obsessed over their music. Even James Taylor (who I am somehow frequently compared to), the quintessence of Dad-folk, is the recovering heroin junky of “Fire and Rain” fame.

I’ll admit that in reading the bio blips for “Father John Misty” (Josh Tillman), I found them compelling for some reason. That this guy, after becoming so disenchanted with the state of acoustic folk music and depressed over living in Seattle and playing in a super famous band, hit the road with nowhere to go and a bunch of mushrooms and tripped his balls off and wrote a “novel” and then made a really silly and great record (it really is great though, maybe my favorite album of 2012).

Naturally, as an aspiring musician and songwriter trying to get my name out there, seeing these over-arching micro-histories as being of such apparent importance, has got me thinking about what my story might be. I’ve even hung my head a few times in despondence, with the uncomfortable thought that pursuing any career success in music might be an exercise in futility simply because I don’t have some kind of good story.

Then I want to smack myself. I can’t believe I’ve actually considered that to be a possible reality.
We’ve all got a story, and real life stories are complicated, and not gimmicky. My story runs deeper than anything else that I know, and thats why I’ve written a ton of songs, and why I feel like I have a million more in me left to write.

Sure I’m a white kid who grew up in the suburbs and I have a nice family, and I am thankful for all of that, but those things hardly define me as an artist. How do I even begin to tell my story in a way that the masses can swallow it up? Which story do you want to hear? Do you want to hear the story about the first time I took L.S.D. when I was 13 years old and saw carpets made of worms, trees that moved like organic machines and clouds that were made of skulls and bones (I made up an interesting phrase that day: Exspiralmenting Tetrahydracles), or about how every teacher I ever had told me that I was one of brightest kids they had encountered, yet I failed out of school over and over again and to this day I cannot get into a University without serious remedial work?

I could tell you about the day in second grade when I came to school on “Whacky Dress-Up Day!” and it was not Whacky Dress-up Day after all. My hair was spiked and had glitter in it, I was wearing my M.C. Hammer pants and a pair of Ninja Turtle slippers. That was an embarassing day, especially when I got up too fast for recess and my Hammer pants got caught on my chair splitting them at the crotch and exposing my tighty-whitey underwears. Walking home a sixth grader added insult to injury and said “I’ll kick your ass in those Ninja-Turtle slippers!”.

I could tell you about watching the members of my childhood church being “slain in the spirit” and hearing the pastor’s thunderous yells about tithing, and how these things planted the seed of doubt in me, or about my mother’s agony over the still-birth of what would have been her first daughter.

I could tell you about the first time I remember feeling left out, for not being picked for a soccer team in 4th grade, and how 15 years later I’d feel the same thing on literally dozens if not hundreds of nights sitting alone on a barstool, glancing over at groups of laughing night-lifers and wondering why I don’t have the guts to just introduce myself to somebody.

I could tell you about the 7 months I spent living in Haight-Ashbury, lying to the only few friends I had, about those nights when I would knowingly overdraw my bank account so I could score, and having nosebleeds in both nostrils and a heart beating out of my chest was not enough for me to stop putting that filth up my nose, even at 10 AM the next day after not sleeping. I could tell you about how when I was 14, my best friend was beaten to death in front of his mom by some asshole who breeds pitbulls and the 7 years the guy got in prison for it. Brandon left his guitar at my house that same afternoon, I still have it and will always keep it.

I could tell you about the thousands of pretty girls I wanted to say hi to but was too shy, the ones I did say hi to that ended up loving me, the ones whose hearts I broke and the ones who broke mine.

I could tell you about going to raves in the 90s, computer hacking when the FBI actually got involved, crowd-surfing at a slayer concert, writing my first few songs at 3am sneaking cigarettes in my parents garage in the dead of winter with numb fingers barely able to press down the strings of my Yamaha FG-200, or about how when I first rode a bike without training wheels I jubilantly exclaimed to my grandfather “I FEEL THE KEVINEST!”.

We have all got a story, and it’s a damn shame we don’t hear more people’s stories in depth. I’m thankful for the chances I have had to tell pieces of mine through music, and really want to do a lot more of that. I just hope I don’t get throttled by this construct that I keep hearing about, that “you’ve got to have a story”, if mine doesn’t easily fit into the mold of it, as if we all don’t have an amazing one to tell if we are given the chance to. I didn’t escape a shark attack and wasn’t born in David Koresh’s WACO compound, but man, I’ve been trying to do this music thing for a long ass time.

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I have a few shows coming up in the NW:

Oct 19th – Seattle, WA – City Arts Fest w/Tiny Vipers, Neil Halstead and Case Studies @ Rendezvous
Oct 27th – Bellevue, WA – House Show
Nov 14th – Bellingham WA – Western Washington University “Underground”

More to come soon. Cheers!

Hey guys! I just checked into the hotel in Denton, TX where we play tonight.

I can’t believe so many cities have gone by without a blog post. Heres the skinny:

San Diego @ Casbah : Fun but Grimey spot, reminiscent of El Corazon in Seattle. Decently attended, maybe 125 people? The most memorable thing about the show for me was that people were being really loud, and I asked them super nice to be quiet and it WORKED. They were totally cool after that. CRAZY.

That night was super fun because Curran and I stayed with my friend Vanessa who I hadn’t seen in a long time, at her new place where her and some Coachella people who were STILL hanging around were all crashing! She left her keys somewhere and these guys had to make a human ladder to break into the window of her place. Other shenanigans ensued, and a dank breakfast @ a place called Mission was bomb dot com.

Phoenix @ Rhythm Room : Another sorta grimey place, but this was my favorite show of the tour so far, at least performance wise. The sound was surprisingly great, and I felt super comfortable that night bantering with the audience. People really listened well here. A drunk guy pretty much ruined Rocky’s set by singing along horribly and loudly despite Rocky asking him nicely to stop several times, they eventually threw him out but not before most of the show was over.

Albuquerque @ Low Spirits : Aptly named place for this stop on the tour. Attendance was super low. Curran and I were thinking a lot about Breaking Bad while here. I saw one old friend from high school but that was about it. OK Set from us. Curran had to leave and fly to Seattle to play a wedding and so I am playin the next 3 shows alone.

LONG DRIVE ALL DAY BY MYSELF AND STAYED IN A CRAPPY COW TOWN CALLED SWEETWATER TEXAS (in an overpriced hotel room that was huge).

Austin, TX @ Lambert’s: I had really looked forward to seeing Austin, but I honestly did not have a very good time there. The traffic was horrible, I had a hard time finding things and drove around stressed out a bunch. A lot of people came to the show, but the venue was a really bad place for me to play, especially solo. Tons of nice people were trying to listen to me, but the roar of the other bar patrons not there to see the show totally overpowered me and I didn’t deal with it well. I cowered behind my guitar and just played until it was over. I hope my next trip to Austin is better ! Sorry to anyone who had to see me and my bad attitude. Some people were nice and said nice things and bought my album which actually surprised me.

So here I am in Denton TX, and I cruised by the place we are playing tonight.. it looks pretty crazy, its like a band rehearsal spot with a bar/stage, This is some seriously gritty sh*t, its like a shack in the middle of a field. I hope I don’t get beat up here!

Having so much fun seeing the country.

ALSO , some super generous people who have seen me on tour are helping make the kickstarter a success. I am talking about a $300 and $500 donation from people who saw me play on tour. That is so rad! I thought that I would get more small donations on the tour, but I am getting fewer, larger ones from some seriously awesome folks.

THANK YOU!!!

Surprisingly little time to blog about stuff from the road! Having a great time though. We just played our 4th show of the tour. All of the shows have been great so far.

The drive from Portland to SF was a long one. Check the pic above of Gertrude, the mannequin in the bathtub of a rest stop near Redding, CA (so creepy, ask me about it sometime). It was quite a trip to play at Bottom of the Hill in S.F., for two reasons, the last time I was there was basically in a past life, and because SO many friends and family came out. That was awesome. I think I had over 20 people come out to see us, even a few fans from youtube. The crowd was a bit chatty there, but we still got a good response overall and it was great to (sortof) catchup with people. Curran has been singing “White Daisy Passing” with Rocky each night, which is RAD! They are talking about working out a few more songs.

After S.F. Curran and I got a cheap hotel in Oakland and crashed super hard, but not before stopping by my best friend’s club night where Flying Lotus was playing and there were over 1600 people there.

The drive to LA was sunny and full of rolling hills, and cows. We went straight to to the venue for load-in and before we knew it we were playing at the Troubador. I was dripping sweat, it was hot as hell and I was super nervous. The crowd was really quiet and attentive in L.A. which was awesome.

Last night we played at a smaller spot called The Wire in Upland, CA, a smaller town about 45 minutes east of L.A. It was a younger all ages crowd, and the place was a small venue/art gallery and recording studio. Kids were super nice there and also listened very intently.

We crashed the last two nights with one of my best friends Justin Knittle in downtown L.A. We slept great, kicked it in hollywood, ate greasy food.

Off to San Diego for the last California show.

We are having a blast and all 4 shows have been great so far.

Until next time! -Kevin (and Curran).

Last night was the first show of tour in Portland at Mississippi. We showed up 3 hours before our set time, got a great soundcheck and all the people who worked at Mississippi were super gracious to us.

Rocky was running a bit late for soundcheck as we was having some car problems. I was a little bit anxious for his arrival since I hadn’t seen him or talked to him since I played with him in Spokane about 6 months ago. I shouldn’t have been anxious about it, Rocky Votolato is pretty much the nicest guy in the music business. He repeatedly thanked us and told us how much he appreciated us being on the tour with him.

I started off our set by telling the crowd that this was the first night of our first real tour ever and that was met with warm friendly cheers. I estimate there was a little over 200 people at the show, which made the 300 capacity venue feel pretty much full but not crowded. Mississippi reminds me of Columbia City Theater in Seattle, though a little smaller and not as fancy.

We had a few minor flubs in our set but all in all I felt really comfortable, more comfortable than usual actually (having Curran on stage with me for the first 6 songs helps that a lot). People were really receptive to my songs which was really encouraging. There was a couple chatty cats in the crowd but not as bad as a lot of nights.

Sold a lot of CDs, got quite a few mailing list signups, got hit on a bunch (so did Curran). Crashed at the church-house thing again (thanks Gwen!!)

Anyways, we are off to San Francisco.. LONG DRIVE.

XO – Kevin & Curran

Yesterday I picked up the rental car I’ll be driving almost 6,000 miles between now and the 21st. Authorized charge for the rental car was over 1,000 dollars on my credit card. Ouch! 1-way rentals are hella expensive, fyi, hertz was the best price I could find. The ipod connector, gps, and the fact that I’ll be flying back home to Seattle when this is all done is going to make it all worth it, though I still haven’t figured out how I am going to get all my gear back to Seattle.

It started raining in Seattle just as I getting in the car to take off and rained for a good portion of the trip down here to Portland. It felt bittersweet leaving of course, 27 days is a long time to be gone, and I imagined that my brother Curran would be with me on the first day of travelling but alas he is meeting me in Portland and should be here very soon. My MOM is coming to the first night of tour, she has never been to Portland before in her life which is crazy.

Last night I met up with my old friend Gwen who I’ve known since Jr. High. We only see eachother about once a year it seems, she is a crazy world traveller, more than anyone I’ve ever known actually, it’s nice that she is plopped down in Portland for a while doing some college and let me stay at her pad.

Her place is AMAZING. It is an absolutely gorgeous old church, complete with a huge beautiful stained glass window in the front of it. Six people live in there. Its insane. The ceiling has huge rafters and is curved like a dome. There is a real bell tower! Her roommates are chill and I met her friend Ben who does video work and is currently working on a new music video for the band Other Lives which is a pretty big deal. He offered to video the show tonight, not sure if it’ll work out but could be cool.

I had to WORK my DAY JOB today. Like I had a conference call with my boss and my bosses boss at 9:30 AM. Good news for me is that as of now, I do not have to worry about my day job until I get to NYC on May 21st and work remotely starting at noon that day. That will kindof be a drag, but at least I’ll be in NYC.

Most important thing: The first SHOW is tonight at Mississippi Studios in Portland. I am super excited, this is actually my first show in Portland which is crazy considering how much I’ve played in Seattle and Spokane.

Wish me (us) luck.

Will be posting an update every day hopefully.

Love y’all.

- Kevin Long

$8,000 is a lofty goal, and if I don’t raise it all by May 21st, I get ZERO. That is how kickstarter works.

Everyone’s help in making this go viral is key. I’ve put some real thought into my explanation of the project and the history behind it. Please check out the project, pledge if you can. If you can’t, you can still support, simply by spreading the word to your friends through social media or otherwise! Thank you so much.

Here is the link!

It’s been too long. I’d like to thank my friend Karli Ingersoll for giving this website a quick 1-2 , it was lookin’ pretty fugly there for a while!

Some updates. I recently spent about 4 days in b50 recording studio in Ballard starting a 2nd record. I decided to scrap the sessions I did there, but it was a good learning experience. I have a much better vision now for how I want the recording process to go for the next album, and plan to resume serious recording in June. I have some videos from the studio to share of me playing 5 songs. Those will get posted soon!

The big news is that I am going on tour. The best part is that I am going on tour with one of my heroes, Rocky Votolato. I’ve been a fan of Rocky for almost 10 years. I saw him open for Pedro the Lion in 2003 at the Graceland (now El Corazon) and have been following him ever since. Mixtapes/Cellmates was the first tune of his that I fell in love with, but since those early days he was released MANY tunes that have been very influential to me. I opened a show for him in Spokane about 6 months ago, and that along with some good luck and persistence got his people to let me do this. May is going to be ridiculous! 16 cities in 19 days, then another final show at Neumos in Seattle on June 9th.

My amazing brother Curran Long will be joining me on stage for the first 7 shows (pdx through abq).

Here are the dates, hope to see ya there:

5/02 Wed – Portland, OR – Mississippi
5/04 Fri – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
5/05 Sat – West Hollywood, CA – Troubadour
5/06 Sun – Upland, CA – The Wire Music and Art Venue
5/07 Mon – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
5/08 Tue – Phoenix AZ – Rhythm Room
5/09 Wed – Albuquerque, NM – Low Spirits Bar & Stage
5/11 Fri – Austin, TX – Lambert’s
5/12 Sat – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
5/13 Sun – Norman, OK – The Opolis
5/15 Tue – Kansas City, MO – The Record Bar
5/16 Wed – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
5/17 Thu – Chicago, IL – Schuba’s Tavern
5/18 Fri – Lansing, MI – Mac’s Bar
5/19 Sat – Toronto, ON – The Drake Hotel
5/20 Sun – Rochester, NY – The Bug Jar
6/09 Sat – Seattle, WA – Neumos