HELP ME BUILD A DIRTY MANSION
LET'S PUT A ROOF ON THIS THING
The doors are flung wide! You have a month, till August 3rd, more or less, to help me take the “Coffee Table CD” further than I ever have… I’ve come most of the way over the past two years, but there’ll be no getting a roof on this thing without you. The last time you lent me a hand, we took that beautiful thing all the way to the JUNOS. Wanna do it again? Who’s with me?
Dirty Mansions, the quick description: a 10-song album produced, over five visits to Winnipeg between June ’17 and April ’19, by Scott Nolan, and engineered by Jamie Sitar. It features Joanna Miller, Jeremy Rusu, Julian Bradford, Andrina Turenne, Alexa Dirks (Begonia), Jaxon Haldane, Jason Nowicki, Treasa Levasseur, Julie Penner, Jessica Rae Ayre, a few other friends, and Scott Nolan’s magic throughout.
I’m in a sweet position, ‘cause it’s the best thing I’ve done, but it never talks down to its siblings––I mean, they grew up together. They’ve got the same freckles, you see it instantly, that they’re brothers and sisters––but Dirty Mansions is the grown-up here. If you came upon all five of my records, lounging on a front stoop, you’d know straight away that Dirty Mansionsunderstands things the others haven’t learned yet. Record Lonesome Night is bright-faced, tender, melancholic, and hopeful––she’s the sweet one, for sure. There Will Always Be a Small Time is a lot of fun to run around town with––oh, he’ll show you the wrong side of the dawn, any night of the week. Paper Nickels glows, and is purely, unabashedly generous, and there’s always something in his eyes that he’s excited to show you––which is why we love him. Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams, younger than you’d expect, she’ll go to the movies with you, and up that ferris wheel that almost reaches the moon, and you’ll be half in love with her by the end of the first date. Dirty Mansions, on the other hand, is who you’ll come to with the things you can’t tell anybody else. DM shares all the qualities that we look for in his kin, he’s just… settled. More assured. Twice as literary as Record Lonesome Night and Small Time, but more than the others, has the gift of being a listener. You can relax, and be yourself. Maybe Dirty Mansions is what Small Time will become, if that record ever grows up!
GOOD PEOPLE! This is my first collection of originals in three-and-a-half years! It’ll be available as a 150-plus-page Coffee Table CD, by download, and on VINYL, at long last. The download, only available with the thing, will offer you two bonus tracks, and over twenty thousand words (for perspective, Bookworm is 9,000). I want to give you more with this one than I ever have, so if you want it, be the Big Truck on it.
It’ll be finished, printed, and in your hand by the end of September. The rest of the world can have it at by Hallowe’en, or shortly after. I’m rehiring the magnificent publicity team that did such a consummate job putting Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams into the world––but again, I can’t do this without your support. I’ve worked on this for 24 months, too late to stop now!
Any pre-purchases or donations you make go entirely and directly to me––there’s no Middle Man and no one holds the money but us––because Bandzoogle is awesome that way. Check out the fun ways we can get together on this, and thank you, for helping me make the thing, and for carrying the fire.
(All prices CAD$, with a shipping disclaimer––the shipping price is turbo-charged, $11 in Canada, more beyond. We're not totally sure what this pack is going to weigh, and we want to be 100% sure it gets to you. We can't seem to alter this right now, but it feels safest to make certain you're covered. We're figuring this out, but in the meantime, turbo-shipping will give you tracking and express post––and I love you!)
HEAR A TINY DIRTY PREVIEW
MAKE A DIRTY DONATION
DIRTY MANSIONS CD STORE
The classic, with the one frill of being opened and defaced (inscribed, if you prefer) by yours truly.
Dirty Mansions: Your name in the book, signed 150-plus-page Coffee Table CD and pre-release download
There’s nothing like having your name in the book. It’s a piece of joy forever, and a tribute you can be proud of, tattooed on the very pages you made possible.
Comes with a 15-20 song MIX CD, curated with love, which will serve as a reflection of the influences that fed the album, songs that fuel my own writing––including those which directly relate to the album book and to the tracks of Dirty Mansions, as well as some killer Canadian and Small Time stuff you might not know (yet). I’m a good DJ. Try me.
DIRTY MANSIONS VINYL STORE
This is exciting for me on many levels. My first vinyl, a long time coming, and my first official affliation with Cameron House Records, whose roster of albums I see each week upon entering the bar, and whose number I’m proud to join. The vinyl will include art and liner notes not included with the Coffee Table CD. With download link.
Opened, vandalized (inscribed), and delivered to your door. With a pre-release download link. The physical vinyl includes art and liner notes not included with the Coffee Table CD.
Again, a rarified list of names to whom I’m so happy to personally express my gratitude.Your names will also be included, spoken backwards, in demonic voices only dogs will hear, on the wax itself. When your dog whimpers under your bed each time you spin the record, you can be extra proud. Comes with pre-release download (also demonic). The vinyl will include art and liner notes not included with the Coffee Table CD.
The Kaboodle. The wax, with art and notes exclusive to the vinyl; the wealth of the book, with two bonus tracks, and the CD (whose reflective surface will help you alert passing planes if you find yourself on a desert island, where, I might add, you just may also find this album among your picks); plus the MIX CD, which, in special-feature-fashion will be a rich, curated-entertainment unto itself, and, as Rogue One was for Star Wars, quite possibly a strengthening of the main event. With pre-release download.
OTHER DIRTY OPTIONS
I love you crazy audiophiles. You always ask if it’s okay to record the show for your personal use (which makes it sound like a recreational drug, which I guess it kind of is); your closet contains decades’ worth of performances which have no other existing archive; your shelves are peppered with special editions and one-off releases, and you’re half the reason I have a job. You may want the all-whiteness of the test pressing preserved, but I’m more than happy to take a sharpie to it for you. Crazy audiophile, I’m glad you’re out there.
As in the days when the neighbourhood gathered round the only black and white TV on the block to watch the game, I’ll come to your place, we’ll have some dinner, or snacks, maybe a few drinks, and then we’ll congregate around the speakers and listen, together, to the only copy, while it’s still a THING––while it still has the power to bring people together. In a world of disposable consumption, this is a ritual that’s been lost. This is a get-together, and an introduction to these sounds which you’ll never forget. Needs to be within driving distance, here in Ontario, or in AB/BC when I’m there this summer. (I mean, heck, I’ll fly to Australia for $5,000.00.) With signed 150-plus-page Coffee Table CD, pre-release download, and your name in the book,
Emma Jane's CD Club
This might be the coolest option of them all.
My dear friend Emma Jane––who’s also one of the best friends that musicians have––has worked for fifteen years in myriad sectors of the folk business (she and her friend Gaby produce “The Campsite,” hands down the classiest “unofficial” showcase room at Folk Alliance and Folk Music Ontario conferences). Emma Jane’s been a publicist’s assistant, has worked for the Ontario Arts Council, and has earned a full-time living as a freelance administrator( for artists such as myself, for one). Emma was my right hand and administrative matrona through the entire Canadian Tire money caper. If you enjoyed that adventure, know it was as much her work as mine that made it so fun. It was certainly Emma who dressed as Sandy McTire the nights Paper Nickels was recorded, and who kept track of the freshets of Tire money that poured in during those shows. Emma currently works for ReSound, an organization that tracks down stray royalties for musicians and master owners, to see that rights-holders receive money they may not even know they're owed. And Emma is launching... CD CLUB!
Check it out. For $25/month, every 30 days you’ll receive a brand new CD in the mail, in stylish CD CLUB branding––the first of which, if you choose this option, will be Dirty Mansions. Emma needs 100 subscribers to set CD CLUB in motion, but when she does, it means that each month an artist will be paid flat-out for 100 CDs (which pleasingly flies directly in the face of Spawnify’s 4% of a penny, more on that later). You’ll receive some mailbox love, get turned onto new music––but more importantly, you'll be participating in the Small Time, going against the popular consumer grain, and helping get something very cool off the ground. This $75 subscription includes 3 delivered CDs in Oct, Nov, and Dec, plus a small, sweet, extra gift from CD CLUB! Bahoozbah! And long live Emma Jane!
SUPPORT THE ALBUM WITH A DIRTY DONATION
DIRTY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Are prices in CAD$?
Yep.
How much is shipping?
The shipping price is turbo-charged, $11 in Canada, more beyond. We're not totally sure what this pack is going to weigh, and we want to be 100% sure it gets to you. We can't seem to alter this right now, but it feels safest to make certain you're covered. We're figuring this out, but in the meantime, turbo-shipping will give you tracking and express post––and I love you!
When will my order arrive?
Orders will be shipped out in late September.
When can I hear the album?
Download links will be sent out shortly after you receive the thing in mid-September, which is kind of the point of this one. You'll see.
When will the rest of the world hear the album?
The official release date for the album is October 25, 2019