MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Sept 28, 2009 13:42:10 GMT -5
Not a lot of details confirmed yet but MB (michaelblacke) will releasing a Best Of compilation this fall. Two new songs will be recorded for the album that will also contain past hits. Not sure what the tracklisting will be yet. Also, MB will be mixing some of the older songs and mastering them for the first time. No word on when the single will be released but apparently it will be early October. This will be MB's first recording in over two years!
What songs do you think will be/should be on it?
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 8, 2009 17:24:38 GMT -5
RETIRE?
There's been a lot of talk of retirement in recent years in the music industry. An announcement made that seems to never hold much weight but that does cross genres. Celine Dion made the announcement at the end of the last decade that made headlines. She promised to take time off to start a family. Granted, she did say it wouldn't be permanent but in two years, she was back again. In hip-hop, Jay-Z has made the claim numerous times. 50 Cent even made it a game plan in hopes of selling records. Only it backfired on him... or on us. Promising to retire from music if his record didn't beat first-week sales of Kanye West. He lost. And he didn't retire. Eminem planned to retire and called his final record Encore. In his defense, he admits he lost by calling his new record Relapse. In country, Garth Brooks seems to have been the most successful retiree. Only recently announcing after taking most of the decade off that he will be performing in Vegas. On a much much smaller scale, talk of "retiring" has been brought up by MB, or MichÊl Blacke. He made the potential claim back in 2002. He didn't stay away and it was made an assumption again in 2007. Is it sticking? It's only weeks away from the release of Blacke's first compilation album containing the best songs from the decade since his first album in 2000. That doesn't quite count as a "return", but. But! There is a new recording on it. Not recycled. Not re-recorded from a few years ago. But brand new! New music. New lyrics. New production. How's that for retiring? But Blacke didn't promise retirement. In fact, he never once said the word. He didn't say much anything at all. That's because for the last two years, MB has been missing in action. The singer/songwriter/producer completely ended the recording sessions for his last record and refused to finish it. Leaving his label The Max Records to finish compiling it themselves and release it without any further promo. Of course, the album ended up becoming his least successful release so far despite being, what Blacke had said previously "my best songs musically and melodically." What happened? Blacke's two-year relationship came to an abrupt end. A situation that would have caused most writers to go into complete solitude and write until their hand fell off left Blacke feeling no interest in writing anything at all. This happened after 9 songs had been written and recorded for the record Sneakers On A Telephone Wire. Blacke had planned to record at least 12 songs; enough for a full collection of new songs and a few tracks for b-sides. In the end, The Max Records took those 9 songs, tacked on a re-recorded version of a previous b-side Stay For You and released the album with no objection from MB. However, he did refuse to do any promo for the record and called it a day. Or a career. This occurred at a potentially new height for MB's career. He had just finished up everything related to One Way Undone, his most successful record yet from 2006 and the first single from Sneakers, 'Time', was en route to becoming one of his biggest hits to date. Subsequent attempts at hits failed. Three additional songs were released in 2007-08. All flopped. In late 2008, Blacke did release an EP of professional-studio recorded songs. No new material, however. The two attempts at hits from that EP flopped as well so plans for a third were immediately scrapped. And Blacke was nowhere to be found. It was now assumed that MichÊl Blacke was probably going to completely retire from music altogether. All attempts at reaching any sort of status were going unnoticed with songs that were released and nothing new was being recorded, or written. Blacke reveals that he hadn't written a song in over two years. "I stopped recording altogether for Sneakers On A Telephone Wire because I wasn't into it anymore. Everything had changed. There would have been no way for me to make another song that would fit in with the rest of the record so I ended it right there." MB reflects, "and I didn't write anything because I know that everything I would write would all have the same theme. Hurt, pain, defeat, yearning, whatever. Breakup songs. There are tons of those. I didn't want an entire album of breakup songs. So I didn't write any." Blacke has said, though, that he did come up with a lyrical verse days after the breakup that has stuck with him ever since that he wants to turn into a song. "That isn't to say I don't want to turn the experience into something. I do. But it has to be perfect. I don't want to half-ass this. If I can't write the best song I've ever written from what happened, I don't want to put it on paper at all." So what has MB been up to? Photography has been a big thing. He's been into photography for almost five years now, in charge of every promo photo and album artwork and design for all of his records. But his pictures have taken on new life and a lot of time. Instead of pen and paper in hand at any given time, they have been replaced by a camera. Hundreds of photos a month of anything from scenery, nature, people, events, himself, friends, anything goes. "I often find myself walking something and seeing a particular scene that I think would make an awesome photo - but I left my camera at home." Blacke says. "Sometimes I'll try to recapture it the next day if it's a time-based picture such as the way the sunlight is hitting at a certain angle. But most of the time, I admit defeat and simply admit how magnificant the scene is." MB also has ventured into making DVDs. Not regular films but photo-based DVDs. This has resulted in a Team Awesome series that began in 2005. The third (and final) disc of the series was finalized this past summer after a year of work. Other DVDs have included birthday-events and anniversary gifts. New ideas are in the works for 2010 but not until MB has completed another project: The Best Of MB. So the idea of retirement has been just a rumour... for now. "I'm constantly getting ideas for songs while I'm walking or whatever. Most of the time, I don't have a way to write them down so they become lost. I'm thinking I may need to start carrying a notepad with me because I do get my best ideas while walking now. Never at home. Maybe that's why I haven't written anything in years." Meanwhile, MB has been busy compiling the songs for the Best Of compilation, out later this month. He has been editing and mastering all of the songs for a better sound, something he learned while doing a Recording Arts program a few years back, something else that kept him busy. Blacke wanted to have two new tracks for the record but may not meet the deadline for the second song. Alas, the first song has been written, recorded, mixed, mastered and is now out there and on the way to becoming his first hit since Time more than two years ago. Retirement? The new song is called Professional Years and deals with the concerns of ENTERING the life as a professional. Retirement is DECADES away.
MB's Discography Miscellaneous (Stars Records) [2001] Anonymous (Stars Records) [2002] One Way Undone (The Max Records) [2006] What Lies Beneath: Instrumentals (The Max Records) [2006] Sneakers On A Telephone Wire (The Max Records) [2007] Worms On The Sidewalk EP (The Max Records) [2008] The Best Of MB (The Max Records) [2009]
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 26, 2009 14:25:42 GMT -5
The compilation is due out next Tuesday online. There are two versions of the album.
Twothousands: The Best Of MB
1. This Life 2. All I Need 3. Professional Years 4. Evolve 5. Time 6. Inside Outside 7. Feeling Love 8. Stand Under This 9. Everybody's Here 10. This Is The Night 11. Julien 12. One True Thing 13. Piano Song 14. Blue 15. It's All Good 16. The Fear
There's also the deluxe edition of the album called Twothousands: The Best and Worst of MB.
The first disc is the same tracklisting. The second disc contains b-sides from the singles and a few unreleased tracks recorded earlier in the decade. Here's the tracklisting for Disc 2:
1. Hiding [short downtempo instrumental of the song Hiding] 2. Make You Mine [b-side of Evolve] 3. Best Friend [featuring Rob64] [b-side of Time] 4. Pieces [b-side of Feeling Love] 5. Summertime [b-side of Feeling Love] {PeopleBase #41 hit} 6. Psycho [unreleased recording from 2002] {contains a sample of the theme to the 1960 film Psycho} 7. Empty [b-side to Feeling Love] 8. Dark Side [edited version of song originally on Miscellaneous] 9. You Never Know [b-side to All I Need] 10. Anything [track from original version of Miscellaneous] 11. Professional Years [Unmix] 12. Marble Wind [instrumental that didn't make the last album]
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Dec 4, 2009 22:14:07 GMT -5
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Dec 6, 2009 19:56:45 GMT -5
Nobody told me that the files weren't working. Although I found out just now they weren't. That means no one tried to download the albums. Flop!
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Dec 6, 2009 20:35:32 GMT -5
I would've, but as it's a greatest hits, I already have the songs.
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Dec 8, 2009 20:01:37 GMT -5
They've been edited and remastered. All of the songs sound much better quality-wise. I can't even listen to the old ones anymore. They sound awful!
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