New website shop + other news!

 Hey everyone - nearly time for Christmas! I for one am rather excited, I have bought lots of cool presents for people, which I can't wait to give to them! Plus I'm also getting a new acoustic, a LOVELY Martin DXK2AE:

My new guitar - click picture to see it in all its glory! :)

 My first bit of news today is that I've changed my website store from Bigcartel to Bandcamp. Why, you ask? Well, Bandcamp I feel gives me that extra bit of flexibility, plus no limitations (Bigcartel is crippled unless you want to pay 10$ or more a month, which I feel is a bit extortionate.) The new shop can be found at http://marcreeves.bandcamp.com/ , this URL for the shop will soon be changed to www.musicstore.marcreeves.co.uk to help streamline the whole navigation process.

I've also updated a few bits and bobs on the website, so check it out at www.marcreeves.co.uk . I've added Facebook 'like' buttons to most of the pages, to make the place feel more homely for you FB nuts out there! :P

That's pretty much it, other I'm now on the bill for tonight's Christmas Acoustic Rooms show at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham.

I hope you all have a brilliant Christmas and New Year!

All the best,
Marc.

PS. I almost forgot to add, I'm offering anyone who signs up to my mailing a list a 20% discount code off my album! Also if you can post this info on your facebook, blog, website etc, then you can get an extra 10% off! These codes can be redeemed at my online store ONLY, on both CD's and downloads. You will be sent the code by email once you have subscribed to my mailing list, or once you have provided proof (in the form of a screenshot or link to the post) of the info you have shared.

This offer will only be available until February 1st 2011, so get your vouchers now!

album is now out on iTunes!

Okay, so my album has been out on CD & Amazon MP3 since the 10th December, but today it was finally published on iTunes!

I myself am a CD man (and I do recommend getting a CD, I think it's a lot nicer to have something you can hold in your hands), but if zero's and ones are your thang, then you can buy it from iTunes here:

http://itunes.apple.com/album/perfectly-fine/id402513567?ign-mpt=uo%3D2

You can also get it from emusic here:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Marc-Reeves-Perfectly-Fine-MP3-Download/12219164.html

and Rhapsody here:


http://www.rhapsody.com/marc-reeves/perfectly-fine-2

and Amazon MP3 here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfectly-Fine/dp/B004B5PDD4/ref=dm_ap_alb1

It will be available on 7digital and Napster soon too, so look out for those!

Hope you've all had a good week,

All the best,
Marc.

What a night! The story of my album launch @ the Rescue Rooms' Acoustic Rooms...

So I Had an AMAZING night at my launch party last night - the whole thing was a resounding success and a great start to the launch of my new album, 'Perfectly Fine'.

The turn out was great, and it made me so happy to see all my friends, musician friends, and family all there supporting me and the other artists who played. I want to thank everyone who came so much, as you all made the night one to remember, and created a fantastic atmosphere - as did the support acts.

My friend Gerry Trimble opened the night with his Folk-punk (or anti-folk, if you like) music, pouring out his heart into his words and his energy into his playing, doing his own material, and even a nice rendition of Death Cab for Cuties 'I will follow you into the dark' (which is a personal favourite of mine.) He proved a great start to the night, and set the pace for the music to follow.

Gerry Trimble

Next up was Angelo Panzera, another good friend & awesomely talented musician. He writes beautiful singer-songwriter style material, that draws you in with his great vocal and use of chords/finger picky stuff. He does a wicked version of The Strokes' Someday (which he totally makes his own), which he played during his set, as well one of my favourites of his, 'The Traveller'.

Angelo Panzera

Jonathan Millett was after Angelo. This guy has been much talked about at the moment - and unsurprisingly so, with his brilliant Jeff Buckley meets Ray Lamontagne vibe, which was in full force tonight. Everybody kept asking me 'who's that guy?', and then I proceeded to rave about his music to them :P

Jonathan Millett

Lastly, before moi came onstage, The Golden Troubadours came on to wow everybody with their utterly serene, soul tinged vibe. They're a four piece acoustic group, with a bassist, rhythm guitarist/lead vocalist, electric/slide guitarist, and acoustic guitarist. I saw these guys at a gig at the Maze I did not too long ago, and haven't been able to get enough of them since. They are simply awesome!

The Golden Troubadours

  And so finally, I proceeded to do my thang! It being my album launch, and it being a lovely evening, I got totally lost in my performance and just went for it! It really felt like the best I've ever played, and the reception from the crowd was overwhelming, I was so humbled by it all! I even got two encored, which was awesome :) I also managed to shift quite a few copies of my album, which was great, and I got loads of nice comments from everyone.

 I did a mixture of songs from my new album, plus some new material I've written, as well as a couple of covers, including my rendition of Katy Perry's Hot 'n' Cold, Teenager in Love & On my Way by Ben Kweller.

Me! (Marc Reeves)

Many thanks to Danielle, Regan, Ellie & all the other people at the Rescue Rooms & Acoustic Rooms, for letting me do my album launch there, and putting their faith in me to put on a good show! I hope you all enjoyed the night :)

PS. I have two more gigs this week, one at The Greyhound in Beeston on Thurs 9th Dec & one on Friday 10th Dec at Ryans Bar, Derby. Both are gonna be awesome, so I advise you to come check them out, they are both FREE entry :)

You can find more details on those events either on my gig calendar (on this blog to the right) or on facebook @ www.facebook.com/marcreevesmusic

Pics of my new album + promo material. Excited? absolutely! :)

The copies of my album arrived the other day (snow related delays with the post meant they came late), just in time for my album launch party, and the official release on the 10th December, worldwide!

Here's what it looks like: (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images)

 Also, here's some pictures of my new business cards and promotional flyers:

My launch party is this Monday (6th Dec) at The Rescue Rooms' Acoustic Rooms. You can find more about it in this post

New studio gear purchases

Just thought I'd do a quick post about some new gear purchases I've made. I recently bought some new monitors for mixing - the Alesis Monitor One MKII's, the passive model with the Alesis RA100 amp. These are great budget range monitors - not just for the money, although they are very well priced, at around £120 for the monitors and £130 for the amp. For the price they have a pretty neutral sound - there's not much low end here though (drops off at 40hz, so if you do sub-bass stuff you may want a subwoofer) and the top end is possibly a little hyped. The stereo imaging though is really good, and they seem pretty easy to mix on so far. Here's a picture:

 

I've also picked up a Trace Elliot Supertramp Twin guitar combo amp. This is an amazing sounding discontinued combo from Trace Elliot It has a valve preamp section with a solid state power amp section, and a very lush built in reverb, and an overdrive and distortion. I just love it for it's clean sound though, it's a very coloured, gritty tone that sounds great through my pedalboard.

As well as that I bought a bunch of rockwool slabs from studiospares, and made my own broadband absorption panels to treat the acoustics in my studio. It's gotten rid of some flutter echoes and deadened the room a little bit, so it sounds slightly roomy still but a lot tighter. I didn't want to go overkill with treatment, as I like a roomy sound, I just wanted to tighten it up by cutting down on the reverb a little.

Lastly, I bought a new pickup for my acoustic guitar. The Dean Markley ZH-1 I was using was OK sounding, but being a magnetic pickup, it was purely picking up the vibrations of the strings, so it sounded a little 'electricy'. My new pickup, the LR Baggs M1 active, is another magnetic soundhole pickup, but it is a special type of humbucker, that actually picks up the vibration of the wood as well as the string, so it has a more natural sound. So far it's been working great for live use :)