It’s Normandie Blue Release week next week so don’t give me any s&*t please about being a self promoter. Music like this doesn’t come easy. First you have to have the talent of Alex Blue which is honed by years living on the road with Calavera, the punk/psychobilly band with a huge underground following.
Then you have to have a producer like John Avila (Oingo Boingo, Reel Big Fish, etc.) who probably doesn’t come cheaply. So above mentioned Alex sells his car to pay for the production of the CD. Guys like Alex don’t really do things half way.
Then you need talented and dedicated band mates like Ito, Roman and Manny Murders.
The result is “It Is What It Is” officially out May 19th on Itunes and Amazon Music (just click the links and you’ll be taken straight to the release page where you can buy a track or the whole CD).
Alex, Ito & Manny - Normandie Blue
Now is this just too much raw, unleashed capitalism for you? Is Normandie Blue not “oi” punk enough for ya? I got you, I hear you and I would maybe, almost agree with you except for 3 things:
1) As I said, putting out music like this is hard.. really hard. Because Alex sold his car to pay for the production, he had do walk part of the 25 miles with guitar and amp in hand to the studio everyday in the hot (yes, it gets hot) California sun. Doesn’t get much more punk than that.
2) The music is good. Every track may not be 100% pure punk but it’s unarguably punk influenced and it is good, aggressive hard and melodic rock and roll. Is Social Distortion punk? Is Bad Religion punk? If you didn’t listen to the right song or know their history and just listened to a random song you might say “nahh… too mainstream”, but we all know they are indeed punk royalty. Well, while Alex’s background is less heralded, it is just as authentic I’ll assure you. He’s punk to the core.
3) And good music, my friends, deserves to be heard. No matter how you define punk, good music is good music and it should be heard, not hoarded.
But what is good music? It varies from person to person of course. So we put together a little video sampler from the CD for you because we know you have a short attention span and your time is valuable and we don’t want to waste it.
And furthermore if you feel we’re appealing to your wallet a bit too much, that maybe we have spent a tad too much time in the belly of “the great satan” (AKA the United States), then we’re offering this. Free downloads of the single “Amazing Disgrace” just for the first 100 listeners.
But be quick about it. Our buddies Remezcla.com featured a kick ass article on Normandie Blue and they too are offering their readers access to the same downloads.
Check out the Remezcla article HERE.
With so much promotional costs (flyers, CD dubs, etc.) we may very well not make a dime, but if we do, we’ve pledged to help one of Alex’s pet causes, an orphanage in Mexico City. We plan to donate 10% of any net profits we may happen to make. But to be candid, we know that living in the U.S. we are pretty damned lucky in so many ways so we’ll probably help out one way or another regardless of whether we make money or not.
So please don’t give me any S&*^.
We’re just trying to get good music heard and maybe do some good in the process. What’s wrong with that? If you don’t have any money you can still listen, but if you do have money, and do like what your hear, then support good music and spend 99 cents for your favorite song… or $9.99 for the whole CD.
It’s not about the money.. it’s about the music.. but the money keeps the music going you see. That’s not capitalism, socialism, communism or any other ism.. that’s just life.
I hope you enjoy!
EDITORS NOTE: Sorry for the late note on this, but we did update our FB Pages,etc. the Launch at the Torino Lounge was postponed. So don’t show up please,or you’ll be the only one there.