Ye Gods (and little fishes)

Ye Gods (and little fishes) is the title of the new album from Martin Carr.

Those of you who know me will have heard me gone on and on for about 15 years now about how good this man's music is. Martin was the writer and guitarist for The Boo Radleys before embarking on a solo project under than name Bravecaptain. He has now decided to launch the next phases of his music career under his own name.

Now, the new album isn't actually out yet.  To fund the release of the album Martin is using Bandstocks. This is a new concept whereby for an investment equivalent to the cost of an album (£10 per stock), not only do you receive a copy of the album upon release but a share of the net receipts from album sales in addition to various other benefits including an album credit.

I would encourage you to listen to some tracks at Martin's MySpace site which can be found here.

This is what Martin has to say about the project:

Hello and welcome to something different.

When I recorded this album at the beginning of the year I had no ideas as to how, or in what form, it would appear. I haven't released any music on a label for over four years and enjoy being able to work in a place where I can have full reign over the varying facets of record production, from songwriting to sleeve design. I have no desire to sign to another record label. Creation Records was the only label I ever wanted to be on and I'm proud to have been associated with that name but that was then, this is now and the future is ours to grasp with eager hands.

Now one of the few things that a label was useful for was M.O.N.E.Y. Studios don't pay for themselves, there are press officers, pluggers, accountants, lawyers, managers, agents and musicians, all of them essential, none of them free. I'm not very good at asking for money, Homer Simpson once said 'I lost creative control of the project and I forgot to ask for any money' and that just about sums up my business acumen.

I see this as different, this is something new and I'm not asking for handouts, subs, aid, relief, alms, gifts or charity. I'm asking for you to get involved. I'm not going to pretend that you can call me up and demand that I use more sitar on the future recordings or suggest that I should get my bloody hair cut but you will make it possible for me to make music and if that music does well then so will you. At the very least your tenner will buy you a great album working out at one english pound per song.

The people involved in this project believe that the artist and the audience are the key and the contract I have signed is a dream. Nobody is getting ripped off and there are no hidden clauses, small print or invisible ink provisos. This is it, the future is ours to create.

If you like the music and like the idea, please go over to the Martin Carr page at Bandstocks and perhaps make an investment.