"Queens English" Release Set - 5/18/10

Mark your iPhone calendars! Wake the neighbors! I'm psyched to let you guys know that the release date for my new album, "Queens English", has finally been set at Tuesday May 18th, 2010. The album will be released on the DreamCrush label and will be available in stores nationwide and online in the following configurations - CD, Digital Download and Deluxe Package.

The Deluxe Package will be available exclusively at the DreamCrush website and will include the "Queens English" CD personalized/autographed by yours truly as well as the "Brooklynese" CD EP featuring 4 bonus tracks/demos from the "QE" sessions previously unreleased and exclusive to the Deluxe offer only. A portion of the proceeds from Deluxe Package sales will be donated to cancer research; A worthy cause, indeed.

And oh, here's a track listing if you're totally OCD like me and enjoy reading this sort of thing prior to an album's release -

1. Who Are Yous? (prelude)
2. Queens English
3. Happy
4. Muffin in the Oven
5. Camp Elmo
6. Angeline & the Bensonhurst Boy
7. Bridge & Tunnel
8. Blue Suit
9. Middle Town
10. Ballad of M & LJ
11. Who Are Yous?

Of course, I'll remind (aka pester) everyone about the drop as we get closer. I'm looking forward to you guys hearing this album. I truly hope you enjoy it.

XO - mb

The Yule Log

Shortly after waking Christmas morning, shaking off my eggnog fog and safely negotiating an endless sea of discarded wrapping paper, I flipped on the TV to see if my old compatriot, "The Yule Log", had managed, once again, to return home for Christmas in all its beautifully mundane, flaming brilliance; indeed it had.

As per Wikipedia - "The Yule Log is a television program which airs traditionally on Christmas eve or Christmas morning, originally on New York City television station WPIX but now on many other stations. A radio simulcast of the musical portion was broadcast on sister station WPIX-FM (later WQCD and now WRXP) until 1988. The program is a film loop of a yule log burning in a fireplace, with a traditional soundtrack of classic Christmas music playing in the background. It airs without commercial interruption..."

I have to admit, there's something about a close-up of a log burning on a TV screen that chokes a brother up a little. A natural reaction I suppose; as a child of the 70s and 80s The Yule Log was a personal Christmas eve tradition for this little kid growing up in a Queens, NY home with four televisions but nary a fireplace in sight. The Yule Log served as my quietly patient, secret confidant during those mean, late-night hours when sleep was deprived by the excitement of the coming mornings festivities.

In an ever-shifting, 140-character world that seems to have little patience for anything, it's nice to watch The Yule Log burn, if only once a year, as a reminder that, thankfully, some things never change and some are still worth waiting for.


The Yule Log (sadly without copyrighted music)

Note - A cool Time Magazine piece on The Yule Log can be found here.