My second solo album is going to have a tie-in to Second Life. Since I played all the parts myself on my first solo album Falling To Pisces, I decided it would be cool to have one other person help me out by recording a cameo part for each song. So, If I have fourteen songs, I have fourteen different friends helping. I’ve had that idea for a while. Since I was recording my first album even. But, recently I decided keeping that number two theme intact, it would be extra cool to only have those helpers be from Second Life.

Further use of the number two is going to be as a double-sided album (just a long CD, but still). The A-side will have the seven new songs I just wrote over a nineteen day period (Aug. 14 - Sept. 2). The B-side will have seven updated acoustic versions of songs I wrote in the Creeping Myrtle era.

I have a very long list of potential artists to ask. Far more than fourteen. So, I hope nobody gets offended at not being asked. Rest assured that if you are reading this blog (and you’re a musical performer in Second Life), you are on my list. In the end I have to match the person to the song instead of the other way around. The ’serve the song’ idea has to win out. But, maybe we’ll work together on something else in the future. See, I’ve got my apology already pre-written.

Another minor issue will be seeing who wants to use their real names in the credits and who wants to use their avatar names. Using the latter for now, I’m thrilled to report that these people have said yes, and I have songs matched up to each of them: Rowanna Sideways, JueL Resistance, Winston Ackland, Cylindrian Rutabaga, Phemie Alcott, Mimi Carpenter, Maximillion Kleene. Some of these could change, but assuming they don’t, that means I’ve got seven more songs to fill. Stay tuned.

I had been holding out hope that there would be a video for Dusting For Angels, the first single from Falling To Pisces, before releasing a second single. But, since I’m already writing songs for the upcoming album, I decided to release Forevermore on MySpace and TheSixtyOne. I still haven’t played this song live yet. So, I’ll have to figure something out for it soon.

I wrote and demoed another song last night to bring the song total to five for the upcoming album. If I have ten songs on the album, that means this puppy is half written. In the past, I’d have taken ages to write the songs. But, I believe each album needs its own theme, even if that theme has many layers to it. Once you know the album title (keeping that close to the vest for now) this will make sense in its irony. But, I want to make this a quick and painless process this time. I have everything mapped out in my head and I’m itching to spill it to the few people who read this blog. But, if all goes according to plan (when does it ever? haha), you won’t have to wait too long. I definitely want a 2009 release since I released Falling To Pisces this year. I can tell you that I’m planning to work with some of my musical heroes on this one. It was a lonely process recording all the parts myself for the last record. So, this time I want to keep it light-hearted and fun if possible. I’ve got two shows in Second Life tonight and I’ll definitely debut the new tune. Hope to see you there!

I wrote and recorded two more songs today (in demo form) to bring the total for the upcoming album to four. I’m not sure I’ve ever written two songs in one day before. The one I woke up with this morning was a downer in fine mope rawk form, so I wanted to balance that out with a silly, bouncy one as well. So, a pretty productive Monday. For my live shows I now have thirty-nine original songs to choose from and twenty-one cover songs. I haven’t been playing too many live shows lately though. So, hopefully things will pick up soon. Thanks to those of you who have been coming to catch me live. It means a lot.

I wrote and recorded my first song since my album Falling To Pisces came out in March. I just finished it a few minutes ago, so I thought I’d blog it for posterity. This is definitely the first step towards my second solo album. I have had the title for a while, but I’ll keep that close to the vest for now, as well as the name of my freshly written & recorded new song. I’m considering debuting it at one of my two Second Life shows today. So, if you’re really curious… come to one of my shows! Woot, etc.

In an effort to keep all of my upcoming shows organized into the same space, I have all of my concerts listed in the Google calendar on this website. It’s under the Live Shows heading. You can’t miss it. The only white thing in a sea of black pixels. It’s on all of the pages, whether you go to randalprater.com or linusradford.com, it doesn’t matter. If you’re in Second Life and you go to my profile picks, I’ll still have direct links to the venues for my regular gigs. But, check back here for the calendar now. It will be the most updated calendar available. If you see a show listed, you know it was put there by myself or my manager, Sesi Ackland. Hope to see you at a cartoon concert soon!

Robert69 Little fashioned together a little machinima video of my live performance of Under The Milky Way and put it up on YouTube if any of you are curious about what a live show in Second Life is like.

It was brought to my attention recently that it’s not as easy to navigate around this site as I intended. The main thing I’m hearing that people are having trouble locating are my song lyrics. All five of my albums are for sale here along with information about each album, including lyrics to every song. All you have to do is look to the right of your screen and find the album you want (you may have to scroll down to find the older albums) and click on the album cover. From there, you just click on the song title you want the lyrics for and that’s all there is to it. Hopefully, you’ll be inspired to buy the album as well. There are many buying options below each album cover to the right of your screen.

You can also find out more information about all of my bands and projects, past and present, by clicking the links in the upper right corner of your screen.

My last post mentioned this, but for those of you who are in Second Life, my concert calendar is also listed to the right under the ‘live shows’ heading. If you’re logged into SL, clicking on the link of the current show will serve as a direct teleport to the venue I’m playing at.

If anyone has any further questions about things you can’t find on this site, or things you’d like to see that aren’t here, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks again for your interest. It means a lot!

Sorry for the lack of news for a while now. New things are in the works. Stay tuned. For now, if you’ve yet to buy my new album, I’m happy to report it’s now available for purchase at Amazon.

Also, if you look to the right, you’ll see that I’m listing my concert calendar in the Live Shows section. If you’re in Second Life, the links for the shows will serve as direct teleports to the venues. I’ll try to keep this section as up to date as I can.

I thought we’d have the first video for the album released by now. But, we haven’t even started shooting yet. I’m still hopeful that the ball will start rolling on that soon, but who knows. I’m going to go ahead and release the second single from the album soon though. So, stay tuned for that. Thanks again for the interest. If you’re reading this, then I appreciate you more than I can possibly convey.

I just posted a live acoustic version of Vervaine from my show yesterday at Bricktown in Second Life. I wasn’t feeling well, but this one turned out well enough to post. It had been a while since I put a new live clip up at TheSixtyOne and MySpace. So, there you go. Cheers for the interest. Special thanks to those of you who bought my new album Falling To Pisces. It means a lot! — Lurve, Randal.