Longtime Ottomen member and producer Justin DiCenzo has been living in Japan a while now. And although he hasnt been in the recent lineup of the Ottomen, he’s been making a steady stream of music and videos on his own. We’re adding his albums to the ottoshop, and I’ll be posting some reviews etc on this blog soon.

Here’s his most recent music video. This is his new ambient music project called Sleepy Tokyo. This song is a dreamy tone poem called 沈黙 submurged in silence

Here’s a new thing I’m going to do. I have all these old 4 track cassettes and with modern technology I can mix them better than ever before.

The first Ottomen CD “Adventures at the Store” was recorded on a Fostex XR-7 in 2007. Those tracks were mixed down to a cassette tape which was then transferred to a CD. The Fostex XR-7 had built in noise reduction, and although it was decent for the time period, it basically cut out a percentage of high range that is usually associated with tape hiss.  With modern digital technology I can track by track remove noise with this program called “soundsoap” which analyzes the noise and cuts it out without effecting the rest of the sound. It’s still not perfect but it’s much much better than what we had back in the day.

As I archive these old cassettes I will try, on a weekly basis to post mp3s of the remixed tracks. These will probably end up being mastered professionally at some point and released as the remastered album. But there are a lot of weird outtakes on these tapes that I’ll probably post too.

So here is today’s tape transfer: Polished Floors at the Store. That title differentiated it from a song I also wrote a called At the Store. That song didnt make it on the cd cuz it kinda sucked. Dave is much better at this songwriting thing than I am. That is a Han Solo Blaster Pistol in there making the shooting sounds.

Polished Floors at the Store: Click here to play (right-click or control-click to download)

The New Paper Fleet 7 inch EP ” Baby, We Love Each Other” is available now at the OTTOSHOP. More info on the Paper Fleet page.

Here’s a youtube video of side A:

I’ve revamped the Ottoshop store. You can buy Ottomen CDs, Paper Fleet CDs, full downloads, comic books and more. Stock up on all the albums you’ve missed. There are so many! Check it out.

While you’re there buy a copy of the brand new Paper Fleet 7 inch “Baby We Love Each Other”. All proceeds go to the next album! Possibly an Ottomen/Paper Fleet Split 7 Inch!

-Jim

AFTER AN ALMOST YEAR LONG ABSENCE, DUE TO DRUMMER JOHN AND BASSIST WALTER FINISHING UP SCHOOL (LIKE MILO FROM THE DESCENDENTS AND RIVERS FROM WEEZER), THE OTTOMEN RETURN WITH NEW SONGS! AT THIS VERY MOMENT THE OTTOMEN ARE WORKING ON A SLEW OF BRAND NEW SONGS. MISUNG WILL POST THE DEMOS ON HIS BLOG SITE www.ottomen.com/misungblog/ IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HEAR WHAT’S COMING UP IN THE OTTOMEN UNIVERSEMPIRE. STAY TUNED, KIDS!

MISUNG

The new album is out, and while it will very soon be available on itunes and is now available at cdbaby, it is available now even cheaper for download at the ottomen empire download shop.
Of course you can always buy CD at the next Ottomen show and at you local record shop such as Vintage Vinyl in St Louis.

You can read the review from the St Louis Riverfront Times here:
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2010-02-24/music/the-ottomen/

Come out tonight to the Ottomen cd release at Schlafy Tap Room ( Friday, Feb 26, 2010, 9pm) with Morgan Nusbaum and LAst to Show, First to Go.

You’ll be able to buy a CD of the new album at the show.
The album will be abvailable online through cdbaby and itunes store very soon, but You can download the new album now (for only 5 bucks) at the
ottomen download shop!

The bizarro rock trio, The Ottomen’s, new album “Horses Don’t Have Lungs” has been reviewed by the “STL Riverfront Time’s.” read it here>

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2010-02-24/music/the-ottomen/

Over the holidays I (Jim) went to St Louis and played drums while Dave made up songs with Walter and Justin. Well DAve just stepped it up and did some overdubs and made a video for one of the songs. It’s called “texting”. Check out more fun stuff on Misung’s new blog!