Slideshow video for "The Dream"

The video is comprised of images which I consider to be "dreamlike" in one way or another. The dove image is from the Holy Spirit window in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. I've been there twice and can't wait to go back again. After I saw the window, I couldn't listen to the line "A dove born from the sky / bathed in Love's Pure Light" without recalling my pilgrimages there, especially with light pouring in from the nearby glass windows.

I hope this video is enjoyable to viewers. I feel that it is highly imperfect, a feeling which perhaps is manifested in all attempts to recall images which one has seen in a dream.

CD Baby Gets a Facelift

CD Baby has a new and improved look; I like it. There are now "Artist Pages", so all our stuff is available here, whereas before it was on the seller-centric all page which is still available.


The CD Baby page is a little more up-to-date, but it has retained its homey cuteness, sporting a bubbly seventies font on the lowercase logo and a scribbled arrow pointing to the login link. If anything, the site has been simplified for customers and artists alike. To me, it's great to see the kind of concern for ease of use, up-keep and style which all serve to maintain viability for a company I've come to greatly admire and appreciate.

Stinging Rain Wins Third Place with The Dream

Thanks to everyone who helped us win third place in the Top Ten Holy Spirit Songs contest sponsored by the Top Catholic Songs website. We received 11 votes altogether, and I counted 9 from the 25 people whom I emailed. That means we received 2 votes from new fans! So welcome and thanks for your vote. Here are the full results:


Basically I just submitted two links to the song, CD Baby and iTunes, then I wrote the following short reminiscence of when Nathan first brought the song to the band.

Dove born from the sky — I hope someday I can see You.

I remember the first rehearsal of this song. I was on the phone in the room adjacent to the practice area when it was introduced and guys start playing it. Jon was laying out a sparse beat with his snares off and Nate was playing slide on his acoustic. I knew what kind of bass line I would play, a very simple one to complement the understated beat.

Nate began singing dreamily, "Spirit, exalt yourself...." I knew at that moment that this song would become a favorite. His wife, Julie, played the violin on the recording. She also joined in with Nate, Brett and I in the whistling of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" at the end. Dave [Brown] might have been whistling, too — it was a long time ago.

Writing that short paragraph was illuminating to me since I barely remember details of working out any other tune. I guess it was just one of those illuminated memories, a definitive moment of sorts in my musical consciousness. That may sound deep, but it really feels natural and did so at the time. Like coming up out of the water and seeing the world glitter with the breath of wind and the light of sun.

A Stinging Rain Reissue Promo Poster

I know I just said we weren't promoting the band anymore, but over the last few weeks I've produced a magazine-sized promo poster for some spurious marketing opportunities which might arise. It doesn't look half bad, if I may say so myself.



Here's what the text says:

In the summer of 1993, the indie rock foursome Stinging Rain ascended into a vacant third floor and recorded their masterpiece, Face of Stephen.

Shortly afterward they disbanded, and their rhythmic brand of hopeful, melodic rock seemed consigned to the twilight of silent memory.

Now — after being out of print for 15 years — their full catalog of original studio tracks is available again via digital download. Visit:

cdbaby.com/all/stingingrain

Not too "over the top", but still attention-getting, I hope. At the bottom of the page I included the phrase "Clear Tears of Light", a line from Grey Shapes, the first song on our first album, then across from it "One Eternal Flame", from Nothing Ever Changes, the last song on our last album. The large text bordering the picture is, of course, from a middle song on our middle album, On Eagle's Wings from the dream, but I didn't really plan that one as much. "Come with me, take this hand, we'll travel far across the sea and land" has always been one of my favorite lines from the pen and the mind of Nathan Depew.

Click on the picture, look at the large photo and tell me I don't look like Harry Potter with the messy hair and the glasses.

The Dream is now available on iTunes

Click the image to go to iTunes page for the dream. I am sure that at some point this will get old and I will no longer be impressed by seeing our tunes available for download. And without promotion it's not like anything will be "flying off the shelves."

Of course, those quote marks show the beauty of it. There are no shelves, dude. There's no big decision about whether to add anything to inventory or give a no-name band a break. There's just a bunch of servers and surfers. And inventory will never, ever run out or get stale. That means that hey, given enough time and a modicum of interest we might yet sell a million downloads. Who knows?

And thanks again to Derek Sivers for making CD Baby, his dream, a reality. Thou art the man.

Man.

News, Digital Update & Other Coolness

I forgot to mention it, but I ended up figuring out how to burn an exact duplicate of Shadows of Reality with CDA tracks and everything, so I was able to send that in without sacrificing my final copy. It's being processed currently. The Dream is in the queue at iTunes and although it's not available yet, I expect it to be available there any day.

Here's a shot of the boys in action at Bethany. Circa 19??


My Face of Stephen google searches are starting to turn up more relevant stuff, e.g., we're on the PayPlay site now. I did a few promotional forum posts and they're starting to show up too, so good. So we're slowly pushing down some of the static in the searches. I also added the CD Baby pages to technorati so I can track links. When I finally get all 25 titles -- MWA-HA-HA -- available via iTunes I'm going to do a big "spam" email to a whole pile of fans and aquaintances, just to get the word out.

And here's a last but not least a bit of coolness supremo: I set up a page on Purevolume.com! It's kind of a respectable version of myspace for bands, indie mostly. I put a non-downloadable sample MP3 from each CD and a bunch of photos on there as well. We'll see what happens. So far I'm only out of pocket on this for a net of $140.00 and way too many hours, but I'm having fun.

The Dream now available from CD Baby

Click here, or use the link in the right side bar to purchase the MP3 version of The Dream.

I'm doing a lot more development on the Wiki and I added a bunch of new lyrics. All lyrics from The Dream are up now and linked on the page for our 1991 EP. Do people call short CDs "EPs" anymore?

Here's a photo from the brown suitcase: Nate recording an acoustic track at Alphastar.


Well, this shot was probably from "The Dream Sessions", but who knows. It's a little irritating that I don't know the dates to a lot of these shots. It's very intriguing to me how much I forget. I remember all the inside jokes, though, which isn't surprising since I originated most of them and was the inspiration and subject matter for the rest.

The Dream isn't available on iTunes or the other big services yet, I expect it should be within a week. That's about how long it took last time for Face of Stephen.

Latest Update and Dilemma

My latest dilemma in the drama of digital distribution for Stinging Rain is that I possess only one copy of the Shadows of Reality CD, and I need to send a non-returnable copy in to CD Baby. I sort of feel attached to it; this is the end product of my first studio recording experience. Nate doesn't know where any extra copies are currently. But on the other hand, I'd really like to see this up on CD Baby, especially since The Dream should be available soon. (Keep checking our "all" page.)

In the end, I'll probably just "cast my bread upon the waters" and send it in. I know there are other extant copies of it in this world, possibly ones in even better shape. Once we have all 26 recordings available* I'll feel more like telling the world "Hey! We're online!" So my "sacrifice" will be worth it.

As always, I cannot praise CD Baby enough for the yeoman's work they do for small musicians.

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* - Of course, I'm including both versions of music of my world. The count is 25 by the official BMI list.

Sent out "the dream" today

So once CD Baby does their magic we'll have number 2 ready to download.

I've been listening to the dream a lot lately. I remember being ecstatic about the recording when it came out because the bass was a lot higher in the mix than in Shadows. Earlier today I was admiring the artwork on the top of the disc; I decided to include a scan of it here.

The songs which have been going through my head the most have been The Dream, Quest and Darkness at Twilight. I copied the lyrics to The Dream below.

The Dream
by Nathan Depew

Spirit exalt yourself
Give me the words to live this dream --
This dream called life
These strange things all around
Why do these people sound so scared?
So shaking scared?

I hope someday I can see you
To find if I have really lived
I hope someday you will breathe for me
I get so tired of breathing

I have found emptiness
In almost everything I've seen
(Close your eyes.)
A Dove born from the sky
Bathed in Love's Pure Light
I dream this--it's more than real.

I hope some day I can see you --
To find if I have really lived
I hope someday you will breathe for me.
I get so tired of breathing.

I forget whose idea it was to have a group whistling of "Row, row, row your boat" in the background at the end, but that always brings a smile to my face.

The Dream

Nate sent me several copies of the Dream. I received the parcel last night. Thanks, Nate.

The first thing I noticed about the song "The Dream" was that the strong influence of Talk Talk/Spirit of Eden can be felt not just in the orchestration but in the vocals as well. Nate's note trail echoes reminded me of Mark Hollis's more than ever.

The effect is a little bit accentuated by the fact that the tune is sandwiched between two faster numbers, Like a Child and On Eagle's Wings.

Had fun with the scan. I pretty much re-manufactured it, stripping out the picture then re-adding the border and the lettering.


Didn't mess with the brightness at all.

But back to the music. I've been listening to all the stuff which we had on all the time back at The Plant. I remember picking up a cassette of Spirit of Eden in 1989 -- out of the bargain bin -- and having it just blow me away. Yeah, it went to the bargain bin within a year of it's 1988 release. Needless to say that cassette got a lot of play.

I was reading on the web the other day where Hollis points out that "I believe in you" was a kind of anti-heroin song, and that he never shot up himself, just saw what it did to others. Kind of cool; a lot of people back in the day said they were junkies -- at least that clears up the record.

Still no Dream

Nate just visited the blog to check it out. He pointed out some other bands we played with, like Live. I had totally forgotten them! I don't think they got too chummy with us, to put it mildly, but hey -- at least they didn't make us carry their instruments! I don't remember any of their songs, however I'm sure if they stumbled onto this site they'd think "Stinging who?"

I searched far and wide and still have not located a copy of The Dream. I may actually have to get a band mate to send me a CD. However during my search I did manage to locate my copy of Happy Hour by Shonen Knife. So I'm happy chillin' to that currently. Konnichiwa, baby.

Shadows of Reality & The Dream

I'm laughing at myself a little right now because it turns out that I don't possess — or cannot find — a copy of "The Dream". I do have a copy of Shadows still in shrink-wrap. As a recording, it is the least desirable to us, probably because it's our first and can find many faults with it. I will probably submit all the songs from both Shadows and Dream to be available electronically once everything is set with FoS.

Maybe even the live stuff from the 4-song cassette-only release. (Bet y'all forgot about that one....)