Soft Targets on Basement Tapes Is Now!

Damn--I've been so busy with the holidays, getting over a cold and putting the polishing touches on the new Tangemeenie record that I completely missed the biggest Cloud 13 news on the horizon at the end of this year!

The long-awaited Basement Tapes session/interviews featuring Cloud 13's own Soft Targets is available here now on www.basementtapes.com.

So why wait? Go to Basement Tapes. Listen. Download. Enjoy.

Soft Targets Back Home Safe and Sound

Well, I'm pleased to report that the Soft Targets' safe return to sleepy little Tallahassee has been confirmed, after their whirlwind September tour of the East coast. When I sat down with them Monday night over a couple of beers, Jesse, Nate, and Stephen all seemed healthy, in good spirits and eager to get back out on the road again soon.

While they were out this time around, they generated an impressive amount of media coverage, so this update includes a round-up of some highlights from the reviews and various other forms of consensual love they've gotten recently from the press. Check back soon for more updates. The Basement Tapes performances and video interview should also be out within the next week or so.

Delusions of Adequacy - An interview with the Soft Targets just before they embarked on the tour.

We Heart Music (Podcast) - A podcast from the We Heart Music site, featuring an interview with Jesse from just before the conclusion of the tour.

xlr8r - They made the top 10!

Pittsburgh City Paper - A lovely review of "Heavy Rainbow" from a lovely city.

Here Comes the Flood - A nice review from an even nicer music blog.

The Devil Has the Best Tuna - Some more wonderful words about "Heavy Rainbow."

Performer Mag - Yet another glowing review.

Onion AV Club - Eh, you win some, you lose some. This review gets it all wrong, but at least they tried.

Soft Target Tour Begins; New Tour Blog; Love from xlr8r

Really exciting news: xlr8r magazine just included "Heavy Rainbow" in its list of top ten releases in September, alongside new releases from Of Montreal, Starfucker, Broken Social Scene and others!

Also, the Heavy Rainbow tour is now fully underway, and we've set up a new tour diary blog here that includes the updated tour schedule and will eventually include reports from the road as the guys make their way up and down the East Coast.

In other words, the tour is all systems go. Don't miss 'em when they come through your town.

New Website! Heavy Rainbow Tour Begins End of the Month! Pow! Bang!

Well ladies and gentlemen, you might notice we've given the look and feel of the Cloud 13 Records website a major overhaul. It just seemed like the right time to freshen the design of the website up a bit. Plus, this version has a little more Web 2.0 goodness going on than the previous version (with more to come). And it incorporates some improvements in browser compatibility and security by doing away with the old design's use of iframes and provides other maintenance and enhancement benefits.

Plus it's got all this cool retro propaganda styling going for it, which is also a plus.

Lots more big stuff in the pipeline right now. Soft Targets' Heavy Rainbow Tour starts the end of this month and we're really psyched. More soon.

Soft Targets on Basement Tapes

More great news about the Soft Targets upcoming Heavy Rainbow tour: Our intrepid road-warriors have been confirmed for a session on September 13th in the studios of the Basement Tapes website as they make their way through the greater Chicago area.

Previous Basement Tapes have included musical musical legends like Alejandro Escovedo, Cracker, and others. We'll post more updates soon.

More Confirmed "Heavy Rainbow" Tour Dates

We've got a few new confirmed dates for the Soft Targets' "Heavy Rainbow" tour to announce, but I figured this time I'd just list all the dates that have been confirmed to-date. The new confirmed dates include outings in Florida, Chicago, North Carolina and Georgia. There are still a few more dates in the works, so check back often for the latest announcements.

Aug 30 2008 - The Atlantic - Gainesville, Florida
Sep 7 2008 - Snug Harbor - Charlotte, North Carolina
Sep 11 2008 - The Underground - St.Louis, Missouri
Sep 12 2008 - Quenchers - Chicago, Illinois
Sep 17 2008 - Canal Street Tavern - Dayton, Ohio
Sep 18 2008 - The Smiling Moose - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Sep 19 2008 - North Star Bar - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sep 20 2008 - REHAB - New York, New York
Sep 22 2008 - Don Pedro - Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York
Sep 23 2008 - Talking Head Club @ Sonar - Baltimore, Maryland
Sep 25 2008 - Nightlight club - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Sep 27 2008 - Swayze’s - Marietta, Georgia

New Cloud 13 Gadgets

Check out all the cool new Cloud 13 Records gadgets you can now conveniently add to your web page, blog, Facebook page, etc. by visiting our new Widgetbox profile here. This collection of gadgets was developed using Widgetbox.com's ridiculously simple toolset, and includes gadgetized versions of the Cloud 13 Records news blog, Cloud 13's free download library, v2.0 of the Cloud 13 Records Jukebox, and The Official Blog of Tangemeenie. Enjoy!

Soft Targets and The Frigidaires at the Museum of Florida History

Soft Targets and The Frigidaires are performing at the Museum of Florida History
7/17 from 5:00 - 7:00
free admission, catered dinner for sale

More Soft Targets Tour Dates; Local Show Announcements

As promised, we've got a lot of additional confirmed dates to announce for the Soft Targets' September "Heavy Rainbow" Tour... This is shaping up to be a monster tour with a lot of amazing venues on the schedule, so we couldn't be more excited.

But before we get to those dates, there are a few more shows coming up in Tallahassee before the boys kick of their tour good and proper-like. So if you're in the area, keep showing us your love by turning out with those sorely needed wads of cash (with gas prices in excess of $4.00 a gallon these days, the boys are going to need a lot of help keeping their van running).

The newest Tallahassee dates include:

JULY 11, 2008 - The Warehouse - w/The Frigid Airs and The Young Antiques (from Atlanta)
JULY 17, 2008 - Florida Museum of Natural History
AUGUST 1, 2008 - The Warehouse - (w/Guests TBA)

And here finally are those new confirmed "Heavy Rainbow" tour dates:

SEPT 7, 2008 - Snug Harbor - Charlotte, North Carolina
SEPT 17, 2008 - Canal Street Tavern - Dayton, Ohio
SEPT 18, 2008 - The Smiling Moose - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
SEPT 19, 2008 - North Star Bar - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
SEPT 23, 2008 - Talking Head Club @ Sonar - Baltimore, Maryland

Once all the remaining dates are final, we'll post the complete tour schedule here. In the meantime, you can find a complete running tally of the current confirmed dates on Soft Targets' MySpace page: www.myspace.com/softtargets.

Soft Targets "Heavy Rainbow" Tour Updates

As announced in the last news update, Soft Targets are taking off for the wild, wild East Coast starting early in September with the national release of their new full-length, "Heavy Rainbow" on September 9th. We've got a couple of confirmed dates to announce for you at the conclusion of this update.

In the meantime, the Softies will be playing this Friday 13th in the first of what will be a continuing series of concert events hosted by Cloud 13 Records at The Warehouse here in sleepy little Tallahassee. Be sure to come and bring your friends. If you've got it to spare, bring wads of cash too, because we'll be passing around the hat taking up donations for gas money for the upcoming "Heavy Rainbow" tour. Later in the evening, we'll also be raffling off some free Cloud 13 Records merch.

These days, the news is coming in faster than I can keep track of it, so check back regularly for more big news.

Now for those tour dates I promised:

SEPT. 11th - The Underground - St. Louis, Missouri
SEPT. 20th - REHAB - New York, New York
SEPT. 22nd - Don Pedro’s - Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Soft Targets Look for Gold at the End of their "Heavy Rainbow"

It's official: Soft Targets will be returning to Cloud 13 Records to release their latest full-length offering, "Heavy Rainbow," a tour de force of indie pop sweetness, prog rock, and psychadelia, all wrapped up into a tight bundle of meticulous song-craft.

More exciting still, coinciding with the September 9th national release of "Heavy Rainbow," Soft Targets will be embarking on a whirlwind, three-week tour of the East Coast, with the possibility of a handful of appearances in the Midwest.

That means Soft Targets may be coming to your town soon! We'll be announcing more details about the tour, including confirmed dates, as they become available through this website and our email news list.

In the meantime, Soft Targets will be playing a lot of shows around Tallahassee (like their recent May 28th Beta Bar performance with Atlanta, GA's, Sorry, No Ferrari, and Abilene, TX's Homer Hiccolm and The Rocketboys) to raise extra gas money for their tour, so if you're in Tallahassee and you see the Soft Targets' name on the bill, be sure to get out to the club and give them your support. As you might have noticed, gas isn't getting any cheaper.

say hello to The Frigid Airs

The Frigid Airs (formerly the Ums) w/ Kentucky Nightmare and Dave Pinkham @ The Warehouse, Sun 5/11, 9:00, $6

Cloud 13 "In the Lyon's Den"

Check out this recent interview I did with Capital Culture Magazine's Dan Lyons (Note: I recently replaced the original, expired link with a link to the Google cache of the page). The interview will be included in the forthcoming issue of Capital Culture Magazine. This issue focuses on the music scene in Tallahassee, Florida, and should be a fine introduction to those who don't already know how much Tallahassee has to offer in that department.

Also noteworthy: I added a couple of new tracks from Tangemeenie's forthcoming "The Gilded Age" full-length to the Cloud 13 Jukebox. The new tracks are entitled "Left Hand/Right Hand" and "King of Flesh and Bone." For more information about these tracks from "The Gilded Age" and other downloads/streams from Tangemeenie, be sure to check out the Official Blog of Tangemeenie.

FSU College of Law - Entertainment and Sports Law Conference

Over the weekend Lori and I were pleased to be invited to participate in a discussion panel at the Florida State University College of Law's Fifth Annual Entertainment and Sports Law Conference.

We were invited to sound off about our experiences running an independent record label in a small market like Tallahassee, the advantages and disadvantages of operating outside of major markets like LA and New York, etc. Maybe next year if we get invited back we'll try to get a transcript or video of the event. In the meantime, I'll just say it was a fantastic experience, and our fellow panelists offered fascinating insights on their own experiences in the music business. We learned a lot and were truly humbled by the opportunity to participate.

There are some other new developments in the works at Cloud 13, but it's all a little too early to report at this point, so stay tuned.

January 2008 Fertile Compilation Release Party

Sorry for the late notice, but all Tallahasseeans, please be sure to come out to the 621 Gallery in Railroad Square tonight at 6:00 PM to attend the release party for the January 2008 installment of Cloud 13 Records' Fertile Compilation. The Ums and The Intoxicators and others will be performing at the event. This latest installment of the Fertile Compilation has shaped up to be one of the best yet, featuring the music of the Soft Targets, The Intoxicaters, among others, as well as the usual healthy serving of spoken word poetry and multimedia content from Tallahassee artists. A substantial portion of the sales proceeds will benefit community cultural programs.