Motivated to check in here again and bring things up to date a bit.  The summer here has been so fantastic and things are looking up so it is a good time to write a bit and put it all in perspective.

The first thing to announce is the new date for the Paul E. Phonics release show.  After the first date was re-scheduled and the seconed cancelled at the last minute a third attempt will be made on Sept. 4, 2010.  Third time is a charm as they say!

Work has also begun on a follow-up E.P. and if all goes well that will be released before the end of the year.  You can also look forward to a few more live shows from Paul E. Phonics in 2010, dates coming soon.

On a slightly sombre note, the future of Fine Print Pariah is pretty uncertain at the moment.  The majority of energy and resources here are being poured into Paul E. Phonics right now which hasn't left much time for getting a live band into shape.  But you never know what will happen, perhaps FPP will be rejuvenated in some way, perhaps in a slightly different form and with a slightly different sound.  We'll see how things go.

And things are evolving in other directions here too.  A brand new project is in the works and will be introduced in a few months, the third addition - or dimension - to 5th Estate Music. Exactly what form this new project will take is not yet clear but it will be more than just music.  The goal is for this to be an onging "work in progress" with frequent output outside the traditional restraints of  "albums" or "E.P." (or "singles" for that matter).

So that's it.  Lot's going on here behind the scenes that will be out there for all to see, hear and experience this autumn.   Stay tuned!

Special thanks go out to Peter at "Schallgrenzen" ("Sound Barriers" in English) - one of Germany's top music blogs - for his feature about everything that has been going on here at 5th Estate Music.  Here is an English translation...

Everything takes a bit longer with me, but that shouldn’t be your concern.  I’m happy to leave the daily business of covering the “hottest new shit” to the others.  Now I’m going to kill two birds with one stone starting with an album that was sent to me ages ago.  Paul McCormick is Fine Print Pariah.  A Canadian who arrived in Berlin 10 years ago.  Recorded his debut album there on his own.  The result is a raw record with highs and lows, light and dark, the ebb and flow of the city where he lives and musically miles away from stylistic posing.  That takes backbone and stamina.  On the debut album from “Fine Print Pariah”, the connection to the earthy sounds of Black Sabbath, the psychedelic rock of Led Zeppelin, the progressive worlds of Pink Floyd, the rawness of Iggy Pop and the Alternative Rock of 90s bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden can be heard.  But the result is also very personal and one hears the passion pulsating, all a bit weird and painful.

Paul McCormick not only took care of all the instruments and vocals himself, but also the entire production and in doing so has created an album that is strangely beautiful with its old-fashioned sound.  Also with his new baby and the E.P. “Shock & Awe” released under the (admittedly strange sounding) name Paul E. Phonics, McCormick has chosen yet again to swim against the current.  Here it gets even rawer, weirder and darker with experiments drawing from stylistic elements of Post-Punk and Post- Rock and who knows what.  Music that despite its twists and turns, the distorted guitar sounds, the electronic sounds and the plaintive voice, remains touching with its uncompromised, pain-filled rawness and drama. 

Considering this uncompromising attitude, it only makes sense that Paul McCormick has started his own label - 5th Estate Music - to distribute his music.

Schallgrenzen, June 17, 2010

Even though the winter is far from over we figured it was a good time to freshen things up here and get ready for a new chapter in the story of 5th Estate Music.  As you can see, the site now looks a bit better...cleaner and sleeker. 

As for the next chapter, that is the one with Paul E. Phonics as the main character.  The weather has been awful here which has served as a bit of a blessing as far as creativity goes.  With basically nothing to distract or lure anyone outside it has been the perfect time to hunker down in the studio and finally get some Paul E. Phonics tracks finished.  A few preview tracks are ready to be revealed and to go along with all that there is a new website for the project  www.paul-e-phonics.com  It could work out that Paul E. Phonics takes the lead role for the rest of this year but we'll see how things go.  A debut album is in the works and will definitely be released this year, it's just a question of earlier or later at this point.  Work has also begun on a follow-up Fine Print Pariah album so that will be an important priority later on in 2010.

Speaking of Fine Print Pariah, there has been a lot of interest from podcasters recently and there will be updates in the news here when songs are played of course.    Efforts will be made to keep this ball rolling but chances are there won't be that much news for a while. We will try to keep things updated on what is going on behind the scenes though.

All in all, exciting times here.  Until next time!

The holiday season is now over and it's time to get on with things and get a good start in 2010.  That is just what has been going on here with a lot of work on the Fine Print Pariah web presence, getting things updated, adding a few new sites and generally doing a bit of new year's housekeeping.  The goal there is to get everything for FPP into a state where it can be left and will need only a bit of maintenance for the next few months while the live act is sorted out.
So for a while FPP will be taking something of a "back seat" and there will be a role reversal for the first part of 2010 - thus the change in priorities.  For various reasons - the most important being the lack of a live presence for FPP - the decision has been made to let Paul E. Phonics take the lead for a while and this will all start in a couple of weeks.  Some recordings are nearly finished and ready to be put out there and the studio work will continue to get an album ready for release in early spring.  One of the top priorities for Paul E. Phonics will be to get out there and do a lot of live performing.
So, it looks like the cat is out of the bag but we'll leave it at that for now.  More details about all of this coming very soon!

Haven't been keeping up with this very well but there has been a lot to do here and time is a precious commodity these days.  But with 2009 winding to close it is a good time to have a look back at what has been achieved this year and a blog post is the perfect way to sum this up.
For 5th Estate Music 2009 wasn't so much a first year as it was a first few months.  Even though it went "online" in September, the first real action only started a few weeks before the Nov.2 release of the Fine Print Pariah debut album and the goal since then has been to keep the ball rolling.  Some of the promotional activities that were meant to do this were successful but this is admittedly an area that needs a lot more work in 2010.  However, Fine Print Pariah did get some radio play and podcast play so the effort was not completely for nothing.
The licensing shop was set up and some physical distribution of the CD was arranged with a local record store here in Berlin.  Not bad for a start and now that the infrastructure is set up the process for future releases should be much easier.
The task now for the next week or so before everything shuts down for the holidays is to evaluate all of this and make plans for 2010.  At the moment it looks like there will be a very significant change in strategy that will take things in a very different direction.  Part of the reason for this has been the unexpected difficulty in getting Fine Print Pariah into a form that can perform live and other artistic factors have come into play as well.  The Fine Print Pariah debut album was a fine achievement but things are evolving quickly on the creative side so expect a few surprises in 2010.
All in all 2009 was a great success but there is still a lot of room for improvement.  The "label" was established, the first album was released and - without giving too much away too early - there is plenty more to come very early in 2010 so be on the lookout!
Have a great holiday season and nice "slide" into the new year as they say here!

The big day is finally here and it is a pretty nice feeling to have pulled this off without any significant hitches.  Even with all the preparation it still meant a long day of website updating and linking and emailing and phone calls but in the end it was all worth it.  The Fine Print Pariah debut album officially exists and is not only available in the FPP Shop but also through Amazon and all the big download stores such as iTunes, Emusic, Napster etc.  We'll see how things go in the next couple of months and will be using the experience as a bit of a barometer of how to approach future releases.  As with any first release this was a bit of an experiment and even though there was a lot of time and effort put into research and planning you just can't account for every variable in the equation.
Anyway, so far, so good!  Time to celebrate!

Well, it's been a pretty busy week here putting the finishing touches on the infrastructure that will support the first release.  The FPP Shop is now ready to go and already open for business even though the real "grand opening" isn't until Monday.  The decision to release a free download of the entire album was also finalized but only for a limited time.  Exactly how long is not clear but the idea right now is to keep this offer going until the live lineup is ready to hit the stages.  A bit of motivation can't hurt!

Been a while since the last post but things have been busy here in preparation for the Fine Print Pariah debut release which is also the debut release for 5th Estate Music.  Things have come together nicely with only a few setbacks the major one being that the live lineup is not ready yet and that means the release will happen without a "Release Party", at least not on the actual date.  But who says we can't do it later as a kind of "Album and Band Release Party".  Well, that's the way it will probably happen but due to circumstances beyond our control this will have to wait a while.  It might only be early 2010 before FPP hits the stages but when it does happen, WATCH OUT!!!
A lot of time and effort has been put into promotion but response has been pretty slow.  This was kind of expected, it was a conscience decision to take a "matter of fact" approach to the release rather than a load of "hype" so this has probably left some wondering what it's really all about.  The music, i.e. the album, was put first with a very basic press kit, just the info necessary to put a face to the name.  Bad idea?  Perhaps, but the goal here is to keep it about the music and not the flash and nonsense that is so prevalent in the internet age.
The T Shirts arrived on Friday and were put in the shop today.  The logo is a bit bigger than expected but they still look really good.  The shop will be finished by the end of the week with CDs and downloads so everything is ready for the official release on Monday.  As of Nov.2, 2009 the CD will also be available through Amazon and MP3s through iTunes International, Napster, EMusic and many others.
And what happens after Monday?  LOTS!  Just stay tuned to find out!