IndieGoGo donors have now received the seventh of twelve monthly singles. It’s called “My Future Ex-Wife.” The B-side is “Wyandot County Beef Queen, 1988.” That one was commissioned by Jon Breiner, who did indeed marry the lady who won that title.
Neither tune will be on the forthcoming LP.
TMJ Returns To The Stage!We’re going to celebrate the upcoming release of the next Too Much Joy album by playing a few shows — our first in 15 years. We’re dubbing this the Mistakes Will Be Made mini-tour, and we’ll be playing songs from throughout our career. Here’s what’s been booked so far:
Note that, while we may fill in some shows between those (let us know if your tri-state-area Halloween party needs a house band!), these will likely be our only live dates in 2022 — we do not expect to get north of Boston, west of Philly, or south of DC this year. So if you’re inclined to see us, please click the links above to buy tickets for one of those shows ASAP — the more tickets we sell, the more likely we are to get other shows later on (we may even be able to add a second show in some or all of the cities above if they sell out quickly).
The abum, if you haven’t heard, will be called All These Fucking Feelings, and is coming out October 21st on Propeller Sound Recordings. Brooklyn Vegan just premiered the LP’s first track, “We Yell at 8,” if you’d like to hear it.
We look forward to sweating on all of you soon!
Another month, another exclusive track for donors to our IndieGoGo campaign. This one’s called “What’s Good For The Banks.”
It’s got two B-sides, the first of which is “Dick-Punching Foe of the Patriarchy,” a song that was commissioned by Kristen Berg, who told us that’s how friends describe her.
The third track is “The Otter’s Return,” which only exists because donor Ellen Bashore asked for a sequel to “The Otter Song.” She said her original plan was to have us compose a song about her daughter Zoe, but Zoe was not keen on that idea. We can’t imagine why. Zoe’s reluctance gets a shout-out in the tune, because the song’s all about telling the truth through fiction.
Donors to our IndieGoGo campaign have now received this month’s single, a rocker called “Nothing Like You.”
The B-side, “Clenched Fist Labs,” was commissioned by Robert Reay, to commemorate a bunch of characters with a shared mythology he and some friends created a while back. They have their own comic strip if you want to follow it: www.umlautllama.com/projects/cfl/
The cover art was drawn by TMJ fan Sean Brown.
Tim has a guest post up on Robert Christgau’s Substack this week — Bob is turning 80 this month, so his editor Joe Levy asked a few friends/fans/acquaintances to take over for April, in order to give the Dean a month off to celebrate in style.
Joe suggested Tim write about the experience of being reviewed by Bob, which Tim was happy to do. But he also went a bit wider to discuss the overall sceptism a lot of musicians have about the role of critics — a scepticism most members of TMJ do not share, as we self-describe ourselves as frustrated rock critics.
Click the image to read the piece.
No joke: there’s a new donor-only single. This one’s called Remembrance of Things Fast, and the artwork is based on the cover of the Proust novel Tim failed to read all the way through in high-school.
It comes with two b-sides. “She Took it as a Sign” was commissioned by Jennifer Renfroe, while “Bloodfest Records” was commissioned by P.M. Bradshaw. Many thanks to them, and all the donors, who will be getting not just these singles, but a brand spanking new TMJ LP before the year is out.
If you have FOMO because you never heard about, or simply didn’t get around to donating to, the IndieGoGo campaign that made all this music possible, you may still do so here.
Another month, another donor-only single. This one’s called “The Song I Didn’t Write,” and it’s dedicated to to Chip Turner, who paid for a custom B-side but then told us to just keep the money and spend our time working on the album. He’s a dude.
“Killer the Bichon Frisé” was commissioned by Donna Shuster, for her rescue pup. He looks so good in his Harley gear, we’re posting the alternate art for the single instead of the actual cover which is nowhere near as good.
As always, if you want the music but slept on the IndieGoGo campaign that funded its creation, you can still sign up to receive all 13 singles (4 released so far; 9 more to come) here.
It’s a new month, so there’s a new, donor-only TMJ single. This one has three songs:
If you missed the IndieGoGo campaign but want to hear the songs before they’re released to the general public, you can still get in on the fun by becoming a donor here.
Happy New Year, everybody. We’re celebrating by sending all our IndieGoGo donors the first of the twelve singles they’ll be reciving in 2022. It’s got two songs. The first is “Normal Never Was,” a song about how the better pasts we imagine rarely were. The b-side is “Curse of the Bobblehead,” a true story commissioned by Justin Beland, for his father-in-law Marc Gold. This is probably the last time TMJ will ever sing about sportsball, but you needn’t be a fan of the game (or, even, Too Much Joy) to enjoy this particular song, which has lessons for us all.
Well, the last time did this was so much fun that we’ve decided to do it again: last night we announced a new IndieGoGo campaign for 2022. The end result will be a brand-spanking new TMJ record, but we’re going to be even more ambitious this time round. In addition to giving donors the new album when it’s done (either as digital downloads, a shiny CD, or a limited edition, donor-only colored vinyl LP, depending on how much you pledge), we’re committing to release a brand new, donor-only single every month in 2022.
But wait, there’s more! If you can afford $200, you’ll also get access to the TMJ Music Vault, which comes pre-populated with demos and outtakes from their entire career, and which will have new demos, alternate mixes and other ephemera from the new album’s sessions added throughout the year.
And if you can afford $500, you can buy one of 12 custom B-sides to those donor-only singles, in which the music from the previous month’s A-side will be given brand new lyrcis, written by Tim, about any topic of your choosing. Have TMJ sing the praises of your loved one, or pet, or anything you;ve ever wished they’d write a song about.
And if you have $1000 to splurge, you can commission a custom song for which Tim will not only write the lyrics, but completely new music. Some of those might even wind up on the new LP, which will be coming out on Propeller Sound Recordings, likely sometime in October of 2022.
Even better: all donors at any level will be sent a code that unlocks a new TMJ song called “We Yell at 8.” Contribute here.