New Video + Holiday Special

Two quick notes: 1) Our CD, Portugal/Slovakia, will be on sale at CDBaby until the end of the year. Perfect gift for your brother's wife's niece's music loving girlfriend. 2) I'm very excited to present a brand new video for the song Time Frets with original animation by Adam Šišulák. My favorite part is the opening bottle of smetana.

Zé Dos Frangos on Blogs and Sites

Remember that Steve Martin movie called The Jerk? He becomes ecstatic with joy when the new phone book arrives and his name is in it. "I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now."

That's exactly how I feel today, except, a level down maybe. A couple of blog posts came up and after a little fighting I got the CD Release Party posted on its respective venue websites for Lisbon and Bratislava.

Blogs
A Trompa em Lisboa
Traveling Jenny in Maine
Artless Processes in Washington

Venues
Galeria Zé Dos Bois em Lisboa
4coffee v Bratislave

Amazon.com
Songs To Escape America
Music For Reading
Portugal/Slovakia

Record Stores
AA Records (Europe)
CD Baby (USA)
Rhapsody
Emusic
Napster

Party Schedule

International CD Release Party - Krst - Lançamento

Urra, the CDs are done! Here they are in my sweaty little palm. Thanks to everyone that helped put this together. If you live in Austin, Lisbon, or Bratislava, come to the party on May 16th, if not, watch it online at the ZDF homepage. The entire album will continue to be available FOR FREE until May 16th here.

Lisboa: Galeria Zé Dos Bois, 16 Maio, 20H00

Bratislava: 4coffee, Hodžovo Námestie - Podchod, 16 Máj, 21:00

Austin: Cherrywood Coffeehouse, 1400 E.38 1/2 ST, 2pm

Press Release and Postcard Finished

This week I finished all of the press releases and the postcards for the ZDF CD Release Party. I'm so happy I'm going to past it all into this blog post like a proud idiot. Oh, and when I say I, I of course mean Kristina Vavrova and Tatiana Žilková for the Slovak translation, André Camecelha for the Portuguese translation, Ric Williams for proof reading, Julie M. Gale for writing, and Travis Broussard for designing.


English

Zé Dos Frangos Release Portugal/Slovakia

Austin, Texas, April 21, 2009— Zé Dos Frangos release their first album, Portugal/Slovakia, May 16, 2009, at an ambitious, trans-Atlantic release party in Austin, Texas. American band members in Austin connect with their European counterparts via satellite. In Austin the party starts at 2pm at the Cherrywood Coffeehouse on 1400 E 38th 1/2 Street and will be broadcast live on the band's website. The double EP, one half from Portugal, the other from Slovakia, incorporates English, Portuguese, and Slovak lyrics and combines several musical genres including Indie Rock and World Music. The album developed from collaborations with European bands AA Tigre, The Loosers, Gala Drop, and Vanilla Club.

Formed in 2007 by American expat Nathan Lively, the band (from Austin, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Slovakia) combines ingredients of American alternative rock, low-fi electronic beats, and traditional Spanish music, resulting in a distinct, original flavor. All the musicians are neo-traveling gypsies--disillusioned with the American Dream, looking for new value with wanderlust in their bones. The Austin Chronicle listed the band as a Top Pick of the 2008 SXSW music festival. Chronicle reviewer Doug Freeman cited the band’s greatest strength s, “male/female vocals softly intertwining over sparse indie electronics.”

Ze Dos Frangos information, tour dates, and music downloads are available at http://www.zedosfrangos.com/


Slovak

Zé Dos Frangos Release Portugal/Slovakia

Austin, Texas, 21.abríl 2009 – Zé Dos Frangos uvedie 16. mája 2009 svoj prvý album s názvom Portugal/Slovakia počas grandiózneho trans-Atlantickáho krstu, ktorý sa uskutoční v meste Austin v Texase a zároveň v ďalších 3 svetových veľkomestách: Bratislave, Lisabone a Nairobi. Americkí členovia kapely sa cez satelit spoja s európskymi členmi, a párty sa bude konať prostredníctvom web stránky kapely www.zedosfrangos.com. Dvojité EP, napoly portugalské a napoly slovenské v sebe spája anglické, portugalské a slovenské texty a kombinuje niekoľko hudobných žánrov od Indie Rocku po World Music. Album vznikol v spolupráci s Európskymi kapelami AA Tigre, The Loosers, Gala Drop a Vanilla Club, ktoré sa podieľali na nahrávaní a produkcii albumu.

Kapela (z USA, Portugalska, Španielska, Švajčiarska a Slovenska), ktorú v roku 2007 založil "Texas boy" Nathan Lively, kombinuje prvky amerického alternatívneho rocku, low-fi elektronické bíty a prvky tradičnej španielskej hudby. To dáva Zé Dos Frangos jedinečnosť a originálnu príchuť. Členovia kapely sú neo-kočovníci – rozčarovaní americkým snom, ktorí hľadajú nové hodnoty, a túžbu putovať z miesta na miesto majú zakorenenú hlboko v srdciach.

Austin Chronicle označil Zé Dos Frangos ako Top Výber roku 2008 na hudobnom festivale SXSW. Podľa Douga Freemana (reportér Austin Chronicle) je najsilnejšou stránkou kapely “jemné zosúladenie mužských/ženských vokálov s elektronickou indie hudbou“.

Bratislavská časť krstu sa bude konať od 20:00 v 4Coffee v podchode na Hodžovom námestí. Ďalšie informácie, termíny koncertov a pesničky skupiny Zé Dos Frangos si môžete stiahnuť na http://www.zedosfrangos.com/


Português

Zé Dos Frangos lançam o seu 1º álbum: Portugal/Slovakia

Os Zé Dos Frangos vão lançar o seu primeiro álbum, Portugal/Slovakia, no dia 16 de Maio de 2009, numa ambiciosa festa de lançamento transatlântica, em Austin, no Texas. Os membros americanos do grupo em Austin vão conectar-se com os membros europeus do grupo em Lisboa e em Bratislava através de uma ligação por satélite. A festa em Lisboa decorrerá na Galeria Zé Dos Bois e será transmitida em directo na página web, www.zedosfrangos.com. O duplo EP, metade de Portugal, metade da Eslováquia, contém letras em inglês, português e eslovaco e combina vários géneros, como o Indie-Rock e a World Music. A gravação surgiu de colaborações com as bandas europeias AA Tigre, The Loosers, Gala Drop, e Vanilla Club.

Formado em 2007, pelo americano Nathan Lively, o grupo (de Austin, de Portugal, da Espanha e da Suíça) combina vários ingredientes de rock alternativo, low-fi e electronic beats, resultando num sabor distinto e original. Todos os músicos são neo-ciganos com sede de viajar nos ossos. Desiludidos com o Sonho Americano, procuram novos valores . O Austin Chronicle destacou o grupo como um dos melhores presentes no festival de música South By Southwest (SXSW), em 2008. Para o crítico Doug Freeman, o melhor da banda são "as vozes masculina e feminina entrelaçando-se suavemente sobre esparsas electrónicas indie ."

Informação, datas de tourné e downloads de música, disponível em http://www.zedosfrangos.com/

Zé Dos Frangos na Radiu FM!

To all of our friends in Bratislava:

Zajtra 18/4 na Radiu FM bude zniet "Time Frets," na program To Najlepsie Z Hudby ktory moderuje Demeter.
Sobota 20:00-22:00, nedeľa 18:00-20:00

To najlepsie z hudby / Relacie / Denne / Vysielanie / Radio_FM - Radio_FM

Source: www.radiofm.sk

Challenges I encountered while trying to get the ZDF CD pressed

The Zé Dos Frangos International CD Release Party is in one month, so I was a little nervous about getting the CD done in time, especially since it's my first time to press a real CD. I mixed and mastered the CD on my Mac and brought the final mixes with me when I moved back to the US two weeks ago. Here are some problems that took a bunch of my time to solve.

Problem 1: SD2 Files
I brought all of the CD tracks with me from Slovakia prepared for burning, but why did I bring them in Sound Designer 2 format? This is the default output format for Waveburner, the program I used for final sequencing. I couldn't open them with iTunes or Quicktime on my PC.

Solution: Borrow Angela's MacBook and convert them to WAV files with iTunes

Problem 2: MP4 files
I wanted to include the video for Feel My Mustafa on the CD, but I needed to play it with a Flash player (SWF).

Solution: Download the free video converter called Super

Problem 3: Burn Audio and Video to the same disc
Some free programs like ImgBurn and InfraRecorder can burn audio and data to the same disc, but I had to burned a lot of test CDs until I realized that they were making what's called a Mixed-Mode CD. In a Mixed-Mode CD the first track is data, which will destroy you if you have the volume up when you press play. The only way to truly separate the audio and data so that the CD player won't read both is to put them in different sessions. In a Mac, this will look like two seperate CDs in the Finder. With Nero 9 I was able to created a disc image of my multi-session disc.

Solution: Download trial version of Nero and use profile CD Extra

Problem 4: Paying $200 for software I'll never use again
I created an Autorun file for my CD using a trial version of AutoRun Pro Enterprise. The output seemed fine, but then the reproduction house called to say that it wouldn't run because I hadn't paid for the AutoRun software!

Solution: Pay $30 for AutoRun Expert and redo the whole thing

P.S. CD Duplication is CD-Rs, CD Replication is with a glass master. Thanks to New Cyberian Systems, Inc. for all of the good info on their page.

Planning The Krst

I've been working hard this last week on plans for the Zé Dos Frangos record release party. It will be an international event occurring in Lisbon, Bratislava, and Austin simultaneously. Connected with video and audio through the intranet, each party will be able to interact with the other two and swear in foreign tongues thus giving context to the journey that brought about the album Portugal/Slovakia.

The date and location have not been set, but at the moment I hope it will be around May 16th and am looking at the Cherrywood Coffeehouse in Austin, Galeria Zé Dos Bois in Lisbon, and am still searching for a venue in Bratislava.

Novy album kapely Zé Dos Frangos

From Mustafa:

Prave vychadza album kapely Ze Dos Frangos – volne k stiahnutiu tu: www.zedosfrangos.com

Na tomto albume som hral bicie + moj dobry kamarat basovy hrdina Stefan Condik tam hral basu + nadana slecna Kristina Vavrova spievala nice vocals + hrkala shakerom.

A v neposlednom rade sam pan autor gitarista skladatel klavesovy mag Nathan Lively from Austin TEXAS.

Spieval a cely album nahral zmixoval a namastril. Prosim zajdite na web www.zedosfrangos.com pozrite si video a stiahnite si album zadarmo. A dajte mi vediet svoj nazor.

Srdecne vam dakujem a spolu s clenmi Zé Dos Frangos pozdravujeme.
ZÉ DOS FRANGOS

Hot Action on Gitarové Fórum

Slovak Zé Dos Frangos bassist Stefan Condik, better known as Pista, has stirred up some hot action on the Gitarové Fórum. My Slovak isn't that great, but it looks like some people, including a guy named Fly, like "Feel My Mustafa." Hopefully Pista will keep us updated.

Portugal/Slovakia - Free Download

The new Zé Dos Frangos album is finally finished! It took a month, which is actually relatively fast, but we were working on it from dawn till noite each day. The album will be available as a digital download and in physical form on the 28th of April, on which day we will also be throwing an international record release party full of euro-flavoured glee. Until then, download it for free from our homepage. Grande Dik to everyone that participated in it's fruition. You are bless'd.

SXSW2008 - Radio Station Radar

I've been feeling jealous reading all this chatter about SXSW and coincidentally I came across this foto of me doing an interview with the radio station Radar from Lisbon, Portugal. I thought it would be cool to post the interview on my site, if only for people to laugh listening to my crazy Portuguese with an American accent, but so far I haven't been able to get any response from the people at Radar.

New ZDF pictures from the last concert

Mustafa sent me a bunch of fotos from the last concert. They are dobré. I'm not sure who took them, but thanks to that European. Check them our here.

Ice-Box Tracking

We finished two days of tracking basics today. Pista and Mustafa were being very brave, trying to bust out their skills in a 3ºC room. I was amazed that they could play since I could hardly type with frozen fingers. We had a small heater and a fireplace, but I didn't want to turn either on, one because of the noise and the other because of all the smoke it made. Amazingly it turned out well and I'll continue recording my stuff next week, if I can get my mac fixed.

The last show at HlavaXXII was great and we got people out in record numbers! It was also really nice to finally have our own sound engineer, Milan Slama. They have a new sound system at Hlava but no one told me that it sound significantly better than the last time, but I assume that it did.

Even with all of these improvements, it still looks like it may be a while until we can perform live like we do in the rehearsal studio. Vocal monitors are just never loud enough. When we practice the play quietly and I can hear my voice really well, but when I'm on the stage sitting next to Mustafa beating the skins my hearing automatically becomes less sensitive the louder he plays so my requests for changes with the monitor are always too late. Sometimes I think that i will never have performance success until I get 10,000 hours of on-stage playing under my belt as Malcolm Gladwell explains. But, I have never tried in ear monitors, so there still might be a solution.

The most funny thing of the entire evening was how popular our last song was. I put it in the setlist cause I thought it would be fun for us, but even with it's sill lyrics, the audience loved it. Milan told me that the audience will always like the songs you don't like. Luckily, the recording turned out well, so I will include that one on the album I hope to release in the next couple of months.

Thanks to everyone that came out. It was a great final show for this chapter of ZDF.

Last ZDF Conert In Slovakia!

Our show on the 17th at Hlava22 will be the last show for Zé Dos Frangos for the near future. In March we will dedicate some time to recording new songs so look forward to a digital EP release in April. Our friend Jakub Gabriel will be opening the set at 20h and then ZDF will start at 20h30.

Last Show In Slovakia!

Our last show in Slovakia will be on February 17 at Hlava22 in Bratisava, opening at 20:00 with Jakub Gabriel. I have decided to move to the US in April and so will have a final show with my great Slovak band and then record the songs we have produced together in March. Come out to the show and look forward to a digital release of new material in April.

Šťastný Nový Rok!