February 2010

Here are 4 Removers I’ve done over the past few months – the Postal Service cover hasn’t been released until now. It’s one of my personal favorites – love that song. Listen to the songs on the player below or download them all for free here.

Expect more REMOVERS soon!

www.reviewsic.com wrote up a great review on my album, Headphones and Cellphones. Check it out here: http://reviewsic.com/2010/02/21/sam-billen-headphones-cellphones/

A week or so ago, there was an awards ceremony in Topeka called the ‘Addys’ (kind of like the local ‘Academy Awards’ for advertising). Two out of the three ‘Best in Show’ awards were for projects that my brother and I did the music for. One was a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas commercial that we wrote a jingle for and the other was the documentary ‘Porubsky’s: Transcendent Deli’ that we wrote the soundtrack for. Here is a link to watch them yourselves: http://theaddyshow.com/category/best-of-show/ Or you can just watch them below:

BCBSKS Coordinated Campaign from Topeka Adclub on Vimeo.

In less important news, I’m thinking about doing a remover of Passion Pit’s song ‘To Kingdom Come’ on my xylophone and pianica. We’ll see how that turns out…….

I guess it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I should probably start with some good news. My album, Headphones and Cellphones, got on a couple of local “Best of 2009″ lists. One was in the Lawrence Journal World and the other was in the Pitch Weekly.

Secondly, I have a couple of shows lined up in Lawrence and KC. They are on Saturday, the 27th of Feb. and March (yes, both months have the same dates on the same day of the week – destiny). Get more info about the shows tab to the right.

Lastly, I’ve been wrapping up some songs (remixes/covers) for the Removers album/EP we have been releasing little by little. The idea started as me covering songs that influenced my recent solo album, Headphones and Cellphones. The concept has since kind of expanded though, and now I’m remixing/covering a great list of songs that have influenced me in the past as well as new ones I’m coming across and falling in love with. Here’s a list of a few:

This Place is a Prison, the Postal Service (obvious influence on Headphones and Cellphones)
Borderline, Sufjan Stevens (another obvious influence on all of my music)
Rydeen, Yellow Magic Orchestra (Ryuichi Sakamoto’s band from the 70’s)
Spritle, Deastro (awesome music out of Detroit)
In Steps, Letting Up Despite Great Faults (new band from L.A. – smooth 80’s new wave feel)
Made Concrete, the Republic Tigers (friends of mine and an amazing band – truly an inspiration)
the Wimp, Capybara (labelmates of mine – up and coming – great talent and energy in this band)
Do Right, Paul Davis (a classic song that my parents loved and passed on to me)
A Dream Goes on Forever, Todd Rundgren (ditto with the song above)
Millions of Miles, the Billions (a song I wrote back in 2000 for my old band, the Billions – ‘influence’? or just a glimpse of Christmas past)

I’m sure we’ll add more to the list as time passes and more ideas come up. We’ll hopefully have some to give out soon – I’ll post them on here as soon as they’re available.

Thanks for reading all the way through. I promise I’ll post sooner next time so I won’t have a billion things to write about!