Sam Billen

Nathan at the Record Machine set up a player for all of the REMOVERs – stream them while you work! stream them while you play! There will be more coming out soon. Enjoy!

Do you like Ryuichi Sakamoto’s band from the 80’s, Yellow Magic Orchestra? Do you like Sufjan Stevens? Then you’ll love my two new REMOVERS!

Just wanted to share a quick update on my REMOVERs (remixes/covers) project. Last night I put the finishing touches on a cover of Passion Pit’s song To Kingdom Come. I think we’ll soon be releasing a cover I recently did of Sufjan Stevens’ song Borderline as well as Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Rydeen.

For those of you that are just joining us, the REMOVERs project is basically a collection of my renditions of songs that influence my music. We have already released quite a few – Made Concrete by The Republic Tigers, Spritle by Deastro, This Place is a Prison by the Postal Service, the Wimp by Capybara

We set up a player, so you can stream/listen to all of them here:

I’m also finishing up a few songs for a new movie coming out called Brothers Krong 2. Here’s a pic from the movie (Photo by an amazing KC photographer named Jason Tracy: www.jasontracyphoto.com)

Please take a minute to download the 10th anniversary edition of the album, Death of a Saint, which I wrote for my mom who died of breast cancer. If you’re not interested in downloading the album, you can at least read the story behind it here and you can even listen (without downloading) to some of the songs under the ‘music tab’ above. To download it, click on the image of the album to the right under the category ‘Free Downloads’. Please share it with your friends and family.

For more information about the wonderful woman that my mom was, please visit the facebook site dedicated to her.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

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!

A few things:

First and foremost, the Record Machine is offering my album plus 4 other great TRM releases from earlier this year for only $15. Honestly, all 4 of the other albums get my solid seal of approval – they are awesome. For $15, this is a great deal.. When it’s all said and done, I’ll probably get a good 37 cents from your purchase, so you know I’m telling you about this out of good-hearted honesty rather than greed!

Next, please remember to download the new Christmas album I put together with my friends – it’s free! And it’s called “The More the Merrier Christmas”. Here’s the music:

Also, if you didn’t get it last year, there’s another free Christmas album I did. Check out the discography link on this page and you’ll find the download and the story there.

Thanks for stopping by!

About a month ago, I had the idea of getting some friends to help me put together a free Christmas album for lovers of good music.. I literally hand-picked some of my favorite musicians from around Lawrence and around the world (Joshu in Tokyo!!) – and they were kind enough to contribute some songs to the project. The Record Machine posted the album on their site today as a free download – you can stream/listen to the whole thing below or follow the link to download it off of www.therecordmachine.net. I hope you like it! Merry Christmas! Tell your friends!!