On Tuesday, February 28, 2006, I was told that the 3″ of Soft Rock was about to be pressed. I know the date, because I blogged it. It was already months past its initial “release date,” and nearly two years old.

Then, couple of weeks later, it was gonna happen the following week. And so forth.

May 9. Still waiting. Maybe we should start a letter campaign, like for that Fiona Apple record.

Actually, I think I might just move on to a new batch of music and throw these tracks in the lake. Which is right by my house.

But it will live on in my mind…

…And in the form of an ancient curse.

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Casey Rea was the Seven Days music editor from 2004 until 2007. He won the 2005 John D. Donoghue award for arts criticism from the Vermont Press Association.

6 replies on “Letting go.”

  2. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been waiting for as many months. I had been told many times that it was going to happen within a specific time frame. I have no interest in arguing about it, because that’s the way it happened. I CAN try to put it out of my mind, however.Which was the point of the post.By relinquishing expectation, I am freed from disappointment.

  3. I’m not so sure that was the point of the post, seeing as you know this site is on my daily cruise…and I can’t imagine you wrote this without thinking of me reading it.But…I do believe you when you say you don’t want to argue about it. I think you hoped to make a statement that included only your POV of the situation– THE definitive summation of “the way it happened”– and then remove the gloves and ditch the spray-paint.Everything for the CD has been done for months now. We told you– no, I told you– when I thought it would get rolling based on what I was told and what I understood and how I saw it. You, of all people, know how things get delayed, postponed, whatever. People move, materials are back-ordered, vacations are taken, jobs are accepted, deliverables are past-due, hangovers are nursed, bills are outstanding, work gobbles up Sunday, wrong materials are delivered and need to be returned and reordered, WHATEVER. Do you think we aren’t disappointed? Do you think we aren’t waiting? Do you think we devise fiendish schemes of stringing you along with false hope week after week, all the while gathering around your finished work and laughing maniacally, rubbing our hands and twirling our mustaches?We don’t make a dime off our releases– actually, we have yet to so much as break-even. We spend our own money, with no expectation of seeing any of it again, to try put out art that we like in a manner that we think it deserves: beautifully, and hopefully, affordable. But this is what strikes me most: we’re friends, and obviously things were getting delayed, so– unless you think I’m a liar and was just lying to you for the hell of it– if you really wanted to “let it go” and “put it out of your mind” and get it out there, why wouldn’t you ask, “What can I do to help get this out?” or “Do you guys need some help?” or “Is something the matter?” Something positive, proactive, rather than a thinly-veiled dis that you KNOW will bring out the venom.If you want to throw it in the lake for real, let me know before more of OUR time and money and stress goes into putting out YOUR music…which we like very much, which is why this dialogue even exists.

  4. I have no problem with announcing to the world that I’m frustrated that the thing has been stalled for so long. I’m telling everyone who have been so kind as to have asked about it. I’d do it again. Sorry.It’s not like I had been bugging you relentlessly in the last year and a half. I can almost count the times I asked about it on one hand. The fact that I was told that it was coming out “next week” on a regular basis (information proffered, not requested) led to a series of personal disappointments. Particularly since the reasons for the delay were never articulated. Still, I didn’t make a fuss.The only time I was given a reason was about a week ago, when I made a casual mention. And I still don’t quite understand the answer. I don’t think you “devise fiendish schemes” to disappoint. At least, I HOPE not! It’s just just too much is left up in the air. Most folks would feel similarly, in a similar situation.I’d have paid for the damn thing myself, if I knew it would have brought results. I was under the impression that it was something that you WANTED to do. Because I WANT to work with YOU on other stuff, and I don’t hassle you about money.When I talk of leting it go, I mean it. The post was a way of me getting the shit off my chest. I don’t want the work to be crushed by my emotions, so I’m tryin’ to cut the strings. None of it will matter in the long run. I’ve already had my fun creating it, no need to push anymore. I’m ready to move on to new things.There will soon be newer tracks at: http://www.MySpace.com/CaseyTheContrarian, if anyone cares to check ’em out.

  5. All right all right, you like me and what I do, and I like you and what you do. Let’s just keep working.And as far as SR, we’re trying, we really, REALLY are….we want it out as much as you do. Maybe more, by this point.One love, lone dove.e

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