Off to listen to The Future Soon now. *waves*

All I can think of is how every time I play Code Monkey, my roomate drops weverything and starts singing along. I’m not allowed to play it during finals

Way to go, JC!!

Finally, the truth can be told.

–kevin

PS. My daughter is still amazed everytime she sees a photo of you: amazed that those dulcet tones come from all of that hair.

Congrats on the great coverage in the NYT; I’m sure it has created many new fans like myself!

I hope you and all of your new indie-artist friends will check out http://www.ourstage.com (disclaimer: I work for them). It is a new website designed to help indie-artists in music and film find their fans. Submit your work and see what happens. Good luck!

I’m kind of in the same situation as you a couple of years ago, with my audience nicely building up at the moment through web 2.0 word of mouth. Your story is very inspiring, it has given me hope that in six months time, quitting my job won’t seem like such a stupid idea.

Good luck with everything, and i’m hoping i can catch you live next time i’m in the States.

You come for the funny, you stay for the music.

Right on.

1. Lyrics. I mean, my goodness. They’re just so good. Spectacular. I mean, regardless of whether they’re funny or not, they’re amazing.

2. Music. Because, I mean, it’s all you. And that takes so much skill that I am forever marveling. And your songs complex and interesting and beautiful.

3. Voice. You really do have a very pretty one.

4. Panache and/or poise and/or chivalry. Which is to say, your attitude.

5. Accessibility. This website and so on.

6. Free things. Because I am not made of cash and will not be made of cash until next year, at which point I will certainly repay you for all of this.

(As previously stated, I’m all for concerts for your teenage fanbase, though.)

And the tunes rock, too.

As for expanding the audiences: you have a horde of teens who worship your every tune but can’t see you at grownup shows. How about performing for them too? I understand they have money to spend on seeing live music - don’t let them waste it on insubstantial pop divas!

It’s interesting how that sort of thing - getting yourself out there - seems to grow on its own after a point, in a very organic fashion. At first it seems to hit only the people you directly target but then, as the network grows, things start coming in from directions that you were unaware of or didn’t expect. I run a small consulting business where this started happening a year or so ago - I get calls now from people I don’t know and have never directly contacted.

The other part of the organic thing is that things don’t grow in the direction one might expect. I find the order that you list things happening in interesting because that’s now how it looked from my perspective. I first heard of Hodgeman through JC - not the other way around.

Finally - as regards the songs being novelty numbers: While I can see why you would say that, I don’t really think of them that way. Most pop music seems to me to be the same two songs about love and sex from the perspective of late adolescent angst, remixed ad nauseum. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to identify with that topic area. JC’s stuff is about things I’m interested in and, while Wierd Al’s stuff is blatantly obvious, nothing you write is just about what could be thought of as the “novelty” portion of the song.

That, along with the exceptional music in the songs, keeps me listening well past the point where the novelty wears off.

I found out about you through Merlin’s “The Merlin Show”, and then saw his link to the NY Times article.

Have also been mentioning you on my blog, privately to friends, and on Last.FM journals.

Keep up the good work & being a positive role model for your kid!

JC - your humility and thoughtfulness are one of the major reasons your fans (both the fanatics and the afficionados) love you and your work. Sure, the funny stuff is really funny, but it’s also smart and very well crafted. I’m sure the hardest part now is trying to decide what direction to grow in next. I’m equally certain that the handclaps will still be part of the equation.

Fantastic show in Chicago - I’ll have pics up on Flickr for everyone’s general consumption soon. I wish I had been able to capture it on video, hopefully someone did, but one of the highlights of the evening was when the entire audience was singing the chorus of “Skullcrusher Mountain” with just the guitar accompaniment. That’s pretty amazing and it was cool to be part of it. The additional harmonies of Paul and Storm were also great - maybe you could release a live disc from your tour with them, or maybe an Unplugged-type studio album?

And major kudos to your missus and family for their support. It takes a lot of faith and commitment to be willing to share your time with the world.

Kudos,
^_^ Liza

PS - In my excitement to say “hi” I didn’t get to introduce my faithful husband and sidekick, nor did I explain that the ‘WSU’ on the monkey stood for Wayne State University in Detroit, MI (insert rolling eyes here). Clearly, I was totally gobsmacked - thanks for being such a good sport! Oh, and the monkey really can become a cat toy, hope Piggy likes it!

Read the NYT magazine article.
Thought it was interesting as a former student of economics.
Didn’t inspire me to check out your music.
Probably because the article didn’t really discuss it.

But Jamie Poniewozik of Time magazine just linked to a fan video of “Code Monkey” in his blog.
I figure, “What the heck, it’s one click away. Check it out.”

My power-pop-loving heart fell hard.

Thank you.

How often does a good song get Dugg and Slashdotted and get millions of downloads if the song does NOT have a novelty factor?…probably not that often.

Also, everyone loves a story about someone beating the odds without the backing of big corporations.

Jay

Also, the Madison show was fantastic! My wife did a comic about it. (Click on my name to see it)

I actually discovered TSOYA through Coulton’s (and Hodgman’s) plugs for it. I probably would have found it anyway if I, say, lived in Hattiesburg.