The Week-Long Hug

All this week, I've been up in Washington state (Tumwater, to be exact), visiting my sweet little Noah. He is truly a miracle, and we've been having a great time playing, eating, sleeping and playing some more. It's quite a wondrous thing to watch him experience the world. I'll post some pics and more details when I get back home.

During the custody proceedings, I'm only allowed 2-3 hours with Noah per day, so there is a lot of waiting. Which is boring. At the moment, I've actually stooped to watching MythBusters in my hotel room. This is because I've run out of fun things to do in Tumwater, of which there are about three: go to a park, go to a movie and...okay, two. I could also go for a drive at 10 miles per hour and then pull out slowly in front of oncoming traffic, which seems to be supercool around here.

Just counting the seconds till I get to see that perfect boy again.

New Album Now On iTunes

For those of you that prefer to buy music digitally, I'm happy to announce that The House We Built is now available on iTunes for your listening pleasure. Click the button below to open iTunes.



And after you hear the whole album, I would love it if you would leave a review!

Honking Fail

Hilarious. I absolutely hope this is for real.

Today's the Big Day!

Yes yes y'all. The time has come. My new album is out! It's waiting for you at CDBaby. There's a 30% discount if you buy more than one. Tell your friends!

In conjuction with my new record, I also have a brand new website! Very excited. Check it out - mikeschmid.com. Thanks so much to my web designer, Sarah Camp (at Bravos Media), for her hard work to get this ready in time for release day. Kudos!

The Teen Choice Awards

The ceremony was held at the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal Studios, and it was a veritable cornicopia of celebrities, Dippin' Dots, and fancy swag.

Mostly, we:

• Rehearsed
• Waited around for hours
• Got bored
• Ran to the theater and saw Step Brothers (no masterpiece, but a great way to waste some time)
• Hung out in the green room (I literally rubbed elbows with Scarlett Johansson)
• Got bored
  
• Hopped on stage
• Played the song
• Left the building

In that time though, I saw Posh & Becks, Katharine McPhee, that long-haired dude from Lost, the Jonases (nice to see them again), LL Cool J (Nadia desperately wanted a picture with him), a bunch of teenage celebrities I've never heard of, Fergie and those Davids from Idol.

Another day at the office. Yawn.

Connie Kim @ Tangier - Prepare to Be Amazed

Connie Kim creates some of the most beautiful and unusual music I've ever heard. Her songs conjure a world of voodoo dolls, talking fruits and circus performers, as heard through an antique victrola. She's playing Wednesday night at 8pm at Tangier in Los Feliz. I'll be on keys, melodica and glockenspiel, and we'll be joined by a string section and band. She puts on a spellbinding live show. You won't be disappointed.

FNMTV

Pete Wentz hosts a video premiere/live performance show for MTV on Friday Nights, called FNMTV (pretty clever right? Oh, "not so much?" OK). It's nice that MTV is actually playing music again, though.

We performed "7 Things" and "Fly On The Wall." It was a live broadcast, so it involved lots of pre-scrambling and then a quick blast of show, and then the inevitable let-down afterwards.

Teresa the choreographer.
She tells the dancers to jump, and they say "How high?"

My super-new, super-awesome rig, courtesy of Roland

Nate on a perch.

SuperFreakVashon attempts to protect his secret identity,
while Kay and Nadia nurse inner ear infections.

I finally landed myself in the padded room.

Pre-Order My New Album Now!

My brand new album, The House We Built, is available for pre-order at CDBaby.com. You can purchase it now, and it will ship to you on Tuesday.

You can also hear clips of every song on the new album at mikeschmid.com! Just click on the MEDIA tab.

I am very excited about this incredibly personal project and I would love your support!

Once you receive your copy of the album, let me know what you think by writing a review at CDBaby, or commenting here.

Stripped

Miley was invited to perform on ClearChannel's Stripped, an unplugged show for radio and the internet. I'm not sure yet when it's going to air, but you can check iheartmusic.com repeatedly and obsessively till they put it up.

The show was taped in the historic Capitol Records building. While we were there that day, Aretha and Rod Stewart projects were happening in other parts of the building, and pictures of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole lined the halls. This place is kind of a big deal.

It was an intimate show for a small audience of contest winners who flew in from all parts of the US. They were mostly young children, who were ridiculously adorable. They sat in reverent adoration of Miley, as she sang her heart out and chatted casually with the band.

I invited my parents, since they haven't been to a show in awhile.

Me and my Dad in the control room

My friends, Janie and Gary were also in town, so I invited them as well. You can read Janie's account of the taping on her blog.

Nadia and Drunken Zoolander

We had a lot of fun, and put on a good show. if I do say so myself (dusts off collar). It was a nice change to play these big pop/rock songs in a stripped-down acoustic context. It's a testament to how good the songs are, that they held up so well. Also, that grand piano I was playing had some seriously awesome ghosts in it. You could just feel the history on the ivory.

Shiny Happy People

Afterwards, Jamie (who was the Musical Director for the day, as Stacy was in NY) and I hung out in the studio and lent our ears for the mix session, which went late into the night. I was just happy they asked.

Stewboss and Rob Giles! Fun Times!

Tonight, I'll be playing keyboards with the Americana band Stewboss at Universal CityWalk. We've been having a lot of fun in rehearsals, and I'm excited about the show. If you're into Tom Petty, Wilco or the Wallflowers, you'll love yourself some Stewboss. It's gonna be a beautiful night of rocking out, so come check out the show, stroll along the 'Walk, grab a churro, see a movie, or try flying in that weird fake skydiving thingy.

Monday night (August 11), Rob Giles is doing his monthly residency at Molly Malones, and he's invited me to join him on stage. I'll be playing some songs from my brand new, soon-to-be-released album, The House We Built. And honestly, I'm just so happy that I get to watch Rob play. He's pretty friggin' amazing.

And if you come to either (or both!) of these shows, please feel free to introduce yourself to me afterwards. I love meeting my readers. Cause without you guys, this would just be a diary.

The Today Show

I realize I'm a bit behind on the blogging. Life just barrels onward, and I can't seem to catch my breath. Having a great time though.

So, a couple weeks ago we played The Today Show (which along with The Tonight Show, completes the set for us, I suppose). The concert took place smack dab in the middle of Rockefeller Square, with approximately 12,000 people shoehorned in there, which was sort of like dropping the entire Pacific ocean into a drinking glass.

I got to play with the brand new, delicious keyboards that Roland supplied me with, in exchange for my Miley-related face. They're much easier to play than my old keyboards, with the added benefit of making Schmid Island look like a totally pro vacation destination.

Mike - stunned by the keyboard greatness.
Nate - bored behind his drumset.

This was another whirlwind trip for us. We got in late at night, and the morning of the show, we had to soundcheck at 5am. Miley only got a few hours of sleep, but of course she was still brilliant. And of course, so were we. That's what we get paid for. The complaining is a free bonus (I like to call it "added value").

In the dressing room, they had a big spread of donuts, fruit and sandwiches. So of course, I had three donuts. When the show began, I had a stomach ache (what am I, five? "Mikey can't resist the candy", eh?).

Jaco is constantly asking me to take his picture

But this time he returned the favor.
I'm apparently ready to fake pounce, or something.

Nate and I became fast friends. If you happen to have the show Tivo'd, you can see at the beginning of Miley's dressing room interview, Nate and I are sitting on the couch behind her, having some fun with his iPhone. He had installed the Magic 8-Ball application and we were asking it some questions (at the most inappropriate possible time). First, "will we be a complete trainwreck on stage?" It's answer: "Of course!" Second, Nate asked, "will I be responsible for this?" The ball replied, "Absolutely not." So Nate was off scot-free, but who was going to ruin the show?

We went back out to the stage and played our faces off. It was a pretty typical show: Kay and Nadia shook their little booties, I held down the Island, Nate banged on some stuff, Jamie and Jaco got way too much camera time, Vashon intimidated little girls, Stacy looked on with a broken arm and a tear in his eye, and Miley belted like the charismatic little rockstar she is.

Turns out the only thing that went wrong is that the host didn't know we were playing another song, and tried to throw to commercial. But really, 8-Ball -- "train wreck?" That may be pushing it.

Before the flight home, Nate bought me a book of Sudoku, as we were talking about how I didn't understand the mass cultural fascination with it. Of course, I also thought it was about math, and we all know how I run screaming in the other direction when confronted with simple addition. Nate explained that there is no math involved, and that even a total knob-monkey like myself could understand it. I was addicted within five minutes, and spent a good part of my return flight filling in puzzles. The rest of the time was spent watching Curb Your Enthusiasm on my iPod, attempting to sleep with my head rolling from side to side, and holding those Terra Blue chips up to the light to admire the special pearlescent chemical compound that I probably shouldn't be eating.