SUN ZOO BLOG MOVED

ALL UPDATES ABOUT NEW ALBUMS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.sun-zoo.com/blog/

Impending Travel Abroad

In a couple days, I'm leaving the country for China, where I will be until August 28th. Feel free to send me emails or whatever else before then, but don't necessarily expect to hear much back. If you want to keep tabs on my experience there (which is pretty unrelated to my music but whatever) check out the blog I'm keeping at http://www.sun-zoo.com/harbin/

That is all. See you on the other side of the summer!

Reviews and impending international travel

Once again, so busy with other stuff that I haven't updated this in a while. In the interim period, another review came out, which is enjoyable. Let's blockquote this fucker:

Here’s a literate rapper who really gives the “American way” an intelligent punch in the mouth. Throughout this entire piece, Sun Zoo, gives us his perspective (and even takes his share of the blame on Track 1) on this dysfunctional life we lead. He starts out with a moving piece he addresses to a sibling drug abuser. He acknowledges his place in the society that drives his brother to drugs. Needless to say, I immediately loved this CD.

If there was any doubt that Sun Zoo could keep his brain in a feature role, he gives us Track 2, “Aldus Huxley,” that spins the cautionary tale of the brave new world that we’ve created by continuing to ignore the coming of fascism and totalitarian control in America. The track includes a sample from the “Andy Griffith” show where Opie pleads with Andy to pay attention.

The goods just keep coming as “Victim” paints the very real picture of a girl trying to be Brittney or Paris, but our rapper doesn’t put down the stars. He reminds us that they are better people than our culture defines them to be. This is a smart young man who has succinctly defined a culture that honestly can’t see the forest for the trees. The album is certainly political, but it isn’t angry. It isn’t violent gangsta rap. Think of it more as a hip hop dissertation. If you think of yourself as too “well-healed” for rap, then this is the best place to experiment. In fact, our artist even concedes that the sampling that dominates rap soundtracks is unoriginal.

Ultimately, this is a worldly, sad recording that is very personal, but also very universal. Sun Zoo is one to watch.

Pretty nice. In other news, over 5,000 unique vistors to the site this year. Keep spreading the word and keep them coming! Also, expect a pretty long hiatus from updates both here and on the main site (sun-zoo.com) soon. I hope to get some remixes, etc,, up before then (I have a bunch of new remixes, not to mention the 33+ remixes of "Aldous Huxley" that have come in for that contest so far), but I'm leaving for China on June 19th. I will have (occasional) internet access there, but I'll be using it to keep a personal blog of my misadventures rather than updating music sites. Rest assured though, I'll be doing some writing while I'm there. I'm interested to see how being in a different place and culture (and speaking a different language) is going to affect my songwriting. Should be fun.

Sorry for the delay

...in updates. I've been busy. Anyways, first some good news: the site has now had over 4,500 unique visitors since Can't See the Forest came out. That's more visitors since mid-February than the site got in all of 2006. Sure, it's no google, but it's a pretty good start. Many thanks to everyone who has helped promote the album. Please keep sending the link around, posting it everywhere you can find online, giving the albums to your friends, putting up posters, and everything else. It's working, so keep it up!

Also, there's a remix contest going on right now on another site using my song "Aldous Huxley". The winning producer will get their remix featured on the front page of my site, and also get a chance to produce some tracks for the next album. They've done great stuff in the past, including an incredible remix of GRIME's "Karma", so I'm looking forward to hearing what they come up with.

Apparently I haven't updated this since the Dream Team show. That went really well. Thanks to everyone who came out, I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too. This picture in the corner there is a pic from the show that one of my friends took. I know its a little dark. There were a bunch of people taking pictures, including some girl who took like 800, but I don't know who they were and I haven't seen them so this is what I've got.

Oh. Somebody with some video skills please make a youtube video for some of these songs...and tack "sun-zoo.com" on the end of it. I would love you forever.

More Shows More Reviews

So, for those interested, I've got another show coming up, on April 16th I think. This is another Jamnesty event for Brown's chapter of Amnesty international. I'll have all the details up on my site as soon as I know them.

There are also a couple new reviews of the album out. Check out the Hartford Advocate review, and also the post on Free Albums Galore. I'm still hoping to get more reviews, so if you know of any publications that might do it send me an email or just submit the album to them on your own (and give them my email).

There are also some new remixes, but I haven't put them up on the site yet. They should be up in the next couple days, along with some other new stuff. I'm also probably going to add lyrics to the site becuase I've gotten a bunch of emails asking for that. It takes a long time to type them up, but I'll do what I can.

I live!

It's been so long that before I updated I had to check and see what I actually said the last time. Good stuff. Anyway, those of you keeping score at home may have noticed the rave reviews coming in for the new album. Or, more specifically the one rave review so far from the fellows over at The Void. You know. "Perfect Score". "10/10". "Sun Zoo is the everyman, he represents all of us on some level." Good stuff like that. As you can see, I'm not letting it go to my head.

The site broke 3,000 unique visitors today so I haven't been able to keep that crazy momentum up completely, but that's pretty good. I'm within a thousand visitors of last years numbers already and the album has barely been out a month. In fact, I forget what day I released it, so it may not have been out a month yet...

If you aren't checking, there are a bunch more remixes up at the site, and I actually have some more I've just been too lazy to upload thusfar but that will be going up eventually. Big thanks to everyone that is contributing, especially the ones spelling my name right. I love what you're coming up with.

Also, I'll be opening for Gabriel Yaiva and The Dream Team at Brown's local pub, The Underground, Friday April 6th, so mark your calendars if you live around here. The show starts at 10.

Guess that's about it for now. Keep spreading the word and the links around as best you can!!!

Release, Remixes, Etc.

So, I guess I'll keep this thing going, at least for the moment. Anyway, the album is now released, obviously, and it went pretty well. I got some press about it in the BDH and then a little follow-up shout out this week. Many thanks to Ben and Sonia for that.

Other than that, things are good as well. I'm still hoping to get more reviews in about it, but the feedback I've gotten from random people about it has been very positive. I was worried people wouldn't like it as much as Hope Flies, but many people actually seem to like it a lot better, which is nice. The site has had about 2,000 unique visitors in the week since the album came out, which is great, but the numbers are definitely dropping, so tell your friends immediately, person who is reading this!

That aside, you should check out the REMIX section of the site...in addition the acapellas, there are a couple remixes up already, by Djay Cas and Bravado Beats, and both of them are incredibly sick. I expect to get more remixes so keep checking back for more, but do not miss these, especially the Bravado Beats version of "Not For Sale"