MANKIND Remix hits the streaming services

It’s Earth Day, and MANKIND, the remix, is now live on the streaming services! Originally conceived in 1976, with music borrowed from a certain unofficial American anthem and sung by ducks, Mankind was conceived and created by a certain maverick record producer using a one-man band on a calliope-meets-player-piano contraption. The YouTube video for the song has been played a bunch since we launched it a year ago, and Pete and I thought this Earth Day would be a fine Earth Day to launch the track onto the Apple Musics and Pandoras and Spotifys of the world.

A motto here is “Every day is Earth Day,” and it’s obviously an attitude that all hoomans should take. As custodians of this planet we have largely failed, and we should do the best we can to correct that while we can, and time is running out fast, and we know this. To be kind to our web-footed friends is really the same as being kind to ourselves, as without nature we are nothing, and every habitat we destroy leads to our demise. I think Pete put it well in this song, and while he may have second thoughts about the duck voice, I LOVE it! This leads me to a tangent, which might get a bit ranty:

This track is unique, and that’s something I like about it, and it’s part of what inspired me to do a remix. In the streaming music world, as with movies on Netflix etc., and basically all of the algorithmically programmed Interwebs, there’s this whole business about recommending things that are somehow similar to other things people have viewed or liked. I find this as ridiculous as it is prevalent. Our tastes can be FAR broader than that and I think we are, by nature, eclectic in our tastes. Meaning, we like lots of different types of things. Which is why I favor curation by thoughtful and knowledgeable hoomans over AI-based programming. Current automatic content programming methods try and push us into little piles surrounded by familiar things, making our intellectual and artistic horizons shrink ever-smaller in little echo-chamber jails. It’s part of what is wrecking public discourse and leading us to despair and societal collapse.

On this Earth Day we at Berkeley Cat Records celebrate our diversity and uniqueness, AND the things that bind our interests and loves together, like, the need for clean air and water, and our desire for peace and prosperity for our kids.  And FOR all that, we had better be kind to our web-footed friends.

OK, maybe that wasn’t so ranty after all. Here’s Pete, with a question:

A Rainy Caturday in Northern Catafornia

Eric Din’s debut album is now live in the streaming services! Mostly ALL of them, Belvedere, find links in this handy widget. CD is still available here for thems of yous who want actual thing-ness. Here’s a photo of it, by drummer extraordinaire Thomas White, on the very drums he played on This Place Isn’t Here Anymore.

AND! Pretty soon this CD will be available in ONE retail record store in the entire known universe! We’ll shout about that when it’s there but for now, more mews:

Margaret Cho is a ska fan, singing the praises of Fishbone, Skankin Pickle, Op Ivy and (what!) The Uptones! On Aaron Carnes’ whirrled famous In Defense Of Ska Podcast, behold

Comeback Pete prepares the release of Eric Din’s REMIX of MANKIND for Earth Day, pre-save it here! More on this unique track and Pete’s amazing story, here soon.

There’s more? Yes, Batagonia, there’s MOAR!!

We’re loading up the Cat-Cannon with Nonuffya Bizznis and the Private Dancers’ first single on Berkeley Cat Records, Safe Pair Of Hands! Exciting. Intriguing. Some of you may know them.

And that’s it, all the relevant mews of the day. Don’t take catnip from unreliable sources, get plenty of sleep, and remember to leap about spontaneously and pounce on random balls of string.

Yours terrifically, speaking as we do in the 3rd person plural about ourselves,

Eric Roy Dinwiddie

Eric Din’s Street Party – exclusive full album preview on Brooklyn Vegan today!

It’s loose! The cat’s outta the bag! For the first time you can hear this whole album, online, for free, OMFG!!! Yes we’re excited, what a nice preview, and we’d love it if you’d share this link with your friends and luvs today. Thanks! Hope you enjoy <3

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/stream-eric-dins-the-uptones-new-solo-album-street-party/

Eric

Spotify and iTunes users! Help us out!

Hi friends,

Just a quick note with a big ASK! (Now that “ask” is a noun!)

If you use Spotify – please pre-save my album today right now tonight! It goes live this Caturday, April 9, and we are given to understand that “pre-saves” may help surface it in the vast infinity of playlists and algorithms and such. So! Here’s a link:

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/ericdin/street-party

There’s an iTunes link in there too. Pandora and TIDAL and a bevy of other streaming services will also have the album live for on-demand streaming, on the 9th.

And that’s it, apart from a huge THANK YOU! More news coming soon, we think!

Love and bunnies,

Din

Radio, Radio!

Because..

  1. DJ Jesse Luscious is premiering a song from Eric Din’s STREET PARTY album today on his fabulous international radio show, and we don’t know which one! Tuning in excitedly, and you can too, at here: https://mmhradio.co.uk/ noon- 2PM PST, kitties.

  2. We like saying despatch. Because who spells it that way? No one, anymore. We’re bringing despatch back.

  3. There’s no 3. That’s it. Have fun. Byeeee!