I’m not going to say a lot beyond making a simple announcement that the band is now, for all intents and purposes, defunct. Too many challenges to surmount after the last few years.
Personally, I’m devastated.
Re the future: anything is possible, but not probable.
Our music will, for the time being at least, remain available on the various platforms.
Thank you for your support over the last sixteen years. I know Chris, Chris, and Faro would do the same.
If anything changes, you’ll be the first to know.
T
10-17-2022
Category: News
A gig! A gig!
We will be playing the Stomping Ground pub in lovely downtown Putnam, CT on July 6 from 8-11. Great food, great atmosphere, fun times.
New venue for us, so we’d love to have a good turnout. Come on down!
The Story So Far:
After a couple of gigs, we’re starting to get our sea legs again as a live band. Sundays at Nick’s in the late afternoon seem to be a sweet spot — good crowds and reception.
Our next gig will be at 4 PM on August 8. Expect a tighter set list, less banter, more music, and maybe some new work…?
Nick’s, 124 Millbury Street, Worcester, MA.
Some updates about the current moment…and what we’re doing.
If you follow the band, you know what we’re about, and that we put a lot of social and political content and commentary into our work. The current uprisings, coupled with the self -isolation we’re dealing with re the pandemic, add both a special urgency and a serious challenge to how we’re going to be a part of the necessary change.
It should go without saying that we believe strongly that Black Lives Matter, and that there are serious and frightening systemic issues in our society that have been boiling for centuries that are coming to a head now. While we often address them in our work, thinking about how we in particular must move forward is of real importance to us, and we don’t want to do it badly or in a counter-productive way.
The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated this for us because we cannot get together, as three of us are in personal high-risk situations and one is in a high-touch public exposure job. So we are currently limited in terms of our options.
Here are a couple of first steps.
We distribute our work to all the various streaming and download services through an agreement with a company called DistroKid, who put out the following statement earlier this week:
“DistroKid donated to NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Color of Change to help in the fight against racism and social injustice.
“Some artists have asked how they can auto-donate some of their royalties, too. DistroKid just made it super easy for artists to automatically donate a portion of royalties to Black social justice organizations.”
Which we have done.
Every time you download or stream our track “Crumbs” from any service, a portion of our royalties go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
At the moment, we’re limited that to that one fund and track; we are exploring other options for this type of support. It’s our most popular track with words that connect directly to the struggle, so it seemed a fitting choice.
- Full disclosure: our current deal with DistroKid includes a distribution connection to Amazon. We are acutely aware of issues with Jeff Bezos and Amazon, and dialogue about that connection and what to do about it will continue.
In addition, we do use Bandcamp for distribution of some of our work, and a further (and exciting announcement) concerning an effort through Bandcamp will be coming soon.
More soon.
A blast from the past…”Americanized”
When Steven and Tony first formed as The Duende Project, it was to record the short suite “Jim’s Fall” as our first project. Hadn’t really planned on a longer term professional relationship, let alone turning it into a BAND.
That changed when we did “Americanized,” our first full concept album, produced by Chris Lawton. A group of 13 pieces reflecting on the notion of American identity from a number of angles, the work we did on that remains some of our strongest work, and we continue to work cuts from the album into our sets as full band pieces.
That 2008 album is now available on Spotify, and will be coming online on all the major sales and streaming services over the next few days.
Give it a listen, and see where we come from.
Has it been close to two months…
…since we last posted here? Damn…sorry about that.
Then again, there hasn’t been a lot to report. We’ve continued our every-other-Sunday residency at Nick’s in Worcester, MA, delighting our small fan base there with the usual repertoire and occasional mad improvisational bits.
This Saturday, May 18th, we’ll be playing as part of a two day festival up in Fitchburg, MA with TONS of bands and solo performers. We’ll be outdoors on top of a parking garage at 1:30 for one set, right near host venue Strong Style Coffee (which will also be hosting indoor acts) on 13 Cushing Street in the heart of downtown Fitchburg. Great acts both Friday and Saturday. Check out the full schedule here on Facebook.
And in August we will be returning for some dates back at our old home away from home in Southbridge, MA, the wonderful starlite. More on that as the date approaches.
Hope to see you at a gig soon!
Of course, if you can’t get to see us, check us out on Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon Music where our newest single “Crumbs” and the live album “Live at AS220” continue to do well, and on all the various purchasing sites to get copies of our work. We’ve added a couple of links below, but honestly we’re on everything from Tidal to Deezer, and you can hear us anywhere by checking for our name at your service of choice:
The Duende Project on Spotify
The Duende Project on iTunes
If you’re interested in any of our older albums, there’s always the ol’ reliable Bandcamp site.
Thanks for your support, folks.
About the last show of 2018…
Which was last night at Nick’s, and which featured a decent crowd, and included a rare poetic cover of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Christ Came Down” backed with bop stylings by O-D and Faro; Faro and Chris doing up “Carol Of the Bells” on bass (all the parts, all the time!); Capri Lanning-Cafaro jumping in on vocals for covers of “Stairway to Heaven” and “Immigrant Song” by audience request (for indeed, we contain multitudes); and Tony doing the usual mix of mayhem and improvised poetry that passes for high art.
Apologies to the couple who wanted us to do “either .38 Special or the Cars.” We’re working on it. Not really, but hey…it’s the thought that counts.
2018 was a good year for the band — a live album out (have you bought or streamed it yet?) and 20+ gigs out there in the books. Here’s to more and more of you seeing them.
Happy holidays to all, and to all a good time…
Review of the live album is up!!!
Victor Infante of the Worcester Telegram just reviewed our new live album! Thanks for that! Go read it and then go buy it (iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) or stream it on Spotify or any of the other fine services!
We’re back at Nick’s in Worcester on Sunday night…and might just have some physical copies with a BONUS TRACK…! 124 Millbury Street, Worcester, MA. 9 or so to 11:30 or so.
News of the new…including NEW ALBUM!!!
Ok…lots to say.
We are continuing our run of alternating Sundays at Nick’s in Worcester. Sunday night is a tough night to do a gig, but it’s also a night to experiment and have some fun with the repertoire. We’ve created improvised pieces that will be and are showing up in our regular nights, and revising older pieces on the fly, as well as occasionally goofing around on covers of other work. If you’re around, you should come down. (124 Millbury Street, Worcester, MA. 9 PM-11:30 PM or so, after the Listen poetry reading. Every other Sunday; next show, November 4th.)
Live performance is important to us, and we are proud to announce that you can get in on it by checking out OUR NEW ALBUM!!! “Live At AS220” is a 7-track album of our performance at Providence’s AS220 performance space back in May of 2018. We’re proud of it and think you’ll enjoy it.
We’re using a new distribution service which is putting our work in a lot more places. The new album is up on Spotify, Google Play, Deezer, iTunes, Apple Music, and Amazon already. Pandora and other sites will be up shortly as well. Can’t even name them all.
Go forth, then, and stream and purchase tracks! We’ll be making a limited number of CDs for sale at gigs as well. Thanks in advance for your support!
What we’ve been up to:
It’s been a very busy period for the band. September saw us doing a gig almost every weekend, including a successful set at Worcester’s biggest festival of the arts, stART on the Street; opening weekend for a very cool new coffeehouse up in Fitchburg (check out Strong Style Coffee if you’re up there); and our regular gigs at Nick’s on alternating Sunday nights.
We’ll be back at Nick’s on the 21st of October, and every other Sunday after that. We tend to play the sets fairly loose and filled with improvisation by all, so come on down and have a little fun.
In recording news, we’re working on some new stuff and a couple of special projects…and we’ll be sharing some of that over the next week or so.
Keep checking in for more info as the time goes by…!
The Duende Project 
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