FIVE now on iTunes A week late, but we'll take it. FIVE is now available on iTunes, as is the entire Maktub catalog. That's right "catalog" as in five albums since 1999. We're officially an institution. When the Subtle Ways came out in '99 people ordered the CD direct from maktub.com and sent us a check when they received the album in the mail. Back then many people were wary of ordering online and we didn't have an easy system for accepting payment. Anyway, here we are in 2009 and your options have multiplied fivefold:FIVE from iTunes FIVE from Amazon as a CD FIVE from Amazon as mp3s FIVE from Maktub as a CD FIVE from Maktub as a free download In 2019 we'll be beaming it to your brain via your sonicare toothrush. You'll pay us in toothpaste commodities. FIVE has arrived!
FIVE releases today: June 23, 2009! Yep, it's a free download. It's a CD you can buy from us. Or, you can buy the CD from Amazon or download mp3s from Amazon. iTunes should have it up shortly (they're running behind this week). Pick your poison.
We would love nothing more than for you to climb inside each and every one of your friend's email inboxes this morning and jump out with this link in hand: http://maktub.com/five.cfm. Stir their coffee with it, pat them on the back, or scramble their eggs with it while they read their Kindle newspaper. In short, spread the word that FIVE IS FREE. Maktub deserves to be heard by people 'round the globe ... you can help. Thanks for hanging with us for the past decade. 5 days until FIVE releases
In 5 days you'll be able to download FIVE directly from Maktub.com or from iTunes or you can always order ye old FIVE compact disque on the Maktub or Amazon interwebs. In the meantime, here's Davis and his lovely daughter Vivian holding the new FIVE CD:
 Song 7 of 9: Took It All Away
"Took It All Away" is a dark horse ... and a personal favorite for me (Daniel). There's no great punchline or hook-laden choruses, but it has soul and toughness and it grows on you the more you listen. Listen to "Took it All Away". Order the FIVE CD and we'll ship it now! Or, wait until June 23rd and download it from iTunes or Amazon or direct from Maktub.com for free.
Lisbon Space Needle
Note from a friend ...
hi, finally finished the phd, and 2 days ago we moved to lisbon portugal for a postdoc for a few years...wow. but i'm really emailing you because last night we walked into a small clothing shop and the guy working there was wearing a graphic tshirt w/ the space needle on it. i told him that we were from seattle, and that he had the the space needle on his shirt. then he told us that we were listening to reggie watts and that his favorite band was maktub and that he had all of their albums. (this guy is portuguese and has never been to the states). i thought that was pretty random. we're going to meet up with him for a beer next week, maybe he'll be our first portuguese friend. hope your doing well, here is a link to my portugal blog: BreadBreadBread.com ok bye Love it. I'll post a pic of our Lisbon fan if they send one along. Song 5 of 9: Mystery Of You
There are many odd things about this week's song: it's in 15/16 (odd time signature), it features cello squeaks from Paul Rucker, it cross-fades into next's week's song and therefore gets chopped off at the tail end. Imagine a stagecoach traveling a lonely rain-soaked trail on mishapen wagon wheels that clunk and squeak out a languid beat across the open prairie. Better yet, listen for yourself cowpeeeps. If you like, pre-order the CD today ... or wait for the free download on June the 23rd.
Song 4 of 9: Strange World
You can now listen to Song 4 "Strange World". One person described it as "your best friend high on mushrooms giving you advice about life". Better yet, imagine Geddy Lee and Reggie Watts playing lyrical scrabble on the back porch. Strange world indeed.
We're joined by trumpeter Owuor Arunga on this tune. Owuor adds beautiful, sparse trumpet pads in the chorus and Reggie gets caught whistling in the outro. Lovely stuff. P.S. listen through headphones or decent speakers otherwise you'll miss all the good stuff over laptop speakers Song 3 of 9: It's Never Enough
We're previewing Song 3 a few days early as Daniel does the magic internet typing and I'm traveling for a week. You can listen to "It's Never Enough" here. We all really dig this song. It's just so dang melancholy and lush. Hope you enjoy it.
Follow the comments on Facebook or let us know what you think in the comments here. We'll get back on the normal schedule of a song a week with Song 4 on Tuesday May 19. We're not touring, and here's why
People often ask when we'll be playing live or when the next tour is ... a perfectly reasonable question. Bands tour. That's what they do. Well, most bands anyway. The short answer is we're currently not touring or playing live. However, we are recording and releasing albums. Which brings us to ...
Why? The main reason is we're busy doing other stuff like teaching music, having babies (2 on the way), doing comedy, building websites, cooking, camping and generally living out the other parts of our lives. We played a ton of shows and club nights for almost 10 years and toured together in support of Khronos and Say What You Mean. As the saying goes: that was then, this is now. Will we play live again? The odds are good because we like making music together. Next up The last two albums we've been experimenting with how we record and release music. MARC7 was our a first stab at shaking things up (thank you 200 exec prods!). FIVE is turning into our free-ish Facebook album. You'll be able to download FIVE from maktub.com for free beginning June 23. The next Maktub album may be a hybrid of the two or something completely different. We may record in Daniel's basement (or not). Whatever happens, we'll make sure it's creative and brings fans along for the ride. And, of course, we're releasing FIVE in 6 short weeks. Stoked? We're so excited that we may give away free t-shirts again. That's how we roll. Song 2 of 9: You Know I Love You
"Five" releases on Tuesday June 23rd and we're previewing a song a week until it releases. Listen to You Know I Love You (and last week's Slippin' Away) - we'll post song #3 next week. What to say about this tune? It's a love song and it's not ironic. Go hug someone or make-up or make-out.
If you like what you hear do us a favor and tell your friends. You can send them this link: http://maktub.com/five ... and jump on board the Facebook caboose with us. Introducing "Five" - previewing a song a week until it releases June 23 We're previewing the first song Slippin' Away from "Five" beginning today, and by the time we reach the magic release date of Tuesday, June 23rd you will have heard 8 of the 9 tracks. We'll save the instrumental for the album just to keep things nutty. So head over here and listen to Slippin' Away. Let us know what you think. Love it? Hate it? It won't change anything at this point, but bring it! Reggie named the album "Five" because it's our fifth album and there are five of us. Makes sense. Another interesting fact: the album releases 10 years after our first release Subtle Ways. So, we're about an album every 2 years kind of outfit. But really, you should check out this Five page as it has pictures from the studio, answers to questions and other stuff. Send it to your friends! We plan on releasing the album as:
Reggie on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Friday 4/24
Reggie will be a guest tomorrow Friday April 24 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Tune in your old TV device to NBC. Go Reggie!!!
 A great make-out album
... or so was our new album "Five" described to me today. Yes, the new album is named "Five". You can read all about it here. We'll be emailing and Facebooking everyone as new song previews are posted over the next 8 weeks.
Bouncing tracks, mastering tomorrow, and other important boring stuff
I never know if this bores the shit out of people to learn that we're "tracking" or "overdubbing" or "bouncing" or "mastering" but I figure it lends some credibility to the process of making an album. Suffice it to say that when you hear the word "mastering", you know we're really close to the finish line. Today Michael bounced the final tracks to disc ... we're listening tonight for any mix flubs. Tomorrow we head into RFI in Seattle to master the record. That's the black magic part of record making ... where a smart dude (in this case Ed Brooks) with loads of crazy gear does the following:
1) matches all the volume levels of the songs and makes the album "loud" 2) compresses & EQs the mix to make it sound tasty to human ears (the black magic part) 3) fades songs and puts the desired artful gaps inbetween with the final song order 4) hands us the master CD with all the files burned as AIFFs (I believe that's the file type) 4) asks for money, which we then pay I'll take a picture or two tomorrow and show you all the socerers gear that Ed will use to tame the beast which is Cozzi's mix. Actually, the music already sounds good ... it just needs a presentable Easter Sunday suit and a cowlick or two slicked back with the caring spittle of an outside ear. Cozzi pointing as he bounces (caught him with a strange face):
 Favorite Maktub Album?
Subtle Ways, Khronos, Say What You Mean, Start It Over? Why? Reply on the Facebook thread or here in the comments.
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