Tag Archives: Micah Schnabel

New Micah Schnabel video: Coin$tar

Video: Micah Schnabel – “Coin$tar”

Single out now on Bandcamp.

Hey it’s Bandcamp Friday so what better time to support your favorite independent artists than right now? Micah Schnabel has a brand new song out today featuring “special guest vocals” by
Lydia Loveless. In the video Schnabel and Vanessa Jean Speckman play a couple of hapless burglars.

So if you’re looking for artists to support today, throw the guy a bone or two. Really, you should buy up his entire discography as well as that of his band Two Cow Garage because it’s all good.

Schnabel breaks my heart. For almost two decades now, we have seen him work as hard on his craft as anybody out there. In a just world he would have “made it” by now. But it’s pretty clear from his lyrics and the size venues he plays that he’s still scraping by. This isn’t meant to be a pity party but it’s the cold reality of making uncompromising art on your own without much help from a label or trust fund or even a decent day job. The music business is a motherfucker and it hasn’t slipped Schnabel many breaks.

As far back as 2007, he was already trying to convince himself that “There ain’t no shame in just giving up and walking away.”

Six hundred pages
All filled with regret
And hundreds of songs
That I ain’t finished yet
And a job application getting
Harder to ignore.

But he hasn’t given up. He keeps releasing good songs, year after year. Grinding. He deserves a break. Some music supervisor needs to use one of his songs in a high-profile tv show or something. Something.

From one green participant ribbon of a human being to another, take care buddy and stay well. Keep on keeping on. Know that there are people out here who appreciate what you’re doing.

Micah Schnabel: bandcamp, twitter, fb, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Continue reading New Micah Schnabel video: Coin$tar

New Micah Schnabel video: New Shoes

Video: Micah Schnabel – “New Shoes” (ft. Thanks Buddy)

From the upcoming album, The Teenage Years Of The 21st Century.

Schnabel’s “Oh What A Bummer” from 2017’s Your New Norman Rockwell has become my definitive song of the current era. There’s a line in it that gets me every single time: “But now I’m a green participant ribbon of a human being just trying to break even in life’s gas station slot machine / I am that kid on the far end of the bench just happy to be on the team / with a giant foam finger that says LIVING THE DREAM.” Gulp. When I saw he was selling a t-shirt with that on it, I immediately ordered one.

“New Shoes” is something of a companion to that song. This time around he’s “got a bad case of ‘innocent people being murdered by angry white men’ blues,” and he narrows down the source of the problem: “this toxic masculinity is bumming our entire human scene.”

The video features Vanessa Jean Speckman cheerfully flossing and frugging and popping balloons with lyrics on them, “Subterranean Homesick” style.

Micah Schnabel is a great guy and he’s one of the hardest working men in show business. If he comes near your town, either solo or with Two Cow Garage, you should go see him. Buy some stuff from him so he can keep on doing his thing.

Micah Schnabel: bandcamp, twitter, fb, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

New Micah Schnabel video: The Interview

Video: Micah Schnabel – “The Interview”

The internet is failing me lately. I didn’t realize that Micah Schnabel of Two Cow Garage had a new solo album out until I heard a song on satellite radio in the car. That’s not how this is supposed to work, guys. I should know about these things before the dorky programmers for “The Spectrum” (the channel for old white guys like me who still care about guitar music).

The song I heard was “Oh, What a Bummer” and it’s really great. Like all of Schnabel’s best music, both solo and with Two Cow, it makes you sad and it makes you smile. And you end up just wanting to give the kid a hug and buy an extra t-shirt from him so hopefully he can spend the night in a motel instead of his van after the show. “My parents still buy me my socks and underwear for Christmas / Want a tattoo on my face but it would break my mother’s heart / And I’m trying to act natural, can you tell that I am nervous? / I’m just trying to make it through this life without falling apart.”

Of all the bands we’ve championed here on Glorious Noise over the past 16 years, I can’t think of any that deserve wider recognition as much as Micah Schnabel and his Two Cow Garage. I don’t know of any musician who has worked harder, toured more relentlessly, or written half as many heartbreaking, ass-kicking, bottle-waving, righteous shitkickers as Micah Schnabel has in the 14 years we’ve been following him. If you like having good things in the world, support them however you can.

“The Interview” is a spoken word piece about the trials and tribulations of a struggling artist. The video is a spooky animation created by Charly Fasano. Your New Norman Rockwell is out now on Last Chance Records.

Micah Schnabel: bandcamp, twitter, fb, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Continue reading New Micah Schnabel video: The Interview

GLONO Video: Two Cow’s Micah Schnabel Live

Video: Micah Schnabel – “Throwing Rocks at the Sun” (live)

Shot by Whiskey Bender Productions for Glorious Noise during a solo/acoustic performance at Beat Kitchen in Chicago on January 7, 2010. Micah Schnabel is the singer-songwriter-guitar player for one of GLONO’s favorite bands, Two Cow Garage. We’ve been gushing about them for years, and now Micah’s got a solo album, When The Stage Lights Go Dim, out now (or coming soon?) on Suburban Home.

I spent about ten minutes clicking around Google and the Suburban Home website and I can’t figure out how to buy the damn thing. Maybe it’s out of print already, and maybe they’ll reissue it, but there’s not much info online.

Anyway, he just wrapped up a solo acoustic tour, and the whole band is hitting the road in March. We’ve got a couple more live videos after the jump, including another song from When The Stage Lights Go Dim plus a great Bruce Springsteen cover off Nebraska.

Continue reading GLONO Video: Two Cow’s Micah Schnabel Live